What the… Hey!

Portland Code Camp was fantastic May 24, 2010

I spent my Saturday at the Portland Code Camp, a free “conference” on software development, here in the Portland Metro area.  I’ve been attending these since the first one in 2005. By far, this was the best one of the bunch.  The day was jam packed with sessions, actually more than I could attend.

I want to give a special thanks to Stuart Celarier, for his hard work keeping Code Camp going over the years.  And to all the others who’ve also contributed to the success of Portland’s Code Camps. Bravo, and see you all next year!

3G or no 3G? January 28, 2010

Yesterday, Apple announced their new toy, the iPad, basically a 9.7 inch cousin to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Depending on what you buy, it falls in the middle of the two, with (optional) 3G data service, but no voice service.

I’ve been waiting for a device like this for ten years.  So, there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll pick one up when it becomes available.  Now, the question is, do I get the WiFi only model (cheaper and available earlier), or do I wait for the one with 3G? 3G service, provided by AT&T, would connect the iPad to the cell phone network, and allow me to roam outside my home network with it. I don’t know if I really need 3G, since this guy is pretty big to be carrying around with me.

On the other hand, my office is a WiFi dead spot, and having 3G service would allow me to stay connected with the unit at work.

Decisions, decisions. At least, I have until March (when the first units are available) to make up my mind.

One down, two to go November 6, 2009

I received my copy of the Windows 7 upgrade (a Family Pack, good for 3 systems) last night, and got right on upgrading my first system.

I started with my Dell Studio Hybrid, which is my Media Center PC.  My rationale for this is that the Media Center software in Vista is a piece of junk.  Where the XP Media Center software was rock solid, the Vista version continued to crash at random intervals (up until last night ).

The Windows 7 version is much better, and seems to be more solid (though I did get a black screen at one point).

Interestingly, the Studio Hybrid is only rated for 32-bit Win 7, and came up without the Aero interface running. I was able to switch  it over to Aero without any fuss, though.

Interesting thing #2 is that Internet TV is now gone from Media Center. I haven’t researched the why of it, but it was a feature that was going nowhere anyway.

All in all, I’m much happier with the upgrade (so far).

Update: It seems that Internet TV is still there, but needs to be set up.  I’ll give it a shot tonight and report back…

Kindle DX first impressions June 15, 2009

I’ve had my Kindle DX for a few days now, and I’m a bit underwhelmed. 

It has lived up to it’s advertising. It’s basically a double sized kindle with the ability to display PDF’s.  The size isn’t much of a problem. Anyone who’s used to carrying around a trade book or a hard bound book should feel right at home, which I am and did. 

That said, I’m glad I still have my baby 2 around.  I carry that all around the house with me. It’s light and convenient. But then, that wasn’t the goal for the DX.

My plan for the DX was really to be a PDF reader, since a lot of technical books come in PDF format, and the conversion to the Kindle’s format isn’t ever going to work well (PDF’s are page based, the Kindle’s format isn’t).  The DX does a pretty good job of displaying PDF files.  It can show them in either portrait (full page) or landscape (half page) mode, based on the orientation of the unit (like a really big iPhone). 

Unfortunately, the DX is at the mercy of the PDF creators, since you have no control over magnification or color.  Since PC’s basically have higher contrast than the Kindle, this can make pages seem dim if the publisher didn’t choose good colors for the display. It would be helpful if Amazon gave you some control of how the gray scaler worked, allowing you to enhance contrast at the expense of gray levels.

Type size is also a problem.  Unlike Kindle formatted documents, you don’t have control of the size of the type.  You can get a slightly larger display by using the half page landscape mode, but you still end up wasting the space taken up by the page borders.  It would be helpful if the DX supported Adobe’s “Fit Visible”, which allows for larger text with the loss of (most of) the margins.  Another possibility would be to allow simple magnification of the page via a similar dialog to the one that allows font size selection for Kindle formatted documents.

The bottom line, I’m glad that I have the DX, and I”m using it. I’m also hoping that 1) Amazon will update the software with some new bells and whistles, and 2) publishers start taking the Kindle’s display into account when the build their PDF files.

The electric car paradigm shift June 11, 2009

If you’re like me, you’ve been looking at plug-in electrics as the future of the automobile.

However, for a large number of people, this means a huge paradigm shift.  For single family home owners with just a couple of vehicles, it’s a no brainer: pull into the garage, plug in the car.  Then, I thought of my parents and my sister’s family.  They live in what Hawaii calls an “Ohana House”, this is an extended family under one roof. It’s four vehicles with a one car garage.  Where do the other three cars plug in?  Two of those cars are parked at the curb.

To extend this out, think of all the people living in apartments who only have on street parking. Just where do these folks plug in?

Ultimately, this is going to mean that city governments are going to have to get into the business of providing power at curbside. I wonder if anyone in government has been thinking about this.

As I said, a paradigm shift.

Why I hate Apple May 19, 2009

My new iPod Touch is reminding me why I hate Apple products.

Apple does some things so well, especially hardware. The iPod touch is a dream to use, the menus are great.  However, the software is infuriating. Apple’s philosophy that “simple is easy” is constantly getting in my way.  I keep running into roadblocks when I try to do things.

The latest thing is that their music playing software doesn’t have a rewind.  I can go back to the beginning or end of a piece, but not just backup a couple of seconds. Now, this is probably a non-issue for listening to music, but I use my MP3 player to listen to podcasts and audio books.  I guess my Sansa Clip doesn’t get retired yet.

A solution to my DX envy May 8, 2009

I’ve worked out a (slight) solution to my DX envy:  I’ve resurrected my old Sony laptop to use as a PDF reader.  Okay, it’s twice the size of a Kindle DX and has to be plugged in (practically speaking), but you can’t beat the price.