Now What? - The Blog of Winston Baccus

Kindle Touch + Instapaper

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:18:38 +0000

I’ve always been curious about the Kindle and when the Kindle Touch was announced, I decided that the time was finally right to get one.

I’m not that big of a reader of fiction, though I am just about through with the Hunger Games trilogy, the first fiction books I’ve read in about 10 years. (Confession: Most of it has been read via Audiobooks while running in the mornings, but I did read bits and pieces the old fashioned way).

I do read non-fiction quite a bit. Religious books, historical books, historical fiction, etc. For a while, I’ve been reading on my iPhone and iPad. The experience is fine there, but no where near as easy on the eyes (and battery consumption when out and about) as the Kindle. The e-ink screen really makes a difference. The text is crisp, with extremely high contrast.

Jamie reads periodically, and I decided that she might benefit from having a Kindle. Through a series of events around wanting get it in the house by her birthday, I ended up with 2 Kindle Touches and decided to keep one.

So far, I’ve been pleased with it. The size and weight are great, though it didn’t feel quite right to hold in my hand without a case on it. I know that one review says that the page turning is a bit slow compared with other Kindles. That may be so, but since it’s my 1st one, I don’t perceive it as an issue.

Where I would like some more speed is in getting to the menu to go through table of contents, etc. I use that a lot because one of my favorite features is having Instapaper send me a daily digest of up to 20 articles I have marked to read later.

If you’re not familiar with Instapaper, you need to be. You sign-up for an account, and then add a bookmark to your bookmark bar labeled Read Later. Then, when you come across a link or article you don’t have time to fully digest at the moment, you just click the Read Later bookmarklet and move on. Most RSS readers, and Twitter clients have support for it.

In the last few days, Instapaper on the Kindle Touch has improved significantly. At the top of each article are links to archive an article, essentially a Mark Read button, or mark it as a Liked item, which you have auto-shared to Facebook, Twitter, etc. depending on your preferences.

Instapaper

Author

Winston Baccus

The Indie/Rock Playlist - November on Spotify

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:50:37 +0000

The Indie Rock Playlist is one of the ways I discover new music every month.

It’s usually posted as a torrent and is mirrored on Usenet. Since I no longer use iTunes or deal with managing mp3 files, I like having a Spotify version.

A couple of months back I started creating a Spotify version. Again, I love Spotify because if I find a track I like, I immediately add the whole album to my heavy rotation playlist.

Only about 60% of the tracks on the list are on Spotify, but it’s better than nothing.

Spotify Playist: Indie/Rock Playlist November 2011 You can find a tracklisting over at The Color Awesome

AppsGoneFree a Great Resource for Free iOS Apps

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:28:06 +0000

Just after the App Store was first released, I started following an RSS feed of every app released on the store—I didn’t want to miss anything.

As the stream turned into a river, that became undoable.

Lately, I’ve followed several feeds of reviews of apps, but as in usually the case in Google Reader, you can never really catch up with your feeds, there’s always more.

My unread count for my iOS reviews and news feeds is at about 1500 articles right now. I just can’t keep up.

One of the features I enjoyed the most was the Apps Gone Free by AppAdvice, and now that feature is available via its own app.

It’s a great way to find some free games for your kids. They only list apps that have at least a 3 star rating.

More info: AppsGoneFree

IntoNow - Social TV App

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:53:05 +0000

One of the drawbacks of social networking while watching TV is that I’m using time-shifting it. Another is that you don’t want to spoil anything by posting about the fate of a character on a show like Breaking Bad, where people are likely to be a few episodes behind.

Yahoo bought and rebranded IntoNow, and has just released an iPad version. The app will listen to your TV and figure out what you are watching and then serve you additional info about the show, conversation, etc. Cool idea. Just now trying it out.

Only thing is… none of my friends seem to be using it. I need to befriend more early adopters.

Learn more: IntoNow

Author

Winston Baccus

A Demonstration of a "Rebel Yell"

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:05:35 +0000

Interestingly enough, it sounds nothing like a Billy Idol song.

Smithsonian – Confederate Veterans Give Rebel Yell in 1930’s

Author

Winston Baccus

New Music Tuesday

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Not a lot of releases today, a deluxe version of U2’s magnum opus Achtung Baby and a new EP from The Decemberists.

I’m really enjoying this new track from Field Music on Stereogum.

Their back catalog is worth a listen if you haven’t heard them before.

Field Music – I Keep Thinking About a New Thing

I keep a running list of my favorite tracks from the year. In December I’ll cull that down into 20 tracks to come up with my definitive top tracks, but for now, it’s at 85. Listen on Spotify.

Author

Winston Baccus

"I Like Ron Paul Except on Foreign Policy"

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:49:00 +0000

Jack Hunter breaks down this oft-repeated mantra.

A Pew poll reveals that 1 of 3 veterans of our post-9/11 military actions agree that Iraq and Afghanistan were a waste.

"I Like Ron Paul Except on Foreign Policy" – by Jack Hunter

Author

Winston Baccus

iPhone 4S Battery Draining Fast?

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:28:12 +0000

For the first few days I had my iPhone 4S, I noticed the persistent Location Services icon in my toolbar. If you’re seeing that, something is draining your battery. Here’s some tips on some items to turn off to get around a bug that may be eating your battery life:

iDownload Blog: This Tip Could Cure Your iPhone 4S Battery

A Change in Direction

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:50:09 +0000

One of the factors that limits the amount of times I blog these days is the amount of time it takes me to write a regular entry. Our headmaster at school can write a 12 page blog entry in his sleep, but it takes me a bit longer.

I always wanted a way to quick-share the things I find interesting in my Google Reader feeds. For a long time, I used their share feature where you can share with other Google Reader users. Only about 2 people are actually using that feature, it would seem. I have included that stuff here on my blog at the bottom of the home page as well, but with the news that major changes are coming to Google Reader, which will do away with shared items in favor of Google+, with increases the number of people actually using that feature from 2 to 3—nearly no one is using Google+ as far as I can tell—it’s time for a new strategy.

So expect to see more short-style links here about politics, technology, and what-not.

Herman Cain - Enjoy Your 15 Minutes

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:59:03 +0000

I hope Herman Cain enjoys his 15 minutes. It’s an interesting game being played where there’s a front-runner of the week who rises, and then gets shot down.

My wife forwarded me an email about Cain that she had received, with a bunch of facts about him. I responded right back with some of my own:

Herman Cain wholeheartedly supported TARP.
Herman Cain believes 90% of Patriot Act is “right on,” and can’t articulate what is wrong with the other 10%.
In 2005-06, Cain said there was no housing bubble, economy was fine, statistics looked great. The problem was Democrats. Read his own words.
Here he is in Sept of 2008, right at the turning point where the Great Recession began telling us how great Bush’s economic policies were.
Herman Cain argued that there was no need to audit the Federal Reserve, that it was a waste of time, you could just call them up and they’d tell you what they were up to. Though now he has flip-flopped on that, claiming he was really talking about the 1990’s. But in his own words from December of last year:

“Some people say that we ought to audit the Fed. Here’s what I do know. The Federal Reserve already has so many internal audits it’s ridiculous. I don’t know why people think we’re gonna learn this great amount of information by auditing the Federal Reserve. I think a lot of people are calling for this audit of the Federal Reserve because they don’t know enough about it. There’s no hidden secrets going on in the Federal Reserve to my knowledge,”

He would be just as bad as electing Mitt Romney, if not worse.

In other news, a new poll released today has the candidates in this order: Romney, Cain, Paul, Perry, but after watching mainstream news and taking into account time allowed in the debate you would never know it. As usual.

The Ron Paul media blackout continues.

Time Allotted to Candidates in Last 3 Debates

Candidate	% FL 1	% FL 2*	% NH 2	Total time
Romney	15.8	19.9	25.0	41 min. 9 sec.
Perry	20.0	16.8	14.1	34 min. 12 sec.
Bachmann	12.5	10.5	12.3	23 min. 59 sec.
Huntsman	11.3	12.7	8.6	21 min. 47 sec.
Cain	8.1	10.7	12.5	21 min. 6 sec.
Gingrich	11.1	9.8	9.7	20 min. 41 sec.
Santorum	10.4	12.0	8.5	20 min. 38 sec.
Paul	10.7	7.7	9.2	18 min. 47 sec.

The fix is in.

Author

Winston Baccus