Noel Lynne Figart

I’m a pretty avid consumer of digital media, as I am sure my Faithful Readers know.  I listen to audiobooks when I’m doing housework, and I often read books in a digital format.  This could get expensive if I were to buy these materials all the time.  While books in electronic format are often cheaper than the dead tree variety, they’re still not free.

I’ve always used public libraries to fill the gap between what I can afford to buy and my admittedly voracious reading habits.  However, I do have a slight preference for electronic media[1].

Living in the boondocks, my local library is probably less wealthy than most.  That doesn’t stop them from offering an electronic collection I can download right to my computer.  They use Overdrive as their media service.  It’s really wonderful.  I started using it when it became possible to transfer audiobooks to iPods.  From what I understand, Apple was pretty reluctant to allow for this[2].  However, I can now listen to audiobooks downloaded from my local library on my iPod, so that’s all good.

But you can also download electronic texts.  The software used won’t transfer to a Kindle, though I expect if one waits for a year or two, that’ll change, just like it did with the iPod.  It will transfer to some other digital book devices.  However, I have a netbook, so as far as portability, I’m all good.

My library limits one to three electronic items checked out at a time.  These items have between a one and two week lending period.  This is a serious limitation, as you can’t manually check an item back in.  For me, that’s a pity, as it only takes two or three hours to read the average novel[3].  So, I have to wait until the lending period is over before I check something else out.  For audiobooks this is not such a big deal.  I might listen for a couple of hours a day while doing housework, cooking or going for walks.  Even so, the average audiobook I listen to is about ten to twelve hours long.  I don’t go through them nearly so fast.

Still, I can only complain so hard, as I’m delighted the service is available.  Yes, I do still read paper books, but I do so enjoy having a small library in my computer, too.

I don’t know how common electronic offerings are, but I’m assuming that since my little town does have the service, it can’t be but so uncommon.  I encourage anyone who uses their local library to check it out and find out.

[2] Which is another point against the company, and is causing me to consider against replacing my iPod with another when the one I own goes to the Digital Player Graveyard.

[3] Something like The Hunt for Red October did take considerably longer.  I’m fast, but let’s be real.

I like my netbook a lot, and really wasn’t getting all that excited about the iPad.  I had a bit of a lightbulb moment when I realized that I wasn’t that excited because if I want an ultraportable wireless device, I want something that’s good for content creation, not something that’s only good for content consumption.

Now, Stephen Fry wrote a glowing piece on the iPad, admitting he was an Apple fanboy and all that smack.

I was surprised that he was that excited about the thing, to be frank with you.  The man’s an actor, a writer and what have you. He creates a lot more content than I do, just sayin’,  ‘Course, he also makes a lot more money than I do, so dropping $600 on something to view content probably doesn’t seem as absurd as it would for me[1].  If I made as much money as Mr. Fry, possibly I’d own an iPad right now.

But I doubt it.  Even the fact that you can read books on it wouldn’t quite be enough for me. Certainly, I’d own it over a Kindle.   Do I read Kindle-enabled books?  Yep, all the time.  I read ‘em on the PC software on my netbook.  Call me the Alton Brown of technology, but I’m not a big fan of a single-task device unless it’s really cheap or so astoundingly good at doing something I find necessary that I’m willing to own a single-task device.  I mean, even my MP3 player[2] doubles as my alarm clock!

I do think there’s a strong possibility that the demand for something cool for content consumption will kill off the demand for a small cheap computer, though.  And that rather depresses me, as the netbook was the computer I’d been waiting for since I was in my teens.

[2] Yes, it’s an iPod. 2^nd gen Nano, in fact.

I’m having a hard time settling down to write a good trip report on my trip to Disney World, so instead of talking about the rides and stuff, I’m going to make some recommendations for people who are going. (If you have questions about the rides and attractions or wanna talk about ’em, I’m delighted to do so in the comments.  It’s just that I’m having a terrible time organizing my thoughts.  Sorry about that).

Now, from the ages of 3-25, I went to Disney World about every two or three years. So I’ve been there a LOT. I didn’t do any real research on the trip. I know Disney and didn’t need to, right?   Well… if I’d thought, I’d remember that the parks are always a work in progress.  After fifteen years, yes there have been a lot of changes.  First would be that fifteen years ago, I was not using the Internet.

Some things that are useful to the Disney traveler:

1. Fastpass.  Many of the rides and attractions have an option to go to it, get a ticket to go through a fast lane at a later time so you don’t have to waste time waiting in a line longer than a half an hour or so.   Once you have the pass, you have about an hour’s window to use it.  You do kind of have to work this, as you can’t get a second Fastpass until the time for the one you have begins.  You also have to plan ahead with this, because there are a limited number of Fastpasses for each ride available, and they’re usually all gone by four in the afternoon or so.  But if you work it, you can get the pass for the big attraction, do the smaller stuff in the area and then are able to get on the big ride pretty quickly.   You can go online and create a map for yourself of any park with what you want to do marked.  I didn’t find this out until I had no printer available and downloading it to my Palm was too much of a pain in the butt.

2. Dinner Reservations.  Oh yeah, you can make reservations for on-Property restaurants up to two weeks in advance online.  I found that making them the night before worked out okay mostly.  EPCOT’s teppanyaki restaurant books sooner than that.  (But the Japan pavillion has another restaurant and the sushi there is excellent).  I didn’t figure this out until we’d already been to three of the parks.  I suppose I’m a bad geek and just don’t deserve another Disney trip. 🙁

I really recommend an hour or two online at the WDW site for each of the parks you want to visit.