I’m drafting this on Pages on the iPad. I’ll port this to my blog using a cut and paste into the dashboard, then will touch it up and add links using the dashboard on a PC.

We took a trip last week. I intentionally did not bring my laptop as I wanted to use the iPad as a prime device and didn’t want to have the option of falling back on a PC. Lack of multi-tasking is still obvious, which after this coming week and the iOS4 upgrade should not be an issue. App developers can also fix this by opening up the app with the same view in the same location where it was ended. It amazes me that some apps still don’t do this.

Lack of Flash is still an issue. I also was traveling with my Android phone which supports basic flash and on a few instances grabbed the Android and opened up the URL that was not available on then iPad. Over time, if Apple has it’s druthers, flash video may be phased out on mainstream websites (and replaced with YouTube?), but other sites that rely on flash will require a flash supporting device. I missed my yahoo chess!

(the irony of this with Apple and Google going at each other like cats and dogs makes me chuckle)

Using outdoors is also difficult. My wife and I went to a park to do some reading. I had downloaded a few e-books (using e Kindle app as we like to share books). She pulled out her Kindle and I pulled out the iPad. The very first thing I noticed is that I couldn’t see jack. The iPad in portrait mode can not be viewed while wearing polarized sunglasses (opposite from the iPhone which is fine in portrait but unusable in landscape). Just for a comparison, my Android is visible in both portrait and landscape. Even in landscape mode it is difficult, so I ditched the sunglasses, but still found myself squinting to view even on maximum brightness. After an hour I had a headache from squinting and the overall brightness outside as I was not wearing my sunglasses.

The battery life is phenomenal. I only charged when it was convenient. Even now I’m working on a charge from the hotel over 24 hours ago after using moderately yesterday surfing the web in the airport and reading e-books on the plane.

Pages is great. I can actually edit, format, and move around in a full size document. I can read (and edit) Pages documents and Word documents with ease. I have used Numbers as well and for a tablet it is a very functional spreadsheet app. Starting from scratch to create a useable spreadsheet is a slow process, but opening up one from e-mail and making quick edits works quite well. I had a pretty through loan calculator that I had created with Numbers on my Mac which was quite easy to use on the iPad to change values and observe results.

So I’m still happy with my purchase. I’m loving the iPad.

Next post … Later this week … My Android vs. iPhone experiences.

I was torn for a while as I already have an iPhone that handles just about anything I would do on a Netbook with the exception of document editing.  The iPhone, though tiny, is very nice for checking e-mail just about anywhere and sending back the short replies that we have become so familiar with since the days of clam shell pagers, Blackberries, and now iPhones (and other small e-mail devices).

Another reason I was torn for a while on the idea of a Netbook is that I have a laptop that I use for business and for business travel I usually lug it around. It’s not an aircraft carrier of a laptop (it’s not a 17 incher) but it’s still large and can’t just be chucked in a suitcase or backpack. I don’t like carrying it on personal weekend trips or even longer personal vacations but often find myself doing it just so I can keep in touch (even if I’m not “technically” going to be working while away from home.

Granted there are smaller full use laptops available, but since I don’t have an actual desktop at work, I think I need my 15″ Macbook Pro as I like the screen real estate and I also like the full size keyboard since I’m often writing several hours per day.

Even considering that I already have a laptop and an iPhone I often found myself reading reviewes and comparisons of the eeeeeeeeeeeeePC, Wind, Aspire One, and others. I think the coup de grace was when I actually got my hands one. I was traveling recently saw someone using an eeePC surf in the airport. I am usually an intravert but I just asked the user how he liked it. He couldn’t stop praising it and said that it is the only computer he travels with.

Now that I’ve decided I want one, I don’t know which features are a must have for me.

• I am set on Linux as I can’t stand Windoze to begin with and on a lower powered Netbook it would drive me batty. I’ll probably put Ubuntu with NBR launcher on it anyway so don’t want to pay Microsoft for something that I’m not going to use anyway.
• I think I want SSD as opposed to a magnetic hard drive as think for having it on my lap the heat and spinning hard drive would bug me. I also don’t think I need that much space as I already have an iPod so I don’t know what large media files I would put on it.
• In regards to size (and this is the most difficult decision for me), I want one that is small but I don’t know if I want the smallest of the small. I’m seriously leaning towards the eeeeeeeePC 901, but it’s one of the tiny ones and from what I hear the keyboard is an issue. Why I’m torn is I want something that is usable.
• I also want something with a super long battery life. The reason for a UMPC/Netbook is mostly form factor and I don’t want to have to keep a power brick with me all the time. If I knew I had a solid 5 hours of use, I don’t even know if I would travel with a brick unless I knew I would be away from home for extended periods of time.

I’m open to suggestions. If you have a reason you love or hate your eeeeeeePC, AAO, Wind, or other Netbook drop me a comment with your experiences.

Bookstore

Over the past few years I’ve been buying a lot of my books online at amazon.com or even on eBay. I’ve also been going to the public library here in Blacksburg which as public libraries go is a pretty decent library. However, when shopping online or even at the library, I tend to pick up books that are challenging reads, and many of them take me a long time to get through. If I bought them, that’s not a problem, however I’ve racked up a few late fees at the library (no more than what it would have cost me to purchase the book outright). I’ve also tended to pick up books that spend a long time on my bedside table as I have been known to start reading something else and at times have had as many as four or five books ongoing at once. An example of these are (all of which I’ve started and will eventually finish):

• The Baroque Cycle by Neal Steaphenfon of which I’m about half way through The System of the World
• Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
• The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
• April 1865 by Jay Winik

I recently started reading some quick fun easy-to-read science fiction and fantasy books which I’ve found are fast reads. Maybe it’s the “summer reading,” or maybe I just happened upon them as someone leant me one of them. Thinking about my other recent reads in my quest for reading, I’ve bitten off some bigger bites than I should have with some of those above (even thought I do enjoy them, I just can’t seem to read them quickly and find my self dozing off for naps or only getting through a few pages before falling asleep at night).

To illustrate my point, I ripped through The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman and just as fast ripped through Eldest by Christopher Paolini and found myself eager to turn pages and really enjoying the science fiction/fantasy genera, which was always something I enjoyed but seem to have moved away from more recently.

After finishing Eldest I went to my bookshelf and nothing (even those that I had already started) really looked like something I really wanted to pick up. I looked around online, but it just wasn’t doing it for me so this morning I went to the bookstore. I found myself in the science fiction/fantasy section having a ball. It was very reminiscent to when I used to go to the bookstore when i was 16 or so and coming home with a stack of books. In fact, I purchased five books mostly from that same section of the store.

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
• Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
• Shadowmarch by Tad Williams
• The Summoner by Gail Z. Martin

I guess the point of this blog is that there is something very gratifying that happens to me at bookstores which I just can’t seem to get from the online stores and amazingly even at the library. I did notice while looking around online after coming home from the bookstore that Barnes & Noble has broken from Amazon and their new online bookstore tries very hard to duplicate that “bookstore feeling.” Only time will tell if BN can finally make some progress against Amazon, but I feel that the next time I’m in the market for books or don’t know what I should read next, I’ll go to an actual bookstore rather than browse around online as I just had more fun, bought more books, and am psyched about reading.

With that said…….

Big house

Finally getting around to updating the site. I’ve installed iLife’08 so there may be some different behaviors and I’m getting around to figuring all of those out. I think overall iLife’08 is a nice improvement. iMovie seems a major improvement, but it did take me a bit to get used to the new features and I am a little annoyed at so many missing features that may still be present, but are much harder to find. With that said, I did create a nice youtube video of me cooking a brisket on my new Big Green Egg and it didn’t even take me that long to break down an hour or so of video into a 3 minute youtube. Likewise iPhoto has some major improvements, but I’m still using Aperture for most of my photography. This is my first foray into iWeb and I haven’t noticed too many differences, with the exception to the photo albums, and I’m not sure how they will export to my site (as opposed to .mac, more on that later).

So, what have I been up to. I got a Big Green Egg from my parents as a very early Christmas present as my gas grill was on it’s last legs. I dig the BGE. It’s fast to get up to heat to sear (faster than my gas grill), does low and slow smoking, does “modified” indirect grilling, and some people even make bread and pizza in it like a brick oven.

Oh, I also got a job (finally). I start next monday with Design Nine, Inc. as a Broadband Planner. I’m pretty excited about the prospects. It’s a tiny company still in startup mode and I think it has a chance for some significant growth which hopefully will translate as growth for me as well.

As far as changes to the site, I’ve added a Maine 2007 photo album, updated the Dog’s album with some nice recent shots of all 3 dogs, updated all the pages to iWeb’08, and added some links to make things more integrated internally as well as link to external sites.

Surfer

No, that picture isn’t me nor anyone I know nor is it where I went to the beach. It’s the default picture for this blog template so I figured I’d leave it as it fits with the topic at hand. Sadly, I did take three cameras with me, yet didn’t take a single picture nor video. I was too busy laying on the beach soaking up the sun to be bothered with any other hobbies of mine.

Stacie and I recently spent a week and a half on St. Simons Island for out annual Beachweek. We invited friends (as per usual) and had some show up. We stayed in my extended families’ “historic” beach cottage on St. Simons and we try to make it down every year around Memorial Day (a “historic” beach cottage is a quaint name for an old beach cottage on an island that is rapidly losing it’s character to $M condos). Sadly, this may have been the last of the Boz Beachweeks as the cottage is on the market. However, I said the same thing last year when it was listed then too. Personally, I’d like to have more Boz Beachweeks in the future. If the cottage sells, we may be forced to rent a condo for a week or just quit with the Beachweeks and do a Boz Maineweek up in Boothbay, Maine.

This year we took all three dogs (Molly, Cooper and Monster Truck) and only one of us got sunburned (and on the last day too). The dogs loved the beach and all the kids on the beach loved Monster Truck. We mostly grilled (with no shirt nor shoes on), but did have a nice meal on the Island at the Red Barn and a very nice meal at Christie’s in Brunswick with my parents to celebrate my mother’s birthday. Christie’s won the Silver Spoon award in 2006 as one of the top 10 restaurants in Georgia.

We’re back home now and it’s HOT. The garden is coming along nicely (squash, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers as well as two new hills of hops to augment the 3 hills I planted last year).

After a few short work orders and contracts, I’m back in the job market and Stacie is on the road for a few weeks at Piedmont Equine. The remainder of the summer will consist of the job search for me while Stacie will alternate between working locally at the Vet Hospital in a laboratory and spending time on the road with various equine practices. We do have a week in Maine planned in late July and Stacie will be in New Mexico for most of August with me joining her for a wedding in late August.

I amsterdam

Stacie and I went to Amsterdam for a week for her Spring Break vacation.  It was a great trip.  We visited the three museums, got outside of the city to visit Delft, Den Haag, and Leiden, visited with some friends and had some great meals.  The weather was great for most of the trip with the exception of the freak freezing rain storm that caught us by surprise the day before we left.  We flew out in snow so we couldn’t have timed the trip any better.

Now that I’m home, I’ve brewed a couple of batches for the Vet School Open House party which will be at our house on 3/30/2007.  I’m also planning on making some homemade root beer before the party.

I need to update my photo albums with the Amsterdam trip as well as post some additional pictures of Monster Truck, our new dog.

I’ve also got to take the job search seriously now as I have no excuse now that we are home from our short vacation.

Eagle drying himself

I finally got around to posting more Alaska photos.  I’ll be posting other albums later this week (like new puppy pictures).

Enjoy the photos.

Stacie napping

Stacie thinks I have too much time on my hands if I’m actually considering a blog.  I’m not so sure.  We’ll see how it progresses.

The picture above is another from our summer 2006 vacation to Alaska.  We had a nice long hike on a glacial bar somewhere in the vicinity of Polychrome Pass in Denali National Park.  We came across lots of wildlife including a herd of caribou shortly before this picture was taken.

We stopped for a hot lunch of some sort of soup or other, then Stacie settled down for an afternoon nap.

I walked around and took pictures of some flowers which I will eventually get posted to the photo albums.