Home Again, and Tech
So, as the heading says, we're home again. It was, of course, to discover that in our absence, Seattle still hasn't discovered summer. It was something of a bummer to exchange a sunny, breezy, 80 degrees with overcast and 65. And yes, I'm windging, though, trust me, I'm grateful for the four days of sunshine, even if I had to leave home to get them. I'll take them any time I can.
One PS to the Ashland Reports ... deer. I mean, really. Deer. I'm used to seeing deer in fields, in rural areas, in parks sometimes. In Ashland, on the north and west side of town, up against the hill, there were deer all over the place! Browsing the grass in someone's back yard of a twilight; resting under a tree in someone's front yard of a early-afternoon (I thought it was a bizarre kind of large dog until my brain caught up with what I was seeing); cropping the plants along a driveway with two teeny-tiny fawns mid-afternoon. These were all in places where the houses were close together and there were cars and people around all the time. Wild! Or, maybe, domestic!
Last week, for who knows what reason, I finally swapped out my T-mobile account and slide phone, and bought an iPhone (and sold my soul to AT&T). I actually bought a refurbished 3GS version, because I'm funny about new tech. I don't like buying it. So much perfectly good hardware gets tossed because it's not the latest and greatest ... and I don't need the latest and greatest, so I happily reuse what came before. The phone arrived while we were gone, and I spent most of last night setting it up, and downloading the new OS.
Conclusion? AT&T's infrastructure isn't ready for the iPhone onslaught (which ain't news to anyone). Took me forever to get the phone activated, and the instructions on how to do so were conflicting. The phone itself is great, and I'm very glad to no longer have to tote both cell phone and iPod around. I haven't dived into the wide, crazy world of apps yet, or ringtones. Right now I'm concentrating on getting the basics set up ... like how to put it on silent mode while I'm in meetings.
The other piece of tech I bought is a Kindle. Yeah, yeah, I know. I swore I'd never get one, and for a lot of good reasons. The price was too high, and I don't like Amazon.com's licensing vs selling policy. The price has come down, and I'm hoping that with the other advances in the e-book market, Amazon will change the licensing policy to one of purchasing with full rights. This is nothing new ... iTunes has the same business model, and has loosened their grip on things a bit over the years. I'm considering this an experiment.
What ended up selling me (besides the lower price), was that I wanted to take three books with me to Ashland, and didn't want to tote them. My bag is heavy enough with the laptop, charger, etc, and three books?? No way in hell. Not even if two of them were in my checked bag. And no ... I could not have simply made due with one book. Perish the thought.
I'll write more about the Kindle and my experience with it later (cause now it's time to go to work), but I can at least say that it's soopar nifty when it comes to being seven books in one, and uber light. In that respect, I met my objective! Expensive way to do it, but I was pretty satisfied for that reason alone. Did I mention my shoulder bag is heavy??
More later. Yep.
One PS to the Ashland Reports ... deer. I mean, really. Deer. I'm used to seeing deer in fields, in rural areas, in parks sometimes. In Ashland, on the north and west side of town, up against the hill, there were deer all over the place! Browsing the grass in someone's back yard of a twilight; resting under a tree in someone's front yard of a early-afternoon (I thought it was a bizarre kind of large dog until my brain caught up with what I was seeing); cropping the plants along a driveway with two teeny-tiny fawns mid-afternoon. These were all in places where the houses were close together and there were cars and people around all the time. Wild! Or, maybe, domestic!
Last week, for who knows what reason, I finally swapped out my T-mobile account and slide phone, and bought an iPhone (and sold my soul to AT&T). I actually bought a refurbished 3GS version, because I'm funny about new tech. I don't like buying it. So much perfectly good hardware gets tossed because it's not the latest and greatest ... and I don't need the latest and greatest, so I happily reuse what came before. The phone arrived while we were gone, and I spent most of last night setting it up, and downloading the new OS.
Conclusion? AT&T's infrastructure isn't ready for the iPhone onslaught (which ain't news to anyone). Took me forever to get the phone activated, and the instructions on how to do so were conflicting. The phone itself is great, and I'm very glad to no longer have to tote both cell phone and iPod around. I haven't dived into the wide, crazy world of apps yet, or ringtones. Right now I'm concentrating on getting the basics set up ... like how to put it on silent mode while I'm in meetings.
The other piece of tech I bought is a Kindle. Yeah, yeah, I know. I swore I'd never get one, and for a lot of good reasons. The price was too high, and I don't like Amazon.com's licensing vs selling policy. The price has come down, and I'm hoping that with the other advances in the e-book market, Amazon will change the licensing policy to one of purchasing with full rights. This is nothing new ... iTunes has the same business model, and has loosened their grip on things a bit over the years. I'm considering this an experiment.
What ended up selling me (besides the lower price), was that I wanted to take three books with me to Ashland, and didn't want to tote them. My bag is heavy enough with the laptop, charger, etc, and three books?? No way in hell. Not even if two of them were in my checked bag. And no ... I could not have simply made due with one book. Perish the thought.
I'll write more about the Kindle and my experience with it later (cause now it's time to go to work), but I can at least say that it's soopar nifty when it comes to being seven books in one, and uber light. In that respect, I met my objective! Expensive way to do it, but I was pretty satisfied for that reason alone. Did I mention my shoulder bag is heavy??
More later. Yep.