Reading list

Thought I would check in for the two of you who care about what I am
reading right now. Just finished up Book 16 of the New Jedi Order
Series. And I want a break from the Yuuzhan Vong story line.

Picked up the last in the Republic Commando Series this weekend (in
paperback, as no one carries it in ebook format), 501st: An
Imperial Commando Novel. I also have a novel about the end of the
world to read (also paperback), plus the book written by that airline
pilot who crash landed the plane in the Hudson (ebook). I've also got
some non-fiction to read too, but I think I will stick with fiction at
the moment.

(I know, I need to put some titles in here, but I can't remember what they are, will look when I get home).

Apple iPad and Me.

To preface this, I will disclose that I have been an Apple customer since 1986.  I have personally owned a Mac since I turned 18 in 1996.  I currently have 4 Macintosh computers (PowerMac G5(server), MacbookPro (mine), Macbook Air (Rachel’s), 12” Powerbook (Not even running right now), 3 ipods (2G Shuffle, 3G Nano, 1G Touch), and an AppleTV.  And believe it or not, not one of these devices was purchased new.  Most were refurbished, and a few were used.  I am not a fanboy, and actually have disliked many of Apple’s decisions over the past few years. (No real display port on a laptop?? Why do I have to carry adapters to make any presentation at all???? Only two friggin’ USB ports??).  Anyways……

 

Let’s talk a bit about my usage.  I am not a heavy lifting computer user any more, at least at home.  I check email, surf the web, use Web 2.0 (twitter, blogs, facebook, ect), and do finances and calendar sharing.  Sometimes I do presentations, and papers for work, or the Fraternity at home on my Mac, but it’s just not an everyday occurrence.  I don’t have a single Macintosh game.  I do have a game I play in Windows with Bootcamp, but not very often.  Lately, I have been doing most of the email reading, blog reading, and Web 2.0 stuff on my 1^st Generation iPod Touch.  This has been great, as I am not spending as much time downstairs on my computer, and am more connected to my family.  But I still have to go to my laptop to do most of my web surfing.  Before I bought the Macbookpro in January 2008, I had been hoping for a 12” tablet, or new 12” laptop.  Alas it didn’t come to pass, so I got the MacbookPro.

 

Yesterday, Apple announced a device called the iPad.  It is basically a 10” iPod Touch.  Many people have panned it as it can’t multitask, nor does it run OSX, just a scaled version of the iPhone OS.  What I see, is possibility.  Is this the device I wanted in January 2008?  No.  Are my computing needs the same as they were in 2008?  Not even close.  I see the iPad as exactly what Apple designed it for.  A device to sit between devices.  I have my laptop to do the heavy lifting, and as a home base as such.  I can still take it with me if I need it.  But I see the iPad as a perfect replacement for my iPod Touch.  Perfect?  Yes, as it can run everything I have on my Touch now, plus it has the potential to be so much more.  What about Multitasking?  I haven’t used it in 10+ years as a Palm user, why would I need it now.  The Touch doesn’t have multitasking, but I get email, Facebook, twitter and other notifications when I am using other programs. Can someone explain to me what you really want multi-tasking for???  Please, people have had this discussion for years between PocketPC and Palm, and I could never figure out what multitasking brought to the table.  I used to read ebooks on the iPod Touch, but it was killing my eyes, and I switched to a Dedicated ebook reader (Sony PRS-505).  Reading on that is great, except it has all of the same issues as a book, mainly, I have to have a light on.  I look forward to hearing how the reading experience is on the iPad, and how you load books that you already own, or make yourself.  If that works out, I can combine quite a few devices into one.  Yes it will be larger, but it is a version of what I have wanted for over 4 years, and I can’t wait to see what develops.

 

The only thing this brings to light is that I would lose my music player.  I could temporarily use the 3G nano, but I guess this is basically pushing me towards getting an iphone (which other things have already been doing anyways).  Hopefully the mystical Verizon iPhone will materialize around when my contract runs out in 2011.

 

What are your thoughts on the new iPad?

 

Found on the Interwebs today

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said,

 

'Jesus knows you’re here.'

 

He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze.

 

When he heard nothing more, after a bit, he shook his head and continued.

 

Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard

 

‘Jesus is watching you.'

 

Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.

 

Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.

 

‘Did you say that?'  He hissed at the parrot.

 

'Yep', the parrot confessed, and then squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you that he is watching you.'

 

The burglar relaxed.  'Warn me, huh?  Who in the world are you?'

 

‘Moses,’ replied the bird.

 

'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?'

 

'The kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.'

 

 

 

Don't hold your breath.

An historic night last night. A non-democrat has been elected from Mass. After being "represented" by a Kennedy and a Kerry, for years, they have elected a new person. But what about Obamacare? After all the rhetoric, after all the fear-mongoring, do you think the Democrats will listen to the people and stop the healthcare bill now? The Democrats said that if Brown was elected it would put the bill in jeopardy. Maybe "We the People" want it in jeopardy, want it stopped, but I bet they won't believe that. To them, it wasn't the people that voted in Brown, it was the right-wing conspiracy. So, I wouldn't hold your breath on Obamacare going away.

This November is looking like it could be fun. Find out if your Congressman/Senator is any good. If not, lets find someone to run in his or her place.

Lets throw the worthless bums out.

Solutions Wanted

Problem number 1:

Some of you may know, and some may not, but I have used a Palm OS device since 1998 to keep track of information. Palm has discontinued their OS and have upgraded to another. Rachel and I recently upgraded to Palm Centro's (The last PalmOS phone to be made), when our contracts with Verizon ran out. Basically our plan was to keep what we knew for another contract, and then hopefully a new solution would present itself to us. This is working out, but the one problem we have always had is rearing its ugly head again. We can't share calendars.

As I said, I have been using a palm since 1998. I have calendar entries running back to at least 2001 in my calendar, and when I have changed jobs, I transfered over these entries from Outlook calendar to outlook calendar using my Palm PDA/Phone.

Rachel and I have a G5 tower at home that is our media/print server, and i would love it if I could put a monitor from it into the kitchen that showed a calendar on it (plus other stuff). I am having trouble figuring out the solution.

Here is the senario, I have info on my Outlook calendar/ipod touch/palm that are all synced (and in Color coded categories). Rachel has info on her phone that is currently not synced anywhere. I want to merge all of this onto the G5 Server at home so that we can share information. I must also be able to have my work schedule at work. It would be nice if Rachel could add stuff to her phone, then sync, and then I would be able to see changes.

Now, to throw stuff into the mix, I wouldn't be adverse to getting myself a new ipod touch and re-gifting mine to Rachel to facilitate this too. If there is a google calendar solution in here, that would be ok.

Problem 2
I am slowly moving all my info from my Palm to my ipod touch. With the Palm OS basically dieing and my phone being quite buggy, I just don't know if I can wait for the full two years. I used to carry two devices and don't have a problem doing it again.

I have already moved the following over: Fuel log, weight management, photos, Ebook reader, Bible, Calculator, news reader and games. There are a few items that I do on both devices, depending on what I have in hand at the time, but I have the following to move over: notes, password safe, alarm clock and Quicken.

I haven't found usable solutions to move my notes, or a solution to move mobile management of Quicken to the iphone. I would prefer to stay with Quicken, but if I can move to a solution that allows me to enter data mobilly and then sync to a desktop program, I am open as long as it can import my 10+ years of quicken data.

As far as an alarm clock, I have a first gen touch, so it doesn't have a speaker, so i don't know if I can move that over. Plus I have an amazing program on my palm that currently handles that duty, Palmary Clock.

I am evaluating password safes. Anyone have one they like on the ipod? I currently use YAPS

I currently do use the calendar and contacts on both the palm and the ipod, as they both sync with outlook, so they stay up to date. The palm calendar is heads and shoulders better than the ipod/iphone calendar, usability as well as functionality, so I still use the palm as my major data entry point, but have been drifting towards using outlook recently.