Noah D. Arney

Author: Noah Arney

  • New Sony Reader?

    So I just realized today that both Kobo and Nook have new editions out.  And Kobo’s is selling for $139.  Looks like the Kindle 3 is almost to its one year milestone, and Kindle now has a new ad-supported version (not touching that one with a ten foot pole). Well, as I love my Sony I figured that I’d go take a look at their current offerings.  And low and behold the touch edition: sold out, pocket edition: sold out.  In fact only the daily edition is left.  So I checked around, looks like the Sony is on a major sale down at Amazon… I sense a theme developing here.  They’re clearing out the models.  Which hints at one thing. Last year (around November I think) Sony inked a deal for an exclusive contract for new e-ink displays. Putting these together I think we have a new model coming out soon.  And I think it’s going to be competitive with the Kobo. So, here’s my prediction: in the next 2-3 weeks Sony will announce a new ebook reader.  It will be touch screen.  It will be a pearl e-ink display.  And it will retail for under $180. If they’re smart they’ll peg it at $139.  If they’re stupid they’ll peg it at $199. They will also have a smaller version, an updated pocket edition, which will retail for $99.  It won’t have touch screen, but it will have a pearl e-ink display.

  • Review of The Gnostic Mystery by Randy Davila

    The Gnostic MysteryThe Gnostic Mystery by Randy Davila
    My rating: 1 of 5 stars

    I actually chose not to review this book originally because I felt that it was such a poor attempt at disguising a string of logical fallacies as a novel that I couldn’t imagine putting any more thought into it.

    The book starts out as a mildly interesting mystery, but it ends up being so heavy handed that any interest you might have in the novel is killed. The character who is introduced as being a logical and intelligent person soon forgets the basic concepts of logic and automatically agrees with whatever logical fallacy his guide/author stand in says.

    If you are looking for a good mystery novel delving into the history of Gnosticism don’t pick this one.

    View all my reviews

  • Me On a Grave Stone

    Wow, came across this online: Grave Stone for Noah Arney and Eva Arney

    That’s odd.  Apparently there’s another Noah Arney, spelled the same way, who died two years before I was born.  Oh Google, you find the weirdest things.

  • Book Shops and Vampires

    I like Vampires. I enjoyed reading Dracula, I enjoyed The Vampyre more. I loved the Vampire Lestat. I have watched more bad vampire movies than I care to admit (here’s a hint, look up Shadow of the Vampire). I have read the Twilight books, all three of them; and even the fanfiction that was book four.

    And yet. Yes there must be a yet.

    I walked into a book store the other day. I was half way through Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, which was loaned to me by a friend, and I wanted to buy my own copy, and maybe the sequels.

    So I go up to the Fantasy section, my favourite haunt, and low and behold there is only one kind of fantasy left: Vampire Fiction. But it’s worse than that, most of them aren’t of the classic gothic style, or even in the Anne Rice style. No, most of these are chiclit with fangs. Vampire bodice rippers which are aimed at and written for primarily women. But are they in the romance section? No, they’re in the Fantasy section, pushing out authors like Weeks. There was only one Robert Jordan, they weren’t carrying any Tolkien, and they had a few lonely paperbacks left of Modesitt. Everything else had been pushed out by vampire novels. Vampire novels by the tonne. At least when Harry Potter was popular other forms of Fantasy still thrived. What is it about Twilight that has encouraged people to read while at the same time limiting the types of books that they will read?

    Fantasy is a wide genre. Vampire novels are a proud part of that, but so are quest adventures like Tolkien, militant-political examinations like Jordan, and sociological adventures like Modesitt.

    A reader of fantasy isn’t just one kind of reader, they are a reader of everything. Though it is true that fantasy tends to focus on things from the past and on fantastic worlds, this is simply a vehicle for the story, be it escapism, social commentary, or coming of age. To see all of this subsumed by one subset of the genre is depressing.

    Please, read a Vampire novel. Then pick up Way of Shadows. Trust me. You’ll like it. Once you’re done that, why don’t you try some leGuin, she will knock your socks off.

  • Acrostic

    Just a short little acrostic I made up to demonstrate today’s lesson for the class.

    Just another sojourner

    Otherwise unoccupied

    Hoping for a bite to eat

    Nine pound steak sounds great to me

  • YouTube – Project Natal

     

    [[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”7″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”355″,”style”:””,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”425″}}]]

     

    Huh, looks like that video might work.

     

    Another E3 has come and gone.

     

    Nintendo had some reasonable announcements, nothing amazing, but bringing Mario back in a host of titles.

    Sony on the other hand had almost nothing. Well, not quite nothing. They had one release that I am dying to play. The Last Guardian, by the same people who made Shadow of the Colossus. For anyone who isn’t into that kind of thing, Shadow of the Colossus is one of the 10 most beautiful games ever made, and in my top five games ever played. It isn’t just a video game, it’s a piece of art. And yes, the Last Guardian has continued that.

    [[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”8″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”355″,”style”:””,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”425″}}]]

    You can see it in better resolution over at http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14230646/ico-project/videos/thelastguardian_trl_trailer_60209.html

    I want this game. It looks amazing. That being said, with the exception this game nothing else at E3 was that amazing coming from Sony. I suspect that the PS3 may be in danger of dying out because of lack of innovation, which is sad because it’s my favourite console.

    Microsoft however has not stopped moving forward. They have shown the next step in video games. Nintendo got the first step with the Wii, but now Microsoft is trying to move beyond that with their Project Natal (video at the top). Essentially they took the next logical step beyond the Wii, what if you didn’t need a controller? Project Natal is all about movement mapping and voice recognition. fighting games or sports games that map your motion, skate boarding games where it will scan in your deck so you can play on your own board, and controllerless menus.

    This of course brings in a new revenue stream with custom controllers. Sure you don’t need one for tennis, or golf, or driving a car, but as the Wii has shown, people will buy cheap plastic add-ons anyway. But more importantly they will be able to redesign their controllers in a new way. No longer will it be the two sticks for movement and view control and a few buttons for specified things, they will be able to get creative with their controller (granted, this is Xbox so I wouldn’t be surprised if they came out with a large brick for a controller). And who isn’t looking forward to the gun shaped Halo 4 controller?

    Project Natal probably isn’t as accurate yet as they make it out to be, but still, this is the next step in video games.

    It’s also the next step in home entertainment. Microsoft seems to be continuing their campaign of making the Xbox do everything under the sun. I wouldn’t be surprised if soon it will do the dishes, or laundry, or rent videos (oh wait, it already does that one). Sony is falling behind here. They need to get Netflix or something similar on their console or they will be left behind as “Just a gaming machine”. I’m sure it’s all right to be “Just a gaming machine”, but that’s not where the money is going to be.

    I want a PS3, but the way things are going, I’ll probably end up buying an Xbox.

  • Story of a book

    Receiving a book in a bag on the day of love
    Removing them one by one in bewilderment
    Recognizing the name inside the cover of the last book
    Breaking into tears and clutching my love to me

  • English Student’s lament

    I’ve decided to begin putting some of my writings up here.  Most of them are ones that I did during university.  Here’s one that I didn’t even remember till I started going through my files today.

    English Student’s lament

    Now I sit me down to write
    A pint of Guinness in my sight
    I start to think through my tears
    I might get a degree in 7 more years