The Lulu sales rank takes into account the sales revenue and not just the number of books sold (i.e. the price of the book times number of sales). The OLED Handbook costs $149.99 for the printed edition. The digital (PDF) edition, costs $97, and is much more popular (about 4 times more popular, actually).

This is the first e-book that I’ve written, I hope it will be well received. Initial response from people who read an advance copy were quite good…

Talking about the Pirates, the new movie (On Stranger Tides) will be released soon. This time the music will have more Latin influence, check out ‘On Angelica’ here.

But it didn’t have Bluetooth (we have a bluetooth headset in the car) and no Hebrew support (as we bought in China). So I finally took the plunge and got me a new phone – a Samsung Galaxy S. It’s an Android v2.2 smartphone with a 4″ Super-AMOLED display. And yeah – I chose that one because of that cool OLED display…

So I thought I’d write a short review comparing these two phones. As a phone, I have to say that the Nokia wins hands down. It’s smaller (less than half the size), has about 10 times the battery life, can be read better in the sun, the sound quality is better and the speaker is a lot better (The Galaxy S speaker is awful).

Now of course the Galaxy S has some advantages. Like the beautiful OLED display, touch (writing SMS messages is great!), applications, GPS, camera (and quite a good one, too) games (although, to be fair, the 1202 has Snake built-in while the Android phone comes with no games, so it’s a tie on games really) and the internet of course. Yes – I can now behave annoyingly like everyone else and stare at my small phone all day long instead of looking after my daughters at play. I can check my stock portfolio, read my gmail messages and throw birds at angry pigs (or is it the other way around?).

The biggest advantage of the Samsung phone is the great OLED. I can finally show everyone what I’ve been talking about all the time for about 12 years. It is really quite impressive – the colors are just so beautiful – when you take pictures, it looks better on the screen than in real life.

So am I happy with the switch? sometimes. Luckily I have two sim cards with the same number, so I can take the Nokia with me when I want to talk. To conclude, here’s a short feature-by-feature comparison:

• Display: the Galaxy S OLED is amazing, but the Nokia is more readable in the sun. It’s a tie really.
• Size: The Nokia is smaller – about half the size. Nokia wins hands down.
• Talking: The Nokia has better sound quality and a better speaker. Nokia wins hands down.
• Battery life: The Nokia lasts for 2 weeks, the Galaxy S only 2 days. Nokia wins here too.
• Buttons: There are a lot more buttons on the Nokia, so it wins again.
• Price: The Galaxy-S costs around 2,000NIS, you can get the 1202 unlocked for around 200. Nokia wins.
• Connectivity: The Nokia supports GSM. The Samsung has GSM, UMTS, HSPA, Bluetooth, Wi-fi and GPS. Samsung wins.
• Games: The Samsung has tons of games which you can download, but none are pre-installed. The Nokia has Snake, Chess and Sudoko – you don’t have to download anything. It’s a tie.
• Attention: The OLED on the Samsung is great, but everyone has such a phone today, so you don’t get any attention. The Nokia sure stands out though. Nokia wins
• Usability: The Galaxy-S is great if you want to find contacts, send messages, take a photo or a video, surf the internet or anything really. It wins here.

Final score:Nokia 8, Samsung 4. But I’ll keep the Galaxy S – just for the OLED display

The nice guys over at APUS watches sent me an OLED watch for review. So now I’m wearing this weird and cool looking watch that has a small blue AMOLED. Check out my full review here.

Michal was brave as usual what with the birth being all “natural” and all. Abigail is also behaving ok, I think she’s happy to have a little sister (or she might be hoping we won’t keep Noga around too long).

That’s it for now. Time to go to rest.

• One e-reader requires 33 pounds of minerals and 79 gallons of water. A regular book requires about 0.6 pounds of minerals and 2 gallons of water.
• Making an e-reader requires around 100 kw/h of energy (around 66 pounds of co2). A normal book needs 2 kw/h.
• If you buy a book online and have it shipped 500 miles (by air), the transportation creates about the same pollution and waste and actually making the book. Driving 5 miles to the bookstore (and back) causes 10 times the pollution and waste!! If you use your e-reader to read lot’s of books, it’s quite a difference…
• If you read a book at night for an hour or two, the light bulb will use more energy than it takes to charge your e-reader.

More over at e-reader-info.com

The main thesis of this book is that the markets today are not efficient, because we are externalizing costs: health costs, cleaning costs, etc.  Anything that is paid by someone else and not the company that makes the product. In fact our markets today are optimized for companies that are good at externalizing costs. For example: let’s say we both make a TV. My TV plant uses a lot of bad chemicals that I throw in the garbage. These create health problems and need to be cleaned up, but I’m not the one paying for the cleaning or the health bills- the local authority and your health insurance is the one that has to pay. So in fact we are all subsidizing the wasteful plant.

He compares Organic food to “normal” food. He says that actually Organic is cheaper to make, because it does not destroy the soil with chemicals which gets to our water and food (not to mention Organic is healthier, and can actually produce more food per acre eventually). He also says the same about cigarettes. Did you know for example, the 1/3 of the fires caused in US homes are because of cigarettes? and you know why? because they contain special chemicals that keeps them burning. He claims that the cigarettes makers should pay for this, not all of us who do not smoke. Obviously the same goes for health issues – we are all paying more because of the smokers, and because the companies deliberately use dangerous and addictive chemicals.

He raises some nice ideas on how to advance towards a “sustainable economy”. He is in favor of Cradle-to-cradle which is rather a hot topic today. Another idea is to raise high green taxes and use the money to lower income tax. That’s a great idea. Think about it – we can raise electricity prices by 1000%, and then give the money back by lowering taxes. So eventually you’re not worse-off (at least not in average), but you have a HUGE incentive to cut your electricity usage. The same can be used for water, gas, etc.

The book is a bit depressing in parts, as all environmental books tend to be… but go ahead and read it. Like some reviewer said : “the book is a must read for anyone who cares about living”…