Kristof: Another Face of Terror

Nicolas Kristof has another piece about women and rape in Pakistan in today's Times.

Consider just this: " 'They told me to be quiet and not to tell anybody because it would ruin my reputation,' Dr. Shazia remembers. One official warned that if she reported the crime, she could be arrested.

"That was a genuine risk. Under Pakistan's hudood laws, a woman who reports that she has been raped is liable to be arrested for adultery or fornication - since she admits to sex outside of marriage - unless she can provide four male eyewitnesses to the rape."

I won't insult anyone by suggesting that you then click on over to the comments on Kevin Drum's report from BlogHer (Drum isn't responsible for his comment section... but it just gets worse and worse).

2005 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Results

The results of the 2005 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest are now posted. Go read.

Inexplicably, Thomas Friedman only receives an Honorable Mention:

"India, which hangs like a wet washcloth from the towel rack of Asia, presented itself to Tex as he landed in Delhi (or was it Bombay?), as if it mattered because Tex finally had an idea to make his mark and fortune and that idea was a chain of steak houses to serve the millions and he wondered, as he deplaned down the steep, shiny, steel steps, why no one had thought of it before."

The world is flat, like a washcloth torn off the towel rack of Asia and run over by a Lexus then tossed onto an olive tree to dry, after slamming closed open sourced Windows. It's sooo unfair.

Tapwave Discontinues Zodiac

Big ole bummer:

"We are sorry to inform you that the Zodiac business was discontinued and service and support are no longer available as of July 25th 2005."

(Found via MobileRead)

Free eBooks - Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman - eReader.com

Finally!

eReader has given away intersting books this month. Rather than the usual Public Domain suspects, they've offered one free book from a series, as an enticement. There's been lots of schlock and drek, unfortunately: romance novels, military fantasies, military fantasies in space, the excrable Left Behind - even an L Ron Hubbard book.

Finally, today, they offer a real book - Tony Hillerman's Skin Walkers.

The publisher's blurb: "Three shotgun blasts explode into the trailer of Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. But Chee survives to join partner Lt. Joe Leaphorn in a frightening investigation that takes them into a dark world of ritual, witchcraft, and blood -- all tied to the elusive and evil 'skinwalker.'

"Brimming with Navajo lore and sizzling suspense, Skinwalkers brings Chee and Leaphorn, Hillerman's bestselling detective team, together for the first time."

Hmm - it's actually much better than that sounds... Anyway - get this one.

Getting Things Done on the Cheap

If you're looking to join the GTD cult, er I mean, umm, well - whatever it is - here's your chance:

Fictionwise is selling Getting Things Done with a 50% Micropay discount.

Final cost after discount: $7.00 (Buywise Club : $5.95)

Boy this pisses me off - I bought it 2 weeks ago at full price.

After (or even before) you read it, go get Shadow Plan for your Palm. Along with Datebk 5, Shadow is THE indispensible app for organizing your life with a PDA.

eBooks - Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay - eReader.com

Dearly Devoted Dexter, the sequel to Darkly Deaming Dexter, is available as an ebook.

Fictionwise has it for $12.56 after the 30% Micropay Rebate (Buywise Price is $10.68 after rebate)
Ereader is selling it for $14.54 with the newsletter discount.

Dexter is a serial killer who only kills bad people. Dexter is not your usual hero.

Microsoft Education Pack for Tablet PC

Microsoft has released more goodies for the TabletPC. This one is labelled "Education Pack" - but I can see \uses for it outside of school. I'm not sure if the "Send To OneNote" is the OneNote Power Toy or a new applet. In either case, it's worth having.

This is a big download - over 40 MB.

Equation Writer : Now it’s easy to add mathematical expressions to your papers. Handwrite a math equation, and then convert it into a neatly typewritten image to paste into a report or a presentation.

GoBinder Lite by Agilix Labs, Inc. : Keep track of your schedule with this planner. Use your tablet pen to jot down quick reminders about class schedules, project deadlines, and extracurricular activities.

Hexic Deluxe for Tablet PC : This full-featured puzzle game from MSN Games has a new spin for Tablet PCs. Now you can rotate pieces easily with your tablet pen.

Ink Flash Cards : Create flash cards to help you learn facts or study for an exam. Handwrite a question on the front of a card and put an answer on the back. Draw, insert graphics, and add text too. After you build a set, you can review the cards to test your knowledge and flag which ones you need to review again.

Send to Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 : Keep all of your class notes and research in one place. Send web pages, pictures, and other files to OneNote, and annotate or highlight them with your tablet pen. Use the OneNote stationery created for college students, and read helpful tips for using OneNote at school.

MobileRead Networks - Free e-book: "The Escapist"

Alexander at MobileRead has an iSilo version of James Moris' The Escapist available for download (free, under a creative Commons license).

A bunch of free sci-fi books have turned up in the last week. MobileRead is the place to find them all.

IRAN EXECUTES 2 GAY TEENAGERS

Various reports around the web. You may as well start here.

Then go here and spare a moment to wonder what the US has done.

15% Off MindManager 5

Mindjet is planning to release v 6 of their MindManager software this fall. From July 15 until the new release, they are offering 15% off version 5 PLUS a free upgrade to v 6 when it appears.

This is very pricey software - and it is not clear that the discount applies to the PDA version. But if you are a fan of mind mapping software, now is the time to buy.

Frank Rich - Follow the Uranium

Use iSiloX or Repligo or Plucker - and put today's Frank Rich columnon your PDA. Refer back frequently.

"...This scandal is not about them [Rove, Matt Cooper, Judy Miller or the Wilsons] in the end, any more than Watergate was about Dwight Chapin and Donald Segretti or Woodward and Bernstein. It is about the president of the United States. It is about a plot that was hatched at the top of the administration and in which everyone else, Mr. Rove included, are at most secondary players.

"To see the main plot, you must sweep away the subplots...

"This case is about Iraq, not Niger. The real victims are the American people... The real culprit - the big enchilada, to borrow a 1973 John Ehrlichman phrase from the Nixon tapes - is not Mr. Rove but the gang that sent American sons and daughters to war on trumped-up grounds and in so doing diverted finite resources, human and otherwise, from fighting the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11."

Don't be distracted by the man behind the curtain. Forget the calls to "Fire Rove." This is ALL about the lies that led America to war. Keep your eye on the ball.

Fitted Width Printing in Internet Explorer

Yeah, yeah - we're all ebooks. We're so unutterably cool, we never print anything.

Not.

If the tendency of Internet Explorer to cut off the right hand side of web pages drives you crazy, check out the FREE applet, Internet Explorer Fitted-Width Printing.

It's an ActiveX control, and it works exactly as described:

"Have you ever printed a web page only to find that the right-hand edge is missing? This is for you. First, this download page will install the control. After installation, close the browser window and reopen a new one. You should have a new printer icon with a small 'W' next to it on the toolbar. Press this to bring up a print dialog which will then print the page fitted to the width of your paper. Alternatively, hold down the Control key while pressing the button and you will get a print preview instead. "

Epson has a utility that also does this - but it will only print to Epson printers. Fitted Width Printing appears to be universal.

Today's Free eReader Book - The Witch of Watergate by Warren Adler

The blurb:

"A poison pen gets it back.

"Fiona FitzGerald, a senator's daughter turned Washington, D.C., homicide detective, is back for her fifth gripping thriller, investigating a murder with explosive consequences on Capitol Hill. When Polly Dearborn, the infamous Washington Post investigative reporter whose poison pen had destroyed many a politician's career, is found hanging from her Watergate apartment, the elite of Washington rejoice. "The Witch of Watergate" is dead! But this is no time for detective Fiona FitzGerald to celebrate. Although suicide seems logical for this lonely and miserable woman, Fiona is determined to find the truth.

"The Witch of Watergate is the fifth book in Warren Adler's Fiona FitzGerald series. "

Fix For Memory Leak in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Microsoft as finally released a fix for the TIP memory leak. If you have a Tablet PC, you can download it here.

35% Micropay Rebats at Fictionwise

Fictionwise offers their answer to eReader's Give-Aways: a 35% Micropay Rebate sale on about 85 different titles. There are some good ones (and the usual Dan Brown drek)

Free Book - Boorstin's The Colonial Experience

Today's free eReader book is Daniel Boorstin's The Colonial Experience, the first book in his The Americans Trilogy.

Didn't someone give this one away before? Maybe it was Microsoft during their summer extravaganza a few years back. Eventually, someone will offer The National Experience and The Democratic Experience, no doubt.

I'm holding out for Churchill.

This Dame for Hire by Sandra Scoppettone

Sandra Scoppetone's latest book, This Dame for Hire, is now available at eReader for $14.54

This is not part of the Lauren Lorano series, which seems to be dead.

iSilo 4.27 Released

iSilo 4.27 is out of Beta and into general release. Get it here. There are now 7 different versions for handhelds and phones.

Get the free converter, iSiloX, now also at version 4.27 here.

Kelly Link's Stranger Things Happen

Kelly Link is offering Strange Things Happen as a free download under a Creative Commons license.

The blurb: "Award-winning author Kelly Link's debut collection takes fairy tales and cautionary tales, dictators and extraterrestrials, amnesiacs and honeymooners, revenants and readers alike, on a voyage into new, strange, and wonderful territory. The girl detective must go to the underworld to solve the case of the tap-dancing bank robbers. A librarian falls in love with a girl whose father collects artificial noses. A dead man posts letters home to his estranged wife. Two women named Louise begin a series of consecutive love affairs with a string of cellists. A newly married couple become participants in an apocalyptic beauty pageant. Sexy blond aliens invade New York City. A young girl learns how to make herself disappear"

It's available in a few formats, and Colin Dunstan of MobileRead has also created an iSilo version.

eReader Free Promotion

It's beginning to look like eReader has a new vision for its free promos, something similar to the Baen Free Library idea: take one book in a series, offer it for free, and then sell the rest of the series. Not a bad idea at all, really. It should generate more interest than another round of public domain books that should be free anyway (and usually are, elsewhere).

It looks like eReader may be going for the beach reader, summer vacation crowd. Unfortunately, to my taste, the books aren't very interesting so far.

Today's entry is something called Starfist: First to Fight by David Sherman, Dan Cragg

Perhaps they'll offer an early Stephanie Plum or Michael Connelly or Tony Hillerman or any non-pulp series as the month goes on. I'll keep checking back.

Today's eReader Free Book

OK - I was wrong, There was somewhere to go but up.

Today's book is....

Devil's Bride - with a special offer on the entire Cynster Bundle.

::sigh::

I will never complain about Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs again.

eReader.com: Free Books

eReader kicks off its Free Book Every Day in July promotion with....

...Tears of the Hawk by Barbara Clark.

OK.

Check back tomorrow - there's nowhere to go but up.

Win a Lifedrive or Axim 5

More free stuff from eReader.com

Every week in July, eReader.com will send one lucky winner their choice of either a Dell Axim™ X5 or a PalmOne LifeDrive™ mobile manager.

Buy anything from eReader and enter either LIFEDRIVE or AXIM in the Promotional Text field at checkout. You'll be automatically entered into the drawing.