Lots of Deliveries

I received my Kindle Fire the other day, Tuesday, to be exact.  It is very light and colorful and shiny.  Just the kind of thing I would really like if I were a crow or magpie or some other bird that likes shiny things.

What the Fire is.  The Fire is a small tablet that is more than a Kindle reader but not quite a fully web enabled tablet.  It is an Android(ish) powered device that has very strong connections to Amazon’s storefront and the Amazon cloud.  The Fire comes with a 30-day trial of Amazon’s Prime membership which entitles the user to free streaming of many of Amazon’s movies and TV shows.  The screen resolution is amazing, very clear and the colors pop out at you.  The sound is a bit tinny, but I have not had a chance to try it out with headphones.  The Fire has a real (slimmed down) browser, so it’s easy to jump from a book to the InterWebs to look something up.

What the Fire is not.  The Fire is not an iPad.  The Fire has WiFi connectivity only, so you can’t fully use it in a car or on a train or while waiting for a bus.  If you can use it in an airport or at a coffee shop, you will either need to find free WiFi or you’ll be paying for connectivity.  I suppose the Fire is equivelent to an iPad if you used both on an airplane, you wouldn’t be getting wireless service for the iPad and you wouldn’t be getting WiFi for the Fire.  The Fire has no SD slot.  It has 6GB of memory, but if you load up on Apps and books (Mobi and AZW) you won’t have too much space left for downloaded movies (MP4).  Android on the Fire is Amazon’s adaption of Gingerbread, so not all Android applications will work.  Amazon’s app store has thousands of apps, and there are plenty of reports that many non-Amazon approved apps will work.

The Fire is a backlit device, unlike the regular Kindle.  I suspect that the backlighting will make reading a tiring prospect, not immediately, but it is not unusual for me to read on my Kindle for a couple hours at a sitting.  I am still trying to press the "next page" button on the Fire, but of course there isn’t one and I’ll have to get used to that change.

I actually bought an application that lets me pull up my Google calendar without using the browser.  That’s the first app I’ve ever bought and I have an Android phone.  That, of course, got me wondering about Android application development.  It doesn’t look too difficult, so I might have to try my hand at building some apps that I have a need for.

I also received my replacement Verizon set top box, last night to be exact.  I was a bit surprised that the box was shipped UPS and they didn’t even tape it closed.  Obviously, it was a snap to unpack and installation was a breeze (power, HDMI, coax-in, done).  It took the new box about 5-10 minutes to figure out where it was and then everything was working again.  All I have to do is reprogram which shows need to be recorded.  I can’t completely remember what was on the list, so I am convinced that I’ve forgotten something.

My baseball jersey was also delivered.  Buying the 1/2 season tickets entitled me to a Nationals jersey with my name and choice of numbers.  I was expecting one of the good jerseys with iron-on name and number, but the name and number are stitched on!  Now I have to get on the ball and order Mrs. Ender a St. Louis jersey with the World Series patch with her name and number.  The name is the same on both and I have number 13 and she’ll have 14.  Those are our seat numbers.  It’s like athletic and geeky at the same time.

I have to pass along a gripe I have about work.  My manager has this mental block and tends to see everyone below her on the organization chart as an amorphous blob.  She doesn’t seem to recognize that different people have different job descriptions and that her expectation that everyone jumps in to finsh any high priority task (i.e. whatever she happens to be thinking about that instant) is not an accurate depiction of  how things really work.  I’m getting tired of explaining that I don’t do that or that I am responsible for that task or that blindness to individuals does not a good manager make.

I complained a bit about my not-quite-red-but-plenty-soft soap in my last entry.  Well, it took an extra day (or two) to start drying, but it’s really quite nice once it does harden up a bit.  I popped the few pieces out of the silicon candy mold a bit too early–too early meant too soft meant a bit squished looking–but the column of soap that was molded in the piece of PVC pipe is really nice.  It isn’t red enough to use as fake peppermint candy in your powder room holiday themed soap dish, but it’s fine as a dark pink peppermint smelling foot long dowel shaped soap.

Ender is out.