On the book: There are blogs with a log-in feature, so you could treat it like a limited beta test. If you decide to offer the book for free, perhaps you could release it as an ebook that people could download from SQPN’s website. Then there are not publishing costs and distribution would be much easier. Bonus: marketing for SQPN as people hear about the book.

On Smoking bans: The three cities where I have more recently lived have all had some sort of smoking ban, whether in restaurants or in all public buildings. I support the idea, but there is a downside – all of the smokers cluster near the entrance, so everyone has to walk through a concentrated area of smoke. There was a scientific study published recently that showed people experienced greater lung damage walking by a group of smokers than they did by the exhaust from cars on the street!

You were looking for feedback as to whether or not you should post material from your upcoming book as you write it. I, for one, can’t wait to see it. I’ll be happy to make any comments that may be helpful.

Keep up the great work!

Last month I got a huge discount on HP ink cartridges at AH. I only paid 9.99 for a real HP cartridge.

I have to disagree with you on the airmiles. In contrast to al those gasstation giftpoints airmiles mostly has great stuff. Besides discounts on dvd’s and books(at AH) or on entrancefees for themeparks, etcetra you can also get a dicount in the other stores linked to the system. For instance Praxis, I got quite a lot of discount while I was doing my flat up. So I think airmiles are great!

Here are some tips that can be used for audiobooks:
Even MP3’s can be used as Audiobooks with the Remember Playback Position setting turned on. They don’t show up in the Audiobooks menu, but they will behave like them.

With large books (Harry Potter) combining into a single file does not work for all iPods. Minis and Shuffles have issues with them.

To make audiobooks compatible for all iPods, you can do the following.
1. Set your import quality to Podcast.
2. Put the CD into the drive.
3. Select all tracks of the CD. (Optional to skip those pesky intro/exit tracks if they exist)
4. Use Advanced->Join CD Tracks.
5. Set the name of the Album and Artist, Skip on Shuffle (skip “skip on shuffle” if using a shuffle) and Remember Playback position. (sometimes Compilation has to be turned off as well)
6. Import the CD.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 for all the CDs of the book.
8. Create a playlist for all the CDs of the book. (I name this zCDs – Audiobook name).
9. Create a smart playlist that is from the playlist in step 8, and playcount is 0. (I name this one the title of the Audiobook).
10. Sync the playlist from step 9 to your iPod.

To listen to the audiobook, select the playlist from step 9 and play. As the different CDs are finished they fall out of the list. And if you pause the position is remembered. Syncing will copy the pause point to iTunes so you can pick up where you left off on the iPod. Sync again to copy the iTunes pause point back to the iPod.

Once the book is finished or you want to restart, select the playlist from Step 8, select all the tracks and reset the playcount to 0.

This works well for a single iPod listening to a book. No software to buy, works with all iPods and is fairly easy to do. Works with Windows and Apple computers.

It does not work for 2 iPods listening to the same book at the same time. But then neither does a real audiobook.

More info and tools at this forum I hang out at: http://forums.ilounge.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46

I imagine it is Culture/Arts, and not competition for Comedy after all.

Since there is so much competition this year, we only have a chance if everyone sticks to the list we propose. It’s the only way to get to the second round.

Last year, Daily Breakfast won in the Religious Category, and the Rosary Army in the General Category. We want to win in the same categories again.

I also swapped rosaryarmy and Daily Breakfast… sorry!