Kindle from Amazon

Kindle

This book reading device from Amazon looks great. I saw this on the week-end and fell in love with it. I have been an avid reader from an early age, so any device the size of a small paperback that can store 3,500 e-books and documents is going to get my attention.

What makes it stand out to me is the "do one thing really well" philosophy that appears to be behind the device, intentionally or not. It is an e-book reading device, and that is all. And that is great because that is all I want it to do. It does have built-in Wi-Fi, which is fantastic for getting e-books and documents from the internet to the reader. I won't be using the Kindle as a browser because I don't need yet-another-browser.

I am indeed fortunate that one of these is coming my way for my birthday. Oh yes, this is coming from the United States, and the device plus a charger plus shipping is still less than an equivalent device I can buy here - the Kobo from Borders. As I see it, the Kindle is also better than the Kobo (though the Kobo does come with 100 free classics).

So what kind of books would I put on the Kindle? As I said, I have loved reading since I was a sageling, and in that time many books have come and gone through my hands. Yet in all that time I have kept hold of a select few books. I have kept books about software development (The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master). There are books on Buddhism, and several books on cooking. I still have anthologies of horror and science fiction and fantasy stories, as well as works by favoured authors like Edgar Allan Poe.

These books all still have meaning for me or they would not be on my shelves. I would eventually like to get them on the Kindle assuming they are available. I can imagine reading classics on public transport to and from work [1]. I can imagine having software reference books at my finger-tips while working. I can imagine the continuing education as I read books outside my comfort zone. It will be hard not to go crazy downloading ebooks - I look forward to the challenge.


Will the Kindle live up to the hype? I hope so. I really look forward to giving it a good review and rekindling my passion for reading books.

Thank-you for reading

[1] I am fortunate enough to work from home, for now. I am not naive enough to think this will last forever. I am almost certain to once again take public transport to work at some point in the future

Internet Radio: Accuradio

Accuradio

My sister-in-law (the singing one) recently had to write an assignment on a musical genre. She chose classical crossover. For those who are not familiar, this is a genre in which classical artists have crossed over into mainstream music or a fusion of classical elements with more modern elements. An example of the first category would be someone like Luciano Pavarotti or Charlotte Church. An example of the second category would be Manowar (a heavy metal band) singing opera (Nessun Dorma) or Yngwie Malmsteen performing with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. Yes, it is not something everyone will enjoy, but those who do enjoy it will love it.

One resource she found while researching classical crossover was Accuradio. They boast a very large number of channels. Apart from classical and pop they also have vocals and world. One of the sub-channels of classical is classical crossover, and this is where my Internet Radio has stayed for at least the last week. While I am yet to hear Mr Malmsteen on this channel, it has provided to me some absolutely wonderful performances. More than once I have been tempted away from work to look up the details of a particularly appealing piece.

To my sister-in-law, I thank you for finding this particular station.

Thank-you for reading

No more Mr. Feeble-Eyes

Today the older sageling brought home an electronics project. It was a DIY programmable remote control suitable for a television or a VCR (for those who remember them). We were putting it together when something came to me...  six months ago I would have had the smallest chance of doing something like this successfully. My cataracts would have made tasks like reading the instructions and twisting wires together almost impossible. Today, while I was wearing my glasses for close-up work, those tasks were effortless. It really drove home to me the face that my eyes were no longer feeble.

Does the remote control work you may ask? I don't know yet, as we don't have any AAA batteries for it (the sageling forgot to get some). And since it is a remote for the television, I really don't care :)

Thank-you for reading

Film: Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3

The Sage family went to the cinema tonight because we all wanted to see this movie. The sagelings had free tickets yet it still cost us $45 at Garden City. It's a bit of a joke that admission is an extra $3 for a 3-D film and another $2 if you need to buy "glasses", [1] Thankfully we kept the 3-D glasses from a previous movie so we didn't have to pay for them, again.

The "Night And Day" feature before the movie was very clever. It shows how clever the Pixar team is at communicating without the use of words.

Pixar have done it again, The third installment of the Toy Story franchise is just as good as the first two. If you don't grok Toy Story then don't see this movie. If you haven't seen the first two movies, see them before seeing this one to enjoy the film even more. The lovable toys are back again. Andy is now seventeen and going to college. The toys end up in a day-care center which is not the paradise it first appears. It is up to Woody to rescue the toys.

There are number of funny scenes in the movie which had me laughing out loud in places. I think my favourite was Buzz Lightyear - the Spanish incarnation. There are some scenes which I though might be disturbing for younger children but didn't seem to phase the sagelings at all. As in the previous movies, there were some jokes that were for the adult audience. Many of these were to do with the interaction between Barbie and Ken.

We all had a great time watching this film. It is sure to be something we buy when it comes out on DVD. I have been known to be critical of a lot of what comes out of Hollywood (like Karate Kid IV, and do we really need another Tron movie?), but movies like this one, and companies like Pixar, give me hope for the future.

Thank-you for reading

[1] Why are the called glasses when they contain no glass?

Film: Where The Wild Things Are

Where The Wild Things Are

I remember this book from the days where the sagelings were in kindergarten. The details of the story are not clear but I did enjoy the artwork and imagery. When the movie came out I was hoping to see it at the cinema. As it turns out I am glad I didn't.

It's not that it was a bad movie, but I didn't enjoy it. Perhaps it was because I was a little unsure what to expect and partly because I was not in the mood to enjoy what the movie had to offer. I watched it between an interview for a high school for the elder sageling at midday and a dinner at Lucky Star tavern with my in-laws in the evening (with home chores in between).

I realised the wild things related to Max and his relationships with his family and so on but I was not so interested in that part of the film. The visual effects (especially of the appearance and movements of the wild things) and imagery were gorgeous. I contemplated turning it off before it finished but I watched to the end.

One last thing: even though it is based on a book for children I would not let me children watch it. I am sure they would not have enjoyed it.

Thank-you for reading

Food: Durian

It's been a long time coming, but the Szechuan Sage (a foodie from way back) has finally tasted durian.

I first learned of this fruit, sometimes referred to as the "king of fruit", from watching Bizarre Foods on cable television. Ever since then I have heard about how bad it smells and how good it tastes. 

Today, after visiting Sweeties Paradise, it finally happened. For the princely sum of $6.05 I walked away with two durian pancakes. The pancake itself was soft and thin and slightly green in colour. Inside was a whole lot of cream, and under the cream - the durian. The comments about the smell were spot on. I was caught unaware because I expected the durian to be mixed with something so it would not smell so strongly. It is quite a pungent smell to be sure but I did not find it to be unpleasant. My wife and the younger sageling beg to differ. They most certainly did NOT like the smell. They thought it was worse than garlic (they really do not like garlic at all) especially since it seemed to linger. Their expressions were amusing and well worth the price alone. The taste was pleasant. It had that "tropical fruit taste" without being too sweet or too tart. And it was well matched with the cream.

I would like to try it again, perhaps next time as a pudding. If you get the chance to try durian, please don't be afraid. You might actually like it if you get past the smell.

Thank-you for reading

The Big Mars Hoax

The elder sageling is going to be disappointed. His class received the "Mars is going to be really big" email. I was excited for a little while and did some research for a link to share here. This is when I found the site for Astronomical Society of South Australia. It contains this article.

It describes the email almost perfectly. There were pictures of Mars and Luna[1] side by side, the date of August 27, the suggestion that the next time this will happen will be in 2287 and the encouragement to pass this on to your friends.

I remember thinking to myself "didn't this happen not so long ago with far less spectacular results"? And it did. It was in 2003. I remember because I got up to see it. Well, I saw an object in the sky roughly where Mars should be. It didn't look very close =) Yet I was happy to see it because Brisbane seems to have notoriously bad weather at times when there are interesting things to see in the sky.

And now I will have to break the news to the sageling and the rest of the class. Still, if this fosters an interest in astronomy in my two children I will be most pleased.

Since we are on the topic of Mars, I will leave you with this link. It is from Gustav Holst suite The Planets and is suitably titled Mars: The Bringer Of War. It is a static picture of Mars, but here it is the music that is important. Please enjoy it.

Thank-you for reading.

[1] Even when I was a sageling I could not understand why every celestial body in the solar system (and many beyond it) had "cool" names, yet the Earth's satellite is simply called "the Moon". When I remember I like to refer to the Moon by its Latin name.

Good night, Georgia, wherever you are

This is the story of Georgia

On the afternoon of July 29 I got this SMS on my work Blackberry:

6.30 It's georgia xx

That was strange for two reasons. First, it looked like a reply to a message rather than a message one would send initially. Second, it was sent to my work phone. I don't remember the number of my work phone to give it out to anyone. If I did remember the number, I still wouldn't give it out because it is a work phone. As it happened I was at a karaoke competition with Pip (supporting, not singing) the night before, and as a precaution I double-checked with her in case I had forgotten that I had met a Georgia. We had not. Figuring this was a wrong number I sent the following reply:

I am not the droid you are looking for

There was no response to that so I figured Georgia got the hint. Then I received this message three days later:

Who is this? What is a droid?

When the laughter subsided, I thought about the message. If she did not know who I was, why send back a response, and why wait three days to do it? And it was obvious from the second question she had not seen Star Wars: A New Hope. I debated whether or not to send anything back at all. In the end I decided to answer her questions with this SMS:

I am Walter[1]. I don't know a Georgia. I think you have a wrong number. Sorry about the droid message - it was a line from a Star Wars movie

She must have thought about this for a few minutes before sending her next (and last) SMS.

Walter who? What's your last name? And I haven't seen star wars

I'm sorry Georgia, but if you didn't know me I am certainly not about to tell you my last name. That goes double for someone who has not seen Star Wars AND ADMITS IT. After I did not respond to this I was expecting a phone call I didn't want to answer. Hopefully Georgia got the hint and won't SMS me again. And maybe, just maybe, she'll watch Star Wars.

Thank-you for reading.

[1] Not my real name. Or is it?

Film: Ogre

Ogre

I noticed this trashy-looking B-grade movie at the DVD shop today. When I saw the tag line ("No Donkey. No Fairy Tale. Just TERROR") I couldn't resist hiring it. I expected it to be cheesy and possibly a waste of an hour and a half. I was pleasantly surprised.

The Bad: The effects were pretty poor by today's standards. We as a society have been spoiled by the level of special effects coming out of the movie industry today. When you get visual effects, as you do in a movie about an ogre, you have a certain expectation. In this case, they were below par. The ogre looked OK, but that was about it. Several of the IMDB reviews criticized the movie in this regard. For me, I didn't mind too much. I could tell it was an ogre. It didn't need to be perfect. I was happy it did not look like Shrek.

The Good: The story line. I cheated and skimmed the 22 reviews before watching the movie. Many of them reported the plot was weak. So I was prepared for a poor story. It may not have been great, but it was serviceable. The characters were adequate and I thought the cast did what they could with the material they had. After a little while I was enjoying the movie enough to stop the nit-pick police from going to town.

Truth be told, I have been a fan of B-grade movies for a long time. In the end I really enjoyed this. If you are not a fan of the genre or you are a bit squeamish (there is a significant amount of stylized gore) then avoid this movie. Otherwise, give it a go - you might like it more than you expect.

Thank-you for reading