Google's Bookstore in the Market, at last

If you are following Google's word, it was expected in 2009 and then in June 2010. Anyways, now it is up and running.

What's making news then?
Amazon Vs. Google: Who Will Win E-Book War? "Google's (NasdaqGS: GOOG) launch of e-book store has put the search giant in direct competition with market leader Amazon (NasdaqGS: AMZN), unfolding an interesting rivalry in the coming days."

Excellent comparative review is by Doug Thompson: See the 'Missing Features on Google eBooks app' + 'Strengths of Google eBooks over Amazon Kindle' at Doug Thompson's site

What are the impressions of the Librarians? One example is here, and it is by Tom Peters, and his interesting insights are:

First Impressions on Google's New Bookstore:
"Then I let my digits do some walking and did some comparison shopping for a few books on my wish list. Stanislas Dahaene’s 2009 book, Reading in the Brain, sells for $9.99 both in the Google ebookstore and as a Kindle edition. The Kindle edition of No Shelf Required sells for $46.80 (ouch); the Google ebookstore has a list price of $41.60. You Are Not a Gadget is $9.99 for the Kindle edition, but only $9.48 at the Google ebookstore." continue reading Tom Peters' First Impressions on Google's New Bookstore @ ALA TechSource

On the same shelf:

The list of bookstores offering Google ebooks is here

Review of a Website - A good example

Note: This review is not from my desktop.

This site has been removed: learn.senecac.on.ca/~mehedder/TCS301/Assignment1.html
Extract:
First Impression: I found this webpage to be very bright upon first look. There is some extreme detail, and the picture of the falls is as beautiful as in real life.
Navigation: The webpage was relatively easy to follow. Everything was broken down in categories so it was easy to manoeuvre your way through the site.
Current Information: The website was extremely up to date including upcoming events on dates from February onwards.
Problems Observed: The only problem that I found with this website is that it was completely in English. I know that the majority of people do speak English however, because Canada’s two National languages are French and English I think it should have the option for the site to be displayed in French.
Useful applications for customers: Some useful applications for customers that I noticed were links to tourism information (for where to eat, shop and stay), Transit information, event calendars, and a section called visitor’s favourites.
E-Commerce considerations: There are links on the website so clients can look at and select hotel packages and purchase online, so I would not change anything in this section.
Additional Comments: I was really impressed with the website’s ability to make myself able to find everything that I was looking for.
Improvements: Although the site was very interesting and helpful, it may have been a bit too busy, so I may have taken the clutter down one step by removing a few things from the front page and replacing them with links.
Rating: ***

Job Search Website Article - Excellent Benchmarking

This StarREVIEWS site measures and ranks each of the following Job Search Web sites:

Monster

CareerBuilder

The Ladders

College Recruiter

SnagAJob

Job Bank USA

Each site is analyzed for its performance based on the following analytics:

Overall Rating

Post Resume

Star Review

Search Resumes Employers

Career Resources

Potential Employers

Network Abilities

On the same shelf:
Just released: Job Search The Canadian Way
Buy our book:
Download Ebook @ $10 CDN
Buy softcover in print @ Createspace.com

The top-secret formula for decoding Toronto Star movie reviews, revealed

Interesting perspective on reviews:

Toronto Life Magazine by Alan Nance

Quiz: Are You Fluent in Work Lingo?

This quiz has many frames-of-reference, both for the geeks and the lay, alike. One instance is the word Offline, included in this quiz.
The word, Offline, as the quiz suggests includes four answers:

a. When you’re disconnected from the Internet
b. The project or outcome is important to the function of the business
c. To discuss a topic one-on-one or after a meeting
d. Working from home

While the correct answer is a, one may think out-side-the-box, as well. See the line between offline, online, and near-online, near-offline, etc., here

See on the same shelf:

Track How Effective Your Online Marketing Efforts are Offline

Back to the:
Quiz: Are You Fluent in Work Lingo?
Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com writer

My advice to married women out there: Suck it up

Leah McLaren, The Globe and Mail, Friday, Feb. 12, 2010

Extract:
"To them, I offer this singular piece of advice: Suck it up. Be glad, if you're married, that you have a husband. Provided he's not a violent, gambling drunkard who just got off with your best friend, I'll bet that he's just fine. In any case, you made your bed, so lie in it. Better yet, roll over and make love to it. You may not think you're in the mood, but, trust me, you'll be happier if you do. ... I have come to these conclusions, among others, after speaking with American writer Lori Gottlieb, the author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough

After having a baby on her own with donor sperm in her late 30s, Gottlieb re-entered the dating market in her early 40s only to find that all the good guys had already been snapped up. Her book, which is a meditation on choice, disappointment and the importance of managing your expectations in the modern dating market, also chronicles Gottlieb's profound regret at having been too picky and hypercritical in her single youth. “It seems great to have all these choices,” she told me in a recent phone interview, “but the question is, can you pick wisely?”

Interestingly, Gottlieb points to cultures that favour arranged marriages as a guide on how to pick a mate based on practical criteria that will sustain marriage and children – a proposition she describes as not unlike “running a small, tedious, non-profit business” – rather than the modern notion that marriage should be based on everlasting, bodice-ripping passion.

“People expect their marriage is always going to be this thrilling, exciting thing, but that's not real life. I think that the great benefit of marriage is the safety and commitment and having a teammate and a home, just the love and the warmth. It's not that exciting, but it's what people crave at their deepest level.”

Leave it to a hard-up single mother to appreciate what so many unhappily married women cannot. Gottlieb's point about arranged marriages brought to mind another interesting observation, this one found in Elizabeth Gilbert's new book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage.

In her follow-up to the mega-bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, divorcee Gilbert is sentenced to marry her exiled Brazilian boyfriend for immigration purposes. As they await their impending nuptials, she contemplates the history and cultural purpose of marriage from a point of view that is diametrically opposed to Gottlieb's – i.e., she doesn't want children and has no interest in tedious non-profit work.
Perhaps the most interesting observation in the book is that, historically speaking, a successful marriage has nothing to do with love. In the course of her research, Gilbert notices that, across cultures and history, the divorce rate spikes as soon as people start choosing their spouses for themselves. “By unnerving definition,” she writes, “anything that the heart has chosen for its own mysterious reason, it can always unchoose.” ... continue reading

Best Book Review: The Eternal Present Tense by Dr. Ziauddin Sardar

Book Review: The best and the worst at a glance:
The Worst:
I stumbled on a blog that presents awards if you have "The Worst Review Ever." And, today by surfing the Web, read one of the best reviews, by Dr. Ziauddin Sardar. [information courtesy: NewAgeIslam.Com]

To qualify what makes a 'worst review ever,' I have no choice to determine nor options to rate. Read the qualifications: 'BE A WORSTIE!' @ The Worst Review Ever. In addition, there are many blogs / sites that present: Best review EVER or Best * Worst book reviews or here. More on " best book review" is here

The Best:
And, to judge the best, one can look for best practices drawn by experts. A review is best if it has: (a) balanced perspective (visualizes strength, weakness, and commends), (b) presents a glimpse of what the book has as compared to the competitors in the market (with internal citation and external comparison), and (c) the reviewer knows the subject in-and-out (not just a superficial knowledge). All of this and much more is [in The Guardian, dated Saturday 21 June 2008)] Dr. Ziauddin Sardar's review of The Qur'an: A New Translation, by Tarif Khalidi, 'The eternal present tense':

"We look for two things in any new translation of the Qur'an. How close does it get to communicating the meaning of the original, that inimitable oral text, the very sounds of which move men and women to tears and ecstasy? And does it offer something more: a new perspective, perhaps; or an innovative rendering?
Tarif Khalidi, a professor of Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut, scores high on both these criteria. He manages to capture the allusiveness of the text, as well as something of its tone and texture. While being faithful to the original, he succeeds in conveying linguistic shifts, from narrative to mnemonic, sermons to parables. And there is an innovative component: it is the first translation that tries to capture both the rhythms and the structure of the Qur'an.
The best way to demonstrate its newness, and how close it is to the original text, is to compare it with an old translation...

Khalidi wants the reader to enjoy the experience of reading the Qur'an. Of course, he wants to communicate the majesty of its language, the beauty of its style, and the "eternal present tense" of its grammar. But he also wants the reader to appreciate the Qur'an's unique structure, how the language changes with the subject matter, how it swirls around and makes rhythmic connections. He wishes to show how each of the seven tropes of the Qur'an (command, prohibition, glad tidings, warnings, sermons, parables and narratives) registers a change in the style of its language. A lofty ambition, but one he pulls off with some success....
Continue reading The Eternal Present Tense

On the same shelf books by Dr. Ziauddin Sardar:

Reading now: Library and Information Science Education in India

Library and Information Science Education in India, by Krishan Kumar and Jaideep Sharma. New Delhi, Har-Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2009. ISBN: 8124114650; US$ 33.00; 312 p.

“LIS Education is the most crucial input for the development of libraries. … The book has been primarily written to meet the needs of the researchers of Library and Information Science. It will also serve as a basic source for students of LIS for the course of LIS Education both at M. Phil and MLIS levels.” (cover)

Contents: Chapter: I. History; II Organizations and their role; III. Levels of courses; IV. Admission requirements; V. Course content; VI. Course Delivery : teaching methods tools and evaluation; VII. Infrastructure; VIII. Status and accreditation; IX. Distance education; X. Issues, developments trends and suggestions

Professors Krishan Kumar and Jaideep Sharma have done an excellent job of cataloguing the main facets of LIS education in India. The authors have been directly involved in teaching, training and are personally exposed to the tools, techniques, methods and out-come of LIS programs in India. Both have a good grasp of what is imported and what is exported by LIS professionals and have a balanced approach about how much of thinking local and acting global is essential today—especially introduction of the book reflects this perspective of what works abroad and what works in India. For instance, the recent growth of I schools in California and Mysore will interest many LIS educationists to see the synchronization that is taking place (I-School movement, p. 57).

Library and Information Science Education in India is a handy source for researchers, post-graduates, as well as for an advanced study of LIS education in India as it evolves. This book is also useful for those interested in comparative education, comparative and international librarianship as well as historiography of library world. Library historians, in short, will find this book indispensable.

Full review will appear in Library Times International

On the same shelf:

Diversity and Commonality of Information Science Education in a Pluralistic World (SIG ED) by Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Heting Chu, Joseph Janes, Eileen Abels, William Moen, Samantha Hastings

Stakeholder's Views on Information Education by Rachel Elkington, Cynthia Fugate, Deanna Morrow Hall, Mark Greene

Fifty years of library and information science education in India: Seminar papers: XV IATLIS National Seminar, Department of Studies in Library and Information ... of Mysore, Mysore, 27-29 November 1997

Another graduate school serving the library field is about to lose the “L” name

Libraries in India - National Developmental Perspectives: A saga of Fifty years since independence, by Mohamed Taher. New Delhi , Concept Publishing, 2001.