I’ve been using the Kindle for about a week now and contrary to what this article says, I actually have been getting a lot of reading done. As much as I love the smell of books and they way they look on my shelf, I’m starting to understand the appeal of an e-reader. For one, it’s eminently portable and since I spend an hour on the tram everyday, the device is starting to seem more and more like a great purchase.

I’d briefly considered getting myself a tablet device but then decided against it because face it, it’s hard to get any real reading done on a device that offers such lively distractions as fart synthesizers and pissed finches.

The reading experience itself is quite non-intrusive; you hardly feel you’re reading on a device that uses electrically charged microcapsules but instead, feels a lot like a book (now and then, I try ‘turning the page’ before realizing a click suffices). The screen contrast makes for pleasant reading and unlike devices with OLED screens, the Kindle works great outdoors.

The firmware however could use a bit of tweaking but for most purposes, is quite intuitive. It also comes with an experimental browser which is pretty useless and by the time it loads a page, I’ve done more on my phone’s browser. One of the great things about Amazon’s Kindle is the brilliant Kindle store (with a catalog of around 670000 books) and while some of the prices do seem a bit much, works out cheaper for me considering I don’t have to shell out for shipping costs.

Frankly, I never thought I’d get an e-reader but one week and 4 books later, I’m glad I did.

[Pic posted on my Flickr account]

While I don’t agree with Cory Doctorow on comic books (I rarely, if ever lend mine out), this is exactly why I won’t be getting an iPad.

Then there’s the device itself: clearly there’s a lot of thoughtfulness and smarts that went into the design. But there’s also a palpable contempt for the owner. I believe — really believe — in the stirring words of the Maker Manifesto: if you can’t open it, you don’t own it. Screws not glue. The original Apple ][+ came with schematics for the circuit boards, and birthed a generation of hardware and software hackers who upended the world for the better. If you wanted your kid to grow up to be a confident, entrepreneurial, and firmly in the camp that believes that you should forever be rearranging the world to make it better, you bought her an Apple ][+.

But with the iPad, it seems like Apple’s model customer is that same stupid stereotype of a technophobic, timid, scatterbrained mother as appears in a billion renditions of “that’s too complicated for my mom” (listen to the pundits extol the virtues of the iPad and time how long it takes for them to explain that here, finally, is something that isn’t too complicated for their poor old mothers).

(…)

If you want to live in the creative universe where anyone with a cool idea can make it and give it to you to run on your hardware, the iPad isn’t for you.

If you want to live in the fair world where you get to keep (or give away) the stuff you buy, the iPad isn’t for you.

If you want to write code for a platform where the only thing that determines whether you’re going to succeed with it is whether your audience loves it, the iPad isn’t for you.

So, I’ve been using the Apple Magic Mouse for over a week now. And yes, like everything else that Apple comes out with, the design is pure genius. Very minimalist. At first glance, it looks like it’s carved out of a slab of marble.

I love the iPod Touch’s capacitive screen and I like that the trackpad for the MacBook Pro is very configurable. The touch interface for the Magic Mouse is as good if not better but the mouse tends to move when you do the two-finger side swipe. It’s slightly irritating but not something that can’t be gotten used to. Also, no pinch zoom. It tethers quite easily too and remained connected even when I took the mouse to the toilet. Yeah, don’t ask.

The one huge caveat is the price- I had to pay AUD 99 for it. Not cool.

After months of staring wistfully from outside camera stores, I finally went ahead and bought the Canon Vixia HF10 (uhuh, High Def).  Shooting has been a somewhat humbling experience but I’ll get there. Sooner or later.

Moving files around has been a tad tricky so I thought I’d document (sort of) what I did.

Linux:

If the device doesn’t mount, try ‘dmesg‘

# mkdir /camera
#mount /dev/sdb1 /camera
#cd /camera

MPlayer supports AVCHD (.mts) files, but you’ll need to compile MPlayer (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html) from source.

Windows:

Couldn’t  install the proprietary software that comes with the camera because my netbook doesn’t support the minimumm resolution. So I had to convert the .mts files to .avi.

First, install the AVISynth base and then this (mts_2_xvid.rar) . Unpack the .rar file and copy the .mts files from the camera into the folder and run the batch file _multi_demux_mts_Xvid.bat. That nifty little piece of code compresses the video to .avi and saves it in the same folder.

Trust me, it’s way simpler than it sounds.

It took me over 2 years to work up the courage to completely (no dual boot!) switch to a Linux distribution; and I’ve finally done it. Linux Mint 4.0 (Daryna). It took most of my day (and Swen‘s) yesterday to complete the move and I have to say, I can’t help but me amazed by the possibilities.

Installation was a breeze, took all of fifteen minutes and configuring the system was easier. Most of the stuff worked straight out of the box, including the video, sound and graphics drivers. Installed Compiz Effects (a compositing window manager) which makes Vista look like a cheap knock off.

What I did have was a little trouble with getting the net set up but that was because my new ISP uses the PPPoE protocol. A bit of googling fixed that ($ sudo pppoeconf at the terminal window solves everything) and I was online to get live support that got me through the rest of the process.

I remember complaining about how Linux was a major pain to use back in college but boy has it come a long way in the last 2 years!

Natalie has a better personality now. Way better.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQDJWi9yrTw]

A couple of hours back, I had the chance to play around with the Lego Mindstorms NXT Robot (Alpha Rex) and was blown away by what I saw. I vaguely remember a toy I had as a kid; a robot that had a button on it’s head and made noises when pressed. That was close to 20 years back and boy, how times have changed!

The central part of the kit (also sold separately) is the NXT Intelligent Brick that houses a 32 Bit ARM7 processor, an 8 bit Atmel AVR microcontroller, 4 input ports, 3 output ports and an LCD display. The beauty of the kit is the fact that you can fiddle around with an umpteen number of accessories and build a number of little robotic contraptions. Programming isn’t too difficult either; basic programs can be written directly using the menu on the brick and more complex ones can be downloaded using the USB port. I was told that you could also do it from your mobile phone thanks to Bluetooth connectivity.

The bundled programming software, NXT-G v1.0 allows the user to write a number of simple programs like performing calculations, working servo motors and programming light and sound sensors. The kit comes with 3 identical servo motors and 4 different input sensors; touch, sound, light and ultrasonic. While the majority of us got to play around with Lego blocks as kids, today’s thumb suckers get to fiddle around with exponentially cooler stuff. Pangs of envy are unavoidable.

I’m seriously considering shelling out 379$ to get the Alpha Rex robot. The kid in me has been outed and you can’t coax him back in.

http://mindstorms.lego.com/

Videos of the uber cool NXT in action: 1, 2, 3

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been tempted to post on a range of topics but the lack of time coupled with some serious lethargy prevented the flow of…er…words. So I shall resort to cliche and write in points.

• Californication: In spite of the gratuitous sesk and noodity (PG 13 you see), I love this show. The show follows the travails of a depressed has been writer trying to bring his life back on track. If you’re still not convinced, there are a bevy of beautiful women in every episode.
• ”Tumhara Kya Hoga, RGV?” : Couldn’t resist. Ram Gopal Varma’s attempt at remaking Sholay has pissed off pretty much the entire country. Looks like his illustrious career is headed for the dogs now. Thankfully, our very own Lalettan has come out unscathed.
• I have finally gotten an apartment after weeks of futile hunting. Of course, I had help and a person to get the lease transferred from.
• Work is starting to feel like a long unfunny version of The Office.
• A 3 year old kid (whose parents are software professionals from Cognizant and Satyam Computers) was kidnapped in Hyderabad and subsequently released. Police claim the reason the parents didn’t receive any ransom calls could have been because the family’s land line was out of order. Could have been. Can you come up with a smarter deduction?
• I have this sudden yearning for travel. I’m seriously contemplating visiting Tasmania.
• I have been (re)reading Name of the Rose for over 2 months now…haven’t been able to finish it yet. When did I get so slow?
• Apple has gone ahead and announced the iPOD Touch…that too 2 months after I bought a 30 gig iPOD!

A very neat HP ad featuring Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

 Now we wait for the reviews!

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

 Specs:

Drivers & Utilities, HP Photosmart Premier 6.0, HP QuickPlay Direct 2.1, QuickPlay for Windows 2.1, Norton Internet Security 2006, Microsoft Windows Media Player 10, Microsoft Money 2006, Real Rhapsody, muvee AutoProducer 4.5, Sonic Digital Media Plus 7.x  etc…

One downside I’ve seen so far is that the machine comes with 2 partitions; one having 80GB and the other with 20GB which is called the recovery partition. Partitioning the system further would mean re installing Windows XP and HP Quick Play which seems to be too much of a hassle so I think I’ll wait…for smarter friends