zacharytamas

I’m sure this has been linked to death lately but my friend Adam sent me this link last night. It’s a guide to get your girl friend who has a boyfriend to have sex with you in 17 simple steps. Check it out at Batteries Feel Included. Good for a laugh or two. Or three.

http://batteriesfeelincluded.blogspot.com/2009/05/309.html

I’m currently reading an interesting new book written by John August called The Variant. Some of you might recognize the name John August as he is the screenwriter for several popular Hollywood films, including Go, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride. Lately he’s trying his hand at writing books.

On August’s website he has a page dedicated to his new book The Variant. The book is currently available in PDF form from his website or in Kindle format for your Amazon Kindle of Kindle for iPhone/iPod. The best part: the entire book is 99 cents.

From Amazon’s description of the book:

“After 35 years working at the Central Library, Vincent Lewis has perfected the art of unremarkability. But when a terrified woman falls through his bathroom ceiling, he’s forced back into a life of gunfights, double agents and paranormal research. The secret he’s been keeping for nearly four decades might reunite him with his lost love, or kill millions.”

I am currently reading the book myself but already I have to say it’s very interesting. Much like one of his movies, it maintains a mysterious element where you’re not sure what, but you’re sure something just doesn’t seem right—like you’re missing a very big piece of the puzzle and you’re dying to put it together.

You can read a generous 15-page free preview of the book on his website here. Check it out, if you like it, pay that buck and finish a great story.

At the end of this semester I was left with some books that my college’s book store wouldn’t buy back from me for a variety of reasons (they had reached their quota on that book, the instructor was using a new book next semester, etc.) I needed to get rid of a few so I looked for places online I might sell. I had used Amazon to sell things before (books, actually) so I quickly found myself there.

It was extremely easy to list my books—all I had to type in was the ISBN and it knew everything about my book—and they were listed in just minutes. Amazon shows you their prices for the book, as well as other individual sellers’ prices to help you decide how much you want to sell yours for.

Within two hours I got an e-mail from Amazon informing me my Calculus book had just sold and I should ship now—the money was already in my Amazon Payments account. The only complaint I have about the whole process is Amazon’s high fee for using the service. I listed my book for $85 and in the end I received $73.90. Not that bad but still.

All in all I’d give Amazon Marketplace a pretty high ranking. It’s almost too easy. I barely had to do anything but list it and ship it. If you’ve got a few extra textbooks (or anything, really) laying around you want to get rid of quick, Amazon Marketplace is a good place to do just that. You’ll need an Amazon account but who doesn’t have one these days?

What other places online would you recommend to college students for selling textbooks?

I am generally a Counting Crows fan, yes, but even I will admit there are certain recordings where lead singer Adam Duritz takes it just a little over the edge into cringe-territory. In his and the band’s defense, both have been through a lot since the days of Mr. Jones (from their first album) and have matured quite a bit. Their live album New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall, however, is truly a culmination of their careers and their musical genius. » Read the rest of this entry «

Several weeks ago Apple seeded out the iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 4 and iTunes 8.2 Pre-release to the developers enrolled in their iPhone developer program. The release had varying minor to major changes to both the iPhone and iTunes but one poster on the MacRumors forum found something pretty interesting in the About iTunes window.
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I’ve mentioned on this blog before that I’ve experimented with using Guitar Rig to produce guitar tones through my MacBook. Setting up such a rig is pretty straightforward but I ran into an interesting problem when it came to routing sound from the input jack on my laptop to the Guitar Rig application. With some research and tinkering, I found a solution that works perfectly. If you can’t figure out how to get your guitar input into Guitar Rig, this tutorial is for you. » Read the rest of this entry «