Kindle Touch Review

I'm a relatively voracious reader. Years ago, I started walking.  A lot.  To do the amount of walking I do a day takes some time. Soon thereafter I learned that I could combine my love of reading with walking and kill two birds with one stone. It's something I love to do.  My colleagues at work can confirm this as I am known there as 'that guy that walks everyday at lunchtime reading a book'.

I haven't owned or spent much time with Kindles - so I don't bring any particular experience that allows me to compare the Kindle Touch to previous Kindle versions.  However, I do own an iPad and have spent hours and hours reading on that - through the iBooks e-reader as well as a Kindle App.

My two-word review of the Kindle Touch:  Buy One!!

There's only a few technical things you need to know about a Kindle.  First, they use a display technology called e-ink that creates very sharp text on a non-reflective display.  There are two huge advantages to this technology:  it's amazingly easy to read in bright sunlight and it doesn't strain your eyes like reading from a computer monitor type display will.  That means... if you read a lot... or love reading outside - buy a Kindle Touch*. 

Second,  it's ridiculously light. I weighed a couple paperback books on a kitchen scale one day at Target.  Very scientific, I know.  I found that a book on the thinner side weighed 7-8 ounces while a book on the fatter side weighed between 9-10 ounces.  Obviously, hard cover books weigh more.  The Kindle Touch weighs around 7.5 oz.  It's lighter than most books.  That means you can carry it around in one hand for long periods of time with no fatigue.  Sweet!!  By comparison - the iPad weighs around 1.5 lbs (the iPad2 is around 1.3).  It's not hard for such a manly-man as myself to carry - but it's definitely a two-handed proposition.

Thirdly, it's a well-integrated system.  That sounds complex.. but all I mean is that the entire process of acquiring, physically getting the book onto the Kindle Touch and reading it once it's on there is really well thought out.  For instance, you can buy a book on Amazon.com and it will pretty much like magic show up on your Kindle**.  This process takes less time than going to the library and standing in line to check a book out.

Oh, and if you're the type that likes to beat decisions into the ground... you could agonize over the Kindle vs. Nook... or Kindle Keyboard vs Kindle Touch questions.  My suggestion:  don't bother.  Buy the Kindle Touch.  Why?  Simple.. it is the winner.  Remember VHS vs Beta?  Remember Laser Disks vs Blue Ray?  Remember Facebook vs MySpace?  Remember keyboards on phones before touch displays?  Save yourself the time... Kindle wins.  That is all.

Note:  For reading in the dark or indoors - or technical books or PDFs.. keep the iPad!!

* You may be aware of the Kindle Fire.  This e-reader has a display that is similar to a computer screen or an iPad screen.  This type screen can produce beautiful images and text.. but you'll strain to read them outdoors.

** This comment assumes you set your Kindle up to be part of a wireless network.

Impatient Me

Amazon.com and the USPS are killing me right now!

Back Story:  I recently ordered a Kindle for my birthday.  Delivery time was estimated at between Dec 5 and Dec 10.  I hate waiting that long.. but also hate to pay for shipping.  Quite the dilemma.

Present Situation:  The good news is that having ordered it on November 28th in the afternoon.. it actually shipped early the morning of  Nov 29th (3 am).  And, the delivery date was updated on my order to Dec 1!  I was so excited to think I would actually get it this week instead of next.

Agonizing Progress:  Amazon.com is amazing.  It has the best ordering system and tracking system in the business.  So, tracking the order to a snap.  However... it is challenging my patience.  You see......

The package left Arizona at 3 am Nov 29th and made it to Hayward, CA (about 20-25 miles away) at around 9:20pm the same day; meaning it took roughly 18 hours to go from Arizona to Hayward.  It then sat in Hayward for 7 hours before being sent to Santa Clara.  That's where I live!!  It took another 7 hours minutes to arrive.  That was yesterday at 11:46am.

In summary:  It took around 32 hours total (18+7+7) to go from Phoenix Arizona to right down the street from me.

And now it has remained undelivered in Santa Clara... for over 27 hours.

This is killing me :)

Social Networking Situation

These days everyone is signing up for email, blogs, myspace, facebook, skype, twitter and a host of additional social networking 'services' intended on us all staying connected - electronically. But they also create some interesting situations at one time or another we all are going to need to address.

This morning I was faced with just such a situation. Some woman, that presumably I should have remembered from my days in Schoolcraft (my home town), had 'found me' on facebook and was interested in how my life was going. Unfortunately, I couldn't cough up a memory of her after trying for a few moments.

I found myself in that awkward situation where you know, they know, that you've received this email and friend request. So, what do you do?

Interestingly, this social networking and instant community is supposed to make us all more connected; more close. However, my experience is that all this technology (caller id, email, etc..) actually creates a buffer between two people that inserts a critical step into the basic communication protocol. That step is 'decide if I want to interact with this person or not'. If not, I can just ignore them; let the phone go to voicemail, delete the email, ignore the facebook request. So, something that was designed to foster improved communications amonst groups of people also allows us a certain freedom to be cold to people we'd rather not deal with.

As with most situations in life - it calls upon us to decide how we are going to treat other people. So, oddly enough - whereas yesterday this person knew nothing of me (presumably).. today she was going to learn something - one way or the other.

The best I could think of was to return her email with a short message. I simply acknowledged her message and shared with her that it was unfortunate - but I did not have any recollection of her from the old days. Thanks for writing.

Nothing more. Far from graceful, I readily admit. I guess she learned something. I didn't want to rudely ignore her. But, at the same time - I didn't feel any connection or desire to create one at this juncture.

And then I ignored her facebook friend request.

Right? Wrong? What do these words even mean anymore as it relates to electronic relationships?

Do you have any such stories to share? Suggestions?

Ode to the Engineer

As I was reflecting last night on Carissa's ultrasound pictures I was reminded how incredible a world God has designed and put into motion. How great is God to figure out how to make a baby. What an engineer!

Now, I know the word 'engineer' conjures up all sorts of mental images. Pocket protectors. Greasy hair. Glasses with tape in the middle. Social misfits. The list of stereotypes goes on and on. But, for this one brief moment - when you look at that ultrasound image.. I hope you see a bit of the awe that is the engineer.

Engineering is as simple as 1-2-3: 'Identify (a problem/issue) - Imagine - Do'.


Pregnant wife - rubbing her hands slowly, lovingly over her belly: "wow, I wonder what our little Tater Tot looks like. wouldn't it be so fantastic if there was a way to see the baby inside me!"

Engineer husband (wheels turning): "we can do that!"

New car owner in northern Michigan - waiting for a ferry to the lower peninsula: "wouldn't it be great if we could make some humongous bridge and just drive our car to the other side".

Engineer friend: "we can do that!"

New President of the United States.. wanting to show off to the world: "wouldn't the whole world be amazed by us if we could have a man walk on the moon?"

Scientific Advisor to the President (an engineer): "we can do that!"

Normal teenager: "this drive is sooooo boring! i wish I had a way to play my own records in the car so I could just tune you two out!"

Steve Jobs, her father: "we can do that!"

Men sitting in a basement watching an important football game - when a controversial play occurs: "jeez. don't you wish we could make the TV like 3 times bigger, higher resolution, and then be able to do slow motion ourselves at the touch of a button.. so we could see exactly what happened?"

Dudes from Panasonic, NBC and Tivo that are watching: "oh dudes.. we can do that!"


The ultimate ode to engineers: "They can do it!"

Interesting Facts I Learned Along the Way

My sister is in town; and with her return my feelings of inferiority. In this case I am referring to coming up short in the frames-per-second arena. When she is not around I feel better. Then, I hear the rapid clicking of her shutter and my soul becomes dismayed.

This sent me out googling one day to find out just how fast the fastest cameras were.. in terms of frames per second as well as shutter speeds (i.e., how long does it take to expose the image sensor?). Well, as it turns out.. my sister can feel the burn herself.. because by comparison her camera is ssssllllloooooooowwwww.

My camera: around 3.5 frames per second.
Her camera (show off): around 6-8 frames per second.
UCLA scientist's camera: 6.1 MILLION frames per second.

How fast is that? Well, the shutter speed is 440 trillionths of a second. Light itself moves just a fraction of a centimeter in that time.

Check it out: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/fastestcamera/

Thursday Tweets

Have you heard about Twitter? Twittering?

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read other users updates known as 'tweets'. Tweets are text-based posts that can be up to 140 characters in length. Think of it as text messaging for the internet.

The underlying idea is that instead of writing long blog entries or emails.. the author writes many, smaller messages providing insight into their life. These all get distributed to everyone in the author's network. By seeing a constant stream of little bitty factoids about a person, as opposed to occasional blog entries, you are supposed to get a better 'picture' of their life.

Micro-blogging is also a big, big part of Facebook - except FB allows pictures, etc.

So, to lighten up the mood a bit on the 'ol blog... let's all treat ourselves to some tweets!

I'll start.. and you feel free to tweet back using the comments feature of this old school blog ;)


Tod: is excited because he has the next three days (F, Sa, Su) off from work!

Tod: has an amazing daughter who is leaving for Cancun tonight for Spring Break with her friends!

Tod: is looking forward to eating less chocolate and running more this weekend - if it would just not rain!

Tod: just finished reading a book and needs a book recommendation! Anyone read a good book lately?


Your turn to twitter!