Dec 27, 2012

Post Xmas Follies

So the Xmas Holidastrophe has passed with minimal bloodshed and recriminations; no damaged dishes or hurt feelings.  Yay!  Someday the horrordays will be enjoyable for me all the way through.  I just know it.

On the other hand.... it did have some very nice presents!  Here are my prizes in their awesomness (you do not have to be me to enjoy all of them - but it helps).
  •  A Year With C.S. Lewis is a daily readings collection.  Very good stuff.  imho.
  • The Fractalist, Benoit Mandelbrot's memoir.  Why?  "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line" That should be a good start.
  • Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs is a book I browsed online and now want to read.  No, I don't program.  I mean, no I don't write code.  I mean...
  • GEB: An Eternal Golden Braid I was given Doug Hofstadter's book in 1979 as a birthday gift.  That copy's seen me through many sleepless nights and was a good traveling companion.  The binding on my copy's become too frail to carry around much so I put it back on my wish list.  It's not a hard-cover but the covers are heavier as is the paper, so it's all good.  Back on the road!
  • Hofstadter's Grandchildren, edited by Adam Cole is a collection of inspirations flowing from G.E.B. which I have been wanting for a while and am looking forward to browsing.
  • The Rapture of The Nerds by Corey Doctorow is the funny to put all of the other books in my list in the proper perspective.  I see Doctorow, Vonnegut (Kurt, not David) and M. Atwood in some ways occupying the same space, but that's just me and your mileage may vary.  Still I'm halfway through this already and have been laughing out loud in various waiting areas today.  Fortunately, many of the people around me were also reading gifted stuff and were not bothered in the least.
So this ought to keep me off the streets for a bit.  Excellent timing too, since the first snow storm is coming in tonight!  Keep the radio tuned to the Weather stations.....

Dec 1, 2012

Christmas comes a few days early

When I returned to my home the other day I noticed a package sitting by the front door. Being the merchandising season, this wasn't too surprising.  It's also my birthday this week, so anything can happen.

When I brought it inside and opened it, I found a Chrome notebook.  Well happy birthday to me!  And none too soon; with the holidays upon us the whole family's been going a bit nuts, and I've been leading the trend.  A new piece of tech to obsess on a bit would be perfect to direct some of my crazy away from the wife and kids, and put it back up in my office where it belongs.
After unpacking and charging, I took it for a spin and found the besides the Chrome software, the device has been set up to look not only for WiFi but also for Verizon 3G network points.  Better still, the Verizon setup has a plan offering a hundred megabytes of data a month, prepaid, for twenty-four months.  To be sure, a hundred megs isn't much in terms of phone carrier service - a couple hours of video - but for my purposes that's just fine. Even better, when the data is expended for the month, the service is shut off until the first of the following month. I don't have to worry about someone grabbing the thing and playing Farmville all the way down to NYC in the back of the car.  Sweet.

Well, this post never made it to press last year - I wrote it in December of 2011 (or was it 2010?) shortly after "Mario" showed up.  It has been a great ride - although recently, Mario's hardware WIFI connection became cranky and one must not tilt the display after starting it for fear of disconnects.

Small potatoes, I say.  Besides solidifying a huge base of users, the experiment has unfolded as we see today, with numerous different companies selling Chromebooks as well as the rollout of related items like Google Play.  It's raised the stakes for tab-laptop developers, while making online stores more than a place to purchase books and music.  The question of the month is, What will Santa Google bring, this year?

Regardless: happy happy, folks.