Nook Hands-On

Well, after using the nook for a while, I have decided that overall, I like it a lot. But that's not without qualification.

First, the good. The screen is amazingly easy to read. I've just never been able to read long documents on handheld LCD screens without wicked eyestrain, but this is like reading it on paper. It's easy to operate with just one hand, and I like that you can look up words in the dictionary on the fly.

The biggest qualm I have is that it is s-l-o-w. I can accept that the eInk screen will be slow on refreshes because that's endemic to the technology. But the color LCD touchscreen is slow too, and not particularly responsive. When you combine the two, hilarity ensues. I end up executing a lot of the commands twice because it initially looks like nothing has registered. Or I press it and wait for like 5 seconds to account for the delay and it turns out that indeed nothing went through. Frustrating. Oh, and if you have fat fingers, forget it. Some of those touchscreen buttons are positively miniscule.

All in all, I like it. But if there's one advantage that paper books retain, it's cheapness. These e-readers are so expensive that I would NEVER take one to the pool or the beach, whereas I don't give a shit if my paperback falls in the water.

Finally, I'm about halfway through Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, and so far, I think it sucks. Not that I came into it expecting Atlas Shrugged, but it's pretty much a first semester college research paper on the Freemasons, albeit a little more suspenseful. There's still 700 more pages left for it to get better, so I'm hopeful. But one minor quibble--at one point a character "points to a Metro sign" from the Freedom Plaza, which turns out to be Metro Center. But anyone who's ever been to Freedom Plaza knows that you can't see ANY Metro signs from there, much less Metro Center's, which is several blocks away and is frankly a little tough to see even when you're right on top of it.

I Now Know How Old People Feel

I mean, irrespective of the obvious fact that I AM old.

My current laptop is going on damn near 8 years old, and it just can't run anything more demanding than Minesweeper. Not that that would usually be a problem, because Minesweeper is the best game ever invented, but the last time I went out of town on business, I couldn't get anything done because everything ran so slow. So this past Black Friday, I ordered a new laptop from Newegg. It was originally $749 with a $100 discount and a 10% Bing Cashback special, for a total of $585. And no interest for 6 months with my preferred account. Cool.

Just one problem though--nobody ever bothered to deliver it, unless the driver's Dec. 1 shift has lasted 23 days:

I think that "Brown" is exactly the right color to characterize UPS service.

I couldn't get another machine shipped to me because they were out of stock, and so I was just refunded the total and that was that. At that point, what I should have done was thank my lucky stars that I wasn't going to have to spend that much money after all. Only problem is, when you spend two weeks thinking you're going to get something, you'd better get SOMETHING. I mean, I had even ordered a laptop case.

So I went on the lookout for a replacement, and predictably couldn't find anything comparable for the same price--we're talking $800 territory here. I thought, for that kind of money, I'll pay a little extra and get a MacBook just so I could learn OS X. You can run Windows on them anyway, so it's not like there's a disadvantage besides knowing that you're paying like twice as much for generic internal hardware. But I digress.

I ended up buying the aluminum MacBook Pro (2 year financing FTW). It was more than a "little" extra, but I digress again. I will say this for Macs...they are GORGEOUS and built more solidly than the creaky plasticky PC laptops of yesteryear.

But poking around in OS X, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Sometimes I spend like a minute just staring blankly at the thing. Where is the "maximize window" button? How can I tell how many separate Safari windows (not tabs) are open? How come when I click "X" sometimes it closes the program and sometimes it doesn't? I'm going to have a little more sympathy for old people trying to use computers from now on, methinks.

If Only They Had a Time Machine

I found this in the Sports Illustrated archive. Who would have known back then how hilarious this would look right now?

William & Mary vs. Villanova Notes

- I understand why NFL rookies always say that the NFL is so much faster than college-the game speed just seems awfully slow, though there are some individual players who are really very talented.

-I'm incredibly impressed with W&M's defense. Aside from that one blown coverage early, they've been phenomenal.

-Villanova is going blitz-crazy and RJ Archer is just not making them pay. The offensive game plan is awfully conservative. I'm surprised they're not running any quick slants against that pressure--tons of lateral routes are not going to get it done. There should be a lot more separation than 10 points right now.

-I HATE HATE HATE when a team runs a slightly unconventional set where the ball is directly snapped to someone other than the quarterback and the announcer immediately cries "It's the Wildcat!" It's usually a single or double wing formation, in this case on Szczur's TD run, I believe a double wing direct snap to WR. There's nothing magically distinctive about the term "Wildcat," unless you mean the Dolphins variation, and even then, it still wasn't a "Wildcat," as no slot receiver was in motion across the formation.

-William & Mary's special teams are simply awful.

-I don't know how W&M fell for that fake punt. But more importantly, I don't understand why the coverage team pursued the ball carrier. When you're the defender and you're standing at the line of scrimmage, the guy needs to get back to the line and then almost 10 more yards BEHIND you to get the first down. WHY ARE YOU PURSUING HIM? Let him come to you and you won't fall for the reverse.

-Is ANYBODY blocking on the W&M punt return team?

-This announcing team of Brock Huard and...some other guy...totally sucks. I haven't heard either of them offer any real insight on any of the plays, and not one single time have I heard them point out the play of anybody on the offensive line.

Maybe I Shouldn't Trust Computer Maps Anymore

Everyone already knows that I think the automotive GPS is the greatest invention in the history of mankind. I've always been terrible at finding places, and half the time I'd forget to print out the map anyway. But now I need no preparation time to find any place in the country, except, apparently, my own apartment.

I got my first GPS about 3 or 4 years ago, and I never updated the map. I always thought that for the $100 they charge to update your map, I might as well buy a whole new GPS unit. But I was too lazy to actually do that. So for those 3 or 4 years, sometimes my unit ran me into dead ends, especially one particular one it always directed me into while I was trying to get back home. And don't say "learn the right streets and make the appropriate corrections." I don't do that. My job is to not crash the car. GPS's job is to navigate. It says turn right, I turn right. You must respect the chain of command.

Anyway, this Black Friday, I snagged a new GPS for only 60 bucks. Today was the first day I took it out for a test run, and everything worked well, until I was coming home and some of the roads and houses I was passing looked alarmingly familiar. But this GPS has the most up-to-date map available, so I wasn't worried. Perhaps they'd finally finished construction or something. I happily followed instructions and pulled right into that dead end. Again.

Today I was also searching for Italian food around my office building, and Google Maps was kind enough to find me Maggiano's Little Italy:

I've heard that their Middle of the Deserted Field location is the finest of their whole franchise.

Wherefore Art Thou, Nook? Delayed!

Well, it was too good to be true. After more than a month of patiently waiting for the Barnes & Noble nook reader to ship, it has been delayed. Not just to the retail stores, though that's all the media seem to be reporting. I must have been the first one in the world to order the damn thing, and despite an initial shipping date of November 30, I have now been pushed back to Dec. 9. They really need to iron out the kinks in their supply chain.

They did offer a $10 coupon code, which I guess is something, but I hate the smarmy way in which they make it not sound like a delay:

Subject Line: Your nook is shipping soon, plus a little something extra

You were smart to order your nook early for 2 reasons:

Reason 1: You'll be one of the first to have one. Your nook is shipping soon and
we expect to have it to you by December 9th. As an added bonus, we've upgraded
you to overnight shipping!

Reason 2: To thank you for being one of the first proud nook owners, we're giving
you a $10 Barnes&Noble.com Online Gift Certificate.

Thanks for the coupon code, but next time just say "hey, we've delayed your order from November 30th to December 9th" instead of oh-you're-so-lucky-have-ten-bucks-we-won't-even-explicitly-mention-it's-late.