May, 2010

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A Splinter in Time

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

cloudscape

Once a mighty oak or birch or tower of wood, then hewn to a spline of cylindrical extrusion. The power of the smallest of objects, not fully understood at all by the masses of the collective. A toothpick, a splinter, a shred of wood. Mistaken for a lowly discard of manufacture. Obscure in nature, strong in conviction, sharp in focus. A testament to all that should be. A representation of its parent or its essence of extraction.

Although not much, it could be the splinter that obscures the vision of the drive, hence causing the truck to careen off the road; spilling it precious cargo of lemon soaked face cleaning sponges; down the embankment, spraying the acidic rain into the air, enveloping the poor fauna, and farmer in the field, who’s asthmatic coughing and collapse causes him to reel backwards, spilling the small barrel of marbles, left out by his children; which then maneuver their clear, oceanic englazened spherical embodiments down the bypass road, onto the loading dock of a nearby commercial facility, causing an unwary facility engineer to spill her coffee into a small vent leading down into the auxiliary cooling shaft (34), disturbing the long settled dust and debris piled up from the nesting family of misplaced south American guava bats; this also causing a rare but unknown bat malady to incur within the bats, yielding instant heart attack and the descent of 12 small carcasses down an adjacent security shaft, which triggers a small but effected series of laser detection grids; which then malfunction due to shoddy wiring, then causing a small electrical fire in a nearby substation; allowing a distracted but slightly aggressive watchman to become startled; yet again dropping a delightful cherry-chocolate confection, made lovingly by his wife of 20 years; thereby covering a small light used to indicate over-temp on the newly imported and activated trilinear nuclear actuator; which then in a streak of bad luck ( or poor judgment of using, partially hydrogenated soybeans to construct any nuclear part ) begins to overheat and melt down, reacting with the nearby isolinear experimental crystalline matrix, causing a primary incineration of most of humanity; or a very warm donuts sitting a nearby hello kitty coffee table, brought in by a child of a shop steward on ‘bring your kids to work day’; mostly depending on which section of the universe you decide to focus on at that particular instantaneous flash of nuclear ionization…..

Tree’s evil. They are made up of millions of toothpicks. Splinters and toothpicks can destroy the universe. At least poke them in pineapples to keep them stable. geez. EOM

Forty-eight hour iPad 3g+wifi review

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

ipad display

Anything that can get this slovenly sun deprived soul out into the sun, without a forklift and some chains is probably a good thing. The iPad arrived Friday morning, right as promised by the web based web marketeers. A small rather gloss less white apple box with shiny sealed plastic wrap. Opening revealed a very recognizable pull tab and documentation packet. De-boxing was the standard no frills fair, with another layer of plastic seals and then treasure.

Now considering all the rants about the new iPad being a large screen iPhone, the premise is basically correct. However this type of description is rather misguided as that is exactly what was expected and sought after. Squinting at a small phone s reenact is only acceptable when there is no other practical alternative, of which a netbook barely complies. The iPad is exactly as advertised. a wonderfully compact mobile reader. The screen and resolution are suited well for web content, and it shines with beautiful vibrant color. Outdoor viewing isn’t stellar, but usable under the sun. Turns out that the biggest issue with outdoor viewing is if one uses polarized sunglasses, as the screen is completely obscured. Beautiful and shiny has definite drawbacks as the screen is highly prone to fingerprint smudges and dust magnetism. There also seems to be an absence of a supplied screen cleaning cloth, like that provided with the iPhone.

steve-jobs-ipad

Wireless access setup was as expected with some hesitation due to all the reports of dropping connections. Happily not a single wireless issue was encountered and all wifi was enabled without incident. The AT&T 3G setup was a bit more wizard impeded. But yet again the setup was pretty painless and active in no time. Happy synchronization with iTunes ensued, and all was good. One grip about the sync was that it ported over all iPhone apps regardless if it was an iPad app or not. although the apps for iPhone do work on the iPad, it is a bit humorous to pop open ones iPad, activate an app and get a hi-res virtual iPhone screen displayed.

Input is mostly intuitive, as the touch based screen is basically an iPhone. The virtual shift keys seem to be more resistant to being set for some odd (and somehow purposeful) reason. Typing is easy but sometimes lag prone. The buttons being bigger lend themselves to proper brain training and one handed typing eventually becomes very handy (pun not intended).
Battery life is amazing. After web surfing, blogging, game playing and various amounts of doodling on 3G for the past hour, I’m still at 90%. I’m guessing with video watching and streaming wifi entertainment the battery might not be so vivid. Also of note is the lack of apple laptop 190 degree lap burning sensation.

ipad front viewBook content as far as the iBook library goes is OK. The simple addition of the kindle iPad app changes everything. Even less conventional authors such as Piers Anthony are present. Various comic and magazine vendors are available via app add-on, but not yet in all encompassing coverage. The selection will continue to grow with time and adoption of the e-media by the consumer base.

Happily I continue to become more accustom to this new cyber tether. Currently it is promoting freedom of mobility, and emergence from the dark dungeons of computing at home. The iPad seems a versatile scribble pad of ingenuity, bound only by the current release of ideas. With other vendors taking heed of the market, it’s only a matter of time before the next big idea changes the way people thing about electronic media. But for now I will be content with kicking back in the shade of the poolside umbrella, protected from the evil ball of fire, enjoying the valley breeze …

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