ihnatko's posterous

November 6, 2009

Your Spiritual Thought Of The Morning

Busy morning today: something I thought was due on Monday is actually due today at Noon. I'm on it, and it'll be done in time, but it's not the lazy lie-in I had planned after writing about 7,000 words of coverage on the Droid phone.

Nonetheless, it's a busy and hectic morning. I keep needing to break away from the manuscript to check up on silly little details.

"Is it 'AppleTV' or 'AppleTV'?" (Space between, yes.)

"'iPod HiFi' or 'Hi-Fi'?" (I need to insert hyphens.)

"What was the name of the CD player that Apple once sold? AppleCD, wasn't it?" (No, "Apple PowerCD.")

Mornings like this put me in a mood of...not Existential Despair. But Spiritual Irkiness.

"Why do I bother, o Lord?" I ask.

(Buster, my life-sized stuffed Dalmatian doll, sits in for God, as usual. He is stoic and silent.)

"Honestly. Does anybody even care?" I sigh. "What's the point of what I do all day?"

And then my MacBook goes "blnnnng!" and I tab over to see if my editor is checking in on the manuscript.

It is an email from a reader.

He has sent me a photo of Carrie Fisher and her double on the set of "Return Of The Jedi," sunbathing in their Slave Leia costumes on Jabba's sandbarge.

Buster the Dalmatian. He is the lamp unto my feet. I return to my labors, my burdens lifted, knowing full well just why I care so damned much about my readers.

Comments [6]

November 2, 2009

Google Nav est Borked

"I'll take another drive with Google Nav," thought I. "I'll set up my window cam mount so my review can contain vid of the app in action."

Witness the result. Before I've even pulled out if the driveway. And it won't relaunch, and even rebooting the phone doesn't help. Google Maps is now a pretty icon on this Droid and nothing more.

I'm sure this won't come up in the review...

-- A.

Sent from my (fully-armed and operational) iPhone

Comments [2]

November 1, 2009

My DIY Droid Car Mount

I'm spending the whole week using a Droid as my primary phone. Before I review it I want to do a full immersion. So I'm leaving my iPhone in my pocket. I only take it out for incoming calls and when I need to compare something to the Droid.

Ah: but my iPhone spends a lot of time in it's car cradle. It's my music player and my GPS.

They didn't send me a car kit so I had to improvise. This is an old GPS mount with the GPS bit removed and replaced with a pad of Velcro. And that's the micro-USB cable from my Kindle, providing power.

Well, it works! I've been driving with it for two days now.

Velcro: it's like duct tape for the indecisive.

Sent from my iPhone. Because obviously I couldn't take a photo of the Droid WITH the Droid, could I?

Comments [5]

October 29, 2009

Zaftigs Turkey Pot Pie, w/side of Mac & Cheese

-- A.

Sent from my iPhone

Comments [5]

October 24, 2009

Testing three video cameras simultaneously today. "But how?" you ask...

Left to right: Kodak Zi8, Flip Ultra HD, Creative Vado HD.

-- A.

Sent from my iPhone

Comments [9]

October 23, 2009

And now...Obama's ACTUAL motorcade passing through Boston:

(download)

-- A.

Sent from my iPhone

Comments [2]

October 23, 2009

Sony's upcoming eBook readers (with pix)

Just finished a briefing with Sony about their new Reader editions. In the background you see the Touch and two colors of the Pocket edition.

In the foreground you see the upcoming "Daily," due in December. It's like a Touch with a longer screen and 3G (with the usual "free national access via AT&T").

And it includes additional features that Sony wasn't ready to talk about yet.

Though the name invites speculation. Oh, and I noticed that the Daily had an "Applications" button that wasn't to be found on the Touch. Tapping it led to an empty page.

"Real" reviews will come later (I leave this briefing with two Readers in my satchel). For now, an hour of conversation leaves me feeling very good about Sony's attitude: they seem committed to supporting open content and open bookstores. A Reader will read any Word doc, any PDF, any ePub...and even any storebought or library ebook in ePub format with Adobe ACS4 DRM.

My big worry is that publishers will drive consumers to piracy via multiple incompatible DRM systems. I think Sony's making a smart play by keeping their Readers as agnostic as possible.

An aside, in parting: I always seem to favor religious terms to describe device independence. I tapped "Agnostic," then considered changing it to "Ecumenical" and then, flustered for a third option, I even considered "Catholic."

I defend each of these choices on the basis that they each contain fewer syllables than "Device-Independent."

(Plus: it's clearly divine ordinance.)

Sent from my iPhone

Comments [7]

October 20, 2009

A Night of Round Table With Monty Python - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com

The format also yielded a couple of authentically touching moments. Mr. Gilliam read a question submitted by 10-year-old Talia Lindner, asking if she could perform her version of the Spanish Inquisition skit for the Pythons. Mr. Gilliam accepted, and up to the front of the theater strode little Talia, in glasses and blue jeans. After a deep breath or five, she rapidly performed all the characters in the scene in just under a minute (“I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition”; “Hold on, I’ll come in again”), drawing roars of laughter from the troupe followed by enthusiastic handshakes.

via artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

I wanted to share this for two compelling reasons:

(1) It's absolutely adorable. If there's a PayPal account set up for this girl's college fund, I've got $20 set aside. And bully to the Pythons for recognizing how great a moment that could be, and encouraging her to climb to the podium.

(2) It's a good opportunity to mention that although a 10-year-old girl reciting the entire Spanish Inquisition Sketch for the Pythons is absolutely adorable, a 46-year-old IT worker with the same impulse should probably just keep his hand lowered.

Do read the entire piece. The ending started my morning off with one hell of a smile.

Comments [1]

October 18, 2009