So here I am at the Hilton (where they've got some nice, fast Wifi, by the way) and glad to be out of my sickroom. When I got here I realized that this particular hotel is very close to the very hospital where I was born, or at least to where the hospital used to be before they closed it down. Kind of strange for me to have travelled so far just to get back to where I started. I have no intention of telling you where that is, by the way, so sorry all of you identity thieves out there; you are just going to have to find some other rube to appropriate personal information from (try Myspace.com).
But yeah, I was born just a few miles from here, and I was thinking that I'm probably the only person left alive that was there in the delivery room that day. I'm not positive but I'm willing to bet that the doctors and nurses have all passed on, and I know my mother and father are gone, so that just leaves me. There's a morbid thought for you. Kind of makes me feel like a little speck of dust or something.
Anyways, you don't want to hear about that. You're reading this blog because you want the hard news, the plain truth, the straight poop, the real...aw, forget it. To tell the truth I've been sick and haven't really been following the news much. I hear the Dems won an election and the President is over in Asia winning hearts and minds, but other than that I seem to be a little behind.
No wait, there was some big tech news last week. Something about a $600 video game machine and people waiting in line for days and getting into fistfights and shooting each other and rioting and stuff like that. Geez, and then the news that a lot of these people weren't even buying the thing for themselves but were putting them up for sale on Ebay and getting 2 or 3 times what they paid for it. Man, does anyone remember when video games were just toys? Well, not anymore. They're big business, and I feel pretty stupid for not standing in line and getting one of those machines myself. What a racket. Spend $600 and then turn right around and flip it for a $2,000 or $3,000 profit. Beats the hell out of stocks and bonds, that's for sure.
In a somewhat related story, here's an interesting article by Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee. It's about the midterm elections and the demographics of who did and didn't vote in California. What Dan found, basically, was that the California elections were decided by a bunch of old white guys. 75% of the ballots, it turns out, were cast by non-Latino whites over 45 years of age. I say the story is somewhat related because you might be asking why it is that so few young people bothered to go to the polls and cast ballots, and the answer is obvious:They were all camped out in front of Best Buy waiting to get their PS3's. War? Jobs? Government corruption? What are they compared with high-res graphics and a built-in hard drive.
The other big tech announcement from Sony that might have escaped your attention was their new PRS-500, which was finally released for sale earlier this month. This is that new portable ebook reader that I've blogged about in the past. They had them for sale at the local Fry's so I went down there a couple of weeks ago to have a look. Sorry it's taken so long to get the details out, but like I said, I was sick.
The PRS-500 is about the same height and width as a Gideon's Bible, though much thinner. I'd guesstimate it's around 1/2" thick, maybe a little less, and it weighs in at a svelte 9 ounces. At that size it's too big to fit in your pocket, but will fit nicely in a backpack or purse (and if I ever decide to start carrying a purse I'll be sure to buy one). Okay, a big purse, maybe. It might be a little tight trying to get it into a clutch, but it should slip quite nicely into a nice big leathery handbag. It runs on a rechargable battery, and Sony claims each charge is good for approx. 7500 page turns.
The display uses a technology called electronic ink, which works off of a principal very similar to the good ol' Etch-A-Sketch. The page is drawn on the screen and then remains there until you turn the page, at which time the screen is erased and a new screen is drawn. This differs from the LCD technology used in most portable displays which needs a constant of draw electricity to keep it's screen refreshed. The bottom line is a very crisp looking screen and excellent battery life.In addition to displaying ebooks, the PRS-500 can also display text files, Microsoft Word documents, PDF files, and most common graphics file formats. It can also play MP3's, although I assume that would be to the detriment of long battery life.
In comparing it to other ebook readers such as the Microsoft Reader or Mobipocket, however, the PRS-500 has two notable deficiencies. The first is the lack of a built-in dictionary. For an experienced ebook user that is a deal killer right there. If there is an unfamiliar word in the text we want to highlight it and get an instant definition, and there is simply no way to do that with the PRS-500. The screen, though incredibly sharp and clear, is passive with no way to interact with the text.
The second deficiency is related to the first, and that is the PRS-500's lack of a highlighting and note-taking capabilities. Again, if you can't interact with the text then there is no way to highlight or add notes. That's not a feature I ever use, but I know there are people (e.g. students and academics) who do.
Actually, I should have said that there are three deficiencies, with the third being the price. At $349, this device is simply too expensive. If Sony were able to sell this thing for under $200 then it might stand a chance, but $350 is a lot to spend for book reader. I know because I wanted to buy one, but not unless the price comes down.
On the plus side, the Sony ebooks are quite affordable. I compared prices at Sony's online book store with prices at ebooks.com and mobipocket.com and The Connect Store's prices all seem to be cheaper than the competition's. I also found quite a few titles available at The Connect Store which were not available elsewhere, so Sony does seem to have a bit of an edge in terms of price and selection. However, that doesn't mean the selection is good, it's just better.
So there you have it. That's my little tech review. If you don't want to trade in your car on a new PS3 then you might want to consider a PRS-500 instead.
I guess.
Anyway, that's all I have for tonight. I was thinking of heading over the the Huntingdon Library tomorrow morning for a little cultural enrichment. That's where the original Blue Boy is, you know. Yeah, I know. You thought the original was hanging in your Aunt Martha's parlor, didn't you? Sorry, but I'm betting that one is just a copy. Anyways, my Aunt Sunny took me to see the Blue Boy when I was a little kid, and for some reason I just have a hankering to go see it again. Don't know why, but since I'm in the area I thought I might as well go. In case you didn't know, The Huntingdon Library was founded by Henry Huntingdon, nephew of railroad magnate and Southern Pacific Railroad founder Collis P. Huntingdon, who once famously said "Anything's that's not nailed down is mine. And anything I can pry loose is not nailed down."
And then they threw his sled in the fire and that was the end of that.
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