Game of Thrones Season 2

Austar (Showtime) is now up to Episode 6 of Season 2 of Game of Thrones (GOT). As my Voki says – It is the best show on TV. I am paying for Showtime just for this series but I console myself in that it is money well spent. Also, I have actually watched as couple of other movies on the Showtime channels. I really enjoyed watching “Tremors” again after many years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremors_(film).

But back to GOT – The TV show is starting to vary a bit more from the books but IMHO in a good way. The story is moving along at a good pace and the number of characters has been reduced. The other thing that makes the TV show exceptional is the casting. I can’t think of anyone to complain about in this regard. Balon Greyjoy, Stannis Baratheon and Brienne of Tarth are excellent but so are all the other new and old cast members including Anne Boleyn who must have come back from the dead to play Margaery Tyrell.

Then there is Ygritte. If I was Jon Snow I would not think twice about running away from the Night’s Watch for her, although she has not yet said “you know nothing Jon Snow”. But then, he has only just captured her.

This is a great site for detailed explanations of each episode http://www.squidoo.com/game-of-thrones-episode-guide  BUT BE WARNED, it appears that we in Australia are one Episode behind so if you don’t want any spoilers, don’t read the most recent post.

Windows 8 Update

I have been playing with Windows 8 now for a few days. My initial  enthusiasm has waxed and waned a little as I ran across problems.  I must mention that without the information available on Paul Thurrott’s Winsupersite http://www.winsupersite.com/windows-8 , I would have been more than a little frustrated at times. Tekzilla (http://revision3.com/tekzilla)  and Windows Weekly (http://twit.tv/ww) have also been of great help.

Nevertheless, despite some ups and downs,  the more I get used to it the more I like it. In particular, I have been trying to use the Metro interface as much as possible rather than using the familiar desktop. I really like the Metro interface even without a touch screen. In regard to this, there was a very good suggestion on Episode 250 of Windows Weekly (http://twit.tv/show/windows-weekly/250) that something like the  Apple Magic Touchpad would be an ideal substitute for a touch screen.

There are always three ways to interact with the computer with Win 8 i.e. Touch, Mouse and Keyboard. In the absence of the “Touch” option, I have downloaded a full list of the Keyboard Shortcuts and the mouse works pretty much as you would expect but with the additions of “corners”. 

Many of my tiles have “come to life”, but the X Box ones are still “dead”. “Live Tiles” is something I really like and in addition you can set it to show up to 7 Apps on the Lock Screen with one in full detail.

So far I  have only come across a couple of significant concerns (but I am only playing around with it and not using it full time):

1. Internet Explorer ( Metro) – I just can’t make sense of IE (metro) and I have set IE to always open in the Desktop. Instructions are here http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-consumer-preview-internet-explorer-10-secrets-142451
2. Spell Check -  There is still no spell check built into the OS. WordPad was updated for Win 7 and it also comes with Win 8 but again without spell check.  However, if you download Windows Live Essentials and install Windows Live Writer (WLW), you get spell check with this program. (I am using WLW to write this blog post but you could also use it for non blog purposes and, after a spell check, cut and paste into WordPad – Or buy Office, which I suppose is the reason there is no spell check in WordPad.

Other Discoveries

I was watching the latest episode of Tekzilla and, thanks to the Tekzilla crew, I now know what the “Share” Charm is for.The Share charm is used to send links, photos, etc. to people via Email and / or Social Networks without leaving the app you have open. For Example if you are looking at pictures in the Photos App, you click on the Share Charm to send the photo to someone via Email.

However at this stage not many Apps appear in the Share Charm. I expect that this will expand in due course

 

I will keep “playing” and post more as I come across things of interest.

WINDOWS 8

I have downloaded and installed the Consumer Preview (or pre release test) version of Windows 8.

My first reaction is positive.

It is different in many ways from Windows 7 but “under the hood” it remains familiar to a Win 7 user. I am still learning, but from what I have seen so far, I will probably be upgrading after it is officially released sometime later this year even though I have been more than happy with Windows 7. I will, however, buy a touch screen for my computer before I do so as a lot of the new features are designed for touch. I will also get an SSD for my boot drive.

The install process has been automated so it performs an upgrade from Win 7 or Vista without losing any of your programs or features. You run a compatibility test first and are given warnings about anything that will not work.  The only major warning that I got on my Core i7 machine was that Microsoft Security Essentials won’t work. However this is not a worry as the anti virus/malware program is now fully integrated into Win 8.

I started to download Win 8 onto my main computer but, as I did not want to risk mucking it up, I changed my mind. Instead, I downloaded the .iso and did a clean install of Win 8 (32 bit) on an old computer running XP. It has a Pentium 4 (3 GHz) CPU,  Nvidia GeForce 6200 and 1 GB RAM.

I had no trouble loading Win 8 to dual boot with XP and it runs well. Naturally there is no “Touch Screen” functionality.

First up I will address the three things that have been causing the most comments:

1. Lack of a Start Button
2. The “Missing” Search function that came with the Start Button in Vista and Win 7
3. The Metro Interface

Start Button

The Default is the Metro Start Screen. But it is very easy to revert to the normal Desktop via a bottom left “swipe” or “click”. In both cases there is no Start Button.  On The Metro Interface you can include tiles for programs you commonly access. When using the Desktop option, the old task bar remains and you can “Pin” things there. However access to all programs and other functions  in both Metro and Desktop is now via a bottom right “swipe/click” which brings up a bar that contains buttons for these things. You can also do a right mouse click in the bottom left to bring up a menu that provides links to a number of functions like “Control Panel” , “Explorer” etc. .

Search Function

It is still there and you get to it via a bottom right “click/swipe”. I have been using it and when you get the hang of how it works it is as good as the Win 7 version.

The Metro Interface

It is easy to swap between The Metro Interface and the Desktop (bottom left click/swipe).

The Metro Interface looks like this (see below). As you can see it contains Tiles. The Tiles provide access to programs (or Apps) and you can add or remove them.  I am still setting up my Metro Interface and I intend to reduce the number of tiles so I only have tiles for  things I regularly use. It is a bit crowded now as the programs for Windows Live Essentials had been installed prior to the image (below) being taken.

Some of the Tiles are active like the Weather one which updates weather information throughout the day. You go into the settings for the App to add places and change from Fahrenheit or Celsius.

However you can easily revert to a more traditional Desktop like this. As you can see it still has shortcuts and things can be pinned to the task bar at the bottom. The clock and other icons appear in the right corner as in Win7.

HIDDEN UTILITIES – CHARMS ETC

I was familiar with the concept of hiding task bars from the latest version of Ubuntu. To see the Launch Bar on Ubuntu 11.10 you hover your mouse (or swipe) the left hand side of the screen. It is similar with Win 8.  You can either use a manual swipe if you have a touch screen or use a mouse or the keyboard to access all of the things that you might think are missing.  I haven’t worked it all out yet but I am relying on Paul Thurrott at Win Super Site  here  http://www.winsupersite.com/windows-8 to bring me up to speed.

I can’t say much more at this stage as I don’t have a touch screen and I barely know what “Charms” are. I think they are the buttons that come up when you swipe bottom right. See below – The buttons on the right in the black bar  – “Search”, “Share” etc. are “Charms” (I think).

OTHER THINGS

When I installed Win 8 I input my Windows Live / Hotmail sign in details and it automatically synced all my stuff from Windows Live  – Calendar / Mail / Contacts / SkyDrive etc..

This means that I have to use my Windows Live details to log onto my computer. You don’t have to do this but I consider it to be a good idea.

The first time I re-started the computer I could not work out how to get to the log in screen. However, by a fluke I pressed the Ctrl button and it bought up the Log In screen. On the other hand it took a few minutes to locate the power button to turn it off. All is well now that I know where to look. (In the “Charms” under “Settings”.)

There are lots of other little things that you discover and here a few screen shots of things I found in Charms/ Settings / More PC Settings:

I included this last one as it shows an excellent feature of Win 8 – The Refresh and Reset functions that should do away with the need for a re-install.

.

I have to add that not all the “Live” tiles work yet but as I said above this is only an early test version. ( I was anxious to set up the X Box tiles but I got a “not yet available in your region” notification.)

I downloaded the Windows Live Essentials programs and used Live Writer to write this blog on Win 8. No doubt, I still have a lot to learn but I can safely say that I am already “up and running” after only a short period.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

It was easy and quick to install and after a little bit of initial confusion I am learning how to use it. So far I give it a thumbs up.

 

3D out of Lightning

I have become the owner of a 3D TV and, despite my previous scepticism about 3D, I am impressed with it. It is far better than I thought it would be.

What has this to do with lightning? I’ll explain fully later, but a nearby lightning strike did a lot of damage to electrical and telephone equipment in many houses in the street (including destroying my 2 year old HD LCD TV). As a result, I now have a new 3D TV.

I did not set out specifically to replace my ruined set with a 3D model. All I wanted was another similar 55 inch LCD HD TV. It seems, however, that most mid-price and above TVs have 3D whether or not you want it.

I went with Sony again and, after research on the internet, I got the Sony Bravia KDL 55HX820. It is 55 inch LED LCD. The LED provides for a very good power consumption / energy rating. In addition it has everything else I wanted including inbuilt Wi-Fi, internet connectivity, 4 HDMI inputs plus inputs for a PC as well as component / composite video. It also has a high 480Hz refresh rate making it excellent for fast action scenes. The 3D was an added extra that I thought I probably would not use much. I might add that the new set cost less that my ruined 2 year old Sony TV.

However after I got it all set up, I thought I would give the 3D a try via the Play Station 3 (PS3) which is also a 3D Blu-ray player. It was then that I discovered that the lightning strike had ruined my PS3 but, after replacing it and a visit to Blockbuster to get a 3D Blu-ray, I was ready to appraise the 3D feature.

Sony uses a 3D method that requires special battery powered glasses to sync with the TV and you get 2 pairs with the set. Extra glasses (with rechargeable batteries) cost around $120 each.

First up I played the 3D PS3 game “Uncharted 3” and it was spectacular. I am not exaggerating. It looked excellent and the 3D was clear and lifelike. I then played the final Harry Potter movie and it was good but perhaps not as good as the game. I looked for the 3D version of Avatar but Blockbuster did not have it. So I rented a movie called Sanctum which was produced by the same people who made Avatar. Whilst the movie itself was OK the 3D effects were again outstanding. Things appeared to jump out of the screen and the picture was bright and clear.

I then played “Call of Duty Black Ops” on the Xbox 360. This is also a 3D game and once again the results were far better than I had expected. I might add that 3D made playing a first person shooter like this game a bit more difficult (but I probably have to adjust to 3D).

Overall I have to say that it is an excellent feature particularly given that it is now automatically included in most mid-range and above TV sets. You don’t appear to pay extra for it and, if you already have a 3D Blu-ray player, it is definitely something that you should check out. The PS3 is 3D and most recent Blu-ray players also include 3D. The Xbox 360 will play 3D games although there are not that many 3D Xbox games.

As with most new technologies there is a confusing number of different methods employed with 3D TV. Wikipedia has a good article here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_television

I think than Sony uses the “Alternate-frame Sequencing” method (requiring the special glasses that sync with the TV.) Here is a good article at “Toms Hardware” that explains it http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d-vision-projector-acer-h5360,2687-2.html

It seems that this method gives a good high resolution 3D picture without any flicker and I have found this to be the case.

My verdict – If you are replacing a TV set I would definitely get 3D.

LIGHTNING STRIKE

Having lived a good proportion of my life in South East Queensland, where severe electrical storms are common in summer, I should know better. However, just like when I lived in North Queensland and became blasé about cyclone warnings, I have a similar attitude to thunder storms. In fact, severe thunder storms are far more common than cyclones so I think that it is entirely reasonable not to go running around un-plugging everything when a storm is brewing (which can be every day at times). So that’s my excuse and I am sticking with it. Also what are the odds that there would be another direct hit after my next door neighbour’s shed was struck about 12 months ago, (See “Shaken and Relieved” 11/1/2011).

Nonetheless, a lightning strike two houses down and across the road hit and destroyed two palm trees. They actually caught on fire. The electricity went out but I quickly discovered that the circuit breaker in my power box had been tripped by the power surge. I reset it and at first thought everything was fine. Boy was I mistaken!

Initially, I was relieved that my computer (that I was working on at the time) was OK. But my initial relief was quickly shattered as I progressively discovered problem after problem. The final toll is:

1. Telephone lines out (and, as I later discovered when Telstra fixed the lines , the external DSL Splitter was blown) ;

2. TV Set destroyed;

3. PlayStation 3 destroyed;

4. Austar Satellite Set Top Box destroyed;

5. The Surge protector that was supposed to protect items 2,3,& 4 destroyed;

6. Austar satellite dish knocked out;

7. Home Security System destroyed.

I think I have now checked everything so I hope that is all.

Now I have to deal with the slow process to get everything replaced and fixed. The insurance assessor has not turned up yet but that has been a good thing. When I first reported it to the insurance company by phone, I thought that the TV was the only thing that needed replacing. The assessor will be in for a surprise.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (U.S. Movie Version)

I have just been to see the English language remake of The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.

It is an excellent film.

CARE! Blasphemy Alert – It is much better than the Swedish original and Rooney Mara is better than Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth.

With the Swedish original I said that I had some gripes and minor quibbles. (See Post 5th Oct 2010). Well I only have one quibble about this version –AGAIN THERE IS NO BILLY’S PAN PIZZA!!! (At least I don’t recall seeing one).

This time the casting is perfect and they got Erika Berger right. I also think the way the story was presented/ condensed was better. In fact I will go so far as to say that the resolution of the Harriet mystery is even better than the book. (Although it is the best book ever written and beyond criticism, as an Australian I did wonder at the stamina of someone who could fly from London to Melbourne then Melbourne to somewhere in the NT and immediately turn around and fly all the way back to Stockholm and not suffer from even a tiny bit of jet lag.)

Also this film included a number of important elements that were omitted in the Swedish film. Some of these are:

• Lisbeth’s Discovery Holger Palmgren after his stroke
• The take down of Hans-Erik Wennerström is more fully fleshed out including Lisbeth installing Plaque’s electronic cuff to tap his      phone/internet line and her borrowing the money from Mikael Blomkvist to finance the takedown.
• Pernilla (Blomkvist’s daughter) is in it and, as in the book, is the one who solves the Biblical codes in Harriet’s diary
• Trinity and Bob the Dog make a brief appearance in London.

Even the ending of the movie is better (and similar to the novel) with Lisbeth getting more than a little peeved when she sees Blomkvist with Berger.

My advice – Don’t take any notice of the naysayers and intellectual snobs i.e. the “anything with sub titles must be better” critics. It is a far better film than the Swedish version – And I still give the Swedish version top marks. The opening credits alone are almost worth the admission price.

It is a long movie (about 2½ hours) but was so good that I hardly noticed the time go by. If they had immediately followed it with another 2½ hours of the Girl who Played with Fire I would have sat through that as well.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 38 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

A Song of Fire and Ice

 

Please refer to my Post “Game of Thrones” 20th Sep 2011.

I am now into the 4^th book in this series, “A Feast for Crows” (30% according to my Kindle) and I am loving them.

For the uninitiated, this series has a large and fanatical following and I am well aware that the original fans may well look down their collective noses at us “Johnny-come-latelies” who have only come on board since the TV series.

But the one big advantage that we late comers have is that we can read straight through the whole 5 books that have been published so far. (This is what I am doing). The most recently published book is No 5 with 2 more to go.

The first book (Game of Thrones) was published in 1996 and diehard fans have had to wait (sometimes a little impatiently going by forum comments) for each book to appear; Every 2 years for the first three and then 5 years for the fourth and a bit longer for the fifth.

I promise , when I finish Book 5, I will try really hard not to become one of the people who complain about the delays but I am not at all certain if I will be able to honour my undertaking.

I won’t be giving away any spoilers. Read the books for yourselves, it is worth the effort (and they do require some effort to keep up with all of the characters and locations etc.). But as I said in my previous post, there are any number of web sites and Wikis to help.

I just want to say a bit more about my original assessment of a couple of the characters. My misgivings about Catelyn Stark have been confirmed. On the other hand I now like Sansa. Clearly the Stark side of her is starting to take over from her Tully inheritance.

Tyrion (The Imp) goes from strength to strength in my opinion as does Arya. Although, if you ever find yourself strolling through the 7 Kingdoms, or the places across the Narrow Sea, and you happen to run across Arya, don’t upset or provoke her. You will be sorry if you do.

It is a “no brainer” to reveal that Queen Cersei still tops my hate list. On the other hand my attitude towards The King Slayer (Jamie Lannister) and The Hound (Sandor Clegane) has softened.

I can’t say much more without giving something away apart from a general warning not to get too attached to any character. There is plenty of killing and dying.

I “read “the first 3 books on Audible but had to change to the Kindle edition for the fourth. There is an Audible version but it is not available to Australians. However I am not overly concerned as Audible changed the reader for Book 4 and there are a lot of complaints about this reader. Thankfully the original reader (the excellent Roy Dotrice) returns for Book 5 and this Audible version is available to Australians.

The main reason I slightly prefer the Audible version is that you can listen while doing things like driving, house work, lawn mowing or exercising. (They are long books). Nevertheless, I am enjoying reading Book 4 on my Kindle. The one big advantage of the Kindle versions is the price. About $10 for each book or $25-49 for the first 4. (You save almost half the cost of the cheapest Kindle with the 4 book deal as opposed to buying the paperbacks).

My rating for all of the books that I have read so far remains at 10 out of 10.

How should it all end? Well here is my (very) humble opinion.

Dany should regain the Iron throne. I think she would be a strong but fair ruler. Her “Hand” should definitely be The Imp. He has proven himself in battle and he is not only very wise and street smart, but because of all that has happened to him he will be a good and fair “Hand” who will be kind to the common people. (The brothels in the 7 Kingdoms could expect a boom period with Tyrion as “Hand.)” More importantly, they would both quickly recognise the threat from the north and provide full support to the Night’s Watch as well as bringing all of the factions into line to face the common enemy.

Cersei to die a terrible and prolonged death (naturally).

Arya – I can’t make up my mind as how it should end for Arya apart from the fact that I might stop reading the books if she is killed. Perhaps she could take over as Lord (Lady?) of Winterfell and go to Jon Snow’s aid when the White Walkers topple the wall and invade. She and Jon Snow would of course defeat the Whites and become hero and heroine of the 7 Kingdoms. She would also formally recognise her half-brother Jon Snow as a Stark.

As for all the others, I wouldn’t care to guess.

Nah! Forget it. I’ll leave it to GRR Martin but please don’t kill Arya and please don’t leave it all unanswered like “Lost”!.

NEW KINDLE

 

Refer my post “Kindle Review” 31^st Jul 2011. When the new Kindles were recently announced, I thought that, once again, I had bought a product only to see it superseded within weeks by a better and cheaper model.

In particular I was looking at the cheapest version at USD$79. However after taking a closer look at the various models, there is one feature that I use on mine that is not on the $79 model. The model I have (now called the Kindle Keyboard – Wi-Fi) has speakers to provide for text to speech and, more importantly for me, to listen to Audible books.

Nevertheless, the $79 model is excellent value for anyone wishing to venture into the realm of E Book readers.

These are the features (apart from price) where the $79 model differs from my model

Wi-Fi  – The $79 model is Wi-Fi only. There is no choice of 3g. In my case I chose the Wi-Fi only model as I have Wi Fi at home plus a mobile Wi-Fi router. Also remember if you have an iPhone (or similar) they usually come with tethering / or the ability to share the internet package via a Wi Fi “personal hotspot” which acts just like the mobile Wi-Fi router. Failing all this you can always go to McDonalds or the increasing number of other places that have free Wi-Fi.

Keyboard – There is no physical keyboard. It has a “virtual keyboard” that is similar to many other appliances like a TV or the X Box / PS3 where you navigate to each letter and press enter. This may be a bit tedious but, apart from the initial set up, you rarely need the keyboard particularly if you use your computer to search for your books. Actually buying a book on the Kindle is no different as it is just a one (Buy) button click.

Battery – The battery “only” lasts for 1 month as against 2 months on my model. Big Deal!!

Capacity – The $79 model will hold about 1400 books which is about half the capacity of mine. However this is a non-issue. 1400 is a large number and, in any case, if you ever fill it up, your books still remain available on the free storage provided by Amazon. Therefore you can delete old books in the knowledge that they can be re-downloaded any number of times.

Sound / Speakers  – The $79 model does not have speakers or a headphone jack. This would only be important if you need “Text to Speech” or want to listen to Audible Books.

Ads – It does have ads but they are not intrusive and only appear on the home page / screen saver. I have read that people actually like the ads because many are from Amazon advertising special deals. In my case I paid extra for the “No Ads” model but I am sorry that I did. Apparently, if you decide later that you don’t want the ads, you can pay $30 to have them removed.

Size – Because it has no Keyboard, the overall size is smaller but the screen size is the same.

Weight – It weighs about 30% less that other versions. Mine is very light so this one would be even easier to hold.

Conclusion – The $79 Kindle is an excellent device and the price is more than reasonable. Even though it does not have sound, this would not be important for most people. If I did not already own a Kindle, I would probably get this model as I mostly listen to my Audible books on my iPod Touch. There are now also Kindles with touch screens but at $79 dollars it is hard to go past this model.

Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones is the first book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire. The TV program based on the first book has just finished on Showtime and it was so good that I had to get the book. I finished “reading” my Audible copy of this book today.

I am hooked.

I can’t wait for series 2 of the TV program so I am downloading the second book “A Clash of Kings” as I write this. (Note – These are BIG books and on Audible they come in two separate download volumes.)

I do have ‘form’ when it comes to book series. I read (listened to) all of the Aubrey / Maturin series – 21 books in all including the final one that stops in mid book when the author died. Then there are the trilogies – “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and lately “The Hunger Games”.

If this first book is anything to go by, it will be a great series. There are sword fights, wars, political intrigue, clashes between great families with murder and mayhem, not to mention plenty of drinking, whoring and general debauchery. What more could you want. Well, if you want more, how about sorcery, dragons, incest, and really bad people. And, if you are still not satisfied, there are ZOMBIES!!!

But beware, the book abounds with literally hundreds of characters and I am not ashamed to say that I am having trouble remembering them all. When I read “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” I had to go to Wikipedia to make sense of all of the Vangers and the myriad of funny sounding Swedish names. Likewise, I have had to go to the various on line sites for Game of Thrones.

This is the link to the HBO site http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html . It has some very good information about the TV show that also helps with the first book. If you download and print the “Viewer’s Guide” you will get a map of Westeros plus details of the various Houses / Families. I found this most helpful.

Wikipedia has pages and pages on both the books and the TV series. However, be careful with Wikipedia as storylines are revealed on most of the pages.

This is a good page to read to get some perspective on the series but do not read past “Back Story”. If you go any further there are many details about the plots of all of the books. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire

This page has full details about the characters but, once again, there is information about their fate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Game_of_Thrones

This page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Game_of_Thrones contains full details of the plot of the first book. However it does contain some very helpful information about the writing style. I have copied the following from this page. I got to know the “Viewpoint Characters” first and then built my understanding of the other characters from them.

From Wikipedia – Viewpoint Characters –

Each chapter concentrates on the third person limited point of view of a single character; the book presents the perspective of eight main characters. Additionally, a minor character provides the prologue. Chapter headings indicate the perspective.

· Prologue: Will, a man of the Night’s Watch.

· Lord Eddard Stark, Warden of the North and Lord of Winterfell, Hand of the King.

· Lady Catelyn Stark, of House Tully, wife of Eddard Stark.

· Sansa Stark, elder daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark.

· Arya Stark, younger daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark.

· Bran Stark, eight year old son of Eddard and Catelyn Stark.

· Jon Snow, bastard son of Eddard Stark.

· Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf, brother of Queen Cersei and her twin Jaime, son of Lord Tywin Lannister.

· Princess Daenerys Targaryen, Stormborn, the Princess of Dragonstone and heiress to the Targaryen throne after her older brother Viserys Targaryen.

For once, Australians have a choice of formats:

· The Kindle version is the cheapest at $7-60 (OR the first 4 books in the series for $26)

· The paperback is available everywhere for around $20

· Audible comes in 2 parts at USD$7-49 for each part = USD $14-90.

I got the Audible versions of the first 2 books so that I can listen while doing other things. (They are long books – over 800 pages each.)

I am not going to do any reviews as there are more than enough on line. I will just say that if you like these sort of stories don’t miss either the books or the TV show (The TV show is on the Showtime channel on Austar and Foxtel – they are sure to repeat it). The TV version is excellent and as good as the books. I would buy the DVD but who knows when it will be released on DVD in Australia.

Instead of a review, I will give my opinion of some of the characters. CARE SPOILERS - Don’t read on if you haven’t seen the TV series or read the first book.

Biggest Baddies

Lannisters (except Tyrion) – particularly Queen Cersei and Jaime Lannister and that little mongrel Joffrey. What a pack of evil degenerates.

Varys (The Eunuch) – A creepy scheming troublemaker.

Lord Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger) – A debauched creepy scheming troublemaker

Viserys Targaryen – What a bastard he is to his sister Daenerys Targaryen (Dany)

Other baddies

Robin Arryn – Still being breastfed despite being 9 or 10 years old, and he is a little psychopath who enjoys seeing people killed.

Not So Good

Sansa Stark – She might have come to her senses by the end of the book but no amount of being sorry will undo what has happened. She is an airhead who, as the oldest Stark daughter, should have known better.

Catelyn Stark – She is generally OK but I don’t like her for the way she is cruel to Jon Snow just because he is a bastard. Also she misjudged and falsely accused Tyrion Lannister when even I could see that the other Lannisters were trying to set him up with the attempted murder of Bran Stark.

King Robert – He wants all the trappings of King but puts all of the hard work on Eddard and cannot see what a bitch his wife is let alone what a little mongrel Joffrey is. Also he cannot see that his children (including his “heir” Joffrey) are really the offspring of the incestuous relationship between his wife and her twin brother Jaime Lannister. King Robert might be all “drink and be merry” but he is poison to the Starks.

Septa Mordane – She was always picking on Arya trying to “improve” her. But I suppose she was only doing her job. She ended up with her head on a spike compliments of Joffrey so I forgive her.

Best

The rest of the Starks – Eddard, Robb, Bran and Jon Snow but especially Arya Stark. She is only a young girl but she is honest and brave. Also she immediately saw right through Joffrey when her silly older sister Sansa was swooning over him. I hope she sticks that little mongrel Joffrey with “Needle” (her sword).

Tyrion Lannister – He might be a dwarf and a Lannister who spends most of his time whoring and drinking but you can see that, under the skin, he is a good person. And who would not want to spend their lives whoring and drinking – it is every bloke’s dream.

Sir Jorah Mormont – for the way he looks after Daenerys Targaryen.

Khal Drogo – No particular reason – He is just a “cool dude”. Also he kills Viserys Targaryen by pouring molten gold over his head.

Don’t Know

Daenerys Targaryen (Dany) – She is good and brave now but with 3 dragons and a horde of Dothraki horsemen under her command, (plus the little matter of the crown being stolen from her family) – watch out Kings Landing.

The Thing I most want to know

Did the sword master hired by Eddard to teach Arya how to use “Needle” escape or was he killed. He had killed or maimed all but of one of the guards who came to capture Arya and we only hear the fight still going on while Arya makes good her escape.

OK I gave in and looked it up on Wikipedia – The author has so far left this hanging. (Apparently a whole lot of people want an answer to this.)

Conclusion

I give both the first book and the TV series 10 out of 10.

KINDLE REVIEW

 

With the Australian dollar currently worth more than the US dollar, now is the time to buy stuff from the U.S.

I have had an Amazon account for some time and have always been interested in their eBook reader, the Kindle, so I bought one.

The process is simple. First set up an Amazon Account. You need to give them a credit card number but Amazon is a reputable major US company and giving them your Credit Card details is as safe as these things can be. Far safer than handing your card over to say a waiter at a restaurant which is something we do regularly without thinking too much about it.

Amazon also owns Audible and the UK government is currently considering the proposed acquisition by Amazon of “The Book Depository”. Amazon and Audible have my Credit card details but I use PayPal for “The Book Depository”.

After the account is set up, log in and you can then buy a Kindle direct from Amazon if you wish. CARE!!! – If you want a wall charger make sure to get both on the same order to save on postage.

I selected the Wi-Fi only model without ads for $139. There is a cheaper option at $114 that has adds on the screen saver. A model is also available with 3G Wireless Internet access if you want to be able to buy books anywhere at any time. However, I have a Wi-Fi network at home and a Telstra Prepaid Mobile Wi-Fi router so I don’t need to pay extra for 3G. If you have an iPhone with Telstra (and other carriers I assume) you can set it up as a Wi-Fi router and connect your Kindle to the internet via iPhone.

After I ordered it, I was astounded when it turned up just a few days later. I don’t know how they did it but the package said that it was posted from 1850 Mercer Road, Lexington KY USA.

It is ready to go when you get it. Apart from charging it and inputting the WPA password to get on your home Wi-Fi network, there is nothing else to do as it is already registered to the Amazon Account from which it was ordered. You have full control over the device via your Amazon Account so you can change registration and account details if necessary.

It comes with a USB cable to charge from a computer but you do not need a computer to operate it. I purchased the wall charger (optional extra) so mine has never been hooked up to a computer.

Buying books could not be simpler. Providing you are on the internet via any 3G or Wi-Fi network, you go to the Kindle Store link on the Kindle, browse and select a book and click on buy and within seconds it downloads and you can start reading.

Alternatively, can also log into the Amazon site on a computer and buy Kindle books there and they will automatically download onto your Kindle. However, I have never used this option but I do sometimes browse on the computer but, after I have made a selection, I go back to the Kindle to buy it.

There are two important matters that need to be addressed.

FIRST – THE BAD NEWS – This is the lack of available books to Australian Account Holders. As is the case with Audible, there are thousands upon thousands of books available both old and new in the Kindle format until, that is, you log in with your Australian Account. This is not the fault of Amazon or Audible. It is however the fault of Australian Publishers. Yes, the exact same bright sparks who moan and groan and complain about falling sales and closing book shops apparently don’t seem to realise they have a growing number of people with money in their hands wanting to buy their product. But for reasons known only to them, they have decided that they don’t like the colour of our money or something. It beats me but because of this I have no sympathy at all for them. If my money is not good enough they can go to hell. I will now only buy from Audible and Kindle and, if not available from these sources, I will buy paper books from The Book Depository in the UK (or Amazon in the US but The Book Depository is cheaper and they only take about 2 to 3 weeks to get here).

SECOND – THE GOOD NEWS – In general you can have up to 6 devices (Kindle, iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone etc.) connected to one Amazon Account. (Sometimes it is less depending on individual publications. In this case you are told of the limit). This means that you only need to buy a book once for up to six devices to be able to share it.

This is always the first question I get asked about the Kindle. Most families buy one book and share it around various family members. The following is copied from the Amazon Web Site http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_kip_faq_num?nodeId=200298470&#howmany

How many Kindles can I use to access titles in my library?

Most books and other non-subscription items you purchase from the Kindle store may be simultaneously accessed for your personal use on up to six Kindles (or Kindle compatible devices, such as Kindle for iPhone) registered to your Amazon.com account. If the limit is less than six kindles for a specific title, you’ll see the message "Simultaneous Device usage: Up to X simultaneous devices, per publisher limits" on the detail page.

If you reach the device limit and wish to replace one of your current devices with a new one, you must first deregister and delete the content from the device you wish to replace before you can access the content in question from your new device. For device registration instructions, please see the Help page for the device you wish to register/deregister on the Kindle Support pages. There is no limit on the number of times a title can be downloaded to a registered device.

Subscription content can only be downloaded to one Kindle at a time and cannot be accessed from Kindle for iPhone.

Therefore if you want to share books, you have the option to buy more than one Kindle or if you have an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch etc. you can register these devices.

However you may want to seriously consider the multiple Kindle option as it is the perfect device on which to read books. The Kindle basically does one thing but it does that one thing faultlessly.

Here is a summary of my review:

· The Kindle behaves a lot like a paper book. You turn pages with back / forward buttons and use bookmarks. It is not backlit. Consequently, you need a light to read by, but by the same token this means that there is no trouble using it in bright sunlight – just like a book.

· Because of the technology it uses (no back light for the screen), the battery lasts for weeks if not months. You are given plenty of warning when the battery is getting low. To re-charge, either plug into a computer or the wall socket (with the optional extra cord). I have had mine for 2 months and I have only fully depleted the battery once but, even then, I ran an Audio Book through the speakers for days to run it down.

· Mine has 3 GB of memory so that it will hold thousands of books (depending on size). When (and if) you fill up your Kindle, you can delete content but it always remains available on your Amazon Account Archive to be downloaded again at any time (much like Audible).

· The Kindle weighs less than a book and you don’t have to hold it open like you do with a book.

· The prices of individual books vary but all are significantly less that paper books. To give you some idea, here a couple of examples – More Recent Books – Harry Bosch (Michael Connelly) novels – The Overlook (published 2007) $7.59 – – 9 Dragons Published 2009 $8.42 — Jack Reacher (Lee Child) “Worth Dying For” Published 2010 $9.12– Dan Brown “The Lost Symbol” $8.63

      Older books can be really cheap but my 2 most recent purchases were:

• Zero Day (Mark Russinovich) $11.99
• The End of the Wasp Season (Denise Mina) $9-99

· Dictionary – There are any number of very handy features that the Kindle provides but one of the best is the Dictionary function. If you come across a word you don’t know, you just put the cursor before it and a definition appears at the bottom. In the book “The End of the Wasp Season” which is about a Scottish detective, the word “oxter” came up. I had no idea what it meant but with the Kindle Dictionary function I just scrolled the cursor down to the beginning of this word and the following definition appeared at the bottom of the page - “oxter” – Scottish – N English – A person’s Armpit”

· Find Function – When I wanted to find “oxter” in the book to write this blog, I used the Find / Search function and found it immediately. Try doing that with a paper book!

· One feature that I have found that I need is “Bookmarks.” Just like a paper book you can turn down the top corner of a page as a “bookmark” and you find this place again from the Menu / View Notes and Marks. When you leave your Kindle it remembers the last page that you were on but I have found that with my clumsy hands I frequently accidentally press the page back / forward buttons thus losing my place. So I have trained myself to add a bookmark (as I would have to do with a paper book).

· Print / page Size. It is fully adjustable and you can make the print bigger or smaller with plenty of settings that will satisfy all tastes including type size, words per line and whether you want it to be vertical or horizontal. There is also a “Text to Speech” function that I have not yet tried. (I tried it just now – It is typical Computer type speech – I’ll stick with Audible).

· The Kindle store has publications other than books. Newspapers, magazines etc. are available and every time I look the list grows longer. Magazines and Newspapers might be better on an iPad but at least this is an option. I have heard that in the U.S., text books are now being made available on Kindle and this seems to me to be a great idea. Not only should this make text books much cheaper, but it would also reduce the bulk of printed books that students need to carry around these days.

· There are plenty of other functions that I won’t go into here but, after you make a couple of purchases, Kindle makes suggestions for similar books you might like and you can download your Audible Audio Books and listen to them via the Kindle’s speakers (or headphones).

· Each Kindle comes with a private Kindle Email address that you can use to download your own content onto it via an attachment to an Email (that you send to your Kindle Email). Many formats are acceptable including Word Documents, PDF and JPG pictures and more. See http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200505520&#email

COMPLAINTS

I am genuine when I say this but I can’t think of anything to complain about (apart from the content issue for Australians but this is not the fault of Amazon / Kindle).

However I will mention a couple of things that you should be aware of:

1. Impulse buying – If ever there was a device designed to encourage impulse buying it is the Kindle. It is just so easy, quick and cheap to buy books. One of the books mentioned above (The End of the Wasp Season) was an impulse buy. I was listening to our local talk radio (4BC Brisbane) and every Friday they have a lady who reviews books. She highly recommended this one and I went to my Kindle and before I knew it I had clicked “Buy”. (Yes – It was a good book and I enjoyed it but I will have to exercise a bit of self-control in future).

2. Bookmarks – As mentioned above, I have had to train myself to always add a book mark to my last page as I have a terrible habit of accidently clicking the Forward / Back buttons when I put it down after I finish reading. I am trained now but when I first got it, I had to leaf back to find my place on many an occasion (just like when you lose your place on a regular book).

SUMMARY

I know a lot of people will baulk at paying for a Kindle but with the average cost of a Kindle book at about half of the retail price of a paperback book at the large chain stores like Big W or K Mart it would not take all that long to recover the purchase price.

The issue of available content for Australians cannot be overlooked but one would hope that Australian publishers will eventually wake up to the fact that they have a growing number of eBook readers with money to spend. Also remember that Big W and K Mart do have some limitations on the range they carry and if you are forced to go to a book store to find what you want then prices are higher again.

On the other hand a Kindle is better than a book. It is light and easy to use with heaps of handy functions. Buying books at any time day or night is cheap and simple (as long as you have an internet connection). Moreover, you can carry around thousands of books on a small light device.

For me it is a “no brainer”

Now I must get back to reading “Zero Day” (by Mark Russinovich). Although I am not sure that I ever should have started reading it. This is from the Amazon Description:-

The horror of cyberterrorism explodes on the page in Russinovich’s first novel. A plane over the Atlantic suddenly needs to reboot its computer to stay in the air, and the pilots barely avert disaster. A hospital network mixes up patient information, resulting in the death of several people. A law firm, which has lost all of its clients’ data and can’t get its system running again…,

“So what” – I hear you say – “It is just another work of fiction”.

Maybe – but look at who the author is – See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Russinovich

If ever there was a bloke who knew what he was talking about it is him! I think I will sell all my computers and anything using a computer to operate (there goes my new car), stop flying in planes, going to hospitals and even shopping at Woolworths (their systems are fully computerised – my milk might get mixed up with the rat poison) and go and live in a tent in the bush somewhere.