Comments for Martinborough Musings

Comment on Is it any wonder people are switching to ebooks? by Fred Frazier

Fred Frazier — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:35:40 +0000

Having the book signed by the author would probably be the only way most (e-reader totin’) folks could justify it, I’d think.

Along those same lines….The entire Kennedy Space Center Library is completely ‘electronic’ now… no hardcopy anything. Where there used to be a whole library, now there’s a single desk with one clerk sitting at a PC (I’m guessing to help folks too unskilled to find a reference ‘book’ for themselves), I assume that’s the way it is at all the rest of NASA Centers as well.

Times they are a changin’.

Fred

Comment on Our new grandcatchild by Glen

Glen — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:00:46 +0000

Glad to see the family cat obsession continues. Perhaps they’ll come to Burmese in time – they’re definitely an acquired taste.

Comment on A little jazz is a dangerous thing by Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:09:49 +0000

Looks like I would have been lining up at the soup kitchen…

Comment on A little jazz is a dangerous thing by JPG

JPG — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:51:10 +0000

And if Benny Goodman should happen by, he was to be instructed to play on der Tuba, instead of that wretched (Jewish) clarinet.

Comment on Gobbledygook by Clare Lynch

Clare Lynch — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:37:21 +0000

Oh dear, sounds like the rocket scientists have been nobbled by the management consultants.

Comment on A convert to the Kindle eReader by jmacg

jmacg — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:21:48 +0000

The cover that comes with the iPad2 is classy, but the covers Apple sold at an exorbitant price for the iPad 1 were downright tacky.

You’ve seen Liz’s Kindle case – there’s nothing tacky about that. Better to have that than risk dropping your Kindle and damaging it.

Comment on A convert to the Kindle eReader by runthere

runthere — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:42:11 +0000

Just don’t drop it. The Kindle screen damages easily and I have a big splodge in the middle of mine. Very annoying, I should have bought a cover. But the covers are ugly. I was waiting for a nicely designed cover that I would be proud of. This is a real problem. You would think the accessories market would have sorted this by now.
Ipad has better covers. Apple does understand about aesthetic and so do Apple lovers.
I have bought a cheap wetsuit material sleeve until the market improves.

Comment on A convert to the Kindle eReader by Glen

Glen — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:05:21 +0000

I know – organisation is the key but once bookless in Dannevirke …. The bag is fine over the Kindle cover. Might want two bags for the shower.

Comment on A convert to the Kindle eReader by jmacg

jmacg — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:27:15 +0000

3G would be sort of nice to have, but of marginal utility, given the price premium and the obvious alternatives.

The trick is to always have at least one backup book on your Kindle. Surely not a big ask when you know you’re heading for the wilds of southern Hawkes Bay.

You can also fill it up with interesting articles. And if you’re broke and can’t afford to pre-load enough pay-for books at Amazon, you can add ancient authors to your heart’s content – for free. Go on…load the entire oeuvre of Dickens, Austen, Hardy, Mansfield, Shakespeare et al and NEVER be bookless at 2am again!

I steer clear of 3G like the plague on my Android phone. But I did find a use for it in Auckland recently when I used it as a wifi hotspot so I could connect my wireless-only iPad. Worked like a charm. I’d do the same occasionally in one of your remote motels if I was desperate. The difference, of course, is that while you can’t access email and the web without some kind of connection, you can organise your Kindle so it never needs to go online in the wopwops.

I haven’t tried the snaplock bag trick yet, but then I never take a bath. I can’t see it working well in the shower. By the way, does a Kindle with a cover fit into a snaplock bag?

Comment on A convert to the Kindle eReader by Glen

Glen — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:00:48 +0000

The snaplock bag solution is working very well too, although a replacement bag is required every couple of weeks for total leakproofing. I don’t agree with your views on 3G though. As someone whose work takes them to somewhat out-of the-way places I often stay in wifi-free motels, and and the prospect of not being sleepless and bookless at 2.00 am in Dannevirke again is most appealing. That, fact that the Kindle synchs with my android phone for those “waiting in the dentist’s waiting room moments”, and its lightness for reading in bed are my favourite features of this excellent toy. I am in danger of ceasing to be a technological dinosaur!