Depressing

One Word Movie Reviews: The Grey is a post from: Digital Podcast

Exhausting:)

One Word Movie Reviews: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is a post from: Digital Podcast

Slow.

One Word Movie Reviews: Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows is a post from: Digital Podcast

It’s coming up on Christmas and lots of people will be buying iPods, Kindles and other gadgets for their loved ones. I thought I might suggest a few ideas for the Geek Dad, which is probably what I qualify for.

In this version, I thought I would focus on some books I really enjoyed this year. Links are affiliate links that will show you where to get audiobook downloads, CDs, ebooks or good old books made from dead trees.

Here’s my list from my favorites this year. I’m cheating a bit because some of these are series, not just individual books.

1.) My favorite of the year has to be Daemon by Daniel Suarez. This is actually a two part book with the second book called Freedom (TM). This two book series is all about a mad scientist who dies and leaves behind a computer Daemon to take over and reform the world. Lots of good geek stuff, action and an fun plot. The book goes fast and the narrator in the audiobook version do a great job.

2.) Next in line is the Dark Tower series from Stephen King. The Dark Tower starts off with The Gunslinger and then continues with six more books. The first book introduces the gunslinger Roland Deschain of Gilead. Roland is kind of a knight of this other world. He pursues a man he sees as evil called the Man in Black and eventually learns that he must find his way to the Dark Tower to resolve his demons. This series is a masterpiece from Stephen King’s amazing mind. It will keep your Dad going for a long time.

3.) Moneyball is a winner from Michael Lewis. You probably saw the movie version, but the book is much better. It reveals inside the world of baseball and the main guy of the book Billy Beane. I really liked this book and recommend the audiobook to all who like a good story. I also like The Big Short and Boomerang by Michael Lewis as well. These two focus on the big financial mess of the past few years and explain what really happened. Excellent stuff if you ask me.

4.) Next up on my list is Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Wow! What a story this one is. The main character is Louis Zamperini who in times of peace was a great athlete. But war comes along as Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and Louis like many others is pulled into the war. This book is his story. Zamperini endures things you won’t believe. It is a tail of a desperate struggle for survival in an environment of perpetual torture. Just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do. And it happens more than once. Zamperini survives and becomes something of an inspiration. This is the story that many of our grandfathers really endured. It’s definitely worth the time to listen or read the book.

5.) Last on my list, here’s something I enjoyed that will connect the fathers and daughters out there. The book is called The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This is another sci-fi story of survival in the face of certain death. In this story, the hero is a teenage girl who must find a way to fight and survive. The book has two follow-on books in the saga. While it’s clearly targeted to teenage girls and can be a bit gushy at times, The Hunger Games is an action packed, well told story that I think just about everyone will like.

I hope you find your Dad some thing great for Christmas.

Five Books for the Geek Dad is a post from: Digital Podcast

Senator Ron Wyden is one of the few politicians anywhere who seems to really understands the Internet and the implications of Government intrusions into our privacy. He stands up to the Media industry and it’s attack on the rights of innovators.

If you want to understand some to the big issues like the so called PROTECT IP act and how the government has a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act that would upset people if we only knew what it was.

If you have 35 minutes watch this video interview with Senator Wyden.

A Senator Who Gets The Internet is a post from: Digital Podcast

The Help continues to be the seasons best selling audio book, no doubt helped by the big release of the movie version. If you liked the movie, it’s worth giving the audio book a listen.

Also, new on the charts is Dick Cheney’s story of his time in Washington. Whether you like him or hate him, he’s had an inside view of goings on back in DC for a very long time. If you’re a political junkie, it might be of interest.

Here’s September’s top 20 audio books:

1. The Help (Unabridged) by Kathryn Stockett
Summary:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid, Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone…
Click to hear an audio sample of The Help (Unabridged) audiobook…

2. Kill Me If You Can (Unabridged) by James Patterson, Marshall Karp
Summary: Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a duffel bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his gorgeous girlfriend, Katherine, fill his thoughts – until he realizes that he is being hunted, and that whoever is after him won’t stop until they have reclaimed the diamonds and exacted their revenge. Trailing him is the Ghost, the world’s greatest assassin, who has just pulled off his most high-profile …
Click to hear an audio sample of Kill Me If You Can (Unabridged) audiobook…

3. In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir (Unabridged) by Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney
Summary: In this eagerly anticipated memoir, former Vice President Dick Cheney delivers an unyielding portrait of American politics over nearly 40 years and shares personal reflections on his role as one of the most steadfast and influential statesmen in the history of our country. The public perception of Dick Cheney has long been something of a contradiction. He has been viewed as one of the most powerful vice presidents: secretive, even mysterious, and at the same time opinionated and unflinchi…
Click to hear an audio sample of In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir (Unabridged) audiobook…

4. The Hunger Games (Unabridged) by Suzanne Collins
Summary: Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don’t live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by 12 outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, wh…
Click to hear an audio sample of The Hunger Games (Unabridged) audiobook…

5. Bossypants (Unabridged) by Tina Fey
Summary:

Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update”, before “Sarah Palin”, Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both of those dreams come true. At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from…
Click to hear an audio sample of Bossypants (Unabridged) audiobook…

6. Only Time Will Tell: The Clifton Chronicles, Book 1 (Unabridged) by Jeffrey Archer
Summary: From the internationally best-selling author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes Only Time Will Tell , the first in an ambitious new series that tells the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph. The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1920, with the words “I was told that my father was killed in the war.” A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle, who expect…
Click to hear an audio sample of Only Time Will Tell: The Clifton Chronicles, Book 1 (Unabridged) audiobook…

7. A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book I (Unabridged) by George R. R. Martin
Summary:

In a time long forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons off balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. As the cold returns, sinister forces are massing beyond the protective wall of the kingdom of Winterfell. To the south, the king’s powers are failing, with his most trusted advisor mysteriously dead and enemies emerging from the throne’s shadow. At the center of the conflict, the Starks of Winterfell hold the key: a reluctant Lo…
Click to hear an audio sample of A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book I (Unabridged) audiobook…

8. That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back (Unabridged) by Thomas L. Friedman, Michael Mandelbaum
Summary: America has a huge problem. It faces four major challenges, on which its future depends, and it is failing to meet them. In That Used to Be Us , Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, analyze those challenges – globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation’s chronic deficits, and its pattern of energy consumption – and spell out what we need to do now to rediscover America and rise…
Click to hear an audio sample of That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back (Unabridged) audiobook…

9. Catching Fire: Hunger Games, Book 2 (Unabridged) by Suzanne Collins
Summary: Katniss Everdeen continues to struggle to protect herself and her family from the Capitol in this second novel from the best-selling Hunger Games trilogy.
Click to hear an audio sample of Catching Fire: Hunger Games, Book 2 (Unabridged) audiobook…

10. A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book II (Unabridged) by George R. R. Martin
Summary: A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.

It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison …
Click to hear an audio sample of A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book II (Unabridged) audiobook…

11. Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games (Unabridged) by Suzanne Collins
Summary:

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena live, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge….
Click to hear an audio sample of Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games (Unabridged) audiobook…

12. A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 5 (Unabridged) by George R. R. Martin
Summary:

Dubbed the American Tolkien by Time magazine, George R. R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental cycle of epic fantasy. Now the number-one New York Times best-selling author delivers the fifth book in his spellbinding landmark series – as both familiar faces and surprising new forces vie for a foothold in a fragmented empire.
In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance once again – beset by n…
Click to hear an audio sample of A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 5 (Unabridged) audiobook…

13. Flash and Bones: Temperance Brennan, Book 14 (Unabridged) by Kathy Reichs
Summary: Just as 200,000 fans are pouring into town for Race Week, a body is found in a barrel of asphalt next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The next day, a NASCAR crew member comes to Temperance Brennan’s office at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner to share a devastating story. Twelve years earlier, Wayne Gamble’s sister, Cindi, then a high-school senior and aspiring racer, disappeared along with her boyfriend, Cale Lovette. Lovette kept company with a group of right-wing extremists known a…
Click to hear an audio sample of Flash and Bones: Temperance Brennan, Book 14 (Unabridged) audiobook…

14. The Ice Limit (Unabridged) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Summary:

The largest known meteorite has been discovered, entombed in the earth for millions of years on a frigid, desolate island off the southern tip of Chile. At 4,000 tons, this treasure seems impossible to move.
New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd is determined to have this incredible find for his new museum. Stocking a cargo ship with the finest scientists and engineers, he builds a flawless expedition. But from the first approach to the meteorite, people begin to die. A frighten…
Click to hear an audio sample of The Ice Limit (Unabridged) audiobook…

15. One Grave at a Time: Night Huntress, Book 6 (Unabridged) by Jeaniene Frost
Summary: The grave is one wrong step away. Having narrowly averted an (under)world war, Cat Crawfield wants nothing more than a little downtime with her vampire husband, Bones. Unfortunately, her gift from New Orleans’ voodoo queen just keeps on giving – leading to a personal favor that sends them into battle once again, this time against a villainous spirit. Centuries ago, Heinrich Kramer was a witch hunter. Now, every All Hallows Eve, he takes physical form to torture innocent women before bu…
Click to hear an audio sample of One Grave at a Time: Night Huntress, Book 6 (Unabridged) audiobook…

16. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Unabridged) by Laura Hillenbrand
Summary:

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.
Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.
The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini…
Click to hear an audio sample of Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Unabridged) audiobook…

17. A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book III (Unabridged) by George R. R. Martin
Summary: Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against h…
Click to hear an audio sample of A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book III (Unabridged) audiobook…

18. Go the F–k to Sleep (Unabridged) by Adam Mansbach, Ricardo Cortes (cover illustration)
Summary:

Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) rocks this mock bedtime story, capturing a hilarious range of emotions as the voice of a father struggling to get his child to sleep.
Go the F**k to Sleep is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don’t always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. California Book Award-winning author Adam Mansbach’s profane, affectionate, an…
Click to hear an audio sample of Go the F–k to Sleep (Unabridged) audiobook…

19. A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (Unabridged) by Louise Penny
Summary: “Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.” But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow’s garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara’s solo show at the famed Musee in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Surete du Quebec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a wor…
Click to hear an audio sample of A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (Unabridged) audiobook…

20. A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book IV (Unabridged) by George R. R. Martin
Summary: It seems too good to be true. After centuries of bitter strife and fatal treachery, the seven powers dividing the land have decimated one another into an uneasy truce. Or so it appears. With the death of the monstrous King Joffrey, Cersei is ruling as regent in King’s Landing. Robb Stark’s demise has broken the back of the Northern rebels, and his siblings are scattered throughout the kingdom like seeds on barren soil. Few legitimate claims to the once desperately sought Iron Throne still exi…
Click to hear an audio sample of A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book IV (Unabridged) audiobook…

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The Help – Best Selling Audio Book and Movie is a post from: Digital Podcast

It is being widely reported that Amazon and the state legislature have declared truce in the ongoing effort to get Amazon to collect sales taxes. In the deal that passed the legislature last Friday, Amazon and other online retailers get to delay collecting sales taxes until September 2012 so that they may try to lobby for a federal solution to the tax issue. In exchange, Amazon is going to drop its proposed initiative to block the law.

Amazon had earlier offered to create 7,000 jobs in California by building multiple distribution centers in California. Amazon still wants to do that and asked for safe harbor if they go ahead, but the legislature didn’t accept that. They say that the opportunity to create jobs will have to wait until January.

It’s too bad that the only real sense of urgency in Sacramento is to collect more taxes and not to create more jobs. They are giving Amazon the tax break anyway, so creating 7,000 jobs would be costless to the state. But the people in Sacramento just don’t seem to care enough to deal with that now and prefer to wait four or five more months. I guess they think four or five months of 7,000 people being unemployed isn’t worth their time.

As I write this, it is unclear what Gov. Brown will do – will he sign it, veto it or just let it go into law without his signature.

Whether Amazon will reinstate its affiliate program in California is also still up in the air, but it would be nice to see the 25,000 affiliates back in business creating jobs and paying taxes. We can only wait and see.

Will Amazon & California Declare a Truce in Tax War? is a post from: Digital Podcast

The Sacramento Bee published an article describing Amazon’s new offer to California’s Governor Brown and the Legislature. Amazon is apparently offering to spend tens of millions of dollars on new distribution centers in California and hire 7,000 people in exchange for the state delaying until 2014 a law requiring out of state retailers to collect sales tax for the state.

The law could mean that Amazon has to collect $200 million in sales taxes for the state. But the status of the law is uncertain. Amazon refuses to collect the sales tax.

As a result of the new law, Amazon terminated business relationships with 25,000 small businesses based in California to protect itself from having to to collect the sales tax. This has cost the state lots of jobs and lost income taxes as well.

In addition, Amazon claims the law is unconstitutional and has started collecting signatures for a June referendum that would overturn the law.

According to the Mercury News, when Amazon submits signatures for its referendum by Sept. 27, the law requiring Amazon to pay taxes will be stayed until the June election. That would mean no revenues could be collected.

So on one side, Amazon spends lots of money in California to build distribution centers and creates 7,000 jobs and on the other side California will probably get nothing or at best only some part of $200 million.

The Democrats running the state are not that interested in Amazon’s offer and only seem interested in trying to collect more taxes. Their most recent maneuver is to try to bypass a vote by citizens on Amazon’s referendum by passing the law again but this time with a two thirds majority. Republicans don’t seem interested.

Unless the Democrats can make their end-run around the democratic process work, Amazon will have won the PR battle. When the citizens get to vote on the law, they will know for certain that this law and our representatives in Sacramento have killed at least 7,000 certain jobs.

Amazon Offers 7,000 Jobs, CA Politicians Want Taxes Instead is a post from: Digital Podcast