Tag Archives: books

Reviews

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

James and the Giant Peach (1996)Last night was the first time Ligia and I saw this delightful movie (IMDB). I regret not seeing it earlier. I remember the ads on TV back when it came out. I hadn’t read the book by Roald Dahl, nor did I know the story was written by him until I watched the featurette included in the special features on the DVD. I might have known it though.

All his stories weave scary elements into whimsical storytelling with wonderful plotlines and happy endings that remain with you. It makes for such vivid characters and happenings! I still treasure “The BFG” (1989, IMDB), more than 15 years after seeing it. I taped it when it ran on TV, and I still have the tape somewhere — although it’s probably so demagnetized by now that I wouldn’t be able to watch it.

Boy, those aunts of James’ were sure scary! If I were still a child, I might have had nightmares about them. The sets were great. You could tell right away they were sets, but that didn’t detract from their atmosphere at all — in fact, it added to it. I wondered why, and then I saw Tim Burton’s name as Co-Producer. I might have known that as well. The sets had the same feel as “Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993, IMDB) and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005, IMDB).

Parents have already picked up on what makes the movie wonderful for children, so I’m only going to mention it in passing: it’s the uplifting message it carries, of course, picked up from the book. James, a child mistreated by his aunts to the point of abuse, hangs on to his imagination and the kindness that his parents instill in him, and proves to be a hero loved by the insects he saves, and by his adopted city, New York. It’s the sort of story that you’ll want to read to your children over and over, and the sort of story they’ll want to listen to over and over and over.

I thought the movie was very well done and highly watchable. I always have a healthy amount of respect for the people that work on these stop-motion animation movies. It takes years to get them done. It took three years for this movie. There are 24 frames per second, which means that each scene had to be rearranged for each frame, 24 times per second and 1,440 times for a full minute of action. That’s a herculean effort, and one has to respect that. When you add in the fact that the finished product looks great, it’s really a wonderful achievement.

Loved it!

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How To

Making it to the first page of Google search results

As I checked my traffic stats over the past few days, I noticed a steady stream of traffic to my reviews of the WD My Book World and Pro Edition II hard drives. I was pleasantly surprised, but couldn’t figure out why. Other than publishing the reviews on my blog, I hadn’t done any sort of promotion. No one had linked to them so far (from what I could tell), yet the traffic was there. It wasn’t an outrageous amount of traffic, but nice, steady and regular. That sort of traffic usually only comes from one source: search engines.

I checked, and sure enough, my two reviews had made it to the first page of Google search results — the dream of any content creator. Here’s a search for WD My Book Pro Edition II, and for WD My Book World Edition II. Not sure how long they’ll stay there, but it’s really nice to see blog content make it to the front page of Google search, and even better, it’s a treat to see my own content make it there. 🙂

I thought I’d check on some other popular content and see how it ranks in Google’s search results. I logged into my FeedBurner account and looked at the most popular pages for the past 30 days. Here are the top ten pages at ComeAcross, in descending order:

In truth, I’m not sure just what it takes to get to the front page at Google. Let’s just say that it involves a fair amount of chance along with the the hard work. I steer clear of dirty SEO tricks like keyword seeding and other such nasty stuff. Also, I haven’t really spent a lot of time optimizing ComeAcross with honest SEO techniques. Other than using WordPress, which has certain built-in SEO advantages, and trying to write good content, I don’t do much to ensure that my posts get good ranks in the search engines. That’s why I find it refreshing to see that content is still king, and as long as one’s design isn’t egregiously awful, you’ll still get indexed just fine and bubble toward the top as more people find your information interesting.

Don’t assume though that I do nothing to promote my work. Remember, I just finished writing about how I promote it using Twitter and Jaiku or other microblogging services yesterday. Here’s part one and part two of that discussion. I also have other tools that I use, though I don’t use them often. I depend on my readers to do that — or rather, I prefer to let my content grow in popularity organically, without “cheating the system”. It’s probably a good idea that I discuss this in more detail in a future post — perhaps next week.

I should also say that I’m not dismissing SEO. It has its value, and if done right, can help push content right to the top. Some people swear by it, and have seen their traffic double. I should probably look into it in more detail at some point in the future. And good web design is crucial. Design may not necessarily matter to search engines (to some extent) but it sure matters to people. If your site’s design is ugly or hard to use, don’t expect many people to read through your content or return to it. By the same token, good web design alone won’t draw the traffic. Good content will do it. Keep that in mind, and thrive.

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Thoughts

The winner of the "Java I/O" book drawing

A few days ago, I announced a free book giveaway. The book was Java I/O, 2nd Edition, by Elliotte Rusty Harold (my review). All you had to do to qualify was to leave a comment on that post with your thoughts about ComeAcross — what you liked, what you didn’t like. There were only two takers, Jeremy and Cosmin. I held the drawing tonight — actually, the word drawing is a bit fancy. It was a coin toss. I went by the order of the comments and Jeremy got heads, Cosmin tails. Jeremy came out the winner, and will get the book. Jeremy, please send me your mailing address, and I’ll ship the book out to you! 🙂

I also promised I would post a link to the winner’s website directly in my blog post. Here is Jeremy’s blog, and it’s pretty cool. It was started in February of this year, and it deals with photography, technology and programming.

Stay tuned for more book giveaways in the future! I have plenty of books that might be useful to others, and would like to give them away if I can. Doing it through my blog is a pretty nice way to do it, too.

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Thoughts

Book giveaway: Java I/O, by Elliotte Rusty Harold

I’ve got a whole bunch of new computer books that I’ve reviewed, and I realized I’m not using most of them. But I know there are people out there who need them. So, I thought I’d hold a free book giveaway. That’s right, it’s FREE. But you will need to pick the shipping method and cover the shipping cost, which you can PayPal to me.

The rules

So, how does it work? It’s simple, really. I’m always looking for feedback and ideas on how to make my blog better. All you have to do to qualify is to leave a comment on this post telling me what you like and don’t like about ComeAcross. I’m looking for thoughtful, considerate feedback. You don’t have to write entire paragraphs, this isn’t an essay. Just get to the point in a few sentences or less.

All of the people who leave comments will be entered in the drawing that I’ll do this Saturday evening. I’ll announce the result at that time, or on Sunday morning. I’ll contact the winner via email to get his or her mailing address, and if they’ve got a site, I’ll link to their site in a post right here on ComeAcross. That reminds me: please don’t post your mailing addresses in the comments… I’ll contact you to ask for it if you’re the winner.

The prize

The book I’d like to give away is “Java I/O, 2nd Edition“, by Elliotte Rusty Harold. It retails at $33. You can read my review of it right here. As a matter of fact, I encourage you to read my review before you ask for the book, just so you know what you’ll be getting.

I’ll be waiting for your comments, and thanks! 🙂

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Reviews

Review: Digital Travel Photography, by Dan Heller

Digital Travel Photography, by Dan Heller (2007)Chances are, if you like photography, you’ve heard of Dan Heller, even if only in passing. Many people have found his photography inspiring, and his insight into the photography business razor sharp. Many more have found the resources available on his website very helpful as they got started in photography. I know I did.

When he recently put out a new book, I purchased it. It’s called “Digital Travel Photography“, and it comes with a handy-dandy companion guide that summarizes the book’s points very nicely. I took my time to read the book, getting through a few chapters per weekend. I’m glad to say I found it useful, and I think you will, too.

It turns out that travel photography isn’t much different than photography you can do right in your own home town, and that’s good. The same principles are involved. The book starts out with basic information such as composition, cameras, batteries, resolution, lenses, flash, ISO, etc, but if you’re a more advanced photographer, don’t get discouraged. It soon gets interesting. Even when he talks about basic principles, Dan finds ways to make the information captivating, and his photos illustrate the points very well. Besides, he goes into more fun stuff like white balance, night shooting, filters, bags, tripods and accessories as well. There’s also a wonderful section on extended exposure photography at the end of the book, and I found this truly useful. Sandwiched in the middle, we get advice on photographing people and places, as well as children, and dealing with various kinds of light and locations.

The book combines information from his extensive online resource library with new material. The content is beautifully laid out and explained in easy to understand language. This isn’t heady reading. Dan makes it as easy as possible to understand the information. If you want to improve the way you take photos when you travel, this book will do it for you. In a few afternoons, you’ll be able to get through the book, and when you go on vacation, packing along the companion guide will ensure that you can quickly review and apply the principles you’ve learned.

And oh yes, let’s not forget that Dan’s photography inspires. He may downplay that aspect and call his photos “average” in interviews, as I’ve heard him do, but the truth is that he is a very accomplished photographer who knows how to nail a scene. You can buy this book only for the photographs, and you won’t be disappointed. Add in the great advice he gives, and you’ve got a bargain.

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