21st Century Reading

I love my Kindle!

Today, after one rather long shipping delay since Amazon made it available for sale in Canada, my Kindle (this one) finally arrived.

The first experiences were a little rocky. The e-ink is sufficiently convincing I initially thought the screen had a sticker on it. Eventually it dawned on me it couldn't be peeled off. Lol.

I figured it needed to be charged so I connected the provided USB cable to my PC, at which point the Kindle lied to me. Contrary to what this screen says it doesn't matter if you eject the damn thing, you just can't (at least on my pc...) use the Kindle at the same time it is plugged into PC USB for charging:

Next I decided to connect to my home wireless. After several mistaken attempts to press enter to select a symbol that instead caused the device to attempt to connect with an incomplete access code I figured out how to use the 5-way input thingy and finally entered the entire wireless access code. The device then helpfully started displaying that it was connected to wireless and popped a seemingly immortal partially completed wireless access code entry screen. This wouldn't go away no matter what I pressed. At this point I learned from Google that holding power down for 15 seconds gives the Kindle strong encouragement to turn off. I flipped it back on, resulting in 5-10 seconds of blank screen before anything happened. Luckily when it finally booted back up it remembered the wireless info, refrained from popping immortal dialogs, and was generally happy with the world.

Finally all connected, it was time to try to download some free books! I wanted to grab the Kindle Download Guide described in http://www.feedbooks.com/help/kindle. The first obstacle was that the site advises that

"The guide is a simple file that you need to add on your Kindle. The URL for this file is http://www.feedbooks.com/kindleguide

Open the browser on your Kindle and open this URL"

Unfortunately at this point I had no idea how to actually open an arbitrary URL on the Kindle. It turns out you hit the menu key on the home screen, then pick search:

This brings me back to the joys of symbol entry on the Kindle. Picking symbols with the 5-way thing still sucks:

Once I finally had the URL entered I selected the 'go to web' search type and it informed me of the potential for download:

After I said yes and waited a few moments moments a prompt came up to say the file has been downloaded and the book was available on the home screen. Sounds great! I clicked ok and got abandoned on a blank browser screen:

Pressing 'Home' returned me home (shocking!) and the download guide was indeed available:

On my first opening of the guide the recent additions page popped, which is neat but not terribly useful:

Pressing 'Menu' and selecting 'Go to...' and then table of contents yields a more useful display with links to books that were recent added, recently popular, or simply the catalog in alphabetical order or by author:

Author information apparently pulls from Wikipedia and the catalog gives a nice list of book links to download:

On the book information page I was able to simply choose 'download this book', confirm I really wanted to download, and get abandoned on the blank browser screen of success once again. Pressing 'Home' took me to the updated content list with my new book, ready to read. Although not as polished as it could be that's still a staggeringly easy way to get a free book!

The really awesome thing about all this is that within minutes of unboxing the Kindle I have a copy of a book I have considered purchasing before! I tend to think the Kindle is going to pay for itself pretty quickly!!

It also bears mentioning that I generally despise reading lengthy documents on even a good LCD screen because it makes my eyes ache. My biggest worry buying a Kindle was that I'd hate reading on it. Well, so far so good! Reading on the Kindle is completely different than reading on any actively lit screen. It feels like a book in the hand with the cover on and the electronic ink screen is clear and pleasant to read. It can even display surprisingly detailed images, such as the ones it leaves up when you flip it off:

Browsing arbitrary sites sort of works. It tries hard and does render quite well courtesy of WebKit but anything with much color or complex graphics is pushing it. Here is google and the Starcraft 2 homepage:

I have to say I'm tremendously pleased with this device so far. Portable access to a VAST array of public domain works plus the ability to purchase books, magazines, and newspapers that are not quite public is awesome. And, as advertised, the screen seems tolerable for reading longer periods with less eye strain than any of my screens that enthusiastically blast light at me.

- Rod

We're Married You Know!

Long long ago (July 24th) we got married. There are just under 200 pictures posted here. And one or two below.

Our logo:

Pretty flowers:

The first day of the rest of your life:

There's gold! 24ct specifically; things Rod learned during the wedding process include the fact that a great deal of Indian jewelry is made from 24ct gold.

The fakir of weddingistan.

For more go here.

A Roof and Windows!

Since last visit (see post) a lot of progress! The roof is fully on:

Windows are going in today; in fact of the many people at work several were actively doing this during our visit. The windows for the front of the house sitting upstairs just prior to placement:

The western front:

The eastern front:

The window for the master bedroom deck just before placement:

We quite like the result of high ceilings and large windows in the great room:

The great room windows as seen from the yard:

This *is* a city home so we had to have at least one window that looks directly sideways at the neighbors.

For bathrooms with tubs the tubs are now in place:

In the master bathroom we're going for two independent shower-heads in a 6'x3' space and an particularly thick glass wall. None of this is in yet.

The joys of working with a high ceiling; plus a view of how the half-wall separates the dining room from the kitchen, breakfast nook, and great room:

The stairs up from the kitchen level to the dining room and entrance are now present:

The ducting and heating is in full swing:

Apparently we should have doors with locks and then garage doors quite soon, at which point it will be somewhat harder for random people to come stroll through. We haven't had any problems but some sites have enough people enthused about visiting they have to hire security.

Almost Married

Posted a bit late but we've been a bit busy ;)

On July 23rd, after the Mindi Party we first ran flower-fetching errands, then had a family dinner to allow the two sides to meet. The biggest arrangements turned out to come in bloody large buckets of water to keep them healthy. We learned this by tipping one slightly and becoming rather wetter.

Anyway, back to the dinner. People are spread out pretty well so this really was the first contact for many. My dad got to hang with his brother for the first time in something like twenty years.

However, brothers will be brothers.

Speaking of brothers, my little bro wore a shirt with a collar! Suffice to say this is not frequent for either of us.

Next up: the wedding itself on the 24th!

Concrete Progress

The changes since the last (see post) set of photos are not too dramatic.

The roofing is starting to go on:

There has also been a good bit of progress in the interior concrete. The garage floor now exists:

The base for the ground floor is also now in, as is the outline of the half-wall between the dining room and the rest of the living area:

The step down towards the bottom of the picture separates the 'breakfast nook' and the great room. The photo above was taken while standing in the great room. Here is the view of the great room from the breakfast nook:

Some areas that will be largely hidden are currently quite exposed. This is under the raised floor on the left of the photo above:

Note that plumbing is starting to go in; you can see a couple of pipes if you look closely. Here's a few more going from downstairs to upstairs:

Windows and drywall coming in the not-too-distant future.

Mindi

On July 22nd, two days before our wedding, a Mindi (henna) party was thrown in Pavan's honor. We had a vague notion a few people were coming by to get henna and were thus quite surprised to see something of a crowd.

Many people got henna but the brides was by far the most elaborate, possibly testing the brides patience during the hours of application.

The men were kept entertained by drinks, samosa, and other fried snacks in the back yard. Pavan then got to sit by a tray of brightly colored things. It means something but we forgot what.

Once all this was setup people took turns coming by and rubbing some sort of goo on her arms and feet. They also tried for the face but the bride wasn't having any of that.

Even some of her brothers got in on it. Am (left) went for the finger-dab; Rick (right) seemed to be applying for a job as deep tissue masseuse.

It was, all in all, quite colorful.

Once sufficient stuff had been smeared the ceremony switch to more practical matters: feeding the hungry. Various people took turns feeding the bride what looked to be a sort of saffron rice. In the meantime a substantial amount of tandoori chicken appeared for the guys. Most of whom were about full.

Feeding complete and dancing children in tow the bride then had to prove she knew how to deliver food appropriately.

White people followed a time honored tradition of their own: being confused about the traditions of non-white people.

After all this the bride finally got to rest while a dance was performed. Much chanting and beating of the ritual stick ensued.

When the dancing completed a full Indian meal was served, much to the dismay of the guys who had been eating essentially all evening already. The highlight of dinner was a rather awesome yellow butter chicken.

And that is what happened at the Mindi party.