Plans2Reality

Kindle DX

I was blessed with the gift of a Kindle DX recently. Hats off to Amazon; I think they have clearly set the benchmarok for e-book readers. The unit is thin and light. The screen is _amazingly_ sharp and easy to read. It holds about a gazillion books (see Amazon site for details) and book download is automatic, via cell-phone technology. No charge for airtime, either.

The interface is intuitive, but it comes with a built-in manual anyway. Also comes with a dictionary.

I find it as easy to read as a book, and nearly as handy to carry. It won't fit in some places where a paperback would fit, but overall it is thin and light enough - even easier to carry than a netbook.

Font size is adjustable - great for older readers or bad light. You can rotate the Kindle and it shifts the display, too.

It charges via standard USB, so you can share charging bits with iPhones and many other devices.

No doubt someday someone will develop a better e-book reader - it may be Amazon, or not - but the Kindle DX is the benchmark today. Why, it's even better than an iPhone!

Preview GPS Units

Louise and I recently completed a 2500+ mile car trip, with not one, not two, but three GPS units. (Four, if you count the Microsoft Streets and Trips program, but we didn't use that one much.)

We'll be posting more about our experiences in future posts. The short version is: none of the GPS units we used was perfect, either in basic directions or in user interface. On the other hand, it's quite amusing to have all three units yelling directions at you. They are in general, but by no means universal, agreement.

For me, one of the most interesting points about them is how not-friendly they are for a lone driver. With a passenger to work the unit, things went well enough. I'm not sure they would be as big a help to lone drivers.

More to come.

Wireless...where did it go?

So there I was, unplugged for the first time, hunting for a wireless network while traveling.  What does my new computer do?  It disables the wireless card because I'm unplugged and running on battery.  Pretty ironic, that "wireless" is configured not to work when the computer is "wireless."  But yes, that was the default.

Although I did see a message about the network card being disabled, the solution was less obvious. Just plugging in the computer didn't seem to solve the problem (although it is supposed to) so I rebooted to start over while plugged in.  It took some hunting to figure out how to configure the network card not to shut down when running on battery.  The configuration option is associated with power management, not the network card. 

Once I reset the network card to work on battery, my problem was solved and I was back in business even without a power cord.

Sure is great that Starbucks has put in wireless!  Whether in Munich, or Greenville, NC, I know where to go to get wireless and my email.  And now my computer is even configured to be wireless, when I'm wireless.

Traveling with my new Vista laptop

An unexpected need to travel cross country arose just as I was getting my new laptop going.  I had a day or two of notice and quickly installed the new software that wasn't loaded yet and walked out the door to the plane.

Here is what I learned from that... always launch and use new software after installing it and before you go somewhere.

1) Adobe CS3 requires that you enter the security product code on initial launch.   Since I was 2500 miles from my software package and didn't have my security code I couldn't use that while I was gone.  Definitely would be a slicker installation and less frustrating to the user if that was requested as part of the install process, but since it isn't do take time to launch at installation to take care of that.
2) I also added an Electronics Arts game just for fun.  2500 miles away, I discovered that it requires that you have the software CD to run it, so that didn't work either.  Experienced gamers would probably know that the software CD is required to run the program, but it was news to me.  It's an interesting way to prevent multiple installs by different people, but definitely put a kibosh on my initial experience with EA games.

I also did not get the XP to Vista transfer tools to work at all before leaving.  I got everything installed and setup, but nothing transferred.  Not sure what the problem is there.  Perhaps I'll try it again to see if I can get it to work if I have a little more time to try.

In general my laptop did fine on the trip with one or two minor issues uncovered.  More about that another day...

Thanks, Veterans! And Those On Duty Now

The title says it all.

You are remembered, and appreciated. As you always will be, so long as there is liberty in the world.