Kindle Wireless Reading Device
Company: Amazon
Price: $399.00
Amazon.com
Kindle?
No, I wasn’t looking for one of these. Ebook (eBook? ebook?) readers have always been seriously lacking in both design and function, as well as services. Kindle seems to be different, however. Perhaps you should take a look too, because Steve Jobs may have been mistaken when he said that nobody reads anymore.
If you are looking for an iPhone or a media player, this is not the thing for you. You will be disappointed with Kindle if that is what you are expecting.
(warning – this is written entirely in lower case – the writer is not responsible for any emotional damage done to english teachers, who should be thankful it is not also written as a txt msg. er. its not that i am lazy or anything . . . yes it is.)
beth lock. i have forgotten where or when i met her online more than a decade ago. i had always been in graphics, in aerospace. writing was something i did part-time, and without much thought to going anywhere with it. i guess it was my english teacher in high school, who turned me off of writing. i would write short stories, which my friends in school loved to read, and that really upset her for some reason, so she told me never to write again. “you are no good at it, and you never will be.” so i did not, for a very long time, until 1990, when i could no longer keep from writing. beth, and others liked my writing, strange, odd and crazy though it was.
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BENEATH THE NEON
Author: Matthew O’Brian
Publisher: Huntington Press, Las Vegas NV
ISBN D-929712-39-0
Price: $19.95
Writing a book about tunnels under a city can almost always spark interest in readers. There are so many tunnels, and so many cities that have them – an astonishing number, in nearly every country of the world. However, most anything written about underground spaces of the cities that have them range from ultra-dry Corps of Engineer type-documents to historical works of varying merit, some of which slide more into myth instead of fact. In other words, there is little written about under city tunnels that is both interesting and factual.
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DEVICES OF THE SOUL
by Steve Talbott
O’Reilly Media
Nothing beats a Mac. Nothing. Right? I mean, sitting in front of your computer at work, effortlessly creating new things and being totally productive is a way of life for so many of us. We know our work and our creative abilities so well, partly because our computer has provided us with the means of bringing our dreams to reality. Perhaps as never before in the history of Man, has any generation has such power to change the world as our generation, because of machines and technology such as the Apple Macintosh.
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It’s true. I write about the Mac, but my wife lives it. It is in every part of her day. She is a teacher, and also a student getting her final degree, so her trusty iBook goes with her everywhere, and often when she is home, she is in front of her new iMac, working away.
Being a teacher means long hours, full weekends, and often little sleep. Grades have to be entered, and tests and homework needs to be graded, curriculums written, and so on. But, she loves her work, and I am happy that she does. She excels in about everything she does, and she is also about the most organized person I know.
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Characters and people I knew and worked with in prehistoric Mac times.
ANNE – Was a wonderful interior designer, working out of her house in Southern California in the late 1980s. She used a Mac II, brand new, out-of-the-box for five grand. I helped her purchase and install RAM back then, because the more RAM you could install, the faster that 25 MHz computer would run applications.
Her house was furnished in late 70s Hippy fashion, which looked dated a decade later, but it was an interesting place to hang out. Anne was not the most beautiful girl, but she was a very decent sort and very business-like to work with. This lady was almost always in a bathrobe when I would come over, smelling like she just came out of the shower, her hair looking slightly damp and not yet blow dried. There was nothing overt in this. She probably liked to take a lot of showers. So I would just have her sit away from the Mac II while I had the top off and was fooling around its insides.
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COMPUTE: MAC by Roger Born, Macworld, 2006
This year, here at the Macworld Expo, I am not taking pictures. Nor am I interviewing vendors or reviewing new products. Present physical limitations have prevented all that. So what am I doing here? I sit in the midst of the milieu, watching and listening to the people here. In the process, I have made astonishing discoveries, which I want to share with you.
Compute: In the history of Man, there have been few all-encompassing discoveries and inventions. These are evident. (1) The control of fire, (2) the invention of the wheel, (3) the screw and the lever; (4) the control of steam which began the Industrial Revolution; (5) the control of electricity; and (6) the computer.
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Here are the first three pictures from Macworld Expo 2005, courtesy of MyMac.com journalist Roger Born. Thanks, Roger!
No idea what is behind these covered banners, but we will all know this time tomorrow. Whatever it is, it looks big with all this security. (Nothing new there)
enjoy!
Be sure to check with MyMac.com all week long for more news, information, and pictures of Macworld Expo 2004!
Roger Born spent the day haunting the Moscone Center and taking pictures! Here are fourteen pictures Roger snapped before the police showed up and arrested him for mooning traffic. HA! Just kidding.
Thanks, Roger!
(Tim Robertson Posting for Roger)
Bigger Banner
Biggest Banner of All
Creative Conference Session
From the Dungeons
Keynote Billboard
Macworld Destination
Necessary Fluids at Macworld
One of the many Interenet Libraries
Peek inside the exhibit hall
Photoshop Conference
Pro-Tools Conference
Second Keynote Billboard
Welcome
What to do? What to see?
Its true. You can find a lot of them out here in Southern California.
Out here, where we are in the Mojave Desert, there are numerous small towns and villages among the mesas and foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. All of them congratulate themselves for their fortunate position, in the middle of the most beautiful land there is, and for being part of an economy that is far less expensive than down South in LALA land, or indeed, all the rest of California.
Older folks, and folks that can’t afford to live elsewhere, make the most of the inexpensive living conditions out here. Some even buy homes, which are priced way below the rest of the market in Southern California.
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The new G5 iMac is something new in many ways. First of all, there has never been a Mac that only appears as a monitor and keyboard on your desk. This isn’t just a new Macintosh. It’s one that’s super thin and beautifully made. This will be very seductive to those prospective customers who see it for the first time.
Apple hit another home run here, folks. Don’t believe me? Look at Apple’s next quarter’s profits come December. It will be their most profitable quarter ever. Apple is going to sell tons of these new iMacs. (Wasn’t I right about the sales of those mini iPods too?)
Just listen to Phil Schiller’s part of the Keynote about the new iMac: “Just like the iPod redefined portable digital music players, the new iMac G5 redefines what users expect from a consumer desktop, …a lot of people will be wondering ‘where did the computer go?’”
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(Xanadu News) Apple Computer Inc. announced on Thursday plans for a next-generation iMac desktop computer, but said it won’t ship until September, missing its original internal schedule.
The company also said it has stopped taking orders for the current iMac, sales of which have slowed in recent quarter, and didn’t give details about the forthcoming iMac replacement.
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p>The study of ancient cultures can be a fascinating but frustrating experience. Take for instance, the study of the cryptic Box People who lived thousands of years ago, right before the last great rising of the seas.
Here is a civilization that once was vast, perhaps ruling the whole world in its day, such a very long time ago. They might have had a highly advanced technology, and they may have been a great people with their laws, morals and character. But alas, as with so many obscure ancient people, their thoughts and writings are lost to us, – which is why the study of their culture is so frustrating. Perhaps it is because the medium they used to record their thoughts and their works was very short-lived, and perhaps was of an electrical or digital nature. Almost nothing may be found among the few ruins and trash heaps of their once great nation except their immortal boxes, which is why we call them the Box People.
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We don’t usually quote Sir Bill on this site, but it is obvious that he has been reading my articles concerning the idea that computer hardware will be almost free in a few years. Either that, or he recently came back from a weekend think-fest where he was mining the thoughts and ideas of others, who have probably been reading my articles. =)
This is what Bill said about computer hardware:
“Ten years out, in terms of actual hardware costs you can almost think of hardware as being free.” – Sir Bill Gates. Here is the link.
Another thinker reported that Intel is ceasing to use speed as an effective tool to sell their computer chips, because they are already so fast and powerful it doesn’t matter anymore.
“When Intel said last week that it plans to stop using gigahertz figures to market its microprocessors, analysts said it was about time. A chip’s clock speed is almost irrelevant in determining the overall performance of a computer.” – Amit Asaravala. Here is the link.
So this means that Apple’s Cash Cow is dying. Their main business and their profit is hardware. Computer hardware, not just neat gadgets like the iPod and the iPod mini.
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Growing up, Mickey Mouse was always the friendly little guy with all his friends in the comic books I read avidly. Up until I discovered Science Fiction, anyway. Harmless mouse. Harmless and happy cartoon characters (except maybe Donald Duck). I learned to read from those guys, and their book friends Dick and Jane. Childhood memories glow with a particular warmth, don’t they?
Even when I was grown, with kids of my own, like everyone else, I took my family to Disneyland, to ride the rides, see the shows, and to take pictures of my kids hugging that friendly mouse. We all bought and wore those mouse ears. Didn’t you?
All this was not that long ago, as I think about it. Sure, the year’s fly by, and the kids are grown now, with kids of their own. My grandkids all know about Mickey Mouse, and a few of his friends, but no one reads those comics anymore, and my grandkids will likely never get to Disneyland. They prefer Magic Mountain with the world’s biggest rides and roller coasters, or Waterworld. More likely, they get their thrills on their PCs and their game machines of choice.
It stands to reason that everything has a lifespan, including your favorite new technological tool, that new PC or Mac on your desk. This is called product life span, and your brand new computer is most of the way through its life span toward extinction already.
“No way!” You say? “Not my brand new, very expensive PowerBook!”
The whole personal computer industry is busy following Moore’s Law. So they are bringing us faster CPUs, bigger capacity hard drives, cheaper RAM, and smaller machines. Yet everything has a logical limit. Personal computers are no exception. In a few short years there will be terahertz-processing speeds instead of gigahertz. It is possible that with the new light circuits, gates, and processors, even those amazing speeds will seem excessively slow. The good news is that real broadband will have finally arrived.
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Despite all I could do, I could not turn this into a Monty Python moment. Lord knows I tried. Fact is, this is just another sad turn in the strange and legendary story of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, the two computer giants of Silicon Valley.
Mr. Gates, now to be called Sir Gates, built his monopoly largely upon the genius and hard work of Mr. Jobs, stealing both the look and feel of the Mac OS for his Windows OS, and most of the computer market share over the past few decades. I am not blowing smoke here. These things are well known have been hashed over in the media and in commentary for the many years that they have been going on.
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Nobody is a real Mac worshipper. I hope you understand. People who ‘love’ their Macintoshes are the same kind of people who ‘love’ their BMWs or their Mexican food. That sort of love, for the vast majority who has it, is much different, and much removed, from the love these same people would have for their mates, their children, or their country. Don’t even put their love for the Mac or some other man-made thing, in the same league as their love of their Creator.
So why am I different? Somehow I am. I don’t love Pixl. I don’t worship Pixl, although I probably should. Rather, I hate her, or it, or whatever Pixl is. This is some story, let me tell you!
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I have observed Microsoft for a long time now. My life seems forever to be moving further into isolation and despair. I am finally alone, living in the most obscure part of the desert. Why? I fear for the future. I fear for us all. I fear that Redmond will one day soon have all of the people of our planet completely in their control, or rather under the control of whoever controls them.
I wasn’t always like this. Once I had a normal life. But something about Redmond, and Mr. Gates, always bothered me. More horrifically, it was the way all my friends began to rigorously use Microsoft products, in spite of how bad it all was.
I somehow could not let it rest. I could not let it be. I began to investigate on my own, what it was that was happening to everyone, for when it came to anything Microsoft, everyone I knew acted like zombies. They still do.
I think I know why now.
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