Ah Creative. Just as I am starting to write a blog entry that completely slams you and your ineffective ability to market your products, you show us another nugget of gadget goodness.
I will share my complaints before I go into their latest offering.
Creative has some top notch, quality products in the portable audio market. They have declared war on Apple and it’s dominating market share.
Continue reading
So this is the first post in a new category I’ve created. Gadget Fetishry. Pretty self-explanatory.
The most recent piece of gadget pr0n that has caught my attention is the Sony Librie EBR-1000EP.
Basically its an e-book reader. Fundamentally, its a device that will allow you to read texts, manuals, novels, manga, comics, etc., on screen so sharp and crisp that it will put many monitors to shame and has a weight equivalent to a lightweight book (300 g/10.6 ounces).
I believe it was released about a year ago exclusively in Japan, with no word on any type of international release. The device’s popularity has been steadily growing overseas. A group of Librie fans calling themselves the Librietarians have set out to make the Japanese device more useful through software developement and have released a firmware upgrade. Recently the MAKE:blog on MAKE Magazine‘s website posted an article on how to upgrade the firmware on the gadget to the new version released by the Librietarians. This basically upgrades the device to English since most of its user interface is in Japanese.
This upgrade fixes one of the largest cons to the device. That said, it still has its faults. The Librie reads a specific type of e-book standard that was created by Sony and a number of content publishers. This format renders the e-book useless after a two month period, more or less creating a rental type of system. This is unfortunate, but you can still read plain text files. Considering I have a number of books in just a text file format, this would still be useful. I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before the format of the e-book is broken and we’ll be able to read pdfs and files in other formats.
I would say the largest con of this device is its prohibitive cost. In my research of the device the prices range from US$419 and up. Even at this price its a still a tempting prospect considering the amount of time I commute and read on the subway.
In the past 2 weeks, 3 IPods have been stolen here at work. One was in an unlocked draw of a cubicle, another was on a desk in an office, and I don’t know any details of the third one. The first two happened between 6pm and 8pm while the individuals were out getting dinner.
Its an unsettling thought that I might have been working while the person went to the office right around the corner and swiped one of the IPods. Moreso, that the IPod was all that was taken. The laptop was on his desk along with plenty of other items. It might just be the conveniently small form factor and current popularity that made the thief choose that item in particular, not to mention twice more in the future. I’ve been making it a point to make sure my Zen Touch is out of site when I’m not around, but I still feel uneasy that it isn’t somewhere secured or at least under lock and key. When we received our company laptops, everyone got a laptop lock so we could secure it while working here in the office. An excellent preventative measure, though only some use it. Admittedly I was not among them until I heard about the missing devices.
Digital Audio Players are so prevalent on my morning and afternoon commute, I’m fairly surprised I haven’t heard of more thefts. I did read in the Metro the other that there were about 9 reported thefts on the subway of IPods or similar DAPs, but that seems low compared to their clear saturation of the commuting populace.
In general, it greatly disturbs me when I work hard for something and it is taken away with nothing in its stead. Equal trade; nothing can be gained without losing something in return.
I went fishing with my dad yesterday. It was pretty cool. We didn’t have much luck at first. My dad kept catching fish that were not for eating. I caught a Cod that was about a foot long and we had to throw it back. After moving to several different spots, my line jerked and I started to reel it in as best I could. The rod was bending so much that my dad was sure it was caught on the bottom on something, but I kept telling him it was definintely a fish. Sure enough when I had reeled it all in, I had caught a 24 inch Cod. It was my first keeper and first big fish. Very coool. I was giddy. Then my dad caught a 28 inch Cod not long after. It was a pretty successful outting, though I went into the cabin, when my dad went to filet the fish. I couldn’t watch.
The day before we had gone to a Thai restaurant for someone’s birthday at work. I had ordered fish, but I ordered it wrong and sure enough when my plate came out there was a whole fish staring right back at me, deep fried. I must have had some horrified look on my face because everyone laughed. I managed to eat it though. I had trouble because the frying had dried a lot of it out but once I dug deeper I found some edible stuff. I thought the girl next to me was going to lose it when I started to move the spine out of the way to get underneath. (I thought I was going to lose it too!)
How ironic the very next day I would end up going fishing.
So, apparently I either never registered the fightingreality@gmail.com email account or I have utterly no recollection of the password, which is unusual for me. Either way, I don’t have it, so I changed the email address up top. I have that name and I check it to boot. I have yet to get a single email from this site and it occurred to me the other day it was because that email link wasn’t pointing at the email address i thought it was.
Aaanyway, if anyone feels the urge to contact me, I can now be reached at the address in the link at the top.
Good day to you.
Realized I hadn’t made an update in a while. Sorry about that.
Here’s a new Link Dump to settle your need for escape.
The Darth Blog – Brings amazing insight into a character we don’t really know once he hit his turning point and beyond.
Vin Diesel Randomness – As if anyone hasn’t seen this by now. Endless amounts of time wasted here.
Flash animation repository – Some fairly entertaining stuff in there. Check out the Music Videos and watch ‘Everybody has had more sex than me.’, Numa Numa, and more.
Traitor Bear – One Care Bear you do not want to mess with.
Firefox Extension: StumbleUpon – Sort of like a ‘Feeling Lucky’ button that gives you a random webpage that is rated by others (and you) to help you waste some times. Choice quote from a reviewer; ‘The greatest time-saving time waster of all time.’
PostSecret – A phenomonal confessional wegpage where people are encouraged to be as creative as possible sending in their confessions on a postcard. Updated every Sunday.
aDam’s AnimeNorth 2005 Gallery – aDam and Janine went to AnimeNorth and posted pictures. Props to Janine for cosplaying as an ANBU guard from Naruto!
DIY Catapult – Why not?
Frog Flash Game – Overseas, there is a ringtone that is called something like the Crazy Frog ringtone. It has actually surpassed real music to take the number one spot on whatever chart they use to keep track of that crap. Apparently some people aren’t a fan. My high score so far was about 76.