Tag Archives: Kindle

A few new pages at the top

Music, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,




At the top of this home page you’ll notice three links to new pages on the site. Two are photo pages of classic rock bands Cream and Blind Faith. The Cream page has actually been up for about a week. The third page is labeled The Trick Is aStore, short for The Trick Is To Keep Going Associates Store, a referral page for Amazon.com.

blind-faith-tour-programme-backI’m a big fan of Amazon. I should be, I’ve spent quite a bit of money there, mostly on CDs, vinyl, electronics and computer gear in the past five or six years. I’m an even bigger fan of their Marketplace, where you can buy almost anything for less than what Amazon sells an item for from, in my experience, reputable sellers.

Here’s how the Associates Store works. If you go to that page you’ll find listings for these categories: Music, Musical Instruments, MP3 Downloads, DVD, Electronics, Computers, Cameras and Photo, Kindle Store, Books, Software and Video Games. There is a search engine and anything you can find on Amazon you can find on this new page. A details page with customer reviews for each item that comes up on a search is available by clicking on the item. You can place items in a shopping cart and if you decide to buy anything and hit checkout, you will be transported to Amazon.com, where you can approve putting those items in your cart there and go through their checkout process. There is also a handy link back to The Trick Is To Keep Going on the page.

So what’s the difference? Not much really. Although when you search at The Trick Is aStore, it’s probably going to be faster because you’re not dealing with some of the long load times for the Amazon pages. And you can stay here at the site. The Trick Is receives a very modest referral fee if you decide to purchase something this way. You may find it convenient.

So that’s it. Hope you like the photo pages and the aStore. Thanks for all the support for The Trick Is To Keep Going from new and old friends.

A dying breed

Technology, , , , ,




pcmagFor some reason I wasn’t aware, but I just read a long editor’s note stating PC magazine will no longer be printed and will only be available online. This is the last remnant of a bunch of subscriptions I started to stay on top of the industry when I was reviewing software in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

It doesn’t surprise me although I believed most magazines were faring better than newspapers. Obviously not this one. I’m coming around to accepting all the new media and saying farewell to the printed page, probably because I’m not involved in the production of the printed page anymore. We are obviously in a period of transition. It just seems to be happening faster and faster.

I’m adjusting to news on my cell phone and other devices. A year ago I was pretty resistant to the Kindle, now I’m looking forward to version 2. The big problem with reading a mag online is that many of us work on PCs, browse for new info and research with PCs, store, copy and manipulate photos with PCs, rip, listen and manage music collections with PCs, so it’s nice to take a break from the eye strain of the PC screen, sit back and hold something in your hands and just relax and read. Always being in front of that PC screen is one of the biggest obstacles to a full-blown wipeout of the print industry. The Kindle offers a more eye-friendly screen, but I’m still waiting for the Japanese prototype of a thin Kindle-like device I can get a newspaper on and roll up and put in my pocket that was promised in the late ’90s.

PC mag is a good one. Because it was printed, slightly dated, but it has some interesting columnists, decent hardware reviews, good free utilities and indepth features. I’ll read it but probably not as much until it’s delivered onto something easier on the eyes.

Connecticut is a prime battleground for new media. Two papers about to go out of business in January, a bunch of Shoreline papers wiped out just the other day, the two largest dailies apparently going bankrupt.