Comments on: 35 South by Southwest Interactive

By: Steve Gold

Steve Gold — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:25:17 +0000

Aloha Len,

I took a look at the CAlibre website today and will weigh in on the pronunciation debate referenced in podcast #35.

According to the developer the reasons for the name Calibre are as follows:

Take your pick:
• Convertor And LIBRary for E-books
• A high calibre product
• A tribute to the SONY Librie which was the first e-ink based e-book reader
• My wife chose it

In my tentative view this list seems to support the size of a bullet crowd–at least in the first 2 iterations.

According to Wikipedia the Sony LIBRIé EBR-1000EP (note the accent aigu) is the official name of the referenced e-book reader. Students of French history and readers of The Scarlet Pimpernel will remember the challenge of Liberté, Fraternité, Egalité and therefore will pronounce CAlibre to rhyme with bray–the sound of a donkey or mule. (In Dickens Tale of Two Cities it appears in the order Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or Death).

Finally, there is the hidden, analytical, personal historical argument. Calibre is a free program. When I was young and free (libre) back in the 20th century and enjoying my higher education a popular libation was the Cuba Libre. According to the suggested Spanish pronunciation of libre on http://www.forvo.com you can chock one up for the ass crowd.

So, after weighing all the evidence, both real and imagined, one can only conclude that one can pronounce Calibre any way one wishes.

I continue to listen to and enjoy the weekly podcasts. Thanks for making the effort week in and week out.

Drinking rum and co…ca….co….la,

Steve Gold

By: elmoglick

elmoglick — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:17:40 +0000

Hi Len,
A much easier way to get to Archived Items:

From the Home Screen, just press MENU and select (drum roll please): Archived Items.

By: Robert Green

Robert Green — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:04:03 +0000

The link to the Starbuck Kindle 2 review mentioned in the podcast is http://wingsoveriraq.blogspot.com/2009/03/kindlekindle-2.html.

By: brentwayne

brentwayne — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:22:24 +0000

I emailed Amazon for a clarification on the comment posted by Rho. I took the comment to question whether as new devices are added and others are deregistered if this would affect the 6 total devices that the books may be used on. The response was:

Hello from Amazon.com.

Please note that the maximum numbers of kindle’s that can be registered to your account are 6. If you deregister a kindle and register a new kindle then content you purchased can be shared with the new kindle registered to your account.

You can register and deregister as many Kindles you want and there is no limit for registering and deregistering the kindles to an account.

You can only register maximum of six kindles for one Amazon.com. account.

The licenses for most books and other non-subscription content you buy from the Kindle Store let you download and view each item on up to six Kindle devices registered to your Amazon.com account. Subscription items can only be downloaded to one Kindle.

That means you can download and read your books on any Kindle device you own (Kindle 1, Kindle 2, or Kindle for iPhone) as long you’ve registered each device to the Amazon.com account where your Kindle library is stored.

By: Gina Benner

Gina Benner — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:35:47 +0000

Len,
It was great meeting you this week! Just listened to the podcast this morning, and wanted to comment on your comments about Calibre taking a long time to download. Yes, it does take a little time, however, when you get it on your kindle, you’ll understand why. With Calibre, you get all the text plus the pictures, which is actually really nice. I hope you find this program as helpful as Ben did. The only complaint he had was that he REALLY would love to read the Economist on his kindle, and now he can.

Happy Kindling,
Gina