With the Nexus 7 and the spread of the iPad it got me thinking a lot about the digital magazine format. In general, I love the entire idea of digital magazines. Carrying a year’s worth of magazines all at once, the new touch interface, interactive components, downloads at your finger tips, and the lack of a paper mountain in your room that makes you look like a crazy hoarder because I don’t want to throw them away. For comic books it worked out this way for me, I read them constantly have hundreds of them on my Galaxy Nexus, iPad, and any other device that Comixology downloads to. I want this to be the future of magazines, well I think.

I say “I think” because I have a secret. Aside from a few magazines that I have to read the day they arrive, I tend to forget about the other magazines because they’re not piling up in my face, filling me with guilt for buying these things and not reading them. And for all the conveniences tablets provide, casually thumbing through a magazine on your iPad still isn’t quite as casual as it is with a paper copy. Am I the only one who has an even bigger backlog of magazine reading thanks to the advent of the Apple & Android Devices? Anyone else feel a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of Next Issue?

Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It’s not a tragedy. It’s an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts.

Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good artificial limb. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a weapon.

A story for the age of pervasive technology, Machine Man is a gruesomely funny unraveling of one man’s quest for ultimate self-improvement.

Max Barry is one of my favorite authors he knows how to tie corporate humor with science fiction, and I do enjoy his wit that you can tell through the characters of his book. You think you are inside the mind of the main character who in this case is Dr Charles Neumann, and all he cares about is science and getting his machines and experiments together. Its a hilarious point of view between scientists and managers, and excluding the limitations of government. He never felt emotion before but as his experiments and inventions progressed he might Lola and things started confusing his logic. This book is light, entertaining and fully grasps your attention, I flew through it and was surprised about the ending, I can’t wait for another book from Max Barry.

Link: Amazon
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Halli Sveinsson has grown up in the House of Svein, listening to the legends of the heroes as all his forefathers did. His is a peaceful society where the violence of the past has been outlawed and disputes are settled by the Council. But young Halli has never quite seemed to fit in with the others. For starters, he was not at all handsome or tall, like his attractive blond siblings. He’s stumpy and swarthy, with a quick mind and aptitude for getting in trouble. Bored with the everyday chores and sheep herding, he can’t help himself from playing practical jokes on everyone, from Eyjolf the old servant, to his brother and sister. But when he plays a trick on Ragnor of the House of Hakonsson, he goes too far, setting in motion a chain of events that will forever alter his destiny. Because of it, Halli will have to leave home and go on a hero’s quest. Along the way, he will encounter highway robbers, terrifying monsters, and a girl who may finally be his match. In the end, he will discover the truth about the legends, his family, and himself.

I have always been a fan of Jonathan Stroud since his Barthalemous book trilogy which really pulled me in, I was expecting a book just as good as those set. And this book was in the young adult section and I honestly don’t care as long as its a good well written story, so I started reading it and getting more and more into it. A Valley with only certain number of tribes and one young man who is determined to find his own path. After reading the book I just felt that it just didn’t live up to my expectations, its not a bad book but I wish I didn’t waste my time on it since there are a lot of better books out there and I have on a pile waiting to go.

Link:Amazon
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Recently I have had the chance to read a few different books and if one picks up my interest I just keep on reading it and this is how I ended up reading four books at the same time, its taking me a lot of time to finish them but still keeps it interesting. Reading them is like watching one episode of a show after another, right now I’m picking up the pace on Machine Man and I’m wrapping up Heroes Of The Valley, and Mr China looks interesting.

• Mr China – Tim Clissold
• Machine Man – Max Barry
• Heroes Of The Valley – Jonathan Stroud
• Nerd Do Well – Simon Pegg

There is no question that I love bookstores and libraries, there is something about the smell of paper and what type of books you can discover in the store. Sometimes I spend hours in bookstores roaming about and picking up a few books and reading them for a bit, and walk around in all the different sections. Books can’t be replaced by E-Readers, and there is something that I love about books, a feeling of having a book, the smell of paper, and enjoying reading it, the difference between a hard copy and soft copy. From the smallest to the biggest, these are 20 of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.

Link: FlavorWire

My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker

Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world’s biggest companies–and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable. But for Kevin, hacking wasn’t just about technological feats-it was an old fashioned confidence game that required guile and deception to trick the unwitting out of valuable information.

Driven by a powerful urge to accomplish the impossible, Mitnick bypassed security systems and blazed into major organizations including Motorola, Sun Microsystems, and Pacific Bell. But as the FBI’s net began to tighten, Kevin went on the run, engaging in an increasingly sophisticated cat and mouse game that led through false identities, a host of cities, plenty of close shaves, and an ultimate showdown with the Feds, who would stop at nothing to bring him down.

Ghost in the Wires is a thrilling true story of intrigue, suspense, and unbelievable escape, and a portrait of a visionary whose creativity, skills, and persistence forced the authorities to rethink the way they pursued him, inspiring ripples that brought permanent changes in the way people and companies protect their most sensitive information.

Kevin Mitnick was infamous to us nerds in the 90s, and I remember reading a bit about him back then when I was young. The image that comes to mind is the movie Hackers, and Swordfish from the ridiculous punching into keyboards and breaking into the NSA. In reality it isn’t like that, its just the flaws that these systems that Kevin managed to figure out and take full advantage of them. Starting from the 80s all the way to the mid 90s, and people were scared from what they didn’t know and they didn’t know what hacking was so they feared it. This story is far from technical and its rather exciting as you see how he dodged so many companies & the FBI and how he managed to infiltrate so many companies. Now its an even bigger reality we face a totally digital world and it is far from secure, it was a very entertaining read and picked up pace as it went along and you see what the government will do when they want someone, and a lot of laws are broken along the way.

Link: Amazon
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At some point in time I used to know a large amount of the books I have, but now I have piles of them sitting on different parts of the room and some of them getting dangerously high. When I go through a few piles, I realize there were some books I wanted to read and follow up on at a later stage. I know the books that I read but the ones that go unread sometimes disappear and I forget to follow up on them, until I find them later hidden inside a cabinet or the back of a shelf. So to organize this large mess of items there are two softwares that I have been looking at, one is the usually awesome Delicious Library which has advanced greatly but there is one other very viable option which is Collectorz Home Library, two options to choose from.

Delicious Library 2
Price: $35

Pros:

• Can categorize anything: Books, Movies, Music, Electronics, Toys, Tools, & Video Games
• Scanning through the computer Camera
• Smart Shelf to Organize your Items

Cons:

• Mac Only
• No App for the iPad, iPhone, or Android, Just exporting to the iPhone

Collectorz Home Library
Price: $49
Pros:

• Works on Both Mac & Windows
• App for iPad, iPhone, & Android
• Very good categorizing

Cons:

• Only for Books (If you just want it for books then this doesn’t matter to you)
• You have to enter the ISBN number or enter it through a scanner, not through the computer camera
• There are other versions from Collectorz but have to be purchased individually

Are people reading more with E-Readers these days? Do people read more Books or E-Readers? I have an iPad but I have started reading comics again because of my iPad. So people put together an infographic, there is an infographic for everything and this one is from GOOD and Column Five. It seems E-reader owners not only read more books, but purchase more than their bibliophile holdout equivalents. For me I am sticking to my books for now, there is no better feeling then that book in hand, I will see how I think about it when I get my Kindle Fire.

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To be honest I do believe that Steve Job’s was one of my favorite CEO’s he did a lot for animation industry and the challenged the computer industry and every other media and technology industry out there. He certainly left his dent in the universe people are still trying to wrap their heads around his loss. At least you get to hear the story of the man himself, I’m not much for Biographies but this one I am going to read giving you an inside look inside Steve Job’s life. Written by hand-picked biographer Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs by Walter Issacsson tells the tale of Steve’s professional and personal life, informed by unprecedented access to Jobs, his family, friends, and co-workers, including details of his final days at Apple, and reflections from Jobs as he faced what he called “Life’s greatest invention.” Rest in peace, o turtlenecked one. You will be missed.

Link: Amazon

G.I. Joe: Tales from the Cobra Wars is an action-packed collection of all-original prose stories. Flint, Scarlett, Destro, the Baroness; they’re all here as the ongoing war between G.I. JOE and Cobra is depicted from every angel. This trade paperback presents eight novella-length tales, penned by today’s leading crime and thriller writers, such as Jonathan Maberry, Duane Swierczynski , Chuck Dixon, and Dennis Tafoya. Cobra Wars is edited by Max Brooks, who also supplies a new story, and features new illustrations for each story.

This is one of the easier reads that I have laying around the office, I always wondered when I would read so I just picked it up a few weeks ago and started reading it. First off if you are a fan of G.I.Joe then you have to pick up this book, its written in short story form, like mission logs and you have to be familiar with the characters from G.I.Joe because they jump right into it. Each short story is written by a different writer who works with the G.I.Joe Comics and all of it is edited by Max Brooks (World War Z). There are some stories that gets your blood pumping and a few times I was slightly confused because I wasn’t totally familiar with all the characters, overall it was a fun read and I would have wanted the stories to be a little longer because you do get caught up in them and by the end of the book the good guys aren’t winning.

Link: Amazon
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