No, the mice didn't scare me off this morning-- but our little raft of technology was dead in the water until 2 pm. We couldn't get on the Internet through our wireless service Clear. Multiple modem reboots and phone calls later, we're connected once again with the outside world. How quickly those bright and shiny toys become black paperweights.In the picture above, you can see the blog running on the Color Nook right next to the blog up on my laptop. I don't know if this is exciting or scary. The Nook is a new reading device from Barnes and Noble, but has features more like a touch pad computer. And exactly what is a computer anymore? I remember when the vision at Microsoft was "a computer on every desk in every home." Of course now we carry them around in our pockets.
The Color Nook may be a step down from the IPad, but it has similar features. For one thing, a touch screen so the "book" pages turn with a little flick of the finger instead of a button clunk. The screen is backlit so you can read in the dark. Like the Kindle, you can download and store many thousands of books and arrange your library into electronic bookshelves, or collections. B&N is also a partner with Google's EPUB (Amazon is not) so in theory you have access to over 3 million books, many of them free. But so far I haven't actually read anything on my new Nook, I've just played with it. Amazing how much fun you can have with your reading device, not reading. Hope that Internet connection holds out.
It's also amazing how quickly we feel disconnected from the world and almost panic-stricken when our internet is down. When I was a little kid, we lived in a rural area and in winter it was not at all uncommon for snow and storms to take down the power lines. We entertained ourselves by lantern light and the light from the fireplace. That was in pre-historic times!
ReplyDeleteYes, "panic stricken" is the right word for it. I was ready to head down the street to McDonald's with my Notebook. What a world we've created for ourselves.
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