Friday, November 12, 2010

Audio Books at Gutenberg

Today's big discovery came after I decided to try one of the books on my kindle from Project Gutenberg. I searched for the title and found it but then selected the first download that was part of that title -- the kindle would not recognize it because it was an audio book. Eventually, I found the text version and downloaded it and started reading it, all while on the eliptical trainer at the Y.

When I got home, I took my iPod and browsed to the Gutenberg site, and downloaded the audio version and it started playing right in the browser. Considering that this site has some 33,000 titles, all free and out of copyright, this is pretty amazing. Highly recommended.

The site is Gutenberg.org.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Mark Andrew Bailey

Because of several of the better galleries have closed recently, we were a little reluctant to venture out in the cold for the monthly Columbus Gallery Hop. Our friends were up for it, so we went along and discovered the work of a gifted artist, Mark Andrew Bailey in a new gallery replacing one that had grown old and a little stale.

Mark seems very impressionistic to me, but with a line that is uncannily photo-accurate. He had two works on exhibit, with a restaurant/kitchen/bar theme, as seems to frequent a lot of his work that is available on-line. I'm looking forward to more from Mark, especially his other themes. Here are a couple of links to his web presence:
http://markandrewbailey.blogspot.com/
http://markandrewbailey.com/home.html

Friday, November 05, 2010

Apple MacBook Air

We were fascinated with the new and improved notebook computer from Apple. The compromises were few, and the price quite competitive. We tried it out in the local store and were even more impressed.

There are several stand-out features once you get beyond the small size and light weight: full-sized keyboard on the small 11" model, faster flash memory in place of a mechanical hard drive, beautiful very sharp screen, quiet because of no fan, not hot on your lap.

We ordered the small model, with the minimum processor and main memory of 2 gigabytes, but with the mid-range storage of 128 gigabytes. This is the first computer I have ever ordered with such minimum power but I figured that with the flash storage in place of a hard drive there would be speed benefits that would enhance the performance of the processor and memory, and it turns out that this is true, and "in spades".




Earlier today I loaded about 8,000 pictures from my desktop computer, while I was downloading an office software suite, and surfing the net, all on the MBA. Performance was easily the equal of a far more powerful (and hot and noisy and more expensive) machine. Needless to say, I am thrilled with this unit. As a result, I am even more convinced that this is a computer that does not have to be loaded up with processor and main memory options. This is a very nice change indeed from my iPod experience. Here is what Walt Mossberg says. Very extremely highly recommended.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

November Nudge

November nudged. Elections elapsed.
Leaves let loose. Yard chores yammered.
Health planning hopped.
Gray skies seamed in yellow.

Numbing North winds whirl.
Father Frost freezes. Days diminish.

Snowbirds soaring south soon?
To sunny skies and warm waters.