That means I’ve missed out on some golden opportunities over the years, including a Worldcon held in my own back yard, the Millennium Philcon of 2001. But I’ve been doing my best to change that over the last few years. I’ve been a supporting member of the last two Worldcons, Aussiecon 4 and Renovation, and last year attended Philcon’s 75th anniversary convention. And this year, I will be an attending member of the 70th Worldcon being hosted by Chicon 7 in Chicago.

I’ve been able to convince both my son and my brother-in-law to come with me, and it promises to be a grand road trip. We will be driving from the Philly area to Chicago, and if we can survive each others’ company during the 12 hour ride, the convention should be a blast! The hardest part will be waiting for August to get here.

In the mean time, the 2012 Hugo nominees were announced over the weekend. I’m glad that supporting and attending members of the convention receive an e-book copy of all the written nominees, because as it stands I’ve only read one of the nominated novels (Leviathan Wakes) so far. So I need to get back to my reading to clear out my to-read pile in anticipation of all the nominated works that will be filling up my Nook very soon.

I can’t wait!

The Road to Worldcon is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

I wrote extensively about my computer problems during the beginning months of 2011 and also of the new computer I built. I’m happy to say that epsilon4 has been running like a champ and have had only a few issues with running Linux rather than Windows.

On the eBook reader front, I did eventually go back and re-purchase the Nook Simple Touch at Barnes & Noble for $99, but was disappointed when I opened the package and found that the reduced price version did not include an AC adapter. (Note to self: Never complain about stuff like that on the Nook forums.) Other than that I’ve been very happy with the device, especially with the extended battery life.

Barnes & Noble also introduced their new color Nook Tablet, the Nook Color’s big brother, priced at $249 (compared to the Kindle Fire’s $199). The also dropped the price of the original Nook Color to $199. I will be doing some thinking along these lines and may have more to say about it in the new year.

I’ve been enjoying my Droid 3 Android smartphone since I picked it up in October. Overall I was happy with the Droid 3 with the exception of the camera. I will have to admit, however, that the Camera ZOOM FX app made the Droid 3′s camera much easier to work with. Some of my other favorite apps include Words with Friends, MixZing, MX Video Player, and the Nook and Kindle ebook reader apps. Since I’m not a big fan of the “Cloud,” I threw a 32 GB SD card in the phone and trasferred about 15 GB of my music and videos so that I have them with me all the time. Very handy!

And I may get an urge to play with the look of the site again, or not. In either case, Happy 2012!

2011 Tech Update is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

If you recall, Nook #1 met an unfortunate end. Nook #2 was returned mere days after it was purchased, due to the announcement of the Amazon Kindle Fire and my anticipation of Barnes & Noble’s response. As it turned out, my resolve weakened before Barnes & Noble made it’s move, and I opted to purchase Nook #3.

As luck would have it, less than a week after the purchase of Nook #3, Barnes & Noble finally announced that they were making an announcement on November 7th. As I was sure that it concerned the arrival of a new Nook Color Tablet, and being that I was quite happy with my new Nook Simple Touch, for the most part I ignored the news of the November 7th announcement. Until yesterday.

Yesterday was when I discovered, through a series of articles on Android Central, that in addition to a the announcement of a new Nook Tablet and a price reduction of the original Nook Color, the Nook Simple Touch would see a price reduction of $40, to bring its price down to $99.

Luckily, I was still within the 14 day return window for Nook #3, so I drove down to Barnes & Noble to return my Nook Simple Touch for a refund. Now that I am Nook-less, I’ll wait for the announcement of the price reduction on Monday, then head back and buy the same hardware for $40 less as soon as I can. And while I’m at the register I’ll probably take that extra $40 and buy a gift card so I can buy more e-books for my Nook.

What I won’t do to save a buck…

Revolving Nooks is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

On Saturday, October 1st I attended the Collingswood Book Festival, “a big literary event with a small-town, friendly ambience.” Six blocks of Collingswood’s main street were filled with local and nationally recognized authors and speakers, with plenty of events for adults and children, writers and readers. There was something there for anyone who has an interest in books and reading.

It was here at the Festival that I was introduced to the Philadelphia Liars Club, a Philadelphia area author’s group. Seven Liar’s Club authors were at the Festival to present a panel abvout the changes currently taking place in the world of publishing, and to promote their new anthology, Liar Liar. I enjoyed the panel and talking to the Liars in attendance, so of course I wound up buying Liar Liar.

Here’s what I read last month:

Liar Liar, The Philadelphia Liar’s Club
The title of this anthology of short stories from the authors of the The Liar’s Club sums up what you’ll find inside: Lies, lies, and more lies. Outright lies, subtle lies, and all other manner of lies in a variety of genres and settings make this anthology a very enjoyable read. While some of the strories weren’t my cup of tea, as a whole they were all well written and did a fine job of contributing to the theme. I gave this book five stars on Goodreads.com, and would recommend it to anyone.

Soft Apocalypse, Will McIntosh
I really enjoyed Will McIntosh’s Hugo award wining short story “Bridesicle,” so when his debut novel “Soft Apocalypse” was featured as a Free Friday download at the Barnes & Noble web site, I snapped it up. Set in the near future, Jasper and his friends must deal with 40% unemployment, homelessness, and the like. Then things start getting worse. There were a few things that didn’t work for me later in the book, but they didn’t stop me from finishing it. Overall I gave it three stars, and would recommend it if you enjoy apocalyptic reads.

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
This was my first time around with the original Frankenstein. Originally written in 1816 by a teenaged Mary Shelly, the story details what occurs when an overly ambitious Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret to life. Nineteenth-century writing made me thankful for an annotated volume, but overall I enjoyed the original story. It’s much different from the Frankenstein of modern culture, but still a good story. Recommended for classic monster fans who can handle reading nineteenth-century literature.

Here’s some of the short fiction I read last month:

If At First…, Peter F. Hamilton
Questions for a Soldier, John Scalzi
Clockwork Fagin, Cory Doctorow

Finally, here’s some of the books I bought last month:

Liar Liar, Philly Liars Club
The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May, 2nd Ed., Jen A. Miller
The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies, George Anastasia & Glenn Macnow
Unicorn Precinct, Keith R. A. DeCandido
Long Eyes, Jeff Carlson
The Habitation of the Blessed, Catherynne M. Valente (Free)

Thanks, and see you next month!

My October Reads is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

The next photo is an unaltered image taken with my Droid 3 while my wife and I were in Brooklyn, New York yesterday. Click on the photo to see the full size image.

I haven’t had the opportunity to take many pictures with the Droid 3, but so far it’s been doing a passable job. I’ll also have to experiment with the Droid’s video capabilities soon.

My New Nook is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

Last month I had the misfortune to drop and break the screen of my beloved Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader. After superb warranty service from Square Trade, I was ready to buy a new device. I decided to stay with Barnes & Noble since I have almost 200 Nook titles in my library, and picked up a Nook Color tablet. I was interested in the additional features available, but I was also enamored with the ability to “root” the Nook Color, bypassing the Barnes & Noble operating system and turning it into an Android tablet.

I had fun with the Nook Color for about five days, running the Android OS from a memory card, exploring apps, and reading e-books. Then Amazon announced the new Kindle Fire tablet, priced $50 lower than what I paid for the Nook Color. I anticipated that Barnes & Noble would have to respond to this new competition, and not wanting to be locked into the Nook Color at a higher price, returned it for a full refund.

While waiting for Barnes & Noble’s next move, I had another decision to make. My old phone was fast becoming inadequate for my needs since the company I work for turned off internet access for a majority of its employees earlier this year. Apparently there were too many people abusing that access and the rest of us paid the price. Regardless of the reason, I rationalized that it was finally time to get a smart-phone. The problem? I wasn’t due for an upgrade until a week or two ago.

Early in the search for a new phone, I had decided to go with an Android device. I also knew that I wasn’t going to be getting a bleeding edge device simply because of my frugal nature. While reading over the specs of the various devices available on Verizon’s web site, I finally settled on the Motorola Droid 3. I prefer a physical qwerty keyboard on my phone, and the lack of 4G wasn’t a deal breaker for me. And it cost me half of what the newest phones were going for, which made my wallet quite happy.

Since I picked it up I’ve been learning the ins and outs of the Android OS, some of which I picked up after rooting my Nook Color. I’ve also learned how to despise Verizon’s Backup Assistant app, which eventually caused me to have to re-enter all of my contacts by hand. One other important thing that I’ve learned is that without having a dedicated e-reading device, my reading suffers a lot. Since losing my Nook in September, I’ve read maybe 15-20 pages in the e-book I was in the middle of reading. And that’s with having the Nook Color (for 5 days) and the Nook apps installed on both my PC and my new Droid 3.

Since I’d confirmed my tendency to be distracted with these multi-purpose devices, I decided to go back to Barnes & Noble and purchase the newest e-Ink reader they sell, the Nook Simple Touch. While I’ll miss the 3G access I had on my original Nook, it looks to have several advantages over the original, including quicker page turns, longer battery life and a few others that I haven’t fully investigated yet. But the most important feature is that I’ll be able to get back to my reading without all the distractions of my other gadgets!

Tech Update, October 2011 is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

You may have noticed that the first paragraph was written in the past tense. Sadly, it looks as though the life of this particular Nook is at an end. It decided to take a header onto the hard floor and the screen is now a complete disaster.

Luckily, not long after I bought the Nook I also picked up an extended warranty that included accidental damage coverage. I submitted the claim last night, and today I received an email saying that they’re going to cut me a replacement check for the full cost of my Nook! I packed it up and sent it out to them today; once the process is complete, the check will be in the mail.

While I’m trying to decide which Nook will replace my deceased model, I’ll make due by using the Nook app on my PC (it runs just fine under Linux using Wine…) to read my eBooks and reading all those old fashioned paper books I still have in the house. After all, even though I’m I big fan of eBooks, I will always enjoy the pleasure that only comes when turning the pages of a bound book.

Do Nooks Dream of Electric Books? is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

I had originally planned to make the trip with an old friend, but it looks as though he won’t be able to make it unless he hits the jackpot in Atlantic City. Chances are good that my son will be willing to go and I have some leads on some other friends who may be interested as well. Time will tell…

I’m excited about this trip, mainly because I’ve rarely gone to science fiction conventions before, save for a a smattering of corporate-run cons over the years. As a result, I was never really tuned in to the fan run convention circuit, and certainly had never been to a Worldcon before, even when one was being held right in my back yard!

Another reason I’m looking forward to Chicon 7 is that the guest line up is pretty impressive. The Author Guest of Honor is Mike Resnick who, according to Locus magazine, is the all time leading award winner for short fiction. I’ve been reading his work for a long time and I’m looking forward to finally meeting him.

Toastmaster John Scalzi may not have the pedigree of Resnick, but the man can write a pretty good yarn. His books are great, his blog is constantly entertaining and/or thought provoking, and his sense of humor affects me as a piece of yarn affects a cat (that’s had bacon taped to it). Oh, did I mention he’s the current president of the SFWA?

Story Musgrave is the Astronaut Guest of Honor at Chicon 7. As an aviation and aerospace fan growing up in the Sixties and Seventies, the astronauts were my heros. Being able to finally meet a veteran of spaceflight would be a lifetime thrill for me.

Not to shortchange the other Guests of Honor (artist Rowena Morrill, agent Jane Frank and fan GoH Peggy Rae Apienza), but I’m not as familiar with them as I might be. There’s still almost a year before the con to remedy that situation, so there’s some hope that I won’t embarass myself at the con.

Now for the hard part. Waiting the 356 days until the con begins!

Chicon 7 is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

I know the big thing this week is the upcoming release of the last Harry Potter movie, but I’m more interested in the new Captain America flick being released the following weekend. I also have my eye on “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” coming out in August.

I’ve also doing my best to read as much of my 2011 Hugo Voter’s Packet as I can so that I can fill out my Hugo ballot before the July 31st deadline. I only managed to read a few of the shorter works when they came out last year, so I’ve been doing a lot of catching up since the Voter’s Packet was released. The upside to that is that I’m almost halfway to my goal of reading 36 books for the year.

That’s it for now. I still have some reading to finish!

Disappearing Act is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com

Sports Update After battling back from a 3 games to 2 defecit against Buffalo to win their first round series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Flyers were dealt an embarassing loss on home ice against the Bruins to open up the second round. In other news, the Phillies won their 18th game today. Those 18 wins are the most in April in the history of the franchise, and it’s enough to put them at the top ot the NL East going into May. And the NFL held the draft this week. Frankly, I’m not paying attention to pro football until they deal with the current unpleasantness.

Got Rute? As I mentioned in the last post of the Project Epsilon4 series, I launched a new geek-tastic blog called the rute cellar to keep all of my computer and Linux geekery in one place. If any geek blood runs in your veins, you are more than welcome to join in the chaos and mayhem over there!

Video Of The Week Star Trek: White and Nerdy Yep, another Star Trek related video!

Link of the Week: Remembering William Campbell More Star Trek, but this is a bit of sad news: William Campbell passed away this week, and startrek.com wrote a nice piece honoring his contribution to the Trek universe. For those unaware, he played Trelane in the episode “The Squire of Gothos” and the Klingon captain Koloth in “The Trouble With Tribbles.” He was a popular Trek actor and will be missed.

TWTW: At Seventeen is a post from: Fuddster Dot Com