Daves Personal Blog

Well well.. yes I’ve been a little slacky when it comes to my posting.. I realize this, but the past few months have been pretty busy for me here at casa de…. well me..

First off, let me start by saying I did keep the nook and it’s a wonderful device for what it does.. especially after the newer firmware.. it is pretty darn kewl.. And I really like it.. that being said, I do have to admit that I got an iPad.. and yes I do love that too.. let me tell you, for regular books however, I’d probably use the nook, but for my technical books, even tho they look pretty darned good on the nook, I’d probably read them on iBooks just because the code blocks and sample pictures are easy to read and understand… I do like the iPad almost 10″ of wonderful goodness.  Yes there are many people that say it is essentially a large iPod, which in general I’m sure it is.. but movies, books and other things are much better on the iPad than I though they would be.. I do love it

On to my next endeavour, I have been busy with some local volunteering.  Our Theatre (TCR) re-opened the flood torn building we used to be in, so that took up a few months of my time as well as working with the Cedar Rapids Rollergirls.. these ladies are a blast to work with, and are alto of fun.. if any of you live in Cedar Rapids, I highly suggest getting downtown (or even if they are away) and seeing a bout.. it is a wonderful night of entertainment and a good damn sport too.

You can find thier season schedule on thier website (at least you can tomorrow when I promote it into production).  Go see a bout..

Now onto my final point for this long post.  I’ve been saying for years that I wanted to get a tattoo and I believe that everyone in my family thought that I was never going to do it, but after talking with some of the Roller Girls (wait… maybe they are bad influences) I found a pretty good damn tattoo artist to do me a medical tattoo.  She works for Lefty’s Tattoo parlor in Lindale Mall.  Wonderful place, stop by and see ‘em if you are thinking of getting work done.  See I hate wearing jewelry.. the only thing I wear is my wedding ring usually, so I thought.. what better way to let the medics know that I’m a diabetic, than to permanently get it etched into my skin.. Nice thing, I’ll never loose it (easily)..

Well that brings my ranting to an end.. in summary.. TCR is back, Roller Girls RAWK and I have a tattoo (and plan on getting more).. Maybe this is my mid-life crisis.. but I hope not, I prefer to spend that on video games

This, the beginning of 2010, has already heralded a few announcements of new eBook Readers at CES.  Alex was touted about, the Nook is still back-ordered, Sony has the Daily Edition and more.

I recently picked up the Archos 5 Internet Tablet, so I could use it as an ebook reader.  Well I’ve had it a little under 24 hours and have been very frustrated with it so far.  What this thing can do is LIMITLESS, with android and the Internet..  I thought this could be a contender for any ebook reader.  It’s small, it has an awesome screen.  It has an eBook reader.  It has Multimedia capabilities and WiFi.

My hopes were violently trashed as I tried to setup this device.  First, I could connect to WiFi on my home network, but I couldn’t actually get anywhere.  Due to this fact, I had to download the newest firmware manually and side load it into the device.  The update was easy and no problem have happened there.  With new firmware in hand, I try WiFi again.. Still no network connection, regardless that it has a local IP.

I took this device to work and was FINALLY able to connect to the WiFi network.  Now, mind you, I have another WiFi device sitting right next to it (my iPhone).  Both had a network connection, however the Archos would continually DROP the wifi connection, forcing me to manually reconnect every time.  I was able to get to the Internet, update Appslib (Archos’ Android Marketplace) and download the eBook Reader (Aldiko).  However, 70% of the time (with an active WiFi Connection) I was getting a “Network Error”

Archos 5 Reading a Book

Once I finally got my eBooks on this device, they look wonderful.  I did however have issues of the device just shutting itself off, and having to reboot, clear cache and restart what I was doing.

All the issues I am having with this device is thinking, I should just return this and wait for the Alex, or maybe get the  Nook. The reason I got this device, was that it was the same price as the nook, I thought it would do it all.. but more and more I’m just getting frustrated!

I figure, by the end of this year, I’ll have tried EVERY popular eBook reader, in my futile attempt at the perfect reader.

More to come…

Okay.. So for a while, I’ve been watching the eBook front.

Heck I even bought a Kindle DX, but have since returned it.  I’ll explain a few things I’ve found out doing some research and reading on the net.

Now the kindle.  The kindle was a nice piece of kit, it was big it had a keyboard.. it was nice.  The only thing, I didn’t like exactly how it worked with PDF’s.  But the rest was nice, the wireless was nice, however I usually had it turned off.  e-Ink and display were nice, and of course, it’s amazon.

Now, after doing some reading on the Nook, I’ve found out.. Yes it has a native PDF reader but you can’t annotate PDF’s.  Well that kind of bites.  I was also able to play around with the hardware a bit at B&N tonight.  The display was nice, it did seem a little sluggish when refreshing, but I don’t expect it super speedy.  The color screen seemed.. cumbersome.  It mis-registered finger clicks, the swiping action, when I was using it, reset the swipe every time I tried to swipe the list of options .. So I would swipe up, and the option my finger was under popped to the bottom, and then screened up.. I had to do this 4 times, before I got a “page”.  That kinda put me off.

Now after reading about the Sony 600 Touch, and playing with it quickly at target, I seem to like the interface on that a bit.  Wireless is not a deal breaker for me, but would be a nice touch.  The screen was nice and quick, and it responded well to finger swipes and touches.  I have read online that the Sony Reader allows annotations in PDF’s (Nook and Kindle do NOT), which I think is a selling point for me.. I plan on keeping alot of my books on the SD cards anyway (the Kindle does not take SD cards, the nook takes microSD cards, but you have to take the back off to load it, above the SIM Card).

I have a SD card full of PDF’s I’d like to try, but Targets display blocked the SD Slot.  Best Buy’s display took the SD card and said “Reading Card” but the display unit wouldn’t go out of “Demo” mode, so I’m going to have to ask the staff if they will allow me to see a demo unit that works.  But for the buck, at this time I’d pick the 600 at this time for my styles of eReader.  The Sony has more options of “reading” formats, it has the nice touch and (from what I hear) good PDF support.  I’m sure Sony will come out with a wireless enabled device next year (pending contracts I’m sure).  However, Alex, iLiad and the Que readers coming out next year.  So I’m trying to decide if I should wait, or use Best Buys return policy to “try” the Sony Reader.  It’s on sale ( or was today ) for 20$ off.

If I decide to try the Sony, I will definitely have a review here, stay tuned.

UPDATE: I just found out that the eReader Daily Edition (which launches next week, the 18th), is 100$ more and offers 3G wireless (AT&T) and still a touch screen.  All in a 7″ reader.  Might be a contender.

It’s about that time again, time for a game review ( I know I need to review Ghostbusters yet).  This time, this review is for Uncharted: Drakes Fortune.

Alright, I might be a little behind, but back when Uncharted originally came out I downloaded the demo, and had major issues playing the game.  I really never liked FPS style games, and I just didn’t give this one a chance.  The visuals were awesome and I told myself if the game ever dropped in price, I was going to try it.

About a month ago, I found this game for 30$ at BestBuy, so I thought I’d finally try the game.  Let me tell you, this game has got to be one of the MUST HAVE for PS3 owners.

So I got into the game, the amazing cinematics.  The awesome graphics.  The ease of game play.  As I’m not much of a FPS gamer, I played the game very safe (and on normal) and tried to use mostly guns for the fighting.  Let me tell  you, the amount of different weapons was quite interesting.  I myself, loved the Dragon Sniper Rifle.  That was just awesomeness in a can.  There is melee combat as well, which I didn’t do much of.   The game also consists of several puzzles, but on Normal mode the game does help out with some hints.

With this game, unlike many games, I never used any sort of walkthroughs or cheats on this game.  I had lots of fun just trying to figure it out myself, with my 8 year old helping me look for ammo and treasure.

First time through, I got most (half) of the treasures, so I figure for me, that’s not too bad.  Once you finish the game, and save the world the main menu  unlocks some bonus content.  Watching the behind the scenes of how they made the game, for a techie and 3d person was just awesome.

Now I have the ability to play certain levels again (like I didn’t play them enough when I was dying the first time) and try to get more trophies and more treasures.  Now that I understand the game mechanics, some of the earlier levels might be a lot more fun.

As I’ve said before, I would highly recommend this game to every PS3 owner, even if you don’t like the FPS genre.  It mixes a lot of other things in too.. GET IT!! (it’s cheaper now too)

Score: 9.5 out of 10
Recommend: YES