Just got a Kindle.

Finally took the plunge, my Kindle arrived this morning.

Liking it so far, I've managed to get about 50 free classic books from both Amazon and manybooks onto it, though I haven't yet worked out how to convert from non-Kindle formats.

Having a problem with the text key though - it only allows me to change the rotation, all the other options (font size etc) are greyed out and can't be selected with the 5-way. :confused:
 
RobRoy said:
Yeah, like on a scale never before seen, right? I mean we're talking orders and orders of magnitude higher?
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Yeah, I would think so. I'm not sure there could be a CME large enough to wipe out hard drives, but I'm not an astronomer.

But as I understand it, a CME large enough to collapse the power grid and damage satellites is certainly possible.
 
Pixel42 said:
Finally took the plunge, my Kindle arrived this morning.

Liking it so far, I've managed to get about 50 free classic books from both Amazon and manybooks onto it, though I haven't yet worked out how to convert from non-Kindle formats.
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Congratulations on your new Kindle!

In order to convert from non-Kindle formats, you'll need something like calibre, which is an excellent tool to manage your e-books in any case.

Pixel42 said:
Having a problem with the text key though - it only allows me to change the rotation, all the other options (font size etc) are greyed out and can't be selected with the 5-way. :confused:
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This sounds like it's the file itself that is not letting you change those other options. I just checked on my own Kindle and found one book that won't let me change the typeface or line spacing, for example, while others will. Have you tried it with several different books?
 
BenBurch said:
You cannot change the text size in PDF, btw, just the magnification of the page.
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but it's easy enough to take that pdf and convert it to mobi in Calibre, then everything works fine (at least for the ones I tried).
 
I dropped my Kindle (Kindle 3 Wifi) hard today from about chest height to a couple of stairs below my feet. It landed flat (which I suppose was better than if it had hit a corner or edge) with no bouncing or subsequent falls down the stairs.

Picked it up, turned it on, and it worked fine. A few hours later, I read for a good hour, and it still seems to have survived completely undamaged.

I think they need to use John Cameron Swayze to advertise this thing!
 
JoeTheJuggler said:
I dropped my Kindle (Kindle 3 Wifi) hard today from about chest height to a couple of stairs below my feet. It landed flat (which I suppose was better than if it had hit a corner or edge) with no bouncing or subsequent falls down the stairs.

Picked it up, turned it on, and it worked fine. A few hours later, I read for a good hour, and it still seems to have survived completely undamaged.

I think they need to use John Cameron Swayze to advertise this thing!
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Glad your Kindle survived, but you should also consider getting a case for it!
 
AdMan said:
Glad your Kindle survived, but you should also consider getting a case for it!
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Yes, there is a tendency, when a device survives a fall like that, to think "this is unbreakable" and then the next time it happens it stops working.
 
Robin said:
Yes, there is a tendency, when a device survives a fall like that, to think "this is unbreakable" and then the next time it happens it stops working.
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I've had watches like that, when they break it always seems to be a rather minor accident, like banging it on a doorway and I think "flimsy piece of crap"... which rather forgets the times I'd dropped it into the washbasin full of soapy water, ran over it with an office chair, left it outside in the garden exposed to the elements for two days....
 
So, I finally have a complaint about my Kindle, or more specifically, a series I purchased for it.

The series is the "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" trilogy by Tad Williams. My complaint about the content is that the Kindle version of the book was pretty obviously produced by OCRing a copy of the book, and they didn't spend enough time editing it before putting it out on the market. There are numerous distracting types and formatting errors... "comer" instead of "corner", "Isom" instead of "Isorn" (a character's name), etc. There are a few random superscript characters here and there, inconsistent italics, missing paragraph breaks... it's pretty poor.

The second complaint is that this is a trilogy. The final book in the trilogy (To Green Angel Tower) was originally published as a thick hardcover, but had to be split into two paperbacks of about 800 pages each. The Kindle version is similarly split into two files, each of which you have to pay for. Very annoying, that.

*****

As a potential fix for the first one, well, obviously they need to edit these things better before marketing them, but how would my fellow Kindle users feel about a crowd-sourced editing function? I'm thinking about a system wherein if you notice something wrong while reading, you can flag it. Then, if a certain number of flags were to pop up in a given spot, it would bump it up to the publisher (or editor, or whoever) indicating that many people found an error in a given spot. They could then fix it, and make an updated version available to replace the existing one. I know that I would use such a thing, but not sure if other people are as annoyed by stupid formatting/spelling errors as I am. :o
 
JSFolk said:
As a potential fix for the first one, well, obviously they need to edit these things better before marketing them, but how would my fellow Kindle users feel about a crowd-sourced editing function? I'm thinking about a system wherein if you notice something wrong while reading, you can flag it. Then, if a certain number of flags were to pop up in a given spot, it would bump it up to the publisher (or editor, or whoever) indicating that many people found an error in a given spot. They could then fix it, and make an updated version available to replace the existing one. I know that I would use such a thing, but not sure if other people are as annoyed by stupid formatting/spelling errors as I am. :o
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I'd certainly use it.
 
JSFolk said:
As a potential fix for the first one, well, obviously they need to edit these things better before marketing them, but how would my fellow Kindle users feel about a crowd-sourced editing function? I'm thinking about a system wherein if you notice something wrong while reading, you can flag it. Then, if a certain number of flags were to pop up in a given spot, it would bump it up to the publisher (or editor, or whoever) indicating that many people found an error in a given spot. They could then fix it, and make an updated version available to replace the existing one. I know that I would use such a thing, but not sure if other people are as annoyed by stupid formatting/spelling errors as I am. :o
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I like it. It’s not bad way to provide an assist to the writer/editor with spelling corrections. At my job, we always include a “Clear Eyes” review of our documents to help catch misspellings, grammar, etc. On the other hand, if you include grammar, there might be some annoyances. For example, split infinitives can be considered a violation of the rules, or a writer’s decision to highlight a particular line. But ya take the good, ya take the bad . . . :p
 
Important tip for the less-than-nimble-fingered Kindle noob: Visiting the Kindle store for the first time? Make sure 1-click ordering is turned OFF.
 
I was wondering if there was an equivalent to getting books signed for the Kindle; it appears there is, though I don't know how well it works. Any other ideas? It's not something I've ever done with a real book yet either, but it would be nice to somehow show your appreciation to the author, which I think asking for an autograph on the book can do.
 
zooterkin said:
I was wondering if there was an equivalent to getting books signed for the Kindle; it appears there is, though I don't know how well it works. Any other ideas? It's not something I've ever done with a real book yet either, but it would be nice to somehow show your appreciation to the author, which I think asking for an autograph on the book can do.
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I've always found that celebrities appreciate the little things. Just tell them that you've admired their work and that you'd be happy to take care of them as they live in the cage in your basement.
 
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