First off, congrats to Web for finishing his book. I didn’t quite catch what you meant yesterday until OKat straightened things out (I think I thought you meant you finished reading a book, which is a much bigger deal in these days of Palin, Bachmann, and Walker than it used to be). Hope you don’t mind, but I converted it to .mobi format, and sent it off it to my Kindle to read (though I have a few things on the reading list ahead of, it, and I don’t really seem to get far on anything in any given night, since after a few pages it tends to be lights out). I’m not terribly confident that I’ll actually understand it, but I’ll give it a shot. Shame it’s so short, though. 😉
Speaking of the oil, they’re saying that gas will be up to $4-$5 a gallon this summer. The justification at the moment seems to be that the price of oil is no longer being driven by the law of supply and demand, but that it has now become a commodity (you mean, it wasn’t always a commodity?), with prices driven by greed and speculation. Funny, I thought that’s how it always worked. I guess I need to read The Oil ConunDRUM.
The question is, how much will the Smart Electric Drive cost, and how will it do in the snow? It’s supposed to be good for 63 miles on a charge, which would get me back and forth to work with plenty to spare, even if it it turns out to get a bit less than that in our cold, rain, and snow.
Speaking of OKat, yes, indeed, in so many ways, Syracuse is the center of civilization (oh, sure, it’s no Enid – let alone Norman, but for the godless Northeast, it’s right up there). The Alpha and the Omega, really. Of course, we’ve been forced to hide it, to both keep out the riff-raff and to ensure that we can manipulate events without becoming part of theM. We’re a bIt like the Second Foundation in that respect (sorry for that allusion; I realize nobody will get it, but I’ve been re-reading Asimov’s Foundation Series, and had forgotten how much I enjoyed them, and reading in general – having given it up when the Internet was invented, and could no longer read more than a paragraph without clicking something.
Andy Cuomo gave a snide, snotty, condescending press conference yesterday on his medicaid “commission.” The more I listen to this CSMF, the more I’ve come to despise him. His old man should be as ashamed of him as Mike Wallace should be ashamed of his greasy little spawn.
I hate to keep doing the boring weather report, but, well, it’s all part of perpetuating the weather myth so that people will stay away. I mean, it’s either this, or basketball (and I have to save the SU-Georgetown game for tomorrow).
Anyhow, the latest storm is slowly creeping its way into the area at the moment, promising to make the Friday commute a real pain in the ass. Not much of a storm, really. In isolation, it would be no big deal, but coming late in February when we’re just a teensy-weensy little bit tired of this stuff makes it a bit more than your typical workday annoyance. Looks like we’re on track to get 5-10″ (which translates to a foot, easy, at my house), which means by the drive home tonight, this winter will be in the top ten for snowfall (and a lot more winter to go). Oh boy.
Oh well, time for more coffee while I can still afford it.
It’s poring here, which means Lola, who is running around the backyard and won’t come in, will be a very wet dog when she does come in. Oh joy.
Cuomo was made more arrogant by the election. The alternative was so unthinkable that all Cuomo had to do was be quiet before being crowned. I cannot forgive him for refusing to renew that surtax on the well off. All these jerks keep talking about shared pain but only the middle class and poor are sharing. The wealthy get MORE.
If only I were a teabagger. Then I would think this is all wonderful, until, of course, they tinkered with my Medicare. As it is Medicare has been terribly undermined by the drug benefit that not only was unpaid for, but structured so that the gummint can’t get a better deal from Pharma.
It’s really nauseating.
That’s great PJ. I tested sending the PDF to a Kindle earlier. It reads marginally OK on a small Kindle since I formatted it to less than a full sheet of paper. I am only disappointed in the Kindle only having a gray-scale and so it loses all the color figures. And as a warning, its not a “normal” book in that I go nuts over the math (and like you said, it is looooong :nod: ).
BTW, What exactly does the .mobi format give you over straight PDF?
The biggest thing is probably that the mobi format allows the font options on the Kindle (as opposed to “zooming” the pdf page). Also, I believe the .mobi has better compression (I didn’t look at the file size this morning – I’ll have to check it out; the pdf came in at about 19 Megs. And, I think you can highlight the word and get the dictionary popup with mobi (which I will no doubt need for your book), but not in pdf (though I haven’t actually tried it in pdf).
Don’t know if you’ve ever played with Calibre, but you can use it to convert to/from a bunch of formats (like ePub, which is nice ‘cuz it’s opensource and supported by most readers except for Kindle, and mobi, which isn’t opensource, sadly, but is the Kindle default).
You book is probably better suited to the big honkin’ Kindle DX. But, as you say, it would still be limited to grayscale. That’s the price for using eInk, but the benefits with power saving (no backlight, and the only time you use power is when you change the display, as opposed to needing power just to continue to display the page on the screen).
Still, as grayscale goes, it’s pretty nice, I think.
And color eInk is in the works.
SF weather update:
As was once printed on a t-shirt that Eric Clapton wore at some appearances, no snow, no show.
Tonight maybe but it is sounding less likely now. It has been very stormy though.
:cold:
Greetings fellow philosopher kings and queens!! I once again have access to the net abeit through a cheap phone, but it’s a start.
Hey Andy. It is indeed very good to see you here.
Thanks Sue!
Hey, bloggeristas.
PJ, Thanks for the tips :bow:
Andy, gneiss 2 sea U back
Holy shit it’s cold.
Say Heh Andy! :yippee:
Welkommen
I’m at Laughs in Kirkland early. There’s no one to talk with, so I’m just drinking to pass the time.
Is that where Maron is tonight? If so, I bet he’ll show up before the show and talk to you Trav :fire:
Yeah, I got a t-shirt signed and short interview I’ll post tomorrow on the blog. So stay tuned.
Maron gave me cookies he got from a fan. Awesome!
I bet you don’t know who that is.
That’s right, it’s Gajinda! aka Jennie. Holy shit! Blast from the past, huh? I think I fell in love for a few moments when the photo was taken. Then I realized how much of a pathetic moron I am, so I didn’t ask her to stay and talk.
:gate: