Obviously impossible to say without knowing more. Do you currently own a Kindle? If so, which? I’m not going to bother picking up the newest model, because I got the newest model last time and remain extremely satisfied with it. But if you either don’t own a Kindle or have an extremely outdated one, then picking up the latest one might be worthwhile. Just depends.
I wouldn’t. I went through five of the previous version. The screen is incredibly delicate. Simply being in my pocket with my wallet was enough to kill several of them. One drop from a bedside table killed another.
I switched to the Kindle Fire, which is basically a cheap smartphone without the phone. That one, carried the same way, has lasted a year now with only minor software glitches. (It reset itself once, required me to download all the books again.)
But, the Kindle Fire has smartphone problems: needs charging daily, the screen is legible in sunlight, barely.
I have a hand-me-down first-generation Kindle. I find the screen-refresh too slow and the contrast too low. I find the iPad Kindle app adequate, not awesome.
I have the earlier version of the Paperwhite. Refresh rates are better; contrast is much better.
The problem I have with it is the reflective screen surface which provides uniform lighting is easily scratched and once scratched it creates glowing spots and shadows on the screen. That light can be turned down but not off. That light is blue-white so it will disrupt melatonin — just not as much as a regular screen.
Get an iPad. It has better resolution and depiction of the page, much easier screen navigation, and it can run any ebook format including Kindle and Nook. You do need a special app for each format. I have six. And you cannot download other formats from Apple’s store.
The iPad also provides all sorts of other apps like iWork, Safari, Mail, which are useful, and it supports wifi and 3 and 4G connections.
Here is a question: which edition of Game of Thrones is better? The KIndle edition or the iBooks edition. I am up to book 4 and noted in the samples that the iBooks’ maps are clearer than the Kindle’s ones. But are there extra features that one will get with either edition that clearly makes the choice of one over the other rational. Of course I am using an iPad with a retina display.
For what it is worth, I would wait for the next generation iPad in the Fall because it will come with a next generation CPU that will permit more complex computing to be performed. Watch the video of the announcement at Apple’s web site, the one on the recent Developer’s Conference.
I’ve switched to an iPad for all my reading, from the Kindle Paperwhite. This was mainly because a lot of non-fiction has a lot of filler, so the iPad’s instant refresh rate makes it a lot easier to skim. Also I read a lot of PDF books, which don’t work well at all on the Kindle.
Handle: I liked Cal Newport’s World Without Email, but I have proven to be poor evangelist for its message. The default mode of email of permissionless universal access is bad (compare to needed to get affirmative consent for “direct liaison authority” like in the military) and everybody says they hate it but no one is willing to give up even a little bit of that capability, even though it’s essential to any system of attention preservation and disciplined communications. Sorry...
Bruce: Ludendorf’s WWI ‘War Communism’ and Marxist-Leninism rhyme.
Bob Sykes: There is no question that National Socialism is s form of socialism. Just ask G. B. Shaw or Time. One of the differences among socialisms is how they treat the national issue. Marxists are doctrine internationalists, and they used to maintain that the only distinguishing characteristic among people that really counts is economic class. That position seems to have been abandoned during WW I, because the proletariat turned out to be nationalists. Fascism and Naziism valorate the nation (or more...
Isegoria: It doesn’t appear to come from either Dracula or The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.
Isegoria: I suppose I should have linked to my fourth Critical Chain post, which addresses multi-tasking.
Gaikokumaniakku: “The trail I walked lacked the geometric and artificial precision of the grand boulevards of the Städte I would later come to know so well. Here Nature did not bend to Man with such frequency or slavishness, but rather the two seemed to bend around one another at regular intervals, a grant of mutual dignity prevailing between the two. Here the paths wound around and through the hills, according to how the land pulled a man’s steps hither or thither. It was by this road, made by Man but...
Gaikokumaniakku: I’m a simple man. I see Goldratt, I feel compelled to wade into the comments section, even if I have little to add that the author has not already said. Overproductive workers who produce subassemblies are an example of physical constraints of part storage. Real-world factories don’t have infinite buffer space to store subassemblies. Overproduction is a problem for many reasons, but if we had some kind of Star-Trek-tier space warp for infinite storage, overproduction would be...
W2: Do two people looking at the same place see the same sprite?
Bob Sykes: This is US/UK/EU propaganda. Prior to the coup of 2014 that removed Ukraine’s democratically elected and legitmate president, Yanukovich, and that replaced him with the current paleo-Nazi junta, over 90 of Crrimeans were ethnic Russians, and they voted to join Russia. The vote was unauthorized, but there is no doubt it was accurate. The Russian military did not invade Crimea. They were already there by treaty. And Crimea (and all of Ukraine) had been sovereign Russian territory for over 300...
McChuck: Predators seek out dark, secluded spaces. Normal people avoid dark, secluded spaces. It really is that simple. There’s a reason parking garage stairwells are now built with top to bottom windows. Public spaces are designed with clear sight lines, no obstructions above two feet or below six feet. Remove the places predators can wait in ambush, and crime drops substantially.
Phileas Frogg: Makes sense, ease of access and utilization is improved for everyone by lots of those changes, not just the young, old and disabled. Reminds me of this excerpt: “The trail I walked lacked the geometric and artificial precision of the grand boulevards of the Städte I would later come to know so well. Here Nature did not bend to Man with such frequency or slavishness, but rather the two seemed to bend around one another at regular intervals, a grant of mutual dignity prevailing between...
Isegoria: This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History, by T. R. Fehrenbach, makes the short list.
Gaikokumaniakku: Marginally relevant, but likely to be of interest to readers who may actually have seen it already: The Marine Corps Commandant’s 2026 Reading List.
Isegoria: I think The Dracula Tape is moving up in the queue.
Bruce: “Medicine in the 19th century was in a Hell of a state.” — Dracula in Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tape, where Dracula says Lucy was killed by van Helsing’s bungled blood transfusions.
Isegoria: I felt the same way about Dumas: Reading The Count of Monte Cristo in 11th grade clarified just how derivative most of the entertainment we consume really is — everything has been done better by Dumas, and he did it over a century ago — and it got me wondering why we don’t regularly enjoy the pop classics.
Isegoria: Apparently Saberhagen’s Dracula Series goes on for nine books!
Bruce: The Dracula Tape and The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen are extremely good, and Saberhagen knew the source material very well.
Benjamin I. Espen: Dracula is like the still center around which a whole constellation of pop culture orbits. You can see a lot of things that were clearly derived from it, yet returning to the original is a shocking and even a refreshing experience. None of the derivatives have its power and gravity.
Isegoria: When I read Frankenstein years ago, I immediately realized how little resemblance it bore to the version of the story I’d osmotically absorbed through the culture.
The new Kindle Paperwhite, announced today, has a 300 ppi display. Should I finally get one?
Obviously impossible to say without knowing more. Do you currently own a Kindle? If so, which? I’m not going to bother picking up the newest model, because I got the newest model last time and remain extremely satisfied with it. But if you either don’t own a Kindle or have an extremely outdated one, then picking up the latest one might be worthwhile. Just depends.
I wouldn’t. I went through five of the previous version. The screen is incredibly delicate. Simply being in my pocket with my wallet was enough to kill several of them. One drop from a bedside table killed another.
I switched to the Kindle Fire, which is basically a cheap smartphone without the phone. That one, carried the same way, has lasted a year now with only minor software glitches. (It reset itself once, required me to download all the books again.)
But, the Kindle Fire has smartphone problems: needs charging daily, the screen is legible in sunlight, barely.
I have a hand-me-down first-generation Kindle. I find the screen-refresh too slow and the contrast too low. I find the iPad Kindle app adequate, not awesome.
I have the earlier version of the Paperwhite. Refresh rates are better; contrast is much better.
The problem I have with it is the reflective screen surface which provides uniform lighting is easily scratched and once scratched it creates glowing spots and shadows on the screen. That light can be turned down but not off. That light is blue-white so it will disrupt melatonin — just not as much as a regular screen.
The “cool” white light that you can’t turn off is, well, a turn-off, but 300-ppi e-ink sounds great.
Get an iPad. It has better resolution and depiction of the page, much easier screen navigation, and it can run any ebook format including Kindle and Nook. You do need a special app for each format. I have six. And you cannot download other formats from Apple’s store.
The iPad also provides all sorts of other apps like iWork, Safari, Mail, which are useful, and it supports wifi and 3 and 4G connections.
If you hate Apple (some do), get another tablet.
Here is a question: which edition of Game of Thrones is better? The KIndle edition or the iBooks edition. I am up to book 4 and noted in the samples that the iBooks’ maps are clearer than the Kindle’s ones. But are there extra features that one will get with either edition that clearly makes the choice of one over the other rational. Of course I am using an iPad with a retina display.
For what it is worth, I would wait for the next generation iPad in the Fall because it will come with a next generation CPU that will permit more complex computing to be performed. Watch the video of the announcement at Apple’s web site, the one on the recent Developer’s Conference.
I’ve switched to an iPad for all my reading, from the Kindle Paperwhite. This was mainly because a lot of non-fiction has a lot of filler, so the iPad’s instant refresh rate makes it a lot easier to skim. Also I read a lot of PDF books, which don’t work well at all on the Kindle.