Tag Archives: books

The Next “Oxford English Dictionary” Could Be Online-Only

Bad news for everyone out there who was eager to hold the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (that exceedingly portable 20-volume set of wordy goodness): Thanks to the rise of the Internet, the next OED will probably be online-only. Granted, OED3 is still about a decade in the making (according to The Telegraph , a team of 80 lexicographers have been working on it for the past 21 years), but seeing as how the OED has never posted a profit since its inception back in 1879, the move to online-only seems like a long time coming. The second edition of the dictionary (which came out in 1989) has been online for about 10 years now and garners about 2 million hits per month from subscribers. Add to that a plethora of online dictionary sources, and the stack of books that make up OED3 seems a bit, well, like an unnecessary massacre of trees. Oxford University Press, which prints the dictionary, will still continue to publish the slimmer Oxford Dictionary of English , however, which should set your mind at ease if you’re one of those folks who likes to keep a giant dictionary on a pedestal in the parlor.
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DIY Built-In Home Theater from IKEA Bookcases [DIY]

We already know bookcases make good entertainment centers , and you can even double them up for more space . Ikea Hacker LittleMy17, though, took it a step further by combining multiple bookcases, DVD racks, and benches into one giant home theater unit. More
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10 iPhone Apps to Get You Back to School

As August nights get cooler, we begin begrudgingly counting down the remaining summer days. Once Labor Day passes, it’s back to school time for millions. The best part of going back to school is clearly the shopping. Even though a new notebook can go a long way in preparing you for the new year, the iPhone also has a ton of apps that will help to get you organized and in the right mind-space to focus and learn
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ComicBookLover is the iTunes of Digital Comic Books [Downloads]

Mac OS X: We've featured two digital comic book readers before , but if you're looking for a full-featured library, look no further than ComicBookLover, which organizes your library and allows reading with the Apple remote or with a laptop in portrait mode. More
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Preserve Old Paperback Books by Turning Them Into Hardcovers [Preservation]

Paperback books have their conveniences, but they can also get easily destroyed. If you'd like to keep some of your near-death paperbacks around, kid-centric blog Ohdeedoh shows us how to give them some custom, protective hard covers. More
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Giant Shout-Out to Ayn Rand Scrawled on Google Earth via GPS [PIC]

Ayn Rand is getting some pretty heavy endorsement via GPS of late, as one man — Nick Newcomen — recently drove 12,328 miles across 30 American states to scrawl “Read Ayn Rand” via GPS data inputted into Google Earth. Newcomen — who explained to Wired that he undertook this mission simply because he is a Rand fan — took more than 30 days to execute this task, using a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to create the letters. He started in Marshall, Texas, where he began writing out “Rand,” and then drove on (turning off the GPS whilst not writing) until the entire, “Reading Is Fundamental” sentiment was complete. You can check out more info on the site World’s Biggest Writing , which also features David Lynchian videos of locations Newcomen visited, most ending with a shot of his almost expressionless face (see below). Although we understand that Newcomen is passionate about the famed Atlas Shrugged author (we’re all groupies of someone , amirite?) we can’t help but wonder what Rand herself would have thought of the stunt.
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Giant Shout-Out to Ayn Rand Scrawled on Google Earth via GPS [PIC]

Ayn Rand is getting some pretty heavy endorsement via GPS of late, as one man — Nick Newcomen — recently drove 12,328 miles across 30 American states to scrawl “Read Ayn Rand” via GPS data inputted into Google Earth. Newcomen — who explained to Wired that he undertook this mission simply because he is a Rand fan — took more than 30 days to execute this task, using a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to create the letters. He started in Marshall, Texas, where he began writing out “Rand,” and then drove on (turning off the GPS whilst not writing) until the entire, “Reading Is Fundamental” sentiment was complete. You can check out more info on the site World’s Biggest Writing , which also features David Lynchian videos of locations Newcomen visited, most ending with a shot of his almost expressionless face (see below)
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Google: There Are 129,864,880 Books in the Entire World

How many books have ever been published in all of modern history? According to Google’s advanced algorithms, the answer is nearly 130 million books, or 129,864,880, to be exact. We’ll admit it’s practically impossible to count every book that has ever been written, but in order for Google Books to successfully catalog the world’s supply of printed knowledge, the company needs an estimate of the amount of books it needs to scan. That’s why Google set out on the task to do just that
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HOW TO: Self-Publish Anything Online

Scott Steinberg is the CEO of high-tech consulting firm TechSavvy Global, and a frequent tech analyst for ABC, CBS and CNN. He’s covered the field for 400+ outlets from NPR to Rolling Stone. His latest self-published venture is the online video series and magazine Game Theory . Starting your own fashion label; becoming a high-flying media mogul; publishing the next great novel — everyone’s got their own vision of the “American Dream.” Today, courtesy of countless online self-publishing services, taking the first big steps toward these goals is easier than ever.
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