reading (The Naked Sun)

I finished Isaac's second robot novel last night. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read. There is a lot of social commentary mixed in with the main plot. The writing style is much the same as "Caves of Steel", no need to repeat it here. I liked the way things worked out in this story more than the previous one, Elijah's actions seem more properly detective and the resolutions are more complicated.

I got a bit too swept up in the plot to pick up on all the clues, though I did have most of them figured out.

13. Isaac Asimov "The Naked Sun"

ebook descriptions

The ebook reader I refer to as my ebook is a RCA REB1200 model. For most practical purposes it is the same as the Gemstar GEB2150. It's also know as ETI-1 model.

I've investigated many of the other ebook systems out there. I keep coming back to this one as having the most features I want for reading. I don't know how people can stand to read off a palm or the like, screen size and font size are just too small. The new E-ink machines are appealing (and expensive). I would never buy the Sony PRS-500, it's too much to pay for a reader tied to a proprietary format. The Iliad is more appealing because it has gone open source and has a cool name. I am curious to see it and play with it, but I'm not willing to pay the price. I'll review the Ebookwise 1150 that derien has used later.

The device is about the size of a hardcover book although thinner than most hardcovers. If you're a book fanatic, it feels naturally right. You hold it as you would a book if you, gasp, folded the cover back. Battery life is over 8 hours of continuous reading.
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I have several of these devices. In fact I'm hording them in case I smash the screen on my beloved toy. The large adjustable screen allows for a very pleasant reading experience. The line width is of particular use in reading poetry. I load my books using the compact flash card for readers where the firmware supports it. For those that can't handle that I've got a server set up that will allow download over ethernet. I've yet to fill mine, despite having an unabridged dictionary, War and Peace, Moby Dick, lots of Dickens, and over 200 books in total on it.

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The REB1150, Ebookwise 1150, ETI-2 is a smaller greyscale version of the REB1200. It's about the size of a paperback with a gripable shape. Battery life from what I recall is around 16 hours.

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This device has many of the advantages of its full color brethren. The interface is equally useable, the page forward/back keys are big and obvious. It is not as good for poetry as the 1200 because the lines tend to wrap a lot and make things confusing. I don't like the limitations of the smartmedia card, but that's not a show stopper. If my USB worked I'd probably be much more enthusiastic.

snow by the shovelful

The snow is falling in flakes so large they would be better named chunks. I don't think I've seen such large snowflakes in my life, which is saying something because I've seen a lot of snow. It's blowing around and being all dramatic. Now this is proper winter!

I'm going to go out and shovel now. I'll use the excuse that it'll make less to shovel later, but really I just want to go outside and be in it. Plus it'll make hot chocolate feel like heaven.