Thoughts On The Amazon Kindle.
I bought my Kindle abut 12 months ago, it took a further 3 months to arrive and the first one lasted about 24 hours before it died. Amazon dealt with the failure as well as anyone could expect, they cross shipped a replacement which I received inside a week.
Since then I've bought a second unit which I gave to my girlfriend as a gift.
I've read perhaps 20 books on the device, and while it has its faults, I think it really succeeds at what it sets out to do.
It succeeds over other E-Readers for me because it manages to be a standalone device, I have no need to plug it into my computer. When I finish a book I can have another ready to read inside 60 seconds.
When I bought the first one I was really not convinced that I'd want to read on any device that wasn't paper and ink. But I really like the e-ink display, and I don't really miss the more traditional book form factor the way I thought I would.
The Kindles form factor is OK although there is a tendency to knock the large Next/Prev page buttons. I've personally found that using the device without it's book like cover minimizes this, although my girl friend still uses hers in the cover so your mileage may vary. I use the keyboard only when I'm buying a new book, but it's nice to have. The scroll wheel almost works, the clicks could be closer together for my tastes and it doesn't have great feel.
The interface is functional at best and the store interface is poorly thought out. It's fine if you know the name of the book or the author, but the store is essentially amazons web page on the device and e-ink displays (at least currently) are the wrong place to try and page through web pages looking for a book.
The book selection isn't bad, better if your reading more recently published material. Most recently I've been reading a lot of SciFi and Fantasy novels, and you run into issues where a series is only partly available, or an a particular isn't represented at all. A couple of Iain M Banks books were just added to the store, "Look To Winward" is the poorest E-Book conversion I have ever seen, with rampant obvious OCR issues. Thankfully it seems to be he exception and the only book I've read on the Kindle where the errors were even noticeable.
At this point I couldn't imagine buying fiction in paper form. I'll pick up a couple of reference books at some point, but I can't imagine they would be particularly good since access to the material is usually none linear and there is no quick way to leaf through material on the e-ink display.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Walter Payton and Devin Hester
Since the Bears season was over and because Walter Payton was one of the primary reasons I became a bears fan, I was trolling YouTube for Walter Payton Highlights.
I missed out on Walter's best years, since I'd never even seen a football game prior to 83 when Channel 4 started showing games in the UK. For some reason the game just grabbed me to the point that I played for a year on one of the UK teams circa 1989 despite running up an overdraft to pay for the equipment. Fact is I was a bad 3rd string running back the year I played, 1 carry for 3 yards if I remember correctly and couple of blown kick coverages even if I was faster than most of the guys in pads.
But Walter Payton is the reason I'm a Bears fan and to a large extent the reason I watch football, so I sometimes like to watch highlights especially with such a dismal season to look back on. Someone had posted highlights of Hester on the ChicagoBears.com boards, and I was scanning those. Anyway while drinking single malt scotch and watching said highlights I was surprised by the similarities.
Not that Hester looked vaguely like Payton, Unless he suddenly starts running people over they're very different players. But specifically in their ability to set up blocks, Payton was a surprisingly patient back and watching him set up his down field blocks reminded me of Hester doing the same on kick returns, moving left and right just enough to miss on coming tacklers waiting for the opportunity to explode downfield.......
Hester is enough to make me ache for the 2008 season in Chicago, as Payton was enough to make me root for Chicago in the mid 80's when the NFL was first shown on British television.
There are a lot of off season questions to be answered by the Chicago Bears, but at some level those answers don't matter to me. I'm a fan and I support them regardless, of course I prefer them to win. And through my "fan only rose tinted spectacles", right now I fully expect them to be champions next year.
Since the Bears season was over and because Walter Payton was one of the primary reasons I became a bears fan, I was trolling YouTube for Walter Payton Highlights.
I missed out on Walter's best years, since I'd never even seen a football game prior to 83 when Channel 4 started showing games in the UK. For some reason the game just grabbed me to the point that I played for a year on one of the UK teams circa 1989 despite running up an overdraft to pay for the equipment. Fact is I was a bad 3rd string running back the year I played, 1 carry for 3 yards if I remember correctly and couple of blown kick coverages even if I was faster than most of the guys in pads.
But Walter Payton is the reason I'm a Bears fan and to a large extent the reason I watch football, so I sometimes like to watch highlights especially with such a dismal season to look back on. Someone had posted highlights of Hester on the ChicagoBears.com boards, and I was scanning those. Anyway while drinking single malt scotch and watching said highlights I was surprised by the similarities.
Not that Hester looked vaguely like Payton, Unless he suddenly starts running people over they're very different players. But specifically in their ability to set up blocks, Payton was a surprisingly patient back and watching him set up his down field blocks reminded me of Hester doing the same on kick returns, moving left and right just enough to miss on coming tacklers waiting for the opportunity to explode downfield.......
Hester is enough to make me ache for the 2008 season in Chicago, as Payton was enough to make me root for Chicago in the mid 80's when the NFL was first shown on British television.
There are a lot of off season questions to be answered by the Chicago Bears, but at some level those answers don't matter to me. I'm a fan and I support them regardless, of course I prefer them to win. And through my "fan only rose tinted spectacles", right now I fully expect them to be champions next year.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Starting QB in 08
I think it's pretty clear that the starting Quarterback for 08 is most likely on the roster today. There are a number of possible scenarios.
1. We grab a free agent/trade for a QB -- In this scenario, we'd most likely be starting whomever we bring in, but it doesn't look like McNabb is going anywhere and the Bears aren't in the "looking for one last piece" mode that leads to high draft picks being slung around for say a Derek Anderson.
2. We Draft a QB on day one -- Even if we do it's unlikely he'll start in his rookie year, so we'll be starting someone currently on the roster.
3. We Draft a QB lower in the draft -- see 2 but with 0 chance to start.
4. We have exactly the same set of QB's we have already.
Given that though who starts?
I think this comes down to whether or not Rex signs with the Bears next year, if he does I think we'll see an open competition between him and Kyle for the starting job, and a of right now, I think it's likely Rex would start.
If some other team places significant value on Rex, I think he's gone and Orton starts next year, we'd either then draft a QB on day one (depending on how the draft plays out) or in one of the later rounds as a project.
I think Griese will be on the roster going into next year in either scenario.
I doubt very much Rex will still be a free agent come draft day, so we should have a pretty good idea who's going to be under center next year in March.
I think it's pretty clear that the starting Quarterback for 08 is most likely on the roster today. There are a number of possible scenarios.
1. We grab a free agent/trade for a QB -- In this scenario, we'd most likely be starting whomever we bring in, but it doesn't look like McNabb is going anywhere and the Bears aren't in the "looking for one last piece" mode that leads to high draft picks being slung around for say a Derek Anderson.
2. We Draft a QB on day one -- Even if we do it's unlikely he'll start in his rookie year, so we'll be starting someone currently on the roster.
3. We Draft a QB lower in the draft -- see 2 but with 0 chance to start.
4. We have exactly the same set of QB's we have already.
Given that though who starts?
I think this comes down to whether or not Rex signs with the Bears next year, if he does I think we'll see an open competition between him and Kyle for the starting job, and a of right now, I think it's likely Rex would start.
If some other team places significant value on Rex, I think he's gone and Orton starts next year, we'd either then draft a QB on day one (depending on how the draft plays out) or in one of the later rounds as a project.
I think Griese will be on the roster going into next year in either scenario.
I doubt very much Rex will still be a free agent come draft day, so we should have a pretty good idea who's going to be under center next year in March.
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