Update: It seems shipping is somehow not included, it just was not mentioned in the bill I got. Forget I said anything!! E
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I just ordered another backup keyboard from Unicomp. (Read here about their unique keyboards.)
(Ooh: a friend just told me that the Unicomp keyboard is the first on he's had which lets him write long without pain! (He's writing a novel now.) I guess the certainty of the key press makes him less tense when writing.)
I just got the Unicomp bill, and I find out that shipping and handling is included in the price, even if international. I think this is crazy. I mean, what's crazy is that they don't point this out. At least not clearly. They should. Most people think their keyboards are expensive, because you can buy a bamboo keyboard for $0.58 or whatever. But if Unicomp sold theirs for "$49 plus $20 for S/H", instead of "$69, S/H cost unknown", it would seem a lot more reasonable.
In my case they took nothing for handling and included over fifty dollars worth of shipping for free! I mean, it's kind of them, but it's no way to do business. They don't have to turn into Donald Trump, but a profit is good for business, you know.
Update:
Let me compare to the Matias keyboards. I love those two, but not only are they twice the price ($150!), but they charge $95 for international shipping!! What a difference.
Update: OK, I had overlooked one thing: Matias is in Canada, and it seems shipping is way more expensive from there. Sorry. Also their service is great, so it seems unlikely that their prices are any kind of rip-off.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
What is the/a goal?
An article in extension of the stuff about blogging/earning/readers.
I heard it put another way by two old ladies who I saw interviewed on TV once, they had run their own clothing business all their lives:
"Money is not the goal, it's the means."
One might ask, well, what is the goal then. I've come to the conclusion myself that the Real Goal can't be measured within This Life, or within One Lifetime, if you like. It is helpful sometimes to put up goals like "become a millionaire" or "make a living off my art" or "getting a Pulitzer prize" or whatever. But I think the best they do is they keep one going.
Almost inevitably we see, when we have reached a Goal, that we are no happier now. We need another goal. And I think if one can get to a state where one sort of just "follows the flow" or lives intuitively, life works better.
"My muse for the session was this quote from Walt Disney: “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” To me, that’s it. That’s the thing."
I heard it put another way by two old ladies who I saw interviewed on TV once, they had run their own clothing business all their lives:
"Money is not the goal, it's the means."
One might ask, well, what is the goal then. I've come to the conclusion myself that the Real Goal can't be measured within This Life, or within One Lifetime, if you like. It is helpful sometimes to put up goals like "become a millionaire" or "make a living off my art" or "getting a Pulitzer prize" or whatever. But I think the best they do is they keep one going.
Almost inevitably we see, when we have reached a Goal, that we are no happier now. We need another goal. And I think if one can get to a state where one sort of just "follows the flow" or lives intuitively, life works better.
Reading over Lunch
Well, I'm not the one who got used to reading on the Pad in a hurry. Andy Ihnatko tweet:
Hardcovers have always been particularly problematic to keep open if you don't have both hands free for the job. An iPad on a stand is really the way to go. Any font and text size you like, and any mayonnaise smutches can be wiped off easily, unlike on a $25 hardcover's pages.
Not to mention instant access to dictionary and Wikipedia and SEs, if you're connected.
Update: Talking about the intrepid Mr. Ihnatko, in this review of the HCT Incredible phone he confirms my feelings that an iPhone sized-display is just a bit too small:
"Trying to read a hardcover book while eating lunch. I feel like I'm traveling from Boston to LA in the Wright Flier."
Hardcovers have always been particularly problematic to keep open if you don't have both hands free for the job. An iPad on a stand is really the way to go. Any font and text size you like, and any mayonnaise smutches can be wiped off easily, unlike on a $25 hardcover's pages.
Not to mention instant access to dictionary and Wikipedia and SEs, if you're connected.
Update: Talking about the intrepid Mr. Ihnatko, in this review of the HCT Incredible phone he confirms my feelings that an iPhone sized-display is just a bit too small:
But the Incredible expands its physical dimension from 3.7” (diagonal) to 4.3”. This seemingly small change redefines the device.
“Bigger than an iPhone but way smaller than a tablet” turns out to be a fantastic size for a mobile. When you make the screen just a little larger, the phone becomes a much better book reader, a much better movie player (particularly when you deploy the EVO’s built-in kickstand), and a much better web browser.
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“Bigger than an iPhone but way smaller than a tablet” turns out to be a fantastic size for a mobile. When you make the screen just a little larger, the phone becomes a much better book reader, a much better movie player (particularly when you deploy the EVO’s built-in kickstand), and a much better web browser.
Leæther Strip - Fit For Flogging
A newish favorite. (I found him in the brief period last year when Pandora actually worked internationally. I want Pandora back.)
Amazingly, he's just one guy, and even Danish, which is not usually so dark and intense.
Typically for such an artist, (Seems he spends long time just just being unreachable), he insists on spelling the "band name" with the danish letter æ. (In Danish it actually has a distinct inbetween A and E.)
Amazingly, he's just one guy, and even Danish, which is not usually so dark and intense.
Typically for such an artist, (Seems he spends long time just just being unreachable), he insists on spelling the "band name" with the danish letter æ. (In Danish it actually has a distinct inbetween A and E.)
"Where things are getting done, little things will go wrong"
A Danish adage says: "hvor der handles der spildes". It seems the nearest English-language adage is "accidents will happen", but that does not cover it. It means: "where things are getting done, little things will go wrong", or "where there's action there's waste". The last one is pretty direct. The first one is better. Could even be used as such.
Quite wise really. If you're too afraid of losing or ruining anything, you just can't get things done.
I once extended this into a rather extenuated Danish joke:
"Hvor der handles der spildes, og hvor der spilles der synges, og hvor der synges der danses, og hvor der danses har man det sjovt." - Eolake
It has a nice rhythm.
Machine translation:
Accidents will happen , and where there pretend to be there sing , and where there sing there dance , and where there dance has decent that funny.
But more exactly:
Where there's action there's waste. And where there's music there's singing. And where there's singing there's dancing. And where there's dancing, there's fun.
I made this up decades ago. The joke is the phonetic semilarity between "spildes" and "spilles" (the D is silent), two very different words. "Spildes" means being wasted and "spilles" means being played as in music.
Quite wise really. If you're too afraid of losing or ruining anything, you just can't get things done.
I once extended this into a rather extenuated Danish joke:
"Hvor der handles der spildes, og hvor der spilles der synges, og hvor der synges der danses, og hvor der danses har man det sjovt." - Eolake
It has a nice rhythm.
Machine translation:
Accidents will happen , and where there pretend to be there sing , and where there sing there dance , and where there dance has decent that funny.
But more exactly:
Where there's action there's waste. And where there's music there's singing. And where there's singing there's dancing. And where there's dancing, there's fun.
I made this up decades ago. The joke is the phonetic semilarity between "spildes" and "spilles" (the D is silent), two very different words. "Spildes" means being wasted and "spilles" means being played as in music.
BlueToof
I don't care what it is, when it has an LCD screen, it makes it better.
-- Kevin Rose
Everything is better with bluetooth.
-- Sheldon
-- Kevin Rose
Everything is better with bluetooth.
-- Sheldon
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wallpapers
Re those iPad wallpapers: strangely, but typically, it turns out there is no simple way to transfer photos from a Mac to an iPad. Come on, Apple. I can drag PDFs into GoodReader via iTunes, but not photos into Photos or anything else?
So either go to their site on the pad itself. Or put the pictures on an SD card and use Apple's photo import adapter.
So either go to their site on the pad itself. Or put the pictures on an SD card and use Apple's photo import adapter.
Update:
Bruce says:
Go to iTunes when your iPad is connected to your Mac. Click on the photos tab. You don't have to sync with iPhoto or iTunes. You can pick out a folder on your Mac to sync photos with.
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iPad love
Pic by Graphic Leftovers
they have nice iPad wallpapers
they have nice iPad wallpapers
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I'm having a shameless new love affair with my iPad. I'm not kidding when I say I can feel an endorphin rush as I click the button and slide the slider across to activate it.
It comes to bed with me, streaming videos from my iMac through Air Video to soothe me to sleep when I'm alone. Though turnng over while dead asleep and half waking to come face to face with the Wolfman is not to be recommended so choose your late night movies on it carefully.
Unlike Eolake I find the touch keyboard eminently usable. My only gripe being switching between alpha and numeric. Mental note to use only letters for passwords from now on to accommodate that.
Everything looks so gorgeous on it, so bright, so fresh, some may even say like seeing through the eyes of lurve... though that'll just be the amazing display. It's a real delight to use apps like Adobe Ideas and Photogene though there may need to be new health warnings for the iPad. I have a very sore index finger from colouring in an opaque background in Ideas on a line drawing I created from a photo in Photogene. And it was very cool at the weekend being able to identify constellations while outside using Planets even though I slightly cricked my neck.
I have games and appreciate the useful utilities but it's flicking through the daily news on Early Edition, exploring on Cool Hunting and checking out what's happening on TweetDeck that really gives me a buzz.
I can see so many possibilities it makes me want to learn how to create apps. It's certainly made me want to make special editions of all my publishing company's ebooks so they display on an iPad to perfection. People will consume from these things in monumental proportions, it's already starting to feel like the mid 80s all over again, without the hair though, thank god.
I used to like to wait to get the latest gadgets, wait for the glitches to be ironed out in the first release. Well not anymore, that's what tech support's for and contrary to popular belief Apple support (in the UK at least) is excellent. One time I received my computer back from Amsterdam the next day. Don't ask me how they did that but I will never forget fuming at the delivery company accusing them of mistakenly returning the package to me instead of delivering it to Apple. One time I was glad to eat my words.
Anyway, the iPad. It's so cool. And even cooler that I got one so close to its release into the wild in Europe. I just wish I went out more often so I could flaunt it more.
Nicola Quinn
Redneck Squidbillies
Some fan combined a song with a bit of TV show.
I'm new to both the show Squidbillies and the band Lamb of God. But I like this song, and I'm V'ing out the show.
(Note: hardcore trash metal, do not play if you're not a fan.)
I'm new to both the show Squidbillies and the band Lamb of God. But I like this song, and I'm V'ing out the show.
(Note: hardcore trash metal, do not play if you're not a fan.)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
My writing den
... last lifetime, and this one.
OK, I confess: none of these are really where I write the most. (That would be this keyboard (short radio show about it). I a bit addicted to the biggest and clickiest keyboard and biggest screen I could find. BUT: the pad and Apple's little wireless keyboard can easily be used for hours of serious writing every day, if space or portability or isolation (get away from the family or whatever) is a factor. They are top notch, no compromises in quality or speed. And you don't even need a power outlet, they both have battery lives longer than most people's work days.
Update:
Ganesha Games says:
I use the same set up (iPad + wireless keyboard) and it saves me from carpal tunnel pains when using the mouse on the larger screen/s in my studio. I write on the iPad at least one hour per day.
Update: searching for that old post, I saw that I've made a gazillion posts about keyboards... Maybe not quite as many as about cameras. But I just like good tools.
Here is another cool audio/article about typewriters. One of the interesting things is that one of the users of a typewriter says that one of the advantages is the silence! That's also one of the cool things about the iPad. It's absolutely silent. Not a hum at all, it has no disks or fans. Apart from the expensive MacBook Air (the variation with solid state storage), that is almost unheard of in computers.
OK, I confess: none of these are really where I write the most. (That would be this keyboard (short radio show about it). I a bit addicted to the biggest and clickiest keyboard and biggest screen I could find. BUT: the pad and Apple's little wireless keyboard can easily be used for hours of serious writing every day, if space or portability or isolation (get away from the family or whatever) is a factor. They are top notch, no compromises in quality or speed. And you don't even need a power outlet, they both have battery lives longer than most people's work days.
Update:
Ganesha Games says:
I use the same set up (iPad + wireless keyboard) and it saves me from carpal tunnel pains when using the mouse on the larger screen/s in my studio. I write on the iPad at least one hour per day.
Update: searching for that old post, I saw that I've made a gazillion posts about keyboards... Maybe not quite as many as about cameras. But I just like good tools.
Here is another cool audio/article about typewriters. One of the interesting things is that one of the users of a typewriter says that one of the advantages is the silence! That's also one of the cool things about the iPad. It's absolutely silent. Not a hum at all, it has no disks or fans. Apart from the expensive MacBook Air (the variation with solid state storage), that is almost unheard of in computers.
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