mathieutozer.com

RIP 21/11/05 - 28/4/06

The ePaper has been destroyed - cracked by pressure - possibly with the weight of my laptop in my backpack.

The unit switches on, and the software loads, as parts of the screen appear to work, progressively darken, and then die.

I've posted some shots of it on flickr (tags: broken librie)

I'm disappointed, because I discovered the breakage as I pulled it out of my bag, contained within my laptop's 'protective case', to have a read in the sun as I waited for my train.

I still have my health.

I've had the opportunity to experience ePaper - this experience hasn't turned me off it. I'll just have to make sure that my future eBook has a stronger protective case for the screen. I believe the iRex iLiad has a glass cover. The Sony Reader which will sell in Borders book stores across the US has a...?

This makes me wonder whether Sony equipped the paper with anything more than the leather cover?

It also reminds me (or I'm reminding myself) of a quote:

"The glass you drank from this morning is just temporarily un-shattered"
Merlin Mann in the 43 Folders Podcast "A Phone Made of Human Ass"

Merlin suggests you capture a list of features that you love or hate about something and what you would like changed, so that when the inevitable time comes to get a new one, you have a list handy.

I'll whip up a Librie / ePaper one

1. Strong Screen Protection (!)
2. Rechargeable internal battery
3. Have a sleep setting so always on
4. If you're going to have text input, make it easy to use
5. Page numbering (how did they leave this one out?)
6. RSS feed aggregation and reader
7. Wireless for automatic content updates from the internet
8. On device book shopping
9. Mac support! Or at least the promise of it
10. Support for as many formats as possible
11. Pen input would be nice
12. iTunes-like bookstore
13. If you have wireless, have email

Update: Incidentally the posted picture above has become overnight the most viewed photo in my flickr photostream! 63 individual views!
Update: Now I know why: This post was linked from Mobileread. Thanks!

I was fully stalked this morning. I noticed him get on the train, and then he came over and sat down next to me. "Love generation" was blaring on his iPod shuffle, and he fidgeted while trying to concentrate on a pretty complex text book.

Whenever I looked up from my screen he was looking at me! I started to freak out a bit when I got off the train and he pretty much walked next to me all the way to the bus stop, then he came and sat across from me again. Eek. And watching me again. Like it wasn't obvious. Did he just want to say hello? I gave him the opportunity with a quick half smile. I'm nervous. But no, he's just going to watch. Weird.


Off the bus, and he seriously walked to the left or right, in front or behind me, not 1 meter away, all the way from the door, through the Menzies building, out the other side (where I snapped some photos) and then THEN FINALLY he walked the other way as I entered the Campus Centre.



BUT HE CAME BACK!

And almost walked into him passing the sandwich line! There was a 'uh oh sorry' moment and still he followed me to the coffee line, where I stopped and he thankfully kept going.

Phew.

It was then time to start a Monash Blog.

I don't care about anything
While making a face like, "OK, Whatever"
I've always, always been praying
I want what I don't have
I'm not satisfied with bits and pieces
So I keep trying

Watching a 10 o'clock comedy show
Easing my stress from work
I'm kind of not liking being alone
I think all that stuff is important

It's all a real drag compared to last year
I want the reward that only
Challengers receive

I don't care about anything
When running a little late in the morning
I'm gonna try my best
How many times have I stupidly got my hopes up?
That's why I keep trying

The truth is, I'm hungrier than anybody else
Even though I try and hide my messed up feelings
Every morning, I want to destroy that mirror
which reflects my weak natural face

A wish on a moonlight night; it's a beautiful thing
But become the target, jump in the mud
Lady, let's go

I don't care about anything
While deciding on a cool pose
To tell you the truth
I've been fighting
Life is so precious; You'll have to
Reach for each and every bit of rest.

"Time is money"
"I'm going to be a politician in the future."
(Don't say that!)
I don't have a dream
"Money Over Love"
My darling is a salaryman but that's ok
If There's Love.

I don't care about anything
While making a face like, "OK, Whatever"
I've always, always been praying
I want what I don't have
More, more! I'm not satisfied
So I keep trying

Bobbing and floating around in this
World can be so fierce
Naaa~!
At whatever point in time,
the only value I have that won't change is for
you...

Boys are always,
Always stuck with unrequited love
With passion, with passion
You can't put a price on it
Father, keep trying, trying
Mother, keep trying, trying
Brother, Mr. Conductor, Ms. Bride
Keep trying, trying
(x3)

Based on the translation at theppn Wiki. Modified by me.
Written and performed by Utada Hikaru.

I'm the kind of user who can give the greatest computer a serious case of thrash (see: thrashing), so, I just went and treated the iBook with a serious memory upgrade - the best ointment for thrash.

Most people think that they need to upgrade their processors to increase the performance of their computers. In most cases, this user model is wrong. What's usually happened is that your applications and system software has balloo-wened so much that it doesn't fit into your available RAM as well as it used to.

MSN, Word, Skype, iTunes, iCal, iPhoto, iCliché... all take up space when they're open and being used, but if you don't have enough RAM, the system software goes "Ok, let's just pop this on disk until we need it next!". This is called "Virtual memory" (see the finger quotation marks?), because it gives the "illusion" of having as much memory as you like). Sounds smart, until you learn that accessing the hard disk takes mammoth amounts of time, compared to the snappy (but expensive) RAM.

So, doubling your RAM is like taking out the divider from two plane seats so a fat man can sit down. OS X (10.4) is that fat man. Having a roomy RAM keeps that blubber and/or all the leaner stuff that needs to fit in it happy and running smoother. A bit of spare room. No more thrashing (which, err, using this analogy means chopping that fat man into little pieces and carting some of him down to the cargo hold: not only messy, but TIME CONSUMING, which is the main problem of slow computers).

So, 1.25GB of random temporary housing for my modest bits and pieces should now prevent the ol'book from grinding to a halt.

I am probably the first geek to have opted for a hardware downgrade. I've swapped my G5 iMac desktop for my Mum and Dad's G4 iBook laptop. The biggest ouch has been the literal halving of hard drive space. But ho ho ho here I am on the tram working instead of pining for my desk.

Expect a mild productivity boost, and explosive bloggoreah.