Finished reading my first book on the kindle 2 a couple of days ago. But as soon as I finished reading I was overcome with a feeling of anticlimactic emptiness. See, usually when you finish a book there’s that feeling of having accomplished something. When you smack the book closed after reading the last sentence and throw it on the floor you can see the accomplishment lying before you, dog ears and all. And you best believe that if I’m going to pain myself through an actual book I damn well better have some kind of trophy to put in my bookcase when I’m done. If not, my incentive for reading smart books will be completely gone and I’ll go back to reading Spiderman comics again. And what’s more, they had the balls to charge me $14.82 for the goddamn thing!! That’s only a few bucks shy of the price of the physical book (you know, one of those things with higher perceived value than it’s digital counterpart). This is complete horse shit Amazon, and you know it.

My above solution would give the best of two world’s for only a little bit more. I’d personally buy this. Although, since I’ve already proven to be a complete pushover by dropping $450 (with insurance) on a fucking ebook reader, I’m starting to think that I’ll buy anything you dangle in front of my face.

First of all, the Amazon Kindle is both really light and thin (check out the Kindle image gallery below). In fact, when standing up it almost feel more natural to hold the Kindle in one hand rather than both. Luckily, there’s a next page button on each side of it, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a rightie or an inferior lefty.

Another interesting thing is that everyone I’ve seen try it (myself and a roommate which I consider a statistically relevant sample) have immediately tried to touch the screen. It looks like it would be touch-screen, and as soon as you hold it it feels like it should. Guess it ties in witht heir new advanced screen technology that isn’t backlit. That is, it looks almost just like you’re reading normal print - you need sufficient light to read, and a glaring sun only helps - rather than off a computer screen (see this image for a cunning demo of this). I’m pretty sure that at this stage, they chose to sacrifice touch-screen to get a screen that’s easier on the eyes. I’m positive it will show up for the Kindle 3.0 though - it just makes sense: if you ask me, one of the Kindle’s best features is the built-in dictionary that allows you to quickly look up any word. Right now the only way to navigate to the word in question is to use their little joystick which works OK, but no way near as easy as just touching the word with your finger.

My first Kindle book

My first book is called “The Drunkard’s Walk” and cost me $14.95. In my eyes this is a f-ing rip off for a digital download, but hey I’m already over $400 in (I got the optional extended warranty) so what’s fifteen bucks more? A few minor annoyances pop up:

• Kinda like the Iphone, the Amazon Kindle is so thin it’s sometimes hard to get a natrual grip on it. When standing up it works perfect - I can just let it rest in the palm of my hand. But when lying down Iying it’s a little trickier - anyone who’s texted on an Iphone will know what I’m talking about (the rest of you aren’t hip enough to deserve to know).
• The other minor nuisance is that since the font size is changeable, page numbers don’t really apply here. Instead you have some type of absolute reference number to where you are, which aren’t nearly as pretty as page numbers and also makes it a bit harder to figure out exactly how much of the book you have read.
• For the surface size of the actual kindle, the screen is fairly small. I expect in the future for the Kindle to looks more like an Iphone, PSP or a even a modern digital camera, with the whole device essential being a screen.

So those are the cons so far, but like I said, they are fairly minor. And initially it seems like the pro’s easily outweigh them:

• Instantly look up any word you come across. I can usually infer the rough meaning of a word fromt he context, but even then I might not be sure how to use it in a sentence of my own. Putting down a book to look it up is a pain in the ass, but the new Amazon Kindle makes this quite easy. Hopefully this will mean that I can read Poe and actually understand what he’s saying now.
• Add notes & highlights. This is fantastic, and if you check the annotations & highlights for a particular book the Kindles displays them nicely along with an excerpt from the surrounding text. No more dog-ears and scribbles in the margin.
• Search function. The biggest problem with scribbling stuff in the margin is that specific notes may be hard to find, specially if it’s been a while since you’ve written them. I used some color system where I’d color the edge of the page according to a complicated color scheme I had made up, so the location of my notes would be easily visible without having to leaf through the book. My system was a complete failure. With the search function however, finding specific passages and notes will be easy.

These are my personal favorites in terms of functions, but add to that wireless internet, reading news papers etc it’s easy to see that the Amazon Kindle 2.0 has a lot going for it. I’m going to do a follow up on this as soon as I’ve finished my first book, but in the meantime you can have a look at the image gallery.

Amazon Kindle 2.0 Image Gallery

Thanks to the wonders of Amazon Prime’s free 2-day shipping, this little package containing the new Kindle 2.0 was sitting at home waiting for me 2 days after ordering it.

The Amazon Kindle came in a very sleek looking matte box with a bunch of letters on it.

A closer look at the letters on the new Amazon Kindle 2.0 black casing. It adds a bit top the mystique that currently surrounds the Kindle.

Here’s what the Kindle looks like. It arrives with simple instructions on the screen on how to get started - nice touch.

Here’s me lighting up the Kindle with a flashlight to illustrate how the new Kindle screen works - light hitting the screen directly only makes it easier to read, and is necessary in dark environments.

Here’s everything that came in the Amazon Kindle box: instruction manual, the Kindle 2.0 itself & the power cord.

This is the Amazon Kindle 2.0 instruction manual. As you can see, the Kindle user guide is thankfully thin, and I never had to reference it during my setup. Setup instructions and more are contained on the actual Kindle

The cord for the Kindle 2.0 works with a USB jack, so if your USB port passes power you can charge your Kindle with your laptop.

This converts the Kindle’s USB cord to work with a regular electric outlet.

His (or her) name is ASIMO and what’s fascinating about this footage is how well the robot is moving…thought he kind of looks like he’s constantly sneaking up on someone to possibly murder them. It wasn’t long ago that bipedal robots shuffled around as if they’ve been stricken by a severe arthritis, but this guy has a bounce in his step that suggests he’s been doing jazzercise.

And speaking of robots that move well, ceck out the coolest thing I’ve ever seen (jump straight to the coolest part here):

Now imagine that beast, but 5 times bigger, and with a cannon mounted on it’s back. I believe that would take care of most of our problems.

And on the micro technology side of things, they’ve built a nano car. Not sure what it’s useful for - I’m praying it something because it apparantly took them 6 years to put it together - but I can not wait to have Dennis Quaid driving around in my blood vessels.

Before we pop the champagne and celebrate the fact that the dawn of a new era is here, we might want to remember that not all technology is good - just because we can do it, doesn’t always mean we should do it.

Oh and btw, I happened upon further disturbing evidence regarding Will Smith and his descent in to Tom Cruise-like madness. He’s even got the Scientology laugh down. That crazy I’ve-practiced-this-laugh-in-front-of-a-mirror-to-appear-more-human-like kind of laughter.

And speaking of non-humans infiltrating our society, I’ve found this thing late one night whilst killing time online. Now I know it’s something completely harmless, but it sounds fucking creepy - especially when you find it in the middle of the night just as insanity is starting to set in.

]]> http://www.marchingtoadifferentbeat.com/2008/12/aiko-the-robot-assassin-the-solution-to-all-our-problems-will-smiths-laughter/feed/ http://www.marchingtoadifferentbeat.com/2008/12/a-new-beginning-and-wtf-is-up-with-will-smith-scientology-bs/ http://www.marchingtoadifferentbeat.com/2008/12/a-new-beginning-and-wtf-is-up-with-will-smith-scientology-bs/#comments Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:36:37 +0000 admin http://www.marchingtoadifferentbeat.com/?p=10 So my plan for this blog was to post regular top 10 lists. Seeing how I so far only completed one tenth of a top 10 list it’s pretty obvious that this simply isn’t happening. Procrastination has long been my premiere dragon to slay, and I seem to be fighting him with a pretty dull sword. But I do come across some really awesome stuff on the internet. Stuff that I’d love to share. Posting it all on facebook seems a little intrusive, but what better way to do it than to post it here on Marching To A Different Beat? After all, if you take a look at the stuff I enjoy online you’ll get a pretty good sense of who I am…and isn’t this what this is all about - getting to know who I really am? No? Well, seems you have little choice my friends…

First thing you should know is that I have a slightly morbid fascination with bizarre deaths. I don’t mean in a gory way, just the kind of deaths where I’d hate to be the person trying to explain what actually happened. Case in point: this guy. The long and short of it is this: 60 year old devoted worker gets a thrown a retirement party. He’s cheerful collegues toss him in the air in a hip-hip-hooray fashion, but fails to fucking catch him coming down. The man who was inches away from his dream of travelling the world and kicking back with his wife after spending his adult life loyally servicing his company ends up in a coma and dies later. All at the hands of the people he called (and who proably are) his work friends. That’s fucked up. Almost as fucked up as this. Or this. Or even this. Do you get the theme here?

I know this is a bad way to kick things off, but to turn that frown upside down, have a gander at this:

No *people* are harmed in this video. Not funny? Then we probably won’t get along.

Finally, it’s time to explain the title of this post. Will Smith, my long time hero and inspiration, has decided to give money to aliens. Now, I used to to date a publicist from MTV that knew a lot of the stars (she was working there when Mr. Smith was still releasing music and recording videos), and let me tell you this, Will Smith: She told me some pretty compromising shit about you and yours, but I forgave you. Although I could never quite watch Fresh prince in Bel Air reruns with the same innocent eyes I once did, I was still a supporter. I got tear eyed watching “Persuit Of Happiness“. I thought the surveillance camera movie you did was clever. I lamented the fact that you were originally approached to star in the Matrix but turned it down. I was even hoping you would release a new album. But what can I make of this Scientology nonsense? Are you and Jada afraid of getting shunned by the rest of the celebrity elite? You’re already in. No need for this. I’m no longer a devoted Will Smith fan, and the only thing that could possibly bring me back would be a powerful symbolic gesture to show your true colors. Like making Independence Day 2 happen, for example.

After working out at Gold’s Gym and having my body dwarfed and ego crushed by women who’s biceps outdo my quads, I decided to put together an unofficial list of freakishly huge women. They’re taking over the world - run!!

1. Renné Toney

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Bring a gun.