teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
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.
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
The end of 2010 is fast approaching. There hasn't been a whole lot to say. I've been and still am working on a few projects that are eating up a lot of time. I had a sinus infection or something during the middle of the month. It was extremely unpleasant and slowed me down entirely too much. I don't think I got anything at all accomplished the week it hit me.

I got my Holiday cards out. They were mailed a little later than usual. I didn't get them out the door until about the 20th. I went with a card that was not insignificantly more costly than what I've used in past years. (They cost me double what I usually end up paying.) It was a really nice card. Managed to find a card design I really liked this year.

For Christmas I got a nice cover for my Kindle DX. I like it better than the sleeve I've been using since I got the DX. I'd recommend using a cover instead of sleeve quite emphatically. The difference it makes is something I did not imagine when I bought the sleeve back in 2009.

I installed Linux on my old Compaq laptop. After Windows XP went to service pack 3 the old thing had gotten extremely sluggish and seemed to be getting worse with every update Microsoft released. The fact that it only has 256MB of RAM likely didn't help at all. Anyrate, it's been running quite well since I installed Linux.

Saturday...

May. 1st, 2010 07:02 pm
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
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.
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
Well, I committed myself to doing an entry a day for the week. Really not a whole lot to say for today. I got a haircut today as planned. I've got the wireless on my Kindle DX turned on in the hopes that I'll get the new 2.5 update. It has a couple features I've been waiting for. Namely the ability to organize books into collections and yet more improved PDF handling.

Nothing else to say and I have a headache. I hope anyone reading this is in good spirits tonight.
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
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.

Been awhile

Dec. 5th, 2009 09:15 pm
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
It's been awhile since I've posted anything here so this is an update I guess.

I still haven't found an electronic replacement for my everywhere journal but we'll see.

My brother finally got the 1994 Sunbird squared away and it passed the emissions inspection. We only had to replace the battery and the alternator and patch the radiator to get the thing working again.

I need to get stuff together for the Holiday/Christmas/Yule/Whatever cards this year. Like as not this year I'll probably go through the cards I got last year and only send cards to those people. Seems like a plan at anyrate. I still haven't gotten the cards yet but I hope to at some point this week.

I've read over forty books on my Kindle DX so far. Not too bad for a four month period. Oddly I find that I prefer reading in the landscape rather than portrait orientation. It just seems more comfortable that way. It's so nice to be able to adjust text size while reading. When my eyes start to get tired I just bump it up a notch or two. :)

The evil trash-burning neighbors moved out the other month. Maybe my sinuses will get a little better soon. I'm still having that crackle in the skull thing, I've had since shortly after those morons moved in. It might be getting less frequent though, we'll see.

That's all for now.
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
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.
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
Health issues seem to be alright. I'm still having sinus issues but changing urologists last year really helped with that other issue. It always works better when the doctor is treating you for the condition you have rather than something he's imagining. I need to find a good ENT specialist who's accepting new patients.

I'm still looking at eBook readers. To that end I've been hanging around the MobiileRead Forums a bit lately. It's been interesting and I'd recommend the site to anyone interested in these devices. The readers I'm most interested in continue to be the Kindle DX and the Sony PRS-505. Would like to get to a Borders or somewhere to spend a little time looking at a PRS-505 in person. I saw one at Borders the other year but didn't take all that much time to look at it. No telling when I'll get the opportunity to do that.

I've recently watched Adventures of Brisco County Jr. on DVD. It was pretty much what I remembered from 15 years ago. It's a fun series. I think I missed a few episodes back when it originally aired though.

[livejournal.com profile] jigsawdiva, I don't know if you saw that comment I left to your comment the other day but I've put pictures showing the Doctor Who MMPBs I'm interested in passing on to someone else. As the images are quite large and left so to keep titles readable they can be found here and here.
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
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.
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
I think I have a new pet peeve. As some of you know I've been researching ebook readers lately. I've read a few hundred user reviews across a dozen or so sites and one thing really stands out. More than half of the reviews are written by people who insert LOL or ROFL at seemingly random intervals throughout their writing. It makes for obnoxious reading and quite frankly my first thought when I see this kind of thing is to wonder what kind of idiot is this?

Second peeve are those who seem to feel a strange need to apologize for length when the sum total of their post is under 500 words. If it's under 500 words it's not long! Blazes, if it's under 1,000 words it's probably not over long. If it's worth writing someone somewhere will find it worth reading. Stop assuming your readers have the attention span of a 3 year old on a sugar high! If you have something to say then say it and use as few or as many words as you need.

Pruning...

May. 18th, 2009 06:29 pm
teyrnon: An extremely abstract dragon logo (Default)
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.
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