New Amazon Kindle Experience

I’m an industrial designer and have been using PDA’s in some flavor or another for the last 12 years. My first was a Palm Personal with only enough memory to load part of a book at a time. I read perhaps a 100 books on a greenish-grey screen of 160 pixels square. All of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, Edgar Rice Burroughs and more. Classic stories and novels that I didn't have time (or money to buy the books) when I was younger. Project Gutenberg became one of my favorite websites. Project Gutenberg

Since then I’ve had many others PDA's, but starting with those that had color LCD screens, none was as satisfying as my grey-scale Handera 330 with its 480x320 screen. It was a bridge to better PDA’s, but those color LCD PDA's were not necessarily better for reading, as folks on the Kindle development team discovered. As I’ve gotten older, reading on screens like my iPod Touch have become more and more of a strain, along with the distractions of a multi-purpose device. It's far too easy to waste time playing Solitaire rather than read. This is one of the reasons I decided to go with the Kindle versus the iPad: the iPad is fine for a go-anywhere tablet-cum-computer, but it's too heavy for an eReader, can't be read in sunlight and costs too much.

The first Kindles to be released were too expensive for me, but by generation three, as we have seen, the price had dropped, features had improved and I felt ready to take the plunge. So far most of my experience has been good. The device is superb for reading books (its intended purpose), at least those that can be read in a linear fashion, like novels. For books that are used in group study where one might be constantly flipping back and forth between pages and paragraphs, not so good, as the pagination with printed copies isn’t the same. Amazon Kindle 3G + WiFi

I’ve been VERY impressed with the screen, both the resolution and the contrast. I thought 800 pixels by 600 pixels wouldn't be good enough, but so far, so good. The readability is wonderful in all kinds of light, even in light that would be too dim for a printed page. Something about the e-Ink screen background surface seems to amplify the available light.

The size is great, though the weight with the lighted cover, at one pound even, is a little more than I would have liked. Still, it’s highly portable and well protected. The lighted cover works well and I don’t have to carry a separate light or worry about batteries. Battery drain when using the lighted cover is another thing: one can really see the indicator drain down.

However, even with the positives, I’ve had some negative experience with spontaneous resets of the device, for no apparent, repeatable reason.

I've experienced what I would call "severe" freezes and resets trying to use PDF's on the K3. I was able to show several PDF's of varying sizes to a coworker one morning, then a spontaneous reset and they were no longer accessible, even though it appeared the files were still list on the Home screen. I assumed they'd been corrupted or something else.

I called Amazon CS, but the lady (though nice) was not able to resolve my issue, because she'd had no experience with PDF issues. I told her that I simply wanted them to be aware of the problem, and she thanked me.

I tried doing a "hard reset" (holding the power switch for 15 or more seconds), but that didn't help. I ended up doing a reset to factory settings (losing all of my loaded books, etc.) and had to reset my Kindle user name on the Managing My Kindle web-page as well as reinstall everything from scratch.

To give this another shot, I printed an email to PDF and mailed that to the Kindle. I have a suspicion that crashes might have something to do with the fact that my PDF's (of varying sizes) were loaded into sub-folders (Collections). I just looked again the small file I emailed works fine, but it's file size is VERY small.

I have reloaded all of the PDF’s that were deleted after the "reset to factory" debacle yesterday. For the time being, I have been VERY careful to open them and not do anything else, letting them open FULLY. So far (knock on wood) they all work, BUT WiFi is off, which in itself is a little weird, as it was on before I established a USB link with my computer and loaded the PDF's. After ejecting the Kindle, it was turned off, as was 3G, which seems to be spotty in my building.

After reading other people’s experiences, I'm actually afraid to turn WiFi back on, for fear it will crash my new, marvelous toy. So far, the files seem to be working, but WiFi is off as well, whether or not it contributes to the problem.

I tried doing some universal word searches, so am guessing that my unit is completely indexed. I have a graphite 3G + WiFi unit with a couple dictionaries, about 18 books, a couple JPG's and one small PDF loaded at the moment. No big, huge collections; no compilations...

I *really* do not want to return my unit and am hoping that there will be a firmware fix for this problem.

I sent a letter to the Kindle team and got an email response back asking me to leave my phone number, so they could call me and set up remote access to my Kindle to see if they can figure out what's happening. Worse-comes-to-worse, I know they'll send out a new unit, but fixing this one would be preferred. More to come...

My Review of Swiss Army Minichamp

Originally submitted at REI

This versatile knife features a retractable pen that allows you to use the pen without removing it from the knife.

Swiss Army Minichamp

Great, All-Purpose Knife

By TechJunkie from Lynnwood, WA on 8/17/2010

 

5out of 5

Gift: No

Pros: Durable, Versatile, Sharp Blade

Best Uses: Home, OfficeWork, Camping

Describe Yourself: Casual/ Recreational

This is a great, all-around pocket knife that I've owned for about three years. Of the many Victorinox knives I've owned, from the smallest to the largest, I still keep the Swiss Champ in my computer/commuter pack, but this smaller Champ is by far the best one I've owned. Not because it can do everything, but because it has a good suite of tools and functionality in a small package. It's the one that I'm most likely to have with me all the time.

The small Philips is great for computers and around the office and the ball-point pen is useful in a pinch, though one wouldn't write more than a few sentences with it. One of the tools not listed is a cuticle-pusher. This is NOT a knife that I'd use in the woods or camping, but for a tag-along in a pair of slacks, it's perfect.

Living in a pocket it can get dirty and linty, but that's easily remedied with some warm, soapy water and a toothbrush.

(legalese)

There Can Be Only One...

... at least that's the tag line for the movie "Highlander". Short premise of the movie (and series) is that there are these immortals that run around killing each other with swords. They're immortal, and as long as they don't get their head lopped off they recover from their wounds. If they DO behead a fellow immortal, they gain that person's powers. For THESE immortals, life is bittersweet, as the mortals they befriend die while they go on living.

One of the "big" thoughts that's been going through my mind is that we as humans tend to think of our life on earth, death and that's it. But in reality, we don't just pass out of existence. We're IMMORTAL from the time that we're conceived. Our "death" is simply a transition from one part of our immortality to the next.

God made us in His image. That means that we spirits like Him and have a mind like His, emotions and a need for relationship. God created us as immortals, but death was given as an act of mercy after the Fall, so that man would not live forever in a fallen state, like the "Highlander" I mentioned above.

The rub for us is that we can ignore this fact. We can pretend that the "afterlife" doesn't really exist. We can say we don't believe in God. Whatever form of denial we take, the truth is always the same: we are immortal souls clothed in mortal flesh. That's the paradox and we live our lives in futility if we believe that this life here and now is all there is.

Recognizing the fact of immortality brings about a question: where will I spend eternity?

I believe that my faith in Jesus as Christ (Messiah) and Savior gives me an answer that I can count on. I will spend eternity with Jesus, serving him and enjoying Him forever. For my life on this earth, the recognition that I'm truly immortal NOW gives me hope for the future and hope as I see my body becoming older, aging before my very eyes, year after year. It's not that aging doesn't matter; it does. But I feel that I've gained a sense of perspective.

That's part of the answer to what life "on the downhill slope" is like. It ends up being a matter of perspective.

I got a chance to see a stage production of "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis this past week. I've read the book before and was really challenged by it. What stood out the most this time through it was a quote from George MacDonald, who was a real-life mentor for Lewis, but appears in the play/story as a guide. He says (and I paraphrase) "that for the one that accepts God and His promise of eternal life, heaven works "backwards", turning even past agonies into glory, while the one that rejects Him will find that even their prior existence on earth was truly hell."

And that's the big thought. As a believer in Jesus and of His sacrifice on the cross for me, I don't have to wait for heaven; I'm already there. I am already a part of God's growing family. I already share an inheritance with Jesus. My "death" will simply be a transition, leaving this fleshly body for a time, to be joined with it again at the time of the Resurrection.

If I keep this in mind, then I can approach old age, with its aches, pains and suffering with confidence, even though it will be hard. I can do this not because of a force of will, but through Christ.  In reality there is no end, eternity is now and I can live my life in the hope that thought brings. Instead of worrying about becoming older and approaching death, I am freed to, like the Apostle Paul, run the race set before me, seeking to finish well.

AMEN!