one for the insomniacs

[miriam_e]

This has got to be the weirdest audio file I've ever found:
http://librivox.org/the-first-fifty-digits-of-pi/

I'm usually satisfied with using a calculator to get enough digits. If I don't have a calculator handy (rare these days) then the old mnemonic "How I wish I could enumerate pi easily" works well enough (the number of letters in each word corresponds to the first 8 digits of pi). If, for some odd reason I ever need more digits I can always download the Project Gutenberg ebook:
PI to a Million Places
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext93/pimil10.zip
...though other than mawkish interest I can't imagine ever needing it. (Um, yes, I have it already. [blush])

On a slightly more lively tack, librivox have a whole lot of free audiobooks -- 1,301 of them so far. Neat! They have some of the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series up there. A rollicking good politically incorrect bunch of adventures from a time when men were men, women were helpless, and bug-eyed monsters fought with swords. I loved these as a kid. Wonder what I'd think these days... Must have a read of them again. All the text ebooks are up on Gutenberg. (Yep I've got 'em all as paper and electronic. How embarrassing.)

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Do let me know if you want to sell any of your EBR Mars tales.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I should really start offloading the paper books that I have electronic copies of.

Eek! I just checked my paper ones, and of the Mars series only I have 4 remaining:

• 01 A Princess of Mars (1912)
• 02 The Gods of Mars (1914)
• 03 The Warlord of Mars (1918)
• 04 Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920)
• 05 The Chessmen of Mars (1922)
• 06 The Master Mind of Mars (1928)
• 07 A Fighting Man of Mars (1931)
• 08 Swords of Mars (1936)
• 09 Synthetic Men of Mars (1940)
• 10 Llana of Gathol (1948)
• 11 John Carter of Mars (1964)
  contains "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" (1940) and "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" (1942)

Bummer. Looks like I've lent more out over the years than I'd thought. I've only got 2 of the 5 in the Venus series (the first and last of them -- "Pirates of Venus" and "The Wizard of Venus"), but I don't think I ever had the full set of them. I don't have any Tarzan books, but then I was never keen on them. I was certain I had a couple of the Pellucidar series, but don't have any of them now. Was sure I had all three of the Caspak books, but have only "The Land That Time Forgot" left. Damn.

I must scan the covers while I still have them.

I was originally going to donate all my paper books to a local library when I replaced them, but you're welcome to these if you want them, I guess.

Makes me chuckle at the price stickers on the covers. I bought most of these when I was a kid in school. Some of them are priced at $1, and one is 60 cents... new!

My, how things have changed. The price of books has gone up much more than the price of petrol over the same period.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Briefly looking at my list, I will gladly pay $/book for:
John Carter of Mars (1964)
"Pirates of Venus" and "The Wizard of Venus")
"The Land That Time Forgot"

Just let me double check. ;)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I'll double check with my family to see none of them wants them (in fact it occurs to me Sue might have some of the missing ones). If nobody is interested then I'll drop whatever you want in the mail. Free of course.
Email me your postal address.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Look, if you send me all the Mars/Venus/Pellucidor/Caspak(?) books you have I'll refund postage and give you a per book stipend. It's only fair.

I looked through my To Read Cases, and my EBR books are spread across five different formats (some are on collections). I like at least a modicum of consistency, so I'll just take 'em all.
You know they'll go to a good home.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, what reminded me of this thread:
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/03/22/2150244.shtml

(On eBooks.)

I haven't read it in detail, as I like dead tree copies).

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Email your postal address to mim at miriam-english dot org and I'll pop 'em in the mail when I step outside the house next... ummm... sometime this week I expect... or perhaps next week, but most probably this week.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. I left a reply there. It amazes me that people don't seem to realise that one of the biggest shortcomings of encrypted ebooks is that the one guarantee you have with them is that you will be locked out of them. I've had this exasperating experience on a couple of occasions where I'd bought perfectly legal ebooks, installed them and got locked out of them.

The first time I'd delayed reading the book for about a week to do some work and in the meantime the computer crashed really badly. I reinstalled MSWindows and suddenly the ebook didn't believe I'd bought it anymore.

The second time I'd bought an ebook and soon after my hard drive died. I replaced the hard drive and upgraded the computer and the ebook would no longer open for me.

The idiots had locked the book to the equipment. The equipment changes and I can no longer use the book. Dumbasses!

Baen Books (http://www.baen.com/) (SF publishers) have been doing a roaring trade selling unencumbered unencrypted ebooks for some years. All the other ebook sellers with their terrible wares are having a hard time of it. That's gotta say something.

I don't buy encrypted ebooks anymore. I can't afford to waste the money.