Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Gear: Kindle Fire Update

I've had very little experience with tablets, so I don't have much basis with which to compare my Kindle Fire to anything. The best I can muster is my Droid 4, which I really like. Both the Kindle Fire and the Droid 4 operate using various versions of Google's Android operating system. I have to say that I'm not as thrilled with the operating system on the Kindle Fire as I am on the Droid 4. I like a nice desktop with tidy icons, so the Kindle's "bookshelf" menu isn't my favorite. It also appears that installing apps from Google Play requires some work, so I'll put that work in at some point soon.

  • Ranulph Fiennes, The Feather Men
  • Roger Cole and Richard Belfield, SAS Operation Storm: Nine Men Against Four Hundred in Britain's Secret War
  • Ian Gardiner, In the Service of the Sultan: A First Hand Account of the Dhofar Insurgency
  • Andrew Higgins, With the SAS and Other Animals: A Vet's Experiences During the Dhofar War 1974
  • Gerry Schumacher and Steve Gansen, A Bloody Business: America's War Zone Contractors and the Occupation of Iraq
  • James Ashcroft, Making a Killing: The Explosive Story of a Hired Gun in Iraq
  • Robert Young Pelton, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror
  • P.W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry
  • Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
  • James Jay Carafano, Private Sector, Public Wars: Contractors in Combat - Afghanistan, Iraq, and Future Conflicts
  • Deborah D. Avant, The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security
  • Steve Fainaru, Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq
  • Thomas C. Bruneau, Patriots for Profit: Contractors and the Military in U.S. National Security

    That's nine of twelve of the books I've identified for my potential dissertation on private military/security companies, and four of twelve books on the Dhofar Rebellion. It looks like a few more of the books on the Dhofar Rebellion should be available either from Amazon UK, or hopefully through interlibrary loan through the University. This should at least get me started, though, and it's a lot better than trying to carry that volume of literature overseas. I also got A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne as well, thus saving myself the weight of carrying my physical copy with me. As it turns out, I think I could have bought some or even all of my travel guides on Kindle. I won't replace them, since the whole point of buying them was for the trip and I've already spent the money.

    Hey, by the way, has anybody ever noticed that industry has basically invented a ton of the coolest stuff from Star Trek? Like the tablet computer and the mobile phone? Totally from Star Trek. Just sayin'.
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