Amazon's Kindle E-book reader

I'm starting to check out (on the Internet) the new Amazon Kindle E-book reader

Let's start by understanding what is an E-book reader. It's a portable device about the size of a book with a screen the size of a paperback book page on which you can read e-books i.e. books that have been stored in digital form.

What for? Almost all books are written nowadays on a computer and even the few that aren't are typed in so they all exist in digital form so why not consume them in digital form without having to cut down trees to make paper to print them on?

I'm fairly sure that e-book readers are the way of the future and this product may be the first of its kind that gets mass attention although it may not sell that many. The initial price $399 is high as are the prices for the E-books $10. Both prices will fall. Amazon has gone the route (at least at this stage) of a closed system where the only supplier of e-books to the Kindle is Amazon. What is nice (at least in the USA) is that Kindle comes with free access to a high-speed cellular Internet network which enables rapid purchase and download of books. Everyone out of coverage (which right now means all the rest of the world) will have to use a computer cable connection to purchase and download books. That too will presumably change.

I see the E-book reader evolving into a very portable computer between a Palm and a sub-notebook.

Sharing photos on the Internet

Picnik screenshot showing photos from Flickr
Originally uploaded by dlisbona

In the beginning people started buying digital cameras and sending each other photos by email. As the resolution (number of megapixels) of digital cameras increased so sis the file sizes and soempeople realised that sharing photos by email is not such a great idea.

Meanwhile several online photo album websites sprung up, some more oriented to sending digital phots for printing, some more oriented to sharing photos with friends and the world at large. These include Picasa Web albums (belongs to Google), Flickr (belongs to Yahoo) and Shutterfly. Flickr seems to be the largest and most popular and is very rich in features.

Recently (summer 2007) the social networking site Facebook is becoming very popular and (of course) it has its own photo album facilities. Which creates a problem for those people who like Flickr and use Facebook a lot.

A nice solution is Picnik www.picnik.com , a very cute web-based application that lets you edit photos from a wide range of sources (including Picasa (Blogger), Flickr, Facebook, My Computer and website) and save them to Flickr, Facebook etc.

I found out about if grom the Facebook group on Flickr. Picnik can also be added as an application within Facebook.

Not Flickr

I'm a great Flickr fan myself - see www.flickr.com/photos/dlisbona/sets/ but I must admit there are other photo sharing sites. Here's an album for one of the others

A CHINA TRIP

Thuraya satellite phone

Ever since Irit and I almost got lost in the dark walking in the hills of the Negev desert (in Israel) near Mitzpe Ramon a few years ago, I've thought about getting a satellite phone with coverage everywhere.

When I was in Dubai last December, I bought a Thuraya SO-2601 which weighs only 130 grams but I didn't have much occasion to use it until now. Next week we are off for a cruise in the Mediterranean and so I'm starting to test it. Satellite phones (at least this one) - like GPS receivers - need a direct view of the sky. Putting the phone on the dashboard of my car kept me within satellite coverage but when I received a call (from Thuraya customer support in Ajman, UAE) I had to pull over and get out of the car to hold the conversation.

Thuraya is a company based in the United Arab Emirates offering satellite service covering all of Europe, the Mediterranean, Middle East and most of Africa. Call rates are very competitive - 39 US cents/ minute to other networks from most countries. The phone can also act as a modem for a GPRS-type Internet connection witha laptop but I haven't got this to work yet.

I left the phone on today (don't know why because no-one I know knows my +88216 number) and when I returned I noticed to my amazement that I had a missed call. All the more amazing because the calling number is in the city of Shiraz in Iran and I definitely don't think I have any friends. It's probably a wrong number, but I'll call back tomorrow to check. Maybe Ahmedinajad wants to talk - well, he's found the right person.....

Ryan's PDF Preview Handler for Outlook/Vista

I found this handy previewer of PDF files for Vista and Outlook 2007

DactylMatrix - Ryan's Blog - PDF Preview Handler for Outlook/Vista

Fast desktop? Not with Vista

I recently bought a new desktop which is supposed to be fast and powerful.

Fort those of you who understand about these things:

• Intel DG965RYCK motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duro E6400 2.13Ghz CPU with 2MB Cache
• NVIDIA Geforce 7300GS 256MB screen card
• 2GB RAM
• 250GB Hard disk
• 22" wide flat screen
  

and, being ever optimistic that new software is supposed to be better than old, with Vista Home Premium.

My main uses are Microsoft Office (I installed Office 2007) and the Internet
and I admit I do have quite a few applications and windows open at one time.
I expected the computer to be super fast but it ain't and the computer store tells me that it's because of Vista ("It would fly if you had installed XP...").

Any suggestions? What optimization/performance monitoring tools are available? Does anyone have experience with installing a VIsta/XP dual boot?

Welcome to David's techno life

Hi all
This blog is to share with you the current and past experiences of an veteran (58 and aging) techno enthusiast living in Israel. The first computer I worked on was an IBM 1403 in the Cambridge Univeristy (UK) Department of Engineering in 1968 learning to program in Fortran.