Author: Tommy

I don't "get" the Kindle anymore. It's been almost 6 month since I got it, almost a dozen books later and I think I'm at the end of the road with this neat little device.
At first, I liked the idea of having free 3G internet available. Then low price point of books made it great for buying books without having to wait for the local bookstore to order them, or worse, paying the retail markup.

A couple months ago, Engadget broke this story which I just saw in the NYTimes: Target will begin selling the Kindle 2 in stores nationwide beginning on Sunday, June 6.

Funny, I was just at my local Target earlier this evening and found a book I've been wanting to read. I had read through the first chapter on my Kindle as a "sample", but never went beyond that. I checked the latest Kindle edition price... $12.99. Target's price for the book? $12.80!
Why would I want to buy the Kindle edition that I can't sell or share?!

To add insult to injury, I checked the same paperback on Amazon: $9.99. Amazon is selling the paperback for less than the electronic version! Now, they're going to sell the Kindle at Target in a matter of days and the electronic version of the book costs even more than the same book in the store!

I think the Kindle's business model is falling apart (and has been). I believe the Kindle is headed for the same fate as the other innovative e-ink device: The OLPC (XO) laptop. Both situations are sad, because each had so much potential. Neither will grow beyond a neat concept without completely reinventing itself (which the OLPC seems to be doing with its tablet).

Amazon has been too slow to act on customer ideas, lacked any sort of customization, and failed to cash in on an exploding community of Kindle owners. ...and I don't blame Apple either. The iPad won't replace the Kindle. (eInk is to easy on the eyes for reading - any who wants glossy ebooks?) Amazon let publishers push prices too high and, at least for me, is what kills the Kindle experience.

update: I emailed my concerns to Amazon and got an email reply very quickly. Here's an excerpt from the email:

The price you pay in the Kindle store is based on a number of factors, including the initial publisher price. Recently, several publishers modified their relationship with Amazon to a business model whereby the publisher, not Amazon, sells the Kindle book. In these cases the price is set by the publisher and you will see "This price was set by the publisher" on the product page.

We're working hard to build a successful digital book store and make every effort to provide you with the best prices possible.

So hopefully they can get their business sorted out with the publishers and get back on track. We'll see.

Most of the students where I teach have time in their computer labs to surf the web or play flash games. The IT department, in order to conserve bandwidth and filter "inappropriate material", need to block most games. Since most games are just mind-numbing wastes of time, most teachers support this. Students looking for games will scour the web searching for game sites that aren't blocked. As soon as one game site is discovered, the URL spreads like wildfire before the site is blocked in the next few days. The cycle repeats itself ad nauseum.

Seeing the problem from both sides, I decided to make an "approved games list" of games that at least feature some academic merit. I understand that games can be beneficial and educational while still being enjoyable. I asked my Computer Science class to find games they enjoy and add them to my games list. They needed to list the educational lessons found within the game and the supporting TEKS on my games list.
The end result has grown into "Mr. Gober's Games". Several students use the site daily and it has received the approval of administration.
Ideally, the next step will be to house the site on the school network to reduce the bandwidth load and increase response speed for the user.

Recently I have added a page to add games, a method to report broken or inappropriate games and a new ratings system. The ratings system was my first successful foray into AJAX. I've attempted AJAX before but came up short. Fortunately jQuery made the effort much easier by abstracting most of the work for me. So, take a look at Mr Gober's Games and have fun - don't forget to vote for your favorites!

I figure it's high time I publicly weighed in on this whole ebook wars thing. I was just reading and article over on Wired about the whole pricing dilemma currently plaguing Amazon.
I'll start off by saying that I am a Kindle owner/user, so take that as you will.

I was initially unimpressed with the launch of the iPad. the iPod blew us all away when it was announced, the iPhone blew us all away when it was announced. The iPad will take some getting used to. The screen still isn't e-ink like the most successful ebook readers, but it does have touch screen - something Amazon just realized customers want. It doesn't have the battery life of a Kindle, but it does have brand recognition.

The redeeming value about the Kindle, and I've said this all along, is that it adopts the UNIX mentality: "Do one thing and do it well". The Kindle is perfect for reading books. The great part is you can download the books via Whispernet wherever you happen to be. The iPad kinda offers this, but you have to pay more for the 3G device plus you have to pay for the data plan. (The Kindle data plan is free!) [sure, the basic iPad has wireless, but wifi may not always be available. it's not something I have to think about with the kindle]

Ok, so the iPad will let you surf the web, i'll give you that. Yes, the Kindle is essentially the links browser and Whispernet is slow compared to wifi, but remember, the Kindle is an ebook reader, first and foremost. It does that and it does it well, web is an after thought, the same way that iBooks was an afterthought to the enlarged iPod Touch.

There, I said it. The iPad is a grown up iPod Touch. It can surf the web, it can play apps, it has an ebook reader app - so does my iPhone. It does not have e-ink, long battery life, or instant free access anywhere. Is the iPad a Kindle killer? I think killer is too harsh a word for this situation. Capitalists: Competition is a good thing. The Kindle helped design the iPad, and the iPad will help redesign the Kindle. I'm excited to see what the next revision of the Kindle comes out looking like. I'm almost certain it will feature touch.

The iPad is definitely neat, but I think the Kindle will hold its niche - if Amazon can hold its publishers in place. I believe something definitely underhanded is going on between Mr. Jobs and book publishers, but I'll delve into that soon enough.

update: Well looks like gizmodo beat me to the punch with this article - however I'll expand on it with my thoughts later.

As any of you reading this on a smartphone may have noticed. Neodux now comes in a leaner version: Neodux Mobile.

By examining $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] report for elements that reflect the most common mobile browsers, I can detect (usually) if you're viewing the page from a mobile device. (Blackberry, iPhone, Android, WinCE, PSP, Kindle are all supported.) As of this writing the layout is very spartan and only the main posts are displayed. Users cannot login to leave comments or shouts at the moment, but I hope to add that in the future. For now, it's just the core content of neodux but it loads much faster.

I'd label it alpha for the moment, but it should make reading any posts from a smartphone, Kindle or PSP much easier.

So the other night I was thinking about the map of our United States of America. I began to ponder just how states' boundaries are defined. Some states are defined by rivers, lakes and other bodies of water. Some states are defined by man-made boundaries (which can lead to some interesting disputes).

Currently, Texas' western boundaries are defined in the Compromise of 1850 as "that which is south of the 33rd parallel, and that which is south of the 36°30' parallel north and east of the 103rd meridian west." The eastern edge of the panhandle lies along the 100th meridian west. To the south, Texas has the natural boundaries: the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico (src: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo). Along the north, a natural border to Oklahoma exists along the Red River. To the East we have the Sabine River from the Gulf up to the 32nd parallel, then straight north to the Red River (Adams-Onís Treaty). Interesting, but so what? Plate Tectonics.

In the early 20th century, geologists developed a theory that described continental drift. They dubbed it Plate Tectonics. It has been discovered that continents do move, so naturally so does everything on them. Texas, and the vast majority of the United States "lower 48" (plus Alaska) ride on the North American plate. The North American Plate moves at about 1.5cm/yr more or less toward the Southeast. This means that Texas is slowly taking land away from New Mexico while losing land to Oklahoma and Louisiana. Texas will not lose land to Mexico, thanks to the natural boundary, the Rio Grande (which rides on the plate). Astronomical longitude/latitude lines do not move (they are based on the proximity to the poles and prime meridian (which is physically drifting too, but now there exist astronomical definitions to account for this) Because of this, the land that moves under the aforementioned longitude/latitude boundaries become, in essence, Texas.

Because of these findings, I hereby proclaim that at the time of this writing, I become sole owner of unclaimed lands that move into the boundaries of Texas. Hands off.

update: By my rough calculations, in 69,971 years I'll own all of present-day Texico, NM; and in 1,399,429 years I'll own present-day Clovis, NM. (I will cede Cannon AFB to the federal government.)

update #2: I also claim ownership of all lands that have entered the Texas boundaries dating back to the formation of said boundaries (1850). That should give me a strip of land about 6 ft of land about 241 miles long (assuming 1° is about 69mi) plus whatever land runs along the line from El Paso to the Pecos region.
2009-1850=159yrs, 159yr*1.15cm/yr=182.85cm ≈ 6ft