Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Harry Potter Book 7 Leak

It was not unexpected. Of course someone would leak "HP7" onto the net in some form or another. Other than the repeated hoaxes of a leaked pdf or text file of the novel (which usually contained nothing more than a popular - and long- fan fiction) someone actually did leak the entire novel. But how?

They guy took photos of every page. EVERY PAGE. 396 images.

If you look around at all the popular places it's not hard to find at all. It's remarkable to me that someone could take the time and expend the effort to take all those photos and then upload them to the IntarTubes. But what a desideratum this guy made eh? Apparently, if rumors are to be believed, the guy that took the photos works at a library and (again, this could be apocryphal) libraries could open the boxes containing the books early so they could catalog them and place the protective jackets on them and all that fun stuff. I mean it doesn't take that long to snap off...

396 images. Geepers.

Tom Swifties

Tom Swifties (and Wellerisms) are a lot of fun for me to spot in books. Authors consciously write them into some novels as easter eggs or even more humorously, inadvertently. Some examples from fun-with-words.com.

"I need a pencil sharpener," said Tom bluntly.
"Oops! There goes my hat!" said Tom off the top of his head.
"I can no longer hear anything," said Tom deftly.
"I have a split personality," said Tom, being frank.
"This must be an aerobics class," Tom worked out.


Careful though, they can be addictive.

Google Books

This one may have slipped your radar, maybe not.

Google Books.

What's google books?
Search the full text of books to find ones that interest you and learn where to buy or borrow them.


How about that? Basically, it's an archive of books, some in their full text, some partial and some are only listed. Either way, it's a worthwhile resource to look up a book that's been shadowing you.

Check it out; it's pretty neat. Keep in mind that like gmail recently was, this is in it's beta stage.

Online Dictionaries

I love the meaning of words. To me not only does finding just the right word for something help you sub-vocalize about things in a more precise manner but it allows you to really communicate your ideas clearly but I'm really getting tired of dictionary.com.

It's slow.
They want you to pay for some content.
They have big banner ads.

Now there are a lot of online dictionaries out there:
Dictionary.com
Thefreedictionary.com
Etymonline.com
Merriam-Webster
Google (yes, really. Just type in "define:word" where word is the word you're looking for.)
dict.org (Thanks Mat!)

And one you should bookmark:
Urbandictionary.com

I've decided to use two online dictionaries from now on. My second deeper investigation of a word will check dictionary.com, but from now on my initial search for a word will be at Ninjawords.com.

Ninjawords is clean, fast and efficient. It's like google for words in many ways. And they have one feature that just blows dictionary.com out of the ocean.

A PERSONAL SEARCH HISTORY. Finally.

Bookmark it.
Love it.
Use it.