This post unlike the other nook post is just about the nook and not done from my nook.
I'm pretty impressed by it so far. I've been able to read more than I have in the entire time we've been married since getting it. That number would be really impressive if reading was a hobby up until now. Strange that it took a geek device for me to appreciate the joy of quietly getting engrossed in a storyline. Maybe not so strange seeing as I am a geek.
There are benefits and drawbacks to it though and with the newest firmware upgrade, there are more of both.
First the main draw is that you can download books (some free through the Google Books project) straight to the device, through AT&T's mobile network. I find though that for free books, the quality of gutenberg.org and feedbooks.org are superior. Many of the free books are also available from Barnes & Noble (the only place you can purchase books through for the nook) for very cheap. Usually $0.99 - $2 and somehow, no sales tax.
The price of most books is cheaper too. One example is American Lion about Andrew Jackson. The hardcover is $18 and the eBook is $10. Score. I got a $30 gift card from my mother-in-law and still haven't used it all. I'm very frugal with books still.
With the newest firmware upgrade the additions have been
1) Games
- Sudoku
- Chess
2) Web Browser
3) an improved dictionary function.
4) Moved the Audio Player to the main menu
Now I think that putting games on it is a bad idea. It minimizes the point of the device and tries poorly to do something that it's not for. Let PS3 and Apple do "everything". nook should just do one thing and do it well. Playing chess has nothing to do with reading, except that it might be the same segment of the population that gets into both in a big way. Still, for me it's a distraction which I don't need.
The web browser would be cool if it did two things that it doesn't. You can only browse if you're using you're using the WiFi and not using the AT&T's network. That's lame. The other thing that would make it cool is if you could download books from other sources like the aforementioned gutenberg.org and feedbooks.org. But you can't. You still have to download them to your laptop, PS3, PC, iCrap, G1, smartphone ..... and then sideload (and yes I know I'm a sellout for using that word) to the nook. Which begs the question; Why not just read the book on one of those?
My G1 for example has an eBook reader app that will go and get a book, download it and let me read it, while listening to music on the music player, and let me use thefreedictionary.com (app) to look up words. All with a backlight. And it fits in my pocket. Pretty much it does everything my nook does, better, other than the screen size and battery life, which is why I got my nook in the first place.
So anyway, nook is cool, but should stick to doing the one thing it does well. Keep the music player, bag the games, improve the dictionary or use an online one, and mostly add text to speech. That would make it perfect in my mind. A browser that let's me use the cell network to download free better books would just be gravy.
I m writin this blog from my n crap i just hit the home 'n' and thought i lost it all. ook that i bought before i got fired. I won't be correcring any mispelling just to see ho
w accuratr it is. It seems pretty c goo
So I just got my first unemployment check yesterday. It seems weird to have been paid for getting fired and filling out the appropriate paperwork. Oddly enough, it didn't come until I'd been out of work for almost a month. If I was truly in need, I'd be living on the street right now. Luckily my final paycheck and tax refund were sufficient to hold us.
Additionally we qualified for "food stamps" and have been eating really well. Costco accepts them so we bought in bulk and have plenty of food. On this part I was feeling a little guilty. Enough so that I didn't want my parents to find out, a challenge considering the tight knit nature of my family. Mom especially would have put me on a guilt trip for being 'part of the problem'. That's pretty much been my take on any kind of government assistance too. They are a group that takes from the system instead of contributing.
When mom did find out, she was not only understanding, she was almost excited for me. The perspective finally came when she said "You have nothing to feel guilty about. You've been contributing and this is exactly the situation that it's there for."
That felt good to realize that I'm not 'bilking the government'. Instead I'm drawing on the monies that for years I have been paying into Social Security and Unemployment and Disability Ins. Maybe that makes me a Democrat, that I'm grateful that the government took my money for .... 15 years? So that I could draw on it when I needed it.
Hmm. That brings up an interesting math question then. How much have I paid in vs. how much am I alloted to draw? A question for another post I guess.
I read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" recently, well listened to the audiobook anyway, and it got me thinking about becoming rich. The advice that he gave was based on his life experience. It is partly stories of how he learned about money and partly advice that he recieved.
I noticed that his advice was only similar to his experience. So I'm listing my own version of advice based on what he did.
1) have a father that earns a lot
2) have a friend who's dad is good at business
3) have your father put you through college.
4) have your friend's dad start a corporation and let you work in every dept. Of the corporation.
5) become a successful salesman
6) use the money you make to buy assetts that make money without having to work.
Steps to getting rich. There isn't necessarily an order to these except when one is dependent on another.
I had a talk the other day with sarita where health care came up. She said with sarcasm "yeah it's not like we have a right to live or something." I was surprised at this being the perception of health care.
We do have a right to live. That is to say, it is our right to not have anyone take our life from us. We don't howerver have a right to be taken care of. Our care is a personal responsibility.
Rights are inseparably contingent on the understanding that we can have them on the basis of being responsible for the accompanying right.
This is where health care isn't a right. When our health fails, it is either our own negligence or just bad luck that causes it to fail. In neither of these is a person or even institution denying our right to live.
Obviously in extreme cases where we are poisoned or something like that, there's liability. Erin Brokovich and all that. But putting a healthy person on the hook for someone who gets lung cancer after smoking a pack a day for 20 years is unreasonable. The same goes for a slew of other diseases.
The thought that the Federal government should be responsible for our health is, in my mind, another example of the mentality that they are our 'ultimate parents' who we run to whenever there's a perceived injustice.
It reminds me of my children yelling "NOT FAIR", when they have to do their homework instead of watch TV, or put the book down and go to sleep. When will our social neoteny end, and we turn from dependence to accountability?
I'm constantly surprised by the things that people find interesting. The Charlie Bit Me phenomenon was heartening. YouTubers (the potatoes?) aren't as bad a group as some would believe. In spite of all the 'celebrity commentators' there really are a lot of people that like to see things that are inspiring or darling.
My most viewed video is now of Andrew and I'm inserting it below. Apparently people like to see adorable babies being adorable.
I'm going to post one of these on 'thereifixedit.com ' but I'm not sure but I haven't decided which it will be.
