Ken Wolff Final Assignment

In a bid to enter the E-Book market, Amazon has launched its own E-Book reader called the Kindle.

It only took 5.5 hours for the Kindle to sell out on its Nov 19 launch. Over 50 000 orders were taken by online giant Amazon.com. The main selling feature of the gadget is its ability to connect to the internet through the cellular network. The system is called EDVO and bypasses the need for wifi hotspots that most wireless connections go to. Normally this would cost you $60-80 a month from a cellular company.

The Kindle hasn’t gone without some criticism. On Amazon’s website, it has only gotten 3/5 stars and that’s with over 800 reviews. One reviewer wrote,

“I do not want something to replace my paperback novel which is cheaper, more durable, has infinite battery life, and I'll be able to read 20 years from now.”

People have also been turned off by the $400 price tag and some compatibility problems with PDF files. You also have to pay for every subscription you have with newspapers and blogs. A lot of this content is already online for free.

CBC technology analyst Jesse Hirsh praised the Kindle for the awareness it could bring to open source information like blogs. In answering the problems with selling free content Hirsh says,

“a lot of people don’t know the blogs are free and people will buy it just because its on sale. Plus the stats show a lot of people don’t read blogs.”

He also mentioned there are bound to be problems with the first launch. Things will improve with later additions. Sounds kind of like what Windows Vista hopefuls keep saying. Hirsh’s thinking is that it will take more than just Amazon to make the E-Book Reader popular.

“The Kindle is not yet at the point to go beyond its niche. For that to happen it will need to go beyond its current design with something like the touch screen of the IPhone.”

Hirsh saw a lot of cool features coming out of partnerships with companies like Google. Teaming up with cellular companies could make the all-in-one thing people are looking for. The Kindle could be your book, phone and ipod. Before something like that happens, don’t expect to see people with their Ipod in one hand and a Kindle in the other.

See a video of Hirsh discussing the topic with CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/hirsh-invu071120.wmv

My Apologies for the delay folks, our flight will be leaving shortly from terminal 2

Yes I am still alive and to prove it, I'm typing this to you right now! Ok so what has happened in the last month? Well I saw Ben Folds at the Koolhaus on April 8th which was such an amazing show. It would have to go on my top 3 of concerts and as I realized not too long ago, I've been to almost 20 of them. Other than that, I (put off) worked on school work and finished my very last essays and assignments at Guelph. Exams came and went without the ominious feeling of doom related to failure which would inevitably keep me enslaved to the University of Guelph. Speaking of enslaved...I still need to pay my library overdue fines...

Exam week can be more often characterized by just how many times I hit refresh on the main facebook page in hopes of someone doing something that I could lay a witty comment on or atleast receive a chuckle over. Never disappointing, Facebook provided the goods, Matthew Good even. Apart from that, the always entertaining relationship status reports kept on trucking along. The change in format was really annoying though. Am I still talking about facebook? Ok enough of that.

Sadly, I did not get into any Teacher's Colleges. I have the double cohort to thank for that. *On a side note the monitor at the computer I'm working at is really wiggly!*
My plan for the fall = ? I really have no idea at this point. I could apply to somewhere international for Teacher's College, take some outdoor education programming stuff, work, travel somewhere(but with who?) or sit on my ass.

All things considered and despite the fact that I feel like I have no future, things are going pretty well for me at the moment. I'm going off to camp for the next 4 months probably for the last time. Alot of great friends of mine are still coming back and I'm really looking forward to seeing them. Oh and I'm still going steady! Jess and I were really good at not doing work at the end of the semester. I've gotten her 'slightly' hooked on hockey (no pun intended!).

Well I think that is a fairly decent update. They won't be too frequent in the near future due to camp swallowing me whole. Oh and from May 15-28th I will be in Scotland! I am beyond excited for that. I'll certainly have a long post after that.
I'm officially a University of Guelph grad as of June 11 after Pamella Wallin gives me that all important piece of paper.

Alright I think that is all for now. I would like to wish you all a pleasant stay here on le blog and a great day as well.

The "I am really tired, but am currently not sleeping for some reason" post

'allo cyberspace! I guess it is the top of the morning? Sooo...what was I going to say again?

Oh right: I'm going to organize this post into a good things and bad things list

Good

I've got me a 'steady'! Have I even mentioned this on here yet? *le gasp* Her name is Jess. She makes me happy. I quite fancy her. I'm resisting the urge to make this post simply about such matters...

It was 18 degrees outside!

I have a ton of new music!

There are only 2 weeks of classes left!

The NHL playoffs start soon!

I actually did work today!

Lost was crazy good!

I owe far fewer people rather large sums of money!

Bad

Veronica Mars and Heroes still aren't back from hiatus :( Ok so I should mention that the bad section is not necessarily in any specific order...

I should have done more school work/actually be focusing a lot more on it in general

I should be asleep right now...

I had to spend 30 minutes getting my bank account re-activated after already spending 45 minutes with the BMO people getting my stolen money situation sorted out.

I should be thinking of a contigency plan should next Monday not yield friendly results re: Teacher's College Applications AHHHHH

I should write more creative type stuff and get my guitar fixed...again.


Ok I think that is where I should say goodnight.

Yours Truly,

Eeanne

My day has come!

To give this post the weight it deserves, I must give you a little background information...

There are two foods I hate more than any others: 1. Olives and 2. Pickles.
Not to mention I have OCD about eating food. I don't like my food touching and I have to eat it in a specific order.

Then the truth of the true evil of olives was exposed via CBC news! Oh sweet justice!

olives are evil

Ian's 'Editorial' Section:

I got robbed! My bank account was cleaned out by someone who managed to get my PIN # and made a copy of my card and withdrew all of my money the day after my parents made me not broke. So all of you, be very careful with your bank transactions, because they are watching you. I thought I was being careful, but I was wrong. It could happen to you too! 10 people in the Guelph area have been cleaned out this way in the last 2 weeks! Scary? Yes. Be careful? YES!

Sports Section:

Oh and for anyone who enjoys hockey, who else feels really sad for the Edmonton Oilers? That 8th spot in the East sure is heating up! Montreal had a key win last night.

Business Section:

University of Guelph is broke. Tuition is going up. Vote yes for retrofit. Today is your last chance.

Arts and Entertainment Section:

I got a poem in the Ontarion! I swear it had nothing to do with the fact that I'm dating an editor of the school paper...
Last King of Scotland was a FANTASTIC movie! Everyone should see it. There are a few very graphic scenes towards the end as a heads up. Whittaker blew my mind. He deserved best actor hands down, kick his ass. I would argue that this should have taken best picture. Definitely in the top 5 best movies I've ever seen.

Oh and the new Andrew Bird album Armchair Apocrypha is absolutely fantastic! Go and buy it like I did? I will eventually I swear. You should too.

Comics Section:

This made me almost lose my coke everywhere in the library! Amusing.
funny times

International News:

The Iraqi PM is said to be in surgery and in a 'non-stable' condition after injury in a suicide bombing.

That's all the sections I can think of. I should really get to work, although I quite enjoyed this post and hope you do too.

Amazing what you can see and do in the A.M.!

So after a slight change in plans and a just a little sleeping in, I'm at the library(like ever really left?) Atleast it is just over 8 hours since I was last here...Anyway, the first thing I see today is Guelph's cannon set up as a dick in a box! The engineers graced us with all the fixings. Highly amusing at 8am. Apparently they also have all the good news reports on cbc right now as well. Check out this gem: dog poo! Oh and I'm seeing Last King of Scotland tonight, which I'm quite excited about. Hopefully I can afford to eat? :( I got denied when I tried to take out 20 dollars yesterday.

Anyway, I should really get to work now. Less than one month of undergrad to go!

To all the blog readers out there, good morning!

This made me laugh!

A friend of mine introduced me to an artist by the name of David Shrigley who happens to be from Glasgow(maybe I'll see an exhibit of his when I go there?!) Enjoy!

Pubic Hair

The world spins and no one notices

So what happens when you look up procrastination on wikipedia? Chances are you are at the lowest of lows in terms of actually doing something useful with your time. Right now I feel like I did at the end of Gr 12 when I could have tried really hard and gotten some kind of decent scholarship, but instead, I decided to do virtually no work. I'm so close to be done University that I find it difficult to care. I feel restless. I feel inept. I feel tired! I feel trapped.

In sum, I'm so very unmotivated, but it stresses me out at the same time. I can feel the anxiety raising my pulse to new heights and making me useless at just about everything. Must...relax...

In other news...I'm seeing the Shins in THREE days!!!! Very exciting.

My other musical addictions of the moment include: Camera Obscura(go Scottish music), Josh Ritter, new Modest Mouse, new Arcade Fire, Peter, John, Bjorn(go Swedish music)

Things to be excited about that I haven't mentioned yet in order of date:

1. Snow Patrol, March 31
2. Ben Folds, April 6
3. Last exam of undergrad, April 20
4. April 30, Spring Camp
5. May 15, SCOTLAND!!!
6. New House?