Griffblog

I have never really been much of a book reader.  Mostly because I have a hard time setting aside quality time to read.  So when I would read, I knew I was putting off something I should be working on and have a hard time just letting go and focusing on the book.  Or the types of book I would read are technical programming books, etc.  They are not really readers, more like summary and reference.  Knowing that I would enjoy reading more I recently bought “The Facebook Effect“.  Figured it’s still something internet/tech related but enough of a reader that it would be a good way to get started reading more.  And I was right.  Not sure how much of it is fact, but really enjoying the book and reading in general.  The side effect now is that I have started reading a few books and have  a queue of other books that look interesting.

Being a gadget lover, this renewed interest in reading has sparked my curiosity in the Kindle from Amazon.  I have always agreed with the fact that it’s not a competitor to the Apple iPad.  Even though you can read books on both devices and they have a similar design.  Certain types of books will be amazing on an iPad, but for just reading the kindle looks like the perfect way to do it digitally.

Next week I am scheduled to have a consultation with a company that specialized in website speed optimization (think fast loading pages).  As an incentive to meet with them they are offering a free kindle.  I jumped on the opportunity for both the in-depth demo of the service they provide and of course the chance to receive a free kindle.  I’m sure I’ll offer a review after/if I actually get one.

In the mean time however my rekindled (yea i said it) desire to read more books continues to grow.  After listening to this interview Robert Scoble did with Tim Ferriss about his upcoming book “The 4-Hour Body“, I decided to purchase his very popular book “The 4-Hour Workweek” for the kindle.  I have read bits and pieces of it in the past and have followed him on the web over the last couple years and figured I just just go for it.  I knew I could read the book on my computer even if I don’t get the kindle.  After reading a bit I remembered that I have the kindle app on my iPod touch.  So I gave it a try there and have really found it to be very readable.  Even with the small screen it’s easy to read and with only one or two sentences displayed at a time.  Keeps me focused.  I don’t get lost in the page, etc.

The past summer I purchased a second wireless router with the thought to upgrade my current home network to the fastest N speed.  I was planning to use the older G router I had when traveling or as a backup.  Summer passed and one of our family members was asking about what to get for a wireless router.  So being the nice guy I am I volunteered to give them our old one.  I setup the new router at the house and got them all setup.  Good to go right?  Wrong…  We have had nothing but trouble with the new wireless router.  I’ve spent countless sessions with the Linksys support staff trying to get it working, hoping they would just send me a replacement.  After each support session it always appears to work for a while, but eventually it stops working again.

At first it was just inconvenient.  The iPod touch became more of a music player again and I relied on my new HTC Hero Android phone for checking email, twitter, etc.  After I won the Apple TV however, I was more determined than ever to get the wireless up and running reliably again.  A few more tech support sessions later I finally just gave in and ran a couple cat5 network cables up to the living room.  Needed to do it anyway for our DirecTV receiver and hopefully a new blu-ray player.

It’s not that the Linksys tech support people don’t try.  But it’s frustrating to start the process over each time, even though I provide them with my previous case numbers.  Hopefully they will just replace it.  I came up with a solution in the meantime.  Sharing the Internet off our Mac mini (which is completely easy todo with a Mac by the way).

I was browsing the top selling electronics on Amazon.com today and noticed the Apple TV (#13), Boxee Box (#18) and the Roku (#19) internet connected TV devices are selling really well.  I have wanted a Roku for a long time, but just haven’t made the purchase yet.  When the NHL Game Center service is available on Roku it will probably push me over the edge.  The NHL is available on the Boxee Box but it’s odd design holds me back. I was fortunate to win an Apple TV a few weeks ago while in San Francisco for the PayPal developers convention.  At first I only found it to be useful for watching Netflix movies, but we have discovered that it also works really well for all of the movies we have in our iTunes account.  As more and more Blu-Ray/DVD movies include a digital copy, I can see this becoming our preferred method of watching movies.