Let It Snow…
While I’m trying to get Movable Beast moved over to a new WordPress Theme (and being frustrated while trying to take all of the content from THIS site and move it to THAT site), I thought I’d turn on the old snow machine and let you enjoy or curse the snow falling on your screen. Don’t worry; it will be gone soon.
So. Do I Want A Kindle or Not?
You know me.
I can’t seem to let something new go by without buying it. The Apple TV came out earlier this year and (except for watching YouTube movies and showing slideshows) has been a bitter disappointment, and just about any other really cool techie toy that is announced can get me reaching for my wallet at light speed.
The Amazon Kindle is another matter. I like the idea, but there are some things that are keeping me from buying one. First, it bothers me that there are “only” 90,000+ books in the Kindle library. Yeah, that sounds like a lot, but why is it that when I search for electronic versions of some of my favorite books of all time I find that they’re not on that list. I’d love to see some old science fiction classics show up in Kindle format, or be able to grab old editions of any magazine to peruse (yeah, those old National Geographics are fascinating!). The price ($399) isn’t that bad considering the built-in EV-DO connection, but it surprises me that it isn’t somewhat lower since it only has a monochrome screen with 4 levels of gray.
I think the pricing structure is good as well. You can get many books in Kindle format for much less than the Amazon paperback price, and considering that instant delivery is built in, that is astounding. On the other hand, why would I want to pay $0.99 per month for blogs that I currently get for free? I guess in some ways I’m NOT getting them for free in a mobile format (I have to pay for my iPhone service, don’t I?), but I still have many other ways of viewing blogs in full, throbbing color.
I also want my local newspaper(s), not just the stinkin’ New York Times. Not that I’m a raving conservative or anything, but the Times is the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever read. It would be nice to read about the issues that affect ME locally, not what some overpaid and undertalented NYT hack thinks. When I’m able to pull up Kindle versions of the Rocky Mountain News, for instance, I’ll be a bit more interested in the newspaper capabilities of Kindle.
And how about magazines? I have a very focused group of magazines that I read: MacWorld, Aviation Week and Space Technology, QST, SpaceFlight, Southwest Art, etc… Why does Amazon think that I want to read Time magazine? Once again, the content is what drives this device, and the content that I’m interested in just isn’t there. I’m not sure reading Southwest Art in 4-grayscale monochrome is going to make my day anyway, since I enjoy looking at the works of art in full color.
All these things being said, I still think I want one. The content will come eventually, even if it takes Jeff Bezos beating up publishers and threatening to pull their dead-tree editions out of the Amazon store (which is responsible for huge sales…) to get them to agree to creating Kindle versions of their libraries. I also like the idea that I can move PDFs to the Kindle. Since ANY document I have on my Mac can be printed to PDF format, anything I have sitting here can be turned into Kindle fodder. Yum!
Of course, this is all dependent on whether or not Apple comes out with an über-iPhone subnotebook next month. Would I pick a really lightweight tablet Mac with a beautiful color screen over a rather utilitarian-looking grayscale device? That’s for damn sure!
Technorati Tags: Kindle
Movable Beast’s Season of Giving - Idea #4 - Be Your Neighborhood’s Weather Station
In my continuing quest to bring you a list of non-techie gifts, I just HAD to add a geek gift that still fits my criteria of helping others. I’m a huge fan of the Weather Underground - not the 60’s radicals, but the great weather site! One thing that’s cool about Wunderground is that they love to get weather information from personal weather stations. You can become a weather station and provide your local readings to Wunderground automatically. All you need is the right hardware and software!
As with many Mac applications, the software is the tricky thing here. There are several good looking applications, as well as some that might require a bit more work. Here are some sources for weather station software that will work with your Mac:
Weather Display
WeatherLink for Mac OS X
WeatherTracker
wview
Once you get the software figured out, you can see what weather stations your software supports. There are some very nice units available from a number of companies, including the Davis Instruments VantagePro 2, La Crosse Technologies 3610, Oregon Scientific WMR200 and more. I personally like the looks of the Oregon Scientific WMR200, as well as the fact that it actually has a USB interface to your Mac (sadly, many of the PC-compatible units are still using serial cables).
So, how is this a “giving” gift? Well, you’ll not only be adding to the sum of the world’s knowledge about weather, but your neighbors will benefit from knowing exactly what the weather conditions are like a few blocks or houses away! And that’s pretty darned generous of you.
Technorati Tags: Macintosh, Weather Stations
MacLevelTen Goes Live
I’m a big fan of Chuck Joiner’s various podcasts and sites for Mac users — MacNotables, MacVoices, the MUG Center, MacProductivity — so I was thrilled when he invited me and Movable Beast to join his latest venture as a content producer. MacLevelTen is up and running as of today, featuring the best of a number of top Mac-related websites:
- Design Tools Weekly and Design Tools Monthly from Jay Nelson and Jeff Gamet
- MacMouseCalls from fellow Apple Consultant Network member Pat Fauquet
- MacNotables, MacVoices, the MUG Center, and MacProductivity from Chuck Joiner
- The Pourhadi Perspective from Dan Pourhadi
- ScreenCasts Online from Don McAllister
- and of course, Movable Beast and Talking WordPress from yours truly!
The idea is for Mac users to have “one-stop shopping” for news and information about anything dealing with Apple products or web design (things that often go together anyway). On occasion, we’ll all get together for a podcast so you can hear our opinions on everything that’s going on. We’re also considering having a meetup at Macworld Expo this year so we can get together with our readers and listeners.
Be sure to visit MacLevelTen soon!
Movable Beast’s Season of Giving - Idea #3 - Give Blood
Giving blood can save a life, and blood is needed everywhere at all times - it’s a perishable product. I give blood about four times a year. Why? Because I can. In the Denver area I visit the Bonfils Blood Center donation center near my home, but for those of you who are elsewhere in the world, use the web to your advantage to search for a local donation center.
For those of you in the US or Canada, America’s Blood Centers is a centralized location to find out where you can give blood.
Movable Beast’s Season of Giving - Idea #2 - Clean Water In Africa
Although Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child initiative is a noble goal, there are children and adults in many parts of the world who need something more useful than a $200 laptop - clean water. It is estimated that 25,000 people per day worldwide die from preventable water-related illnesses. Solving these problems is usually as simple as drilling a well and providing a way to treat the water, but when you are spending most of your time just trying to stay alive it’s impossible to have either the energy or resources to drill a well yourself. Fortunately, there are a number of groups that are banding together to drill wells for those who need water.
African Well Fund
Drop In The Bucket
Global Partners For Development
PlayPumps
The Samburu Project
Uganda Village Project
WaterAid
Movable Beast’s Season of Giving - Idea #1 - Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
I’m going to do something a little different this year.
In the past, I’ve written up descriptions of techie gifts that you might want to run out and purchase for friends or family. This year, I’m going to supply you with ideas for giving, not gifts.
By giving, I mean providing something meaningful to someone who may be less fortunate than you. This year, my wife and I decided to forgo gifts to each other and relatives (we all have everything we need) and we’re giving gifts and a Christmas dinner to a low-income family in the Denver area. There are plenty of other things that YOU can do as a gesture of goodwill towards your fellow humans, and that’s what I want to ask you to do this year.
My first gift idea this year - Become a volunteer for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. This is a wonderful group that records books, articles, and other printed materials for people who are vision-impaired, blind, or dyslexic. The goal of this group is Learning Through Listening, providing the resources for young and old alike to continue learning throughout their lives even when sight is gone.
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Joy of Tech!
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MacLevelTen
