Teyrnon

Just thought I'd make a quick post here to let everyone know I'm still around. Things are mostly okay. I'm dealing with high blood pressure and hopefully a medication that actually works can be found soon. It's always been on the high side but for the last year or two it's been excessively so.

I've been debating whether to do holiday cards this year. I'm thinking that if I do I won't be buying any new cards this year. Instead I'm going to round up all the left over cards from past years and use those. Get those out of the way for a fresher start to 2013. I think I've got five or six boxes with just three or four cards in them. Should be enough.

I've been reading the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold in a rather haphazard order as I can lay hands on them. I don't know why I've never bothered to read them before now.

I'm seriously considering getting a Kindle Fire this year. I want one mostly for the access to magazines that the publishers have decided must only be available for tablet devices rather than e-ink devices. I think it's stupid personally, but what can you do? I'd also like one for the other features too. I've been wanting something like this since forever but have heretofore refrained because the options either didn't impress me or had aspects that I found repulsive.

The end of the week is finally upon me. While I have to-do list of subjects for future posts I really have nothing much to say for this one. Pretty much a typical Saturday shaping up into another dull Saturday evening. Just as well as I'm feeling a bit sick this weekend. Probably has something to do with lack of sleep.

I think I'll turn in early and curl up with the Kindle DX.

I've decided for the nonce that I'm going to try to post every week. There isn't much to say this week. I'll just address a couple things and we'll see what else comes to mind if anything.

I think this is the year I need to finally empty my mother's old room and get things squared away for whatever repairs need to be done to that room. I've been putting it off for four years now. Just need to get the bed out of there so I can have enough room to move around in there. My mother liked to keep rooms tightly packed wall to wall with furniture and stuff. The bed will probably go to the side of the road a component at a time since I now know the trash collector will pick up one and only large item a week. Maybe getting it out of the house will help my sinuses a little. Who knows?

Apple announced the iPad today which is certainly going on my list of candidates for journal book replacement. It would seem more viable for the role than the iPod Touch. However, a cheaper netbook is still looking like what I'll end up getting.

I'm currently reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman and Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. Also reading a collection of essays about Firefly/Serenity which so far has been a little annoying in that the first few essays seem more about tearing down every other bit of television science fiction in attempt to show how wonderful Firefly is in comparison. I'm hoping that the essays get better further in. I also loaded the Kindle with a few collections of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction the other night. I've been meaning to catch up on my reading of his work and now seems like as good a time as any.

I got a chance to visit Fry's Electronics yesterday to look at what they had. They had four models of ebook readers. Three of which were e-ink devices. They had the Sony PRS-505 and PRS-700 models, one of the Astak reader, and the ECTACO jetBook. Didn't really look at the Astak much since the display model looked damaged. The display on the PRS-700 is indeed a bit on the foggy side. I had read about that but seeing it first hand I have to really wonder what Sony was thinking. Do they really think consumers want to have a touchscreen and a backlight with the trade off of having less than crisp and clear text? I really like the PRS-505 though.

While I haven't completely taken the jetBook out of consideration. The fact that it has an LCD display rather than e-ink is a big minus but still it can be found for such a nice price if you watch the sales.

e-ink has changed a bit since the demonstrations I saw five or so years ago. The text on the 505 is clear, crisp and does indeed look like fresh black ink on paper. What I saw a few years ago had this odd yellow tint with a slightly faded newsprint look. Nice to see that isn't the case with the devices on the market. Whatever it was I saw back then I'm not even sure it's in the same lineage as what they call e-ink now. If anybody remembers that stuff, let me know. I think I saw it at some trade show or something. Can't remember.

Okay, I'm really, really, really bored today. Well, probably more lonely than bored I guess. Then again maybe it's all the same thing. I don't know.

I'm still researching ebook readers. I really want either a Sony PRS-505 or a Kindle DX. Actually both would be very nice. I like the Kindle DX for the large screen and native PDF capability. It seems like the screen is just about the right size for the typical letter size pdf, maybe. It's still a little smaller than a letter size page. Then there's the selection of books Amazon offers for it. The wireless connectivity is nice but isn't a big feature with me. On the other hand the PRS-505 is a nice almost pocket sized size and offers a wider variety of format support. The casing design is also more aesthetically pleasing.

I've also given some consideration to the ECTACO JetBook. Newegg has it for a very nice price. However I'd rather have something with an eInk display. The JetBook has an LCD display which I'm sure is very nice but I'm not sure I'd want to spend hours and hours reading an LCD display like that when I know the epaper stuff exists.

Well, that was interesting. This evening I went in and gave my Amazon wish list a serious pruning. I took it down from 26 pages to 4 pages. It could probably take a little more.

Speaking of Amazon I have to admit I'm very interested in the Kindle DX. They've finally got one out with the screen size I want.