It seems that Amazon has listened to their customers’ feedback. They created a great microsite, kindle.amazon.com, for managing your Kindle’s notes and highlights. On this site you can:

1. View a list of all books you purchased from Amazon.com for your Kindle
2. Review all notes and highlights for books purchased from Amazon. Note that you will not see notes for content that you have added manually via usb :(
3. Rate all of your books
4. See user comments and other details

Here is the email announcing the microsite:

Our customers have told us that they love being able to add highlights and notes to their Kindle books. We want to make it possible for you to access your highlights and notes directly from a Web browser too. So we’ve released http://kindle.amazon.com, an online tool that enables you to do just that.

To try it out, go to http://kindle.amazon.com, sign in with your Amazon account, and simply select one of your books where you have added highlights or notes.

We hope you enjoy this new feature. If you have feedback please send it to us at amazonkindle-feedback@amazon.com.

The Amazon Kindle Team

Here’s a few screenshots of the site:

A microsite for the Amazon Kindle that shows all your notes and highlights

Detail of a book's notes and highlights in the Amazon Kindle microsite

Amazon notes that if the site is missing notes or highlights that you know you have made then do the following on your Kindle:

These are the highlights or notes that you added to this book. If you added highlights or notes and you don’t see them here, then do the following:

If you have a Kindle (1st Generation) then from your Home screen choose MENU and select “Check for New Items”.

If you have a Kindle (2nd Generation) then from your Home screen choose MENU and select “Sync & Check for Items”.

Humor works. Humor + Negativity works even better. Here’s how I found out.

While this post will certainly not become viral, I have been studying viral marketing and wanted to share about a small experiment I did. I read a book called World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories (Kindle Edition) in which the author states

It turns out people react to negatives. Several years ago, I worked on a site where we included a link “For Executives Only,” which generated more traffic than other links. Words like worst, don’t, and only are interesting, and people want to know what’s there.

This got my creative juices flowing and I decided to experiment. Continuing to read in the World Wide Rave we see an example of a blogger, Mark Hinkle, who did a satirical article on Ubuntu. Just so happens I have a blog on Ubuntu. I copied the idea by making a negative article of “Top 10 Reasons I’ll Never Use Ubuntu.” This list was not serious at all, actually it was a list of 10 things I love about Ubuntu. And it was hastily written, jotted down in about 10 minutes.

It worked! The blog normally receives 200 visitors per day. After 20 hours of my post being live it had 2764 visitors. It had been picked up by a couple of Linux blogs, it got dugg, it was Stumbled, it was twittered, it made it into Ubuntu forums, and it sparked some rather interesting conversations in comments.

Only one other time have I had that kind of success on my Ubuntu blog, and it was an article that I spent hours on.

I have been reading on my 6″ Amazon Kindle 2 for quite some time now and really enjoy it. But, as with all innovations that try to re-invent a tried-and-true product, it has its trade-offs. It does not completely replace the experience of reading a real paper book. I thought it was about time we had some side-by-side shots — the same book in print and on the Kindle 2, so you can see the exact differences. The book is Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder (link to the Kindle edition.)

Gallery

It is immediately apparent that a real book has more contrast than the Kindle. And images are harder to view on the Kindle;  the 5th image above, of the ship diagram, is almost unreadable on the Kindle.

Ways that the Kindle betters the ordinary book

• Built in dictionary
• Search within books
• Search within notes and bookmarks
• Dynamic resizing of the text size
• A whole library of books in one device

Ways that the ordinary book betters the Kindle

• Contrast
• Resolution (especially images)
• Smell
• Typography
• Sense of which chapter your currently in. On the Kindle there is no way to know which chapter your reading other than paging forward to the next chapter or backward to the beginning of the current chapter. Books can place this info at the top of every page.
• Sense of location within the book. The progress bar below the text on the Kindle works ok, but it’s not nearly as good as page numbers and the feel of the thickness of the pages before and after the open page.

Having recently purchased an Amazon Kindle 2 I am in the market for a jacket. I have spent alot of time researching and reviewing various options and want to share my experience and knowledge so you can make a better buying decision. Today I am concentrating on the M-edge GO! Jacket for the Kindle 2.

Summary of product

The M-edge GO! Jacket has a genuine leather exterior with a grey microfiber interior. It is one of the most minimalistic jackets for the Kindle 2 — when closed it’s only 0.66 inches thick. It securely latches onto the Kindle and has a very soft interior to protect the screen from scratches.

It has no extraneous features (distractions) such as pockets or straps. This is great for the Kindle user looking for a simple & elegant protective cover. The front and back are made of high-quality, durable materials. The covers are very stiff, offering great protection for the Kindle 2 screen. The microfiber interior is incredibly soft so there are no worries about it scratching the Kindle.

Perhaps the best feature of this jacket is the way it attaches to the Kindle. It is the first third-party jacket I have seen that utilizes the Kindle’s built-in hinge mechanism (see pictures below.) This makes for a very strong and secure attachment. Furthermore, because of the outer-edge straps, it is more secure than Amazon’s official cover because your Kindle will not loosely flap around.

Details

The M-edge GO! Jacket is made of padded 100% genuine leather on the outside with a very soft  microfiber ultrasuede interior. It’s dimensions when closed are 8.25in. x 5.25in. x 0.66in. And it only weighs 7.2 oz so you will not notice much added weight.

Likes

• Access to all ports while closed
• Very low profile
• Quality materials and durable, trustworthy construction
• Great protection for the Kindle screen

Dislikes

• Initially I wished for a strap to keep it closed (I am a fan of the Moleskine). However, after using it for a few weeks I love it as is (so this isn’t really a dislike after all.)

Opinion

This is one of the most minimalistic jackets for the Kindle 2. It has a subtle style and durable construction you can trust in. It protects the Kindle well and is easy to hold while reading. I highly recommend the M-edge GO! Jacket for the Kindle 2.

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought — JFK

In a great statement my Elijah Cummings (via BBC) he explains exactly what the recent “bailouts” feel like to the general public. It’s funny. He is expressing the outrage the Senators feel over AIG’s treatment of the “free” money they received. The government, the very people who put this lame program in place, are getting a taste of their own medicine. In a way I’m glad AIG did this to them. Cause it’s exactly what the government did to us.

Democrat Elijah Cummings was equally incensed: “It’s like, OK, you got to help me screw you. And by the way I’m going to take your money and I’m going to slap you with it.”

In case you haven’t noticed, the economy is really slowing down. The BBC says that in January of 2009 there were only 477,000 new homes built in the US, the fewest in 50 years! At least February was better.

In January, the annual rate to fell to 477,000 homes, the fewest in 50 years…The January rate was the lowest since the US Commerce Department started keeping records in 1959.

A friend of mine wrote this awesome post asking the question “Why focus on space travel when we have so many concerns to address within our Earth Community?” Check out her post to see why :)

Publicity is the act of getting ink. Publicity is getting unpaid media to pay attention, write you up, point to you, run a picture, make a commotion. Sometimes publicity is helpful, and good publicity is always good for your ego.

But it’s not PR.

PR is the strategic crafting of your story. It’s the focused examination of your interactions and tactics and products and pricing that, when combined, determine what and how people talk about you.

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