Oh, that marvelous iPod...

I downloaded the "Kindle for iPhone" application the other day (because it also runs on the iPod Touch) and finally got around to visiting Amazon to see if they had any freebies I could download to allow me to take the app for a spin. They did and I did.

I downloaded a free promo book, Persuader, written by Lee Childs.

The app works well enough, the controls are dirt simple and intuitive, and the form factor (i.e., the iPod screen) is pretty comfortable.

About two screens into the volume, I had the feeling I had read the book before (or at least the beginning of it), somewhere within the past couple of years, maybe at Baikonur. I certainly recognized the opening scene, and I vaguely recalled some other details after that, but basically it's like reading a new book, as I have no idea what's supposed to happen next.

Reading kindlemedia on my iPod may just be the "golden mean" for me. Although I'd really like to acquire some kind of book reader, the full-blown Kindle largely turns me off, due mostly to the poorly thought out - and perhaps even deliberately poorly thought out - DRM protection that means (a) once you buy a Kindle, you're pretty much locked in, because books books bought from Amazon can't be read on any other reader, (b) books bought from Amazon have zero resale value because they cannot be read on any other Kindle, and (b) you can only buy books from Amazon.

I've also looked at the BeBook, which has a more open approach to the data that it works with, but I'm not impressed enough to buy it, at least not in its current incarnation.

Cheers...

A not-so-snowy Thursday...

Don't get me wrong, it did snow today, enough to where I had to scrape white stuff off the car to go run an errand, but by the late afternoon, all of the snow at our elevation had melted (though I wouldn't doubt that the mountains are probably still getting snow).

A crew showed up today to install the kitchen, and the process went a lot quicker than it did in New York, and certainly a lot cheaper. (I'm guessing I could have flown these guys to New York and back, and between the cost of the airfare and their labor they still would've been cheaper, but that's likely wishful thinking.)

I polished off another 4300 words today, which I plan to send off before quitting for the night. I also have to remind myself to invoice a bunch of items, including some computer-based training I did for a Houston client.

I've been using proust (the computer I once inadvertently, yet vigorously dropped on the eve of a trip to Baikonur) to run something called MagicJack, which is a USB device that provides a phone jack for a run-of-the-mill telephone handset. Upon installation, the hardware "calls home" and installs a VoIP program on your computer, complete with a "real" phone number that can be dialed by anyone with a telephone.

Theoretically, if I take the computer, device, and handset with me on a trip, all I need to do is hook it up to a broadband connection and I'm good to go with the same number. (If there's a computer and handset available at my destination, then all I need to take with me is the USB device.)

The service costs $20 per year, with the first year included in the cost of the hardware (which was about $35, if memory serves). International calling is about as cheap as Skype (US$0.02 to Moscow, for example), and using the system is pretty much like using an ordinary phone, with voice mail, caller ID, and so on.

Today, I installed XAMPP on proust to create an in-house Web server (XAMPP is an open source Windows package that installs an Apache Web server, the MySQL database, and PHP support on a machine.) I experienced a little hiccup when I set up a password for the root MySQL user, but overcame it after referring to the web.

I figure in the long run, using a system like this on proust will be a lot more convenient than sneakernetting files from machine to machine on thumb drives, plus I might be able to set up some useful in-house pages for work purposes.

In other news, I'm happy to have run across another Kidd book by John Sandford at the local coffee shop's "book exchange" shelf. I've been holding back on starting to read it, as I know that I'll have the devil's own time putting it down once I get into the story.

I should get back to work, finish despeckling the translation, and get it sent.

Cheers...