12:33 AM by NatCh in Miscellaneous | Lounge

This has come up several times, so I figure maybe it's worth posting in its own thread, and I think I'll stick it as well, so that folks don't have to remember exactly where to find it.

I'm pasting this from another thread, so if it looks eerily familiar to anyone, that's why.

Once again, thanks to Alexander Turcic for explaining the whole thing to me in the first place (now there's a guy who deserves karma!).

MobileRead's Karma system

Each person seems to start out with 1 point of influence (after they've posted at least once), then it follows a formula. Here's the formula that I worked out from what Alexander told me, it seems to hold true from what I've seen:

(# of days registered/30) + (# of posts/40) + (Giver's present karma/200)

and the result will be rounded down to the nearest integer

Remember, these are all based on the karma giver's current stats.

So, for example if a person who had been registered 300 days, had posted 2400 items, and had a present karma of 400 were to give someone else karma:

(300/30) + (2400/40) + (400/200)

Or:

10 + 60 + 2 = 72

So If this theoretical person were to tap someone who had, say 28 karma points already, the tapee's karma would increase to 100 points. And yes, I picked nice, tidy numbers to make it easy on myself -- I'm used to the computer doing my arithmetic for me (and most of my spelling, too, for that matter).

The biggest single factor is how much you post, the more you post the faster your givable karma goes up.

Conversely, the only way for your own karma to rise is for someone else to tap you.

There are also some limitations to how much tapping you can do. I believe the deal is that you can't re-tap a given person until you've tapped two others, and you can only tap 10 people in a given day.

So remember, if you appreciate something that someone else has done, nothing says "thank you" like a karma boost.

Disclaimer: this is in no way an attempt
.....to get my own karma boosted -- I'd
.....much rather get karma for stuff
.....that's more worthwhile than this.
.....Or at least more effort!

Addition: Yvanleterrible reports that the blocks in your geekiness indicator (which relate to number of posts in some not presently fully understood fashion) turn blue when you reach 400 posts.

One other note: you can see the entries of who gave you karma for which post and what their comment was from the bottom of your user control panel (toward the upper left corner of the screen, for those who might not have noticed it yet).

edit : DixieGal has contributed this helpful visual aid to show where to find out who gave you karma. thanks DixieGal !

07:09 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Over the past few weeks an influx of new talents has joined us and contributed by writing code for the iRex iLiad and Sony Reader. So we decided to temporarily open registration for our FTP again where developers can freely upload and manage their files. This is especially useful if files are too large to be uploaded as forum attachments.

Anything you upload will be immediately available at http://projects.mobileread.com/.

Drop me a message if you think an account could come in handy for you.

05:13 PM by NatCh in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

American Airlines Begins Offering In-Flight Personal Media Players

It seems that American Airlines has started implementing a new twist on the venerable in-flight movie: they're handing out Archos 704 and 604 PMPs with Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones to their passengers -- no extra charge for first class, but we poor peasants in coach will have to shell out a bit extra if we want to play in that sandbox. The PMPs will "provide on-demand access to up to 12 feature films; up to 15 hours of pre-loaded television, news programs and music videos; 50 music CDs and 14 American Airlines-branded audio channels" and will be available initially on a few U.S. trans-continental flights. That one's apparently a done deal, but they're also running a 'pilot' program on one intra-continental route (Chicago to L.A), which involves a smaller screened PMP with complimentary (i.e.: we don't want them back after you've used them. eeew.) ear buds.

Presumably, if all this works out well, we'll see them on more flights. No word on whether we'll be allowed to use them during take off and landing, but if not (as seems likely), we'll still have SkyMall and the AA magazine to fall back on, I suppose.

See the full story for more details, and what routes will be covered.

08:26 AM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

Our Italian friends at Simplicissimus report that iRex Technologies has signed a deal with publisher and book retailer Orell Füssli to distribute the iLiad e-reader in Switzerland. Although still unconfirmed by iRex, I'll definitely stop by Orell Füssli's main store in Zurich tomorrow and ask them for availability and price.

Without doubt iRex did a marvelous job in finding B2B and B2C partners to spread the iLiad happiness throughout the globe. I count Holland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Japan and the US among the countries with official distributors for the iLiad. Did I miss anyone?

01:41 PM by templario in More E-Book Readers | iRex

There is a new release of Mobipocket, dated today, and in the changelog there's this:

May 3rd, 2007 : Final Release Candidate build 580:

* iRex iLiad device support
* Multi user installation enabled
* Palm Synchronization with custom library location fixed
* Reader Language & "Open Last Book" at startup settings fixed

So if I understand correctly everything is ready, isn't it?

10:26 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Interesting read over at TeleRead on whether reading e-books could harm your eyes. The good news: according to a doctor who was asked by the person writing the article, reading e-books (from a backlit device) does not harm your eyes as long as you don't read in a "totally dark room". So all you Sony Reader, iRex iLiad, HanLin, Starebook etc. geeks using an external light source, you should be fine. The bad news: My eye sight has definitely deteriorated over time, and I don't know what else to blame but the e-book.

Link to full article

10:10 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's not a secret that Taiwanese Prime View International (PVI) is the main OEM/ODM supplier of E Ink displays. The Sony Reader is one prominent example using their display design. Now MobileReader lee1234 sent us the news that PVI is also the designer of the E Ink panel that is going to be used in Intel's Metro Notebook. While details are sketchy at this point, it appears that unlike the demo device, the final version of the notebook will feature E Ink in color (as in red-green-blue!!). Quoting Digitimes:

The outside display will be made as a colored e-ink screen that shows important content, such as e-mail, calendar entries, eBooks and more, even when the power supply is cut off, the sources noted.

Related: PVI rumored to commercialize flexible e-paper this summer, E Ink display manufacturer PVI soars thanks to Sony Reader

09:45 AM by NatCh in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

How Wi-Fi Can Extend T-Mobile's Range

I've long wanted a Cell phone that would use cell networks most of the time, but smoothly jump to WiFi, when that's available, like, say, when I'm at home. It looks like T-Mobile thinks that's a good idea too.

T-Mobile USA Inc., the fourth largest U.S. wireless operator, is planning a national launch this summer of cellphones that can roam on Wi-Fi hotspots in homes and coffee shops, carrying calls over the Web to improve indoor reception and help customers save on monthly cellular minutes.

The service, known as Hotspot at Home, has been in trial in Seattle for a few months and the carrier is ready to roll it out nationwide as early as mid-June, people familiar with the matter say. The phones that currently work with the service are models made by Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Apparently they (unsurprisingly) had some issues early on with the hand-off from cell to WiFi, and back, but they've reportedly ironed those out. Also unsurprisingly, they're looking mainly to businesses to drive adoption of the new approach. Makes sense, considering that, as the article points out, there are often pretty nasty reception problems inside the glass and iron Faraday Cages that we call modern office buildings.

Full article.