samvara

*waves to Curiosity* who has a Twitter, darn I'm going to have to create one now aren't I?

What the Vaio Z says about Sony's little design problem

I love the comparison shots of different Apple products over time.

I picked up an iPad2 and upgraded to OS5, no Stanza is a serious problem and right now I think I'll simply be doing my Uni stuff, traveling locally and web browsing in the iPad2 and doing all my reading on the (never to be upgraded) iPad1. ETA: Or I could just downgrade the iPad2 and not use OS5...

If people have any other application suggestions I'd love to hear them, I've got Stanza, Kindle, Kobo, Bluefire, Kobo and ShuBook installed right now and Stanza was the outright winner before OS5 came along. My survey of current alternatives points to ShuBook as the closest to a successor but only because it has better readability options. There doesn't appear to be anything with library management / browse functionality.

• ShuBook has good font choices and page layout options (although font size selection does not carry through to each new book opened).
• It also identifies and doesn't import duplicates if importing via iTunes > Apps > ShuBook Documents > "Add" which I quite like (don't try to import all 1044 books at once btw, iTunes can't cope and starts throwing memory errors).
• To my sorrow ShuBook doesn't import multiple books via browsing Calibre but I console myself at least it has a bulk importing tool .

It feels like iBooks, Kindle, Bluefire and Kobo have all been designed on the assumption that I read one book at a time, delete it and load a new book after. Since I am actually a relentless reader of short and long works and a re-reader, what I need is the ability to find all the cyberpunk works, all the space opera etc. What I want is metadata. I want to be able to tag works and then browse those tags.

Yeah so I went to read a G+ post while logged in to gmail and got the name warning thingie.

"We're sorry to see you leave! Please help us improve by telling us why you are leaving and what we can do better. This survey is optional but your feedback is much appreciated.

Please tell us why you're leaving: Characters remaining: 19 / 500

Hiya,
I am so uncomfortable with your 'legal name' policy that I am unable to use your service.
This has already been discussed extensively by people far more articulate than I, so I'm not sure what I can add to this debate.
There is no way I am going to use my (gendered) legal name to interact in public on any matter more significant than how I feel about the weather.
I experience your policy as an expression of male privilege and find it personally silencing.
Cheers, Me

Article on transgender voice training - v. interesting.

Now I want to know what pitch my voice is...

ETA: Men on average speak at 110-120 [Hertz], gender neutral is 145-165, and women are 210-220. I'm on about 149...

So, does anyone have a spare Google+ invite?

So wrong.

As the ridiculously happy owner of a new kayak clearly I need a camera I can take with me that doesn't mind getting splooshed so I've been scouting.

• Olympus Mju Tough 8010 - 14 MPix, 5 x optical zoom, waterproof to 10m, 1.8G internal memory, 215g ~ AUD $500 (slow start and 0.9 shutter lag, image quality 'acceptable')
• Canon Powershot D10 - 12.1 MPix, 3 x optical zoom, waterproof to 10m, ?? internal memory, 190g, ~ AUD $599 (chunky, chromatic aberration, better underwater)
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 - 12.1MPix, 4.6 optical zoom, waterproof to 3m, 40M internal memory, 162.5g, ~ AUD $499 (relatively slow performance but cnet likes it the most)
• Sony Cybershot TX5 - 10.2 MPix, 4 x optical zoom, waterproof to 3 m, 45M internal memory, 144g, ~ AUD $549 (barrel distortion

I'm leaning towards the Sony Cybershot right now because it's tiny and I want to paddle not scuba dive with it.

Work debate gone wild... thankfully the internets has a handy and interesting summary.