books

If you weren't lucky enough to swipe a premature copy of Bioshock from a retailer who broke the street date--I'm looking at you, Toys R Us--then you'll just have to settle for this incredibly detailed free artbook that 2K Games has on their site. Hopefully this, coupled with the recent demo, will prevent your descent into insanity while waiting for the August 21 release date.

The 67-page book entitled Breaking the Mold, gives you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the game, along with tons of concept art and commentary from the creators … Read more

Publisher HarperCollins released digital excerpts from 14 books on Wednesday that can be read from an Apple iPhone.

The digital excerpts are accessible from a special HarperCollins mobile Web site that can be accessed from the iPhone's Safari Web browser.

HarperCollins refers to the program as an extension of its Browse Inside program for perusing digital books from a computer.

The publisher had previously conducted a pilot project to test out the technology via a Web site run by Libre Digital.

Among the titles included in the roll-out are Soul Catcher by Michael C. White, Winning by Jack Welch … Read more

Here's a concept for textbooks that's almost as cool as library checkouts. It's called TextBookFlix, and as the name would suggest, it's pretty much like Netflix for textbooks--with a twist. There's no monthly subscription fee, just a one-time fee to "check out" a book for an entire semester. It's kind of a hybrid between the "no late fees" mentality of Netflix, and the loaner system you get with libraries. The service already has more than two million titles available and a search tool that lets you find your books via … Read more

Every June, I am as elated as the next student to have a three-month respite from the confines of school. But, come August, you can find me on Amazon.com, frantically buying an inordinate number of books for every class--in many cases, more than two books per class.

Naturally, my curiosity was stirred upon hearing about a new project from CafeScribe, launched by Salt Lake City-based Fourteen40. The program allows users to buy and download electronic textbooks online. That's nothing particularly groundbreaking, though it could save me some neck and back problems if it cut down on the pounds … Read more

Apple could have a lot more in mind for the multitouch user interface found on the iPhone.

A recent Apple patent filing spotted by Macsimum News, among others, covers technology described as a "multitouch gesture dictionary." It's basically a way of assigning certain tasks, such as opening an application, to a series of gestures and "chords," according to the patent application.

Right now, iPhone users navigate by dragging a finger up, down, left or right to scroll through contacts, music or e-mail. Zooming in or out of a Web page requires two fingers that either … Read more

File this one under "useless but awesome."

If your bookshelf just isn't haunted enough for your liking, 25 bucks can make it happen.

Things You Never Knew Existed is hawking some faux antique books that slide out and make creepy noises whenever anyone walks by.

Watch the video to see the haunted volumes in action. Halloween is quickly approaching, kids.

[Via Geekologie.]

OpenMFG just took one step forward, and two steps backward. First, the positive. The company, which provides ERP and CRM solutions for small to medium-sized enterprises, has rebranded itself as xTuple. It has also developed PostBooks, a QuickBooks competitor.

Good stuff. We need more software like this. What we don't need, however, is xTuple's flawed licensing scheme that feints at open source, but falls far short.

xTuple's license is a mess, on two primary accounts:… Read more

I read a lot. Well, as much as I can, anyway, usually six to ten books a month. It's a welcome distraction from work and a useful source of inspiration for my own writing-- and work. One never knows when a PowerPoint slide might benefit from a clever turn of phrase...

I got hooked on… Read more

Steve Blank is a super-experienced Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur who is best known for starting E.piphany, a successful software company, and also founded or worked at a broad range of meaningful tech companies over the last 30 years including Zilog, Convergent, MIPS, Ardent (one of the most innovative mini-supercomputer companies of the late 80's), and Rocket Science Games. Today he is a director at several tech companies including Immersion, Cafepress, Macrovision (boo hiss), and IMVU, and lectures on entrepreneurship at Stanford and UC Berkeley.

In other words, this is a dude with serious street cred.

And he's … Read more