Update about the Letto
I’m giving up. After trying to get the Letto to charge, and ending up with a battery lasting about 24 hours instead of the 30 days I was promised, I’m going to return it and get another. Hopefully that will work better. At least the store was decent about it and didn’t try to put me off.
New veg*an sites
Lately, I have joined two new veg*an sites with chat rooms, that I really like. Also, I’m waiting impatiently for the launch of another. This is a short ‘review’ of those sites.
First of all, Happy Cow. The site offers a list of veg*an and veg*an-friendly restaurants and shops all over the world. I have known about this site for years, but only joined recently. Members can post reviews of these restaurants and shops. They also get a profile page. They also have a blog, message boards, private messaging and a very nice chat room.
Veganchatroom.uk is a similar site, with chat room, directory, message board etc. Most, but not all, members are from the UK. You don’t need to sign up anywhere to join, but there are advantages to signing up. For instance, you can use the same ID all the time, so people recognize you. Also, you can get a short profile so people can check out who you are and what you stand for.
It’s been ages since I last had a veg*an chat room to hang out in, so it’s great. Most of the time, there’s at least one other person around to chat with. I can’t say that I’ve made any close friends, but at the moment, it’s just nice to hang out with like-minded people.
Bleat, finally, looks very promising, even though, of course, I haven’t used it yet, since it hasn’t been launched yet.
This is what it says on the site:
So, what’s all this talk about Bleat?
For vegans everywhere, something big is about to happen…
Say hello to Bleat.
If you’re a vegan trying to find vegan friendly restaurants, looking for the latest recipes or just interested in meeting other vegans, all you have to do is Bleat. If you’re a vegan concerned for the rights of animals, have questions about a raw-only diet or simply perplexed about pulses just Bleat. Even if you’re a non-vegan and you’re simply contemplating the idea of a vegan lifestyle – BLEAT!
What’s so great about Bleat?
There’s a lot to discover at Bleat, such as:
A vast comprehensive vegan resource
Interact with vegans from all across the globe
Advice on vegan friendly brands
Recipes, restaurant guides & reviews
Information on the welfare of animals
How do we sum Bleat up? Well, Bleat isn’t just a vegan social network and it’s certainly far from just a vegan directory. Simply put, it’s a whole new way to get the absolute most from your vegan lifestyle.
Go on, Bleat about it.
It seems like a great addition to my old favorites, Livejournal (and Dreamwidth), Tumblr and last but not least Care2.
Letto (Bookeen Cybook Odyssey) review
Since it was on sale – at a very good price – I decided the time had come to get the ‘Letto’ or Bookeen Cybook Odyssey as the original device is called. For a while now, I’d been wanting an ereader that could display library ebooks.
The other day, the ereader arrived, in the mailbox outside. I’d been told I’d have to go and pick it up at a store in town, but apparently, it fitted into our mailbox and that was of course very convenient.
Expectantly, I unpacked it. It was actually in a nice looking box resembling a ‘physical’ book. An adapter for a wall outlet was included, which was – again – convenient. I wasn’t sure what I’d have to order extra. As it turns out, not a lot. Just some kind of cover and some vinyl screen protectors, just in case. I’ll get to that later.
It’s great to finally be able to read on something decent-sized. IOS devices are great – for talking, chatting and listening to music – but not so good for reading longer texts.
Unfortunately, here’s where I’m forced to get to the negative.
First of all, I have to say that I bought this ereader to read library books, and nothing else. I can’t stress that point enough. As it turns out, it’s extremely complicated to transfer the books to the right file on the device. In the end, I couldn’t manage it and I had to ask my tech savvy sister for help. Eventually, she managed to find out hot to do it, by trial and error.
I have read reviews that warned about this problem, but the thing is, I didn’t have much of a choice. It was basically either get the Letto or keep reading library books on the iPod Touch. So when the price dropped down about 50 US dollars, I felt I had to get it. The alternative would be to try and order a Kobo Touch imported from Germany, which would probably mean an older model, and not in the color I wanted, or get an iPad MIni, which I can’t afford at the moment, and probably never will. The fact is that a Kindle AND a Letto PLUS covers and screen protectors are still a bit less expensive than one iPad Mini WITHOUT a cover and screen protector! So I was still getting a bargain.
I just feel sorry for the people who can’t get help transferring their books to their devices. On the other hand, maybe those people aren’t getting theirs exclusively to read library books? Apparently, if you want to buy books from the bookstore that sells the Letto, it’s really easy to transfer the files. They pretty much transfer themselves, or so I’ve been told.
Another con is that while the original Cybook Odyssey comes with several free books, in more than one language, including dictionaries, if I’m not mistaken, the ‘Letto’ comes with one or two Swedish classics and a few modern ‘freebies’ (not any that I will want to read) and no dictionary, but a manual, that unfortunately didn’t help much. The stuff it dealt with was easy to figure out on my own.
To be fair, part of the trouble I had was getting my Adobe ID to work, but it’s still very complicated to download Adobe Digital Editions, then authorize both the device and the computer (just to remember the password is hard – we’d had this problem before with Adobe and apparently our way of solving that was to get a new ID…) Maybe it will get easier once I’m used to the Letto.
Anyway, now that I have the Letto and I’ve been able to transfer the book, I’m not too unhappy with it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who wants to read library books on it (unless they’re as tech savvy as my sister).
Bottom line:
Pros:
Low price (at the moment anyway – but still quite a good price at any time)
Cute box
Cute ereader with a back that is nice to the touch
Easy to read fonts
Power adapter included
Device entirely adapted for Swedish conditions
Cons:
Difficult to transfer files (other than the books from the bookstore that sells it).
I had trouble with the touch screen and had to resort to using the physical buttons on the side to turn the pages.
Hard to get nice covers: you only have one type to choose between, in a range of not so dazzling colors. Of course, if you check out the measurements, you can always take a chance and buy a cover meant for another, slightly bigger, device.
Oops, it turns out I’m quite partial to the Letto, after all. 🙂 Oh, well, draw your own conclusions. If you live in Sweden, this is still a rather good choice. If you live in France (Belgium, Switzerland etc), the Cybook Odyssey might still be a good option, but you’ll have to decide that for yourself. As for others, maybe you should consider some other device.
Update:
I just thought I’d post a quick (and brief) update about the Letto’s screen in comparison with that of the Kindle Touch.
Kindle Touch:
The touch screen is quicker to respond. It looks a little different from the Letto’s too. I can’t say exactly how.
Letto:
This touch screen is slower and it’s a bit harder to turn the pages. On the side there are two pysical buttons that I’m not used to yet, and I keep pressing them and the pages turn quickly forwards or backwards. The text looks even more, if that is possible, like a regular printed page.
Les revenants, French tv series
Recently, I finished watching a really good French tv series. Swedish television had taken the rather unusual decision of airing it only online, perhaps as a sort of trial to see how popular it would get. I thought it was great. No more keeping track of time, just watching whenever I liked.
The series is about a town where strange things happen. It lies idyllically in the mountains, somewhere in France. Perhaps a French viewer can be more specific about which region it is, or perhaps it’s been left intentionally vague. I’ve seen other series like that.
The first episode begins with a teenage girl wandering around rather dazed in the countryside. She is seen climbing up from a slope, onto a road. She has no memory of how she ended up there. Her last memories are of being on a school trip, on a bus.
She makes her way home and meets her mother inside, telling her she understands if she’s been worried, but something’s happened and she doesn’t remember what. Her mother manages to keep her calm, and embraces her daughter, but we soon learn that the girl, Camille, has been dead for four years, following a tragic accident while on a school trip. Despite that, she seems exactly as she was four years earlier.
Camille only learns about that when her twin sister (!), Léna arrives home, rather late. Léna has a hysterical outburst and Camille is upset too. The family can think of no explanation for Camille’s return.
I won’t go into all the main characters, but Camille is probably ‘the’ main character so I thought I’d describe her more in depth. Léna has had a really hard time dealing with losing her sister and has rebelled against her parents, but she finds it even harder to accept her sister’s return. The two sisters have a falling out.
In later episodes we learn more about the two sisters and also about a number of other characters, some who have returned from the dead, among them a sinister little boy, a good looking young guy, who played in a band, but who, we are told, killed himself on the night before his wedding and a serial killer.
Some of the returned have no families to return to, having died ten, or even, in one case, thirty-five years earlier.
I’ll just end by saying a few words about the name of the series. In French it’s called Les revenants (“the returning”) and in Swedish it’s been given a name that is one of our words for ghosts (literally meaning ‘those who walk again’, or ‘someone who walks again’). I think that’s a bit of a misnomer, in a way. These people are not like traditional ghosts, though somehow, they seem to be able to get around in mysterious ways. However, we never get to see them going through a wall, or anything like that. You never get the impression they are not flesh and blood. They can eat (to begin with, they’re quite hungry), fight, have sex, but have a difficult time sleeping, though some are able to, as time goes by.
If you get a chance to see this series, I can really recommend it. It’s fascinating, creepy but not too terrifying (if it had been, I wouldn’t have been able to watch it). The tension builds slowly with little details adding to the feeling of dread.
Edit: Here is a link to a gallery with images of the main characters. Just click the image to see the next.
A suggestion…
Recently we learned that Sweden can only defend itself against an enemy attack for a week.
I have an idea. Let’s trick the enemy into the dreaded ‘phase 3’ (the terminus for Swedish unemployed) and humiliate them to death! ;D
No more snow!
At last! The snow has melted so I can finally go for proper walks. I was so tired of the snow and ice, and although this isn’t nearly as pretty to look at, it’s a lot easier to walk on. Apparently, there will be some more snow today, but according to the weather report it will “quickly turn to rain”. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for that, but even more that the weather will dry up.
Unfortunately, the railway has been undermined and yesterday a train nearly fell off the track. Actually, it would have if some brave man hadn’t run on the track and met the train and waved at them to stop. Unbelievable! It’s going to be a while until the track has been repaired so for now, no one can get in or out of town by train. Though to tell the truth, I don’t know who dares to go by train these days. Nothing works as it should.
I just remembered…
My dad had to call and talk to the school authorities so I could have veggie food in school instead of what they served the other students. I had forgotten about that, but this morning, my mom talked to one of her friends on the phone and mentioned it. That reminded me of how dad used to help me when I really needed it. Not the little things, every day, but important stuff. I miss him so much. Things started to go really wrong for us when we lost him.
I write like…
I tried this Analyze your writing thing and it turns out I write like Cory Doctorow when I blog and when I write SF.
Not that I’ve read anything by him yet – but as far as I can tell, that’s quite a compliment. I also tried it with some of my other writing and when it comes to my fantasy, apparently I write like Ursula LeGuin, a really big honor (if you can put any stock in this test, that is…).
Unfortunately, when I tried to analyze my fan fiction the test seemed to have a breakdown and suggested I write like so many different authors, I began to realize that either that test isn’t all that great or I write really crazy fan fiction…
Free legal downloads of books
Recently I read a post on Tumblr where someone listed links where you could download free books. Some of those books were modern or at least still copyrighted books. As far as I know copyrighted books aren’t available for free downloads.
Now I’m not familiar with the copyright laws in all countries throughout the world, but I do know that old books – in many cases, for instance in the USA, books published before 1923. In Scandinavia (Sweden) where I live, the copyright expires when the author has been dead for at least 70 years.
You can get modern books when the author chooses to allow people to download them for free. It might be the first book or some other older book, or the first book in a series. Many authors also allow free downloads of novellas and short stories, perhaps hoping to sell more of their full length work.
Another way to read ‘free’ books legally is to borrow e-books from the library (or for that matter, printed books too).
As far as I understand, it doesn’t matter if you’ve bought a title as a printed book. You still need to pay for the e-book if you want one. That is, unless it was a special deal where you buy a title as a printed book and an e-book.
Amazon is a very good source for free modern books. Some may have a sort of ‘message’ – I’ve read that sometimes authors try to promote their religion by writing free books. But like I described above, you can also get one book in a series or shorter fiction by a novel writer who is hoping to sell more novels. Don’t forget, if you live in the US and many other parts of the world you have to go to amazon.com, not for instance amazon.co.uk, unless of course you live in the UK.
The library is another great source for free books.
Here is a list of links to free (legal) download sites:
https://www.bookeenstore.com/fr/free
http://www.kobobooks.com/free_ebooks
http://manybooks.net/
http://www.baen.com/library/
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
http://www.freesfonline.de/Authors.html
http://runeberg.org/
http://litteraturbanken.se/#!start
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/fiction/
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ring/two/
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ring/index.htm
http://www.readprint.com/
http://e-library.net/Fantasy.htm
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/?tag=fantasy
http://worldebookfair.org/
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/index.shtml
http://www.smashwords.com/
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st?bbn=1286228011&qid=1354222865&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A!133143011%2Cn%3A!251259011%2Cn%3A1286228011%2Cn%3A157028011&sort=price
http://bookboon.com/se
http://blakatt.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=36&Itemid=53
http://www.bookyards.com/index.html
http://archiveofourown.org/
http://umrion.net/archives/
Many of these are in English, but you can also find books in Swedish, French and other languages. The last two are fan fiction sites.
