The ERD

Free Audio books and How to Load them on Kindle

2011-03-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

I remember the first time I did a search for free audio books and e-books. Site after site claimed to post free books, but when I got to the site, there were only a handful of books to choose from or none at all. I became so frustrated, that I was sure the “free book” thing was a myth and I gave up. Not long after this, I purchased the book: The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Though I was not able to quit my job after reading this book, I did discover many very useful links to include two great links for free audio and e-books; Librivox and Gutenberg.

Audio Books: www.librivox.org

E-Books: www.gutenberg.org

LibriVox

On libriVox, you will find hundreds of audio books, which are read by volunteers and are edited and processed by libriVox.org. Though public domain books are generally the classics, there are a wide variety of genres including historical, scientific and religious texts. LibriVox audio books are also available in many different languages. It all depends on who wants to read what and volunteers submit recordings from around the world.

Gutenberg Project

The Gutenberg project has a much larger collection of books than LibriVox and is continually adding add free e-books to their catalogue. Gutenberg offers each of its books in a variety of formats to include the Kindle version. Additionally, most of the audio books on libriVox come from the Gutenberg project.

As a side note, both sites use literature in the public domain, are not for profit and are run by donations and volunteers.

How to Load Audio Books to Kindle

Once you have visited librivox.org, click on the “LibriVox Catalogue,” under the heading, Listen. This will take you to the main search page where you can do a simple search, advanced searches or browse the entire catalogue in alphabetic order. Once you’ve found the book you want, click on the link, then scroll down to the individual chapter files. The first file for each chapter is the best to select since it is the smallest and in MP3 format. Right click on the link and select save link. The exact wording will be different depending on what operating system you are using. Collect all the chapter files in this manner and then plug your Kindle into your computer. I am not sure about the earlier Kindle versions, but for 3^rd generation Kindles, add the folder full of MP3 chapters to the “audible” folder on your Kindle.

Although, these are not audio books from audible, they can still be viewed perfectly on your Kindle when placed in this folder. Eject your Kindle and then create a collection for the audio book that you added. Add the files marked “audio” to the collection and you are done. I was actually surprised at how easy it was the first time I did it. The only issue you may run into is that your Kindle may not be able to hold a large number of audio books. The best thing is to add a hand full of audio books, listen to them and remove them to make room for more. So, now that you have these two sites, you can stop searching, start downloading and enjoy listening to your new audio book collection.

Kindle for Students: How Kindle Text-to-Speech can make you an A+ Student

2011-03-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Do you want to be an A+ Student? Let Kindle do the work for you. Gone are the days of staying up late to read my textbooks and then struggle to finish my schoolwork on time. My Kindle has changed all of that. Now all I do is purchase Kindle version textbooks online, put my headphones on, and turn on text-to-speech and my Kindle reads my books for me. Since I started listening instead of reading, I no longer struggle to find time for schoolwork.

In fact, while I soak in the knowledge I need for my classes, I do a variety of chores and activities. While I listen, I’m doing housework, walking the dog, cooking dinner, and sometimes I’m playing video games or tending my farm on Facebook. As long as the additional activity does not require much thought, you can easily keep listening and learning. After I’m done with all my chores and housework, my evenings are free to complete assignments or to just relax. Ever since I got my Kindle, I finish my required readings early, so I’m free to use my Kindle for supplementary readings or to do extensive research and wow my instructors.

The Kindle is not the first device with text-to-speech, but it is the first device that is highly portable. Plus, you will find that most of your textbooks are available in the Kindle store and costs less than the paper version. In addition to reading textbooks, you can easily convert a variety of files to text files and add them to your Kindle. This is a feature, which is not available on the Barnes & Noble e-reader, Nook. So if your professor or teacher assigns additional reading, which is available in electronic form, just add it to your Kindle and turn on text-to-speech. Another reason Kindle’s text to speech is so great is because audio books cost a fortune and not every book is available in audio book form. However, almost every Kindle book has the text-to-speech function enabled.

Kindle Text-to-speech Tips:

Go to the Homepage on your Kindle. Click Menu, and then click Experimental. This pathway may be different for different versions of Kindle. Under Experimental, Kindle provides a description of the text-to-speech function and how to turn it on. For my Kindle, I push the up arrow and the Symbol “sym” button at the same time.
Adding reading materials from your computer to your Kindle. If you wish to add articles from your computer or from the internet, follow these steps: Copy written material from html or from a pdf file and paste it into a Word document. Go to “file,” “save as,” and save the document as a text file. The file should now have .txt at the end of it. Plug your Kindle into your computer and drag the text file to the documents folder on your Kindle. Turn on text-to-speech and start listening.
The voice. Word of caution, some people don’t like hearing electronic speech, but I find it is well worth listening to. I only advise that you stick to informational books and materials. Having your Kindle read you a novel may ruin the book for you. Also, if your Kindle slaughters a proper name, just look at the screen and you will see what it was trying to read.
Text-to-speech availability. If you wish to have your Kindle do all the work for you, be sure to check the book before you buy it to assure that the-text-speech function is enabled. If you do not see mention of text-to-speech in the book description, have amazon.com send you a free sample of the book. When you receive the sample, try to turn on text-to-speech. Then you will know whether or not it is safe to buy that text. Though I prefer to listen, I will usually get the textbook in Kindle version anyway even if it does have text to speech. The other functions such as text search, bookmarking, highlighting and notes make the Kindle version convenient for students even without text-to-speech.

Kindle text-to-speech has been a fantastic discovery for me and I hope that you will love learning while you work as much as I do.

Farmville Orchard Tips: Get 100% New Trees from Seedlings

2011-03-22T01:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you who enjoy growing trees in Farmville, getting the most recently released trees from your seedling is likely your number one goal. Some players may have noticed that Farmville recently changed the orchard settings and made it much more difficult to produce the desired seedlings or to get seedlings at all. I know I am not the only one frustrated by this change. Despite my frustration, I’ve learned how to work around the changes and still get optimal results.

If you wish to see your seedling production grow and get more new trees from your seedlings, you need only to follow the five steps below:

Steps for Optimal Seedling Production:

1). Build, Build, Build as many orchards as possible. The more orchards you have on your farm, the more chances you have to harvest seedlings for your desired tree. Twenty or more orchards will give you plenty of tries to produce a handful of good seedlings.

2). Have at least two of the desired tree you wish to produce. Having three or four of the new tree will increase your chances, but two is enough for a slower start.

3). Insure that there is only one tree in each of your orchards. It is best that the tree you place in your orchard be the newest type of tree possible since Farmville is more likely to give you a seedling for the older tree over the newer one even if you have more of the newer tree in your orchard.

4). When your orchards are ready, place your two new trees in an orchard that only has one tree in it. Harvest. If you get only water, remove one new tree from the orchard you just harvested, and place in the next orchard. Harvest. If you get nothing again, move both new trees into the next ready orchard and harvest. The reason you follow this pattern is because you have a better chance of getting a seedling if you alternate the number of trees that you harvest in your orchards. A word of caution: when harvesting with only two new trees, you will most likely get a seedling that will turn into the older tree if the seedling comes from an orchard that only has two trees in it. Following the same process, but using more than two trees will eliminate this problem.

5). Once you get a seedling, stop harvesting your orchards and water the seedling. It may be possible that the seedling holds the tree you wish to produce. If your seedling is good and produces the tree you want, use this new tree in order to get better results from the remainder of your orchards.

Using these five steps will increase your production of new tree seedlings. However, if you still get into a rut and get nothing but water, try harvesting a full orchard from time to time. This seems to help as well. If this seems like a lot of work, once you have produced a number of your desired tree, place the new trees in your orchards in an alternating order. For example: two trees, one tree, two trees... The next time you harvest, just click to harvest and you will have similar results. Additionally, you can keep adding trees to these orchards for better results. However, I like to keep one tree in the majority of my orchards so they will be ready to produce seedlings for the next new tree that comes out. :)

The Psychology of Farmville Addiction: Why it’s so hard to quit

2011-03-21T01:35:00.000-07:00

If there were rehab for Farmville, would I go? Probably Not. The fact is, like so many thousands and possibly millions of people around the world, I don’t want to quit. Nevertheless, sometimes I find myself thinking of all that I could achieve “for real,” if I used my time doing something constructive.

Thinking of Quitting?

Thinking of quitting Farmville and actually kicking the Farmville habit are two different things. For those who have contemplated or attempted quitting in the past, you know exactly how hard it can be. Though I have never had a physical addiction, I imagine quitting Farmville to be akin to quitting smoking or drinking. In fact it may be worse.

Why we try and fail:

Whether you have tried cutting back or tried going cold turkey, if you are reading this article, the chances are that you have failed. Some of the tactics people try that do not work:

· Making an announcement that you will be quitting Farmville

· Removing Farmville from your news feed

· Removing the Farmville application all together

· Unfriending Farmville neighbors

Some people may try to cut back on Farmville, however, Farmville is always coming out with something new and exciting that tends to draw people back in. My friends and family members who have tried making an announcing on Facebook that they were going to quit Farmville were confronted by a horde of their Farmville neighbors begging them not to leave them and to continue playing. Some try blocking Farmville from newsfeed only to spend twice as much time visiting each of their neighbor’s walls to get their posts. Likewise, some people may try to remove Farmville from their apps but this can easily be re-added. Some of the more desperate approaches such as unfriending all that play Farmville and deleting one’s facebook account may still be ineffective since new facebook accounts are easy to open and new friends can be added.

Understanding why you don’t we want to quit

The key to quitting is understanding why we don’t want to quit. So if all of these attempts to quit Farmville do not work, the question is why and what is the answer. In order to take actual steps toward quitting Farmville, we must first understand what draws us to the game and what social and psychological needs the game fulfills. I have broken these needs down into four different categories;

· Social Interaction

· Feedback Endorphins

· Goal Achievement

· Showcasing Recognition

Social Interaction

One of the biggest draws to Farmville is that it is a social game. Our neighbors need us and appreciate us. When we post something new and exciting, they adore us. If your farm is awesome, your neighbors may tell you about it. The problem this draw creates when it comes to quitting is that quitting Farmville means loosing the social interaction along with your Farmville player identity (whether it be a big shot player or a good neighbor, everyone has a player identity).

Feedback Endorphins

Another strong draw to the game is the high gained from gaining feedback. Posting special or needed items such as foal or trees may be followed by a barrage of “likes” and comments from your neighbors. Receiving this feedback releases endorphins in the brain and gives the player a high. Studies have shown the same phenomena happening in individuals addicted to texting. They thrive on receiving replies to their texts and get an endorphin high.

Goal Achievement

Farmville offers a unique opportunity for players to feel that they setting goals and achieving them. Some of the goals players can work toward are leveling up, crop master, tree master, rewards and building structures.

Showcasing Recognition

Farmville players have a unique opportunity to create an artistic and functional landscape that is viewable by their Farmville neighbors. Players spend a good deal of time decorating and beautifying their farms for their neighbors to see. Players may also gain recognition from their stock of rare animals and trees since these items can be shared through breeding or growing trees.

-----The Solution: Removal and Replacement-----

The secret to quitting is removing all of the psychological draws to the game and replacing them with real-life equivalents.

Social Interaction: The most important aspect to remove is social interaction. Removing social interaction from Farmville will cause you to become less interest in playing. Social interaction can be removed by disallowing posts to your wall through Facebook privacy settings and by removing Farmville neighbors through the Farmville application. To replace the need for social interaction, try finding another form of on-line or real life social interaction that is constructive. This does not mean to find another game since you may get hooked on that game as well. Get involved in an activity that will fill the void of losing your Farmville identity.

Feedback Endorphins: Remove social feedback from gifting. If you are serious about quitting and have a social interaction substitute in mind, you must remove the endorphin high gained from playing Farmville. In order to do this, temporarily change your Facebook privacy settings so that no one can comment or like your posts. Continue playing as you always do, but the loss of feedback will eventually make the game less appealing since the endorphin high from feedback will be gone. Your neighbors may try other ways to reach out to you and thank you for your help, but these methods can be blocked as well. Temporarily disallowing posts to you wall, removing neighbors and removing the ability for people to send you messages will all help to cut out social interaction and feedback which will cut off the flow of endorphins to your brain. To replace the endorphin high gained from feedback, try finding another on-line or real-life activity that is constructive and which can also give positive feedback.

Goal Achievement: I do not know that progress can be removed from one’s farm unless you are willing to delete it. However, I warn against this, since you will be tempted to begin a new farm. Though your progress may not be removable without causing considerable psychological withdrawals, the need for goal achievement can be replaced. Find an activity that can be easily tracked in increments. Give yourself stars or small rewards for completing different levels the goal you set. Make your own goals and start pursuing them immediately; even while you ween yourself off of Farmville. Who knows, you may feel guilt for spending time on your farm that could be spent on your real goal.

Showcasing Recognition: Showcasing recognition is another psychological need which is fulfilled by Farmville that may be difficult to remove. Very few people can delete their beautiful buildings and decorations from their farms, but if you are able to, this is a good start. However, if this type of sabotage is too painful try skip it and try replacing this need with real-life showcasing instead. You may not have guests in your home often enough to show off your interior decorating, but you can always beautify your front yard, your vehicle or yourself. Instead of spending money on farmcash, buy something cute to wear or something cute for your kids. Try embellish your flowerbeds or fixing up your vehicle. People will notice and you are likely to receive plenty of complements.

Though every Farmville addict has different needs that may draw them to Farmville, social interaction, feedback endorphins, goal achievement, and showcasing recognition are the most prevalent drawls and therefore removing and replacing them can be the best ways to kick the habit. However, as much as we may talk about quitting Farmville, actually quitting comes down to one all important element. The first step in sabotaging and replacing your farming life is deciding that you really “want” to quit. As for me, I’m still working on that step. :)