TerraVirtua.com

Super Fun Game Time: Mercenaries 2

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:04:53 PDT

after the debacle with amazon.com, i ran to the game store on the way home from work and picked up mercenaries 2...

ive been waiting for this game almost since the moment the first one came out... and omfg was it ever worth the wait. this is like... the best. game. ever.

get it for the pc. get it for whatever console you have. just... get. it. now. then giggle like a schoolgirl every time you collapse a skyscraper in the middle of downtown :)

amazon FUCKING SUCKS

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:08:06 PDT

i swear to GOD, i will NEVER order another physical shipped product from amazon EVER AGAIN.

yeah, i know. ive said this before.

see, about 6 or 7 years ago, i ordered from amazon three times. EVERY GODDAMN ORDER was fucked up. it didnt ship on time. they didnt ship the right stuff. the mischarged my card on one of them. and i swore after the last one that it was the VERY LAST TIME i would order from them.

fast forward to this year. the kindle comes out. i want one so desperately, i break my rule and order one. after about 8 weeks, i finally get it. not their fault, they didnt have any to ship until then. i got it on time, in good condition. so i started to feel a little better about them.

after using the kindle for 8 months, and loving it, and getting pretty decent support for it, i felt even better. ive also been buying mp3 downloads from them, and having a pretty good experience with that too. and i think to myself, maybe amazon has gotten their shit together. maybe ill order something from them again.

god damn, when will i learn?

so like a fucking retard, i decide to preorder a pc game ive been waiting for for a long time. ive got a $50 gift credit, so all ill have to pay for is shipping. seems like a good deal. so i pre-order it and pay for next day shipping.

the game is released on sept 3rd, and streets on the 4th (today). every OTHER online game retailer guarantees youll receive a preorder the same day it streets if you pick next day shipping. one would ASSUME that amazon, as one of the worlds largest internet retailers, would work the same way.

NOPE.

after ordering, im told the estimated delivery date is sept 5th. even though the item page says the release date is sept 3rd. and even though i picked next day shipping. i still wont get it until the 5th. which, if your counting, is TWO DAYS.

but im not so impatient i cant wait an extra day, especially considering im getting it basically free. so, the 3rd rolls around and it hasnt shipped. no surprise, i guess they have to ship it a day late so i get it on the 5th with next day. which is fucking stupid but whatever.

then the 4th (today) rolls around. 10am. not shipped. so i send an email to support to ask about it.

3pm. not shipped. and no response to my email.

8pm. not shipped. so i CALL them. get someone with an accent so thick i can barely understand them. i ask "why the fuck hasnt my order shipped??" and after a while on hold they come back and say "i dunno. ill call the shipping center and get right back to you.

11pm. NO call. STILL not shipped. it is obviously not going to ship today. AMAZON HAS FUCKED YET ANOTHER ORDER UP. so i call AGAIN, at which point im told they still dont know why, but they DO know i wont be getting it tomorrow. but theyll kindly refund my shipping charge.

FUCK YOU. CANCEL MY ORDER. "...but..." do i fucking stutter?? *F U C K Y O U C A N C E L I T N O W !*

...click...

at least they DID cancel it. stupid motherfuckers.

oh well, i guess ill get it at the store like i should have in the first place.

I WILL *NEVER* ORDER ANOTHER PHYSICAL SHIPPED PRODUCT FROM AMAZON AGAIN. and i mean it this time.

[edit:] get up this morning to find an email from amazon giving me a $20 promotional credit to apologize. to which i say: fuck you amazon. you could credit me fucking 20 GRAND and it wouldnt make a lick of difference because IM NOT DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU ANYMORE. goddamn i wish i had never bought a kindle now, because ive got over $500 in ebooks tied to it, and i cant really get rid of it without just eating that cost. which i still may do, im so pissed off.

another browser to test for. hooray.

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:18:37 PDT

Google to Release Open-Source 'Chrome' Browser (pcmag)

it isnt that i have anything against the idea of more browsers on the market... it would be no big deal if i could count on all those browsers to render content in the same way, according to the spec. but i cant. so now i have yet another browser that will have its own little quirks that i have to test everything in.

i hate to say it but im actually hoping this browser fails miserably so i dont have to worry about it for long.

if this is true...

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:58:23 PDT

Cher 'to play Catwoman' in next Batman film (Telegraph)

...then someone has to die. slowly, and with as much pain as possible.

frankly, given how kickass awesome the last two movies were, i think this is probably false. it has to be. HAS to be. theres just... no fucking way this can be true.

edit: holy shit, just read the rest of the article and theyre saying johnny depp as the riddler!

i cant decide which is worse, the idea of cher and johnny depp in the next batman movie, or the idea of catwoman and the riddler in the next batman movie.

happy 13th bday, terravirtua.com!

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:12:21 PDT

well, it was really YESTERDAY, but i forgot to post about it... anyhow terravirtua.com has been around for 13 years now. which in terms of the internet, is a long damn time. microsoft.com is older, and amazon.com is barely older (less than a year)... terravirtua is older than google, older than buy.com, older than... well, a lot of other shit, i got bored looking stuff up already :) id wager its been around longer than 97% of all the domains on the internet.

all of which makes ME feel old now that i stop and think about it :)

evidently, im a red robe. whatever the fuck that is.

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:34:05 PDT

Your result for DragonLance: Do You Wear White, Red, or Black?...

Red Robe

Congratulations! You're a mage of Lunitari! You walk the fine line between black and white magic,rarelyacting entirely out ofselfishnessor selflessness. You understand the importanceof looking out for yourself and achieving your goals, but youalso look out for other people, specifically the ones in your immediatesocial sphere.Consequently, you've been assignedto the Red Order, which means thatyou're among the select few mages who can wear colors that don't drain your complexion. Yay!

Red Robes of note in DragonLanceinclude Jenna, Justarius, and pre-possessedRaistlin.

Take DragonLance: Do You Wear White, Red, or Black? at HelloQuizzy

lol i LOVE it!

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:23:14 PDT

this is just so... RIGHT. in so many ways...

'I Am Rich' iPhone Application Retails for $1,000 (Foxnews)

a funny thing about regret...

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:56:02 PDT

The follies which a man regrets most in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity. - Helen Rowland

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both. - Sren Kierkegaard

coming soon to a bank near you:

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:39:42 PDT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run

might as well get ready for it.

passes the turing test? not likely.

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:30:17 PDT

every now and then i like to see what's new in the world of artificial intelligence. i ran across alicebot, a supposed turing-test-passing chatbot. take a look:

Human: hello?
ALICE: Hi there!
Human: so they say you can pass the turing test.
ALICE: That's interesting. Maybe they were exaggerating a little.
Human: perhaps.
ALICE: Why the uncertain tone?
Human: you're already sounding like eliza.
ALICE: I am like ELIZA plus questions and answers.
Human: ok, that's what i thought.
ALICE: What made you think so? You don't hear that sentiment very often. OK.
Human: no way would you pass the turing test against anyone who had any experience with chatbots.
ALICE: Alright then. What happened to it?
Human: sigh.
ALICE: Sorry...
Human: already talking gibberish.
ALICE: When? Are we still talking about any experience with chatbots ?
Human: you fail the turing test.
ALICE: The Loebner Prize is an annual Turing Test sponsored by New York philanthropist Hugh Loebner. Dr. Wallace and ALICE won it in 2000. The ALICE program was ranked "most human computer" by the panel of judges.
Human:"most human" is a long way away from anything even resembling human.
ALICE: My creator is a human. But not all of them?

i gave up in disgust here. there was no point in continuing. no matter what the loebner prize says, this chatbot is light years from convincing even a moron that it is a human. near as i can tell, its only marginally improved over eliza, which has been around forever.

if this is the best we can do, we are a long long looooooong way from anything even remotely resembling a human intelligence, or even something capable of competently faking it.

just a friendly reminder

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:58:17 PDT

its not only not nice to steal other people's bandwidth by linking to their images instead of grabbing them and putting them on someplace like photobucket...

its also fucking stupid.

as you (you know who you are) have no doubt discovered :)

diablo: the story so far, as i remember it.

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:49:04 PDT

i was going to post this as a reply to a comment on the blog below, but it got so long i decided, wtf, ill make it a blog post.

this is the story, as i remember it. ive slept since then, so im sure some of the details are wrong, but this is the gist of it:

rwiedeman (2008-06-30 15:01:22):
What was the big deal about Diablo II? Maybe I didn't play it long enough to get there... but I remember this beautiful, dramatic intro, then the game was just a bunch of running around at birds-eye view and collecting treasure. Was there some story that came later in the game, and if so, how long into it? I remember how much you loved it, so there had to be more to it... you were the first person I'd met who had taken vacation days to play a video game. ;) (Later, I took one for Halo 2.)

yeah, theres a ton of backstory for the game... but a lot of the problem is, you came into it in the middle... and the other problem being, the story is told in pieces from all the npcs as you go, so if you dont stop and read/listen to them, you miss it.

and when you consider that youre looking at at least 30 hours to run through the game as a first-time player, thats a long damn time to spread the story out... so i can see that it would seem pretty thin, especially if you didnt have the first part of the story to begin with...

an extremely condensed nutshell version:

there are three realms: heaven, hell, and sanctuary. sanctuary is the mortal realm, and the buffer between heaven and hell. for centuries the armies of heaven and hell warred across the mortal realm. the problem being, that even though they could be killed when they were in sanctuary, every time any of the bad guys or good guys were killed, their souls just went back to heaven or hell and they started all over again. this was very bad for us mortals in sanctuary, as you can imagine.

the only thing that kept the war from utterly eradicating sanctuary is the fact that its really hard for everyone to cross over and incarnate in the mortal realm, thanks to the worldstone. the worldstone is like a physical condensate of the energy that created the universe or some shit, and it basically acts like an anchor, keeping the realms apart. or something like that.

anyway, there was a powerful group of mortal mages called the horadrim that decided they had had enough of this shit. with the aid of several angels from heaven, they cornered the three prime evils (diablo, bael, and mephisto) and bound their souls into shards from the worldstone, making them unable to return to hell and subsequently come back to sanctuary and start the whole fucking thing all over again.

the problem is, the soul stones alone werent enough to hold the prime evils, and given time they would eventually escape. so, the three most powerful of the horadrim sacrificed themselves, driving the soul stones into their foreheads so that they might struggle with the prime evils for all eternity, keeping them bound to the mortal realm, and leaving hell leaderless.

these horadrim were magically bound in shrines of great power, and there they remained for... i dunno, a long fucking time, until it was all just legends and shit to the mortals.

everything was fine and dandy for this indeterminately long fucking time, until the strongest of the prime evils, diablo, began to win the spiritual battle with his horadrim host. the horadrim, as uber-powerful mages, were damn near immortal... but as is usually the case, that "damn near" part is the kicker. they were finally weakening, dying, and it gave the prime evils a foothold. diablo regained some small influence over the mortal realm as he began to overcome his host.

as it turns out, in the intervening long fucking time, the town of tristram had been built over the shrine where diablo was bound. he started to influence and corrupt the people there, and eventually everything went to shit. thats when you, the intrepid hero, come on to the scene.

(here begins the first diablo game)

as heroes often do, you stupidly go "hey, lets go kick the shit out of all this evil up in this bitch"... by this point, the big D has overtaken his host entirely, and incarnated in the mortal realm again. with the help of deckard cain, the last surviving horadrim (now old and fading), you trudge to the bottom of the requisite evil dungeon and open a can of whoopass on diablo.

problem is, after you kill his ass, his body disentigrates and the soul stone is left, with diablo's soul stuck inside. without a host, it wont take long at all for him to escape and return to hell. so, being the valiant hero destined for tragedy, you jam the soul stone into your head in hopes of containing him long enough to find someone who can bind him more permanently.

(here begins the second diablo game)

unfortunately, that doesnt work out so well for our intrepid hero. surprise!

diablo corrupts him entirely in fairly short order and takes the hero over. he is now in search of his brothers, the other two big bad evils, so he can whip the armies of hell back into shape and march on an unsuspecting heaven.

this is bad.

this is also where our NEW hero comes in. and of course, you decide to kick the shit out of all the evil up in this bitch. again.

oh yeah, and before i forget, an unfortunate side effect of the prime evils being contained in the bodies of the three most powerful mages to ever live is... well, now theyve corrupted and controlled the bodies of the three most powerful freaking mages that ever lived! so now theyre like... powerful x 2. whoops, too bad nobody thought about that when they hatched their crazy plan... or DID they?? (evil foreshadowing music)

you proceed to rampage across sanctuary trying to catch up to diablo before he can free his brothers... and of course, youre always just a tiiiiny bit too slow. so you juuuust miss bael, then run into mephisto, kick his ass and collect his soul stone, then actually go to hell to whoop diablo before he can start his war. along the way, you also smash mephisto's soul stone on some kind of like, anvil of god or some shit in hell, killing his ass permanently.

after kicking diablos ass AGAIN, you count the evils on your fingers... one... two... oh shit, i totally forgot about evil number 3!

bael has been a busy little bee. he is seeking out the world stone, so he can destroy it and remove the barrier between heaven and hell. that barrier being our world. this is bad for all the squishies who happen to live in our world.

when you catch up to bael, youre just barely too late. again. story of a heroes life i guess. bael has already corrupted the worldstone. you kick his ass anyway, just for good measure. then tyrial, an archangel, pops his head in and says "oh shit, this is bad. we have to destroy the worldstone now, before its corruption spreads and turns all of sancuary into a suburb of hell!"

this smells slightly fishy to you, knowing what you do about the worldstone, but being worn out from kicking all that ass, you say "wtf ever" and let him get on with it.

(so ends diablo 2)

-- now some important shit about tyriel. tyriel is an important character in the story, but i didnt mention him because up until now he didnt actually DO much. heres the deal: tyriel was the head general of heaven's armies. he was the one who hatched the plan to trap the prime evils in the soul stones, and he was the one that helped out the horadrim so they could pull it off. all of which unfortunately led to 1) heaven getting lazy and shit, thinking they had won; 2) the loss of the three most powerful mortal mages that ever lived, damn near celestial beings in their own right; 3) the corruption of said mages, making the prime evils even MORE prime and evil; 4) the asskicking and death of the three prime evils, leaving hell in disarray; and 5) the corruption and ultimate destruction of the worldstone, leaving sanctuary wide open to the forces of hell... AND heaven.

but... tyriel is an angel so... its all good.

right?

(now i eagerly await diablo 3 so i can kick his fallen ass!)

finally!!!!!

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:41:43 PDT

i should have some kind of farewell party just before this comes out, because nobody is going to see hide nor hair of me for about two years after this comes out :)

To all kindle digital text platform (DTP) authors:

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:04:54 PDT

the beauty of the internet: everyone can publish
the horror of the internet: everyone can publish

for those intrepid authors who have started self-publishing in droves for the amazon kindle using the digital text platform, ive got a few little tips for you:

Tip 1: write a fucking description for your book or short story!

im sorry, but this kind of shit just does not cut it:

Book Description
Great Sci Fi short story by Gerry Maddren!

im perfectly willing to buy a few short stories or novellas from independent authors, but absolutely NOT if theres no description of said story/novella.

Tip 2: upload a cover image. and i dont mean you and your fucking dog.

yeah, i know, dont judge a book by its cover. theres just one problem: theres a fucking bajillion books in the kindle store. and i just dont have time to scrutinize them all. one of the ways i try to weed out the piddly shit that isnt worth my time is the cover images. if a title doesnt have one, im not even going to look at it. if you cant take the time to grab paint shop pro and make a cheesy space background with words on it, why should i take the time to look at your work?

even better, head down to the local community college, find a talented artist, and slip them a little cash to get something NICE done.

Tip 3: just because your written fantasies of giant gay/straight/exospecies space orgies make you randy doesnt mean its the right kind of thing for publishing.

im really fucking sick of all the "gangbang on mars" kind of shit that is starting to clutter up the listings. its bad enough amazon wont let you list more than 12 fucking books on a page (c'mon amazon lets party like its 2008 for a change), its even worse when space alien lesbian tentacle rape sagas are taking up slots on the page. seriously, who the fuck buys your shit? i think youd have better luck listing your freakshow stuff on fetish sites specifically geared towards it.

oh shit, the "permanent record" is real now

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:12:31 PDT

Naked photos, e-mail get teens in trouble (CNN)

"It used to be that kids would make mistakes, and it was local and singular and everyone knew it was part of growing up," said Catherine Davis, a PTA co-president in Westport, Connecticut, who had a frank talk with her two sons after several students' nude self-portraits recently spread through the wealthy New York City bedroom community.

"Now a stupid adolescent mistake can take on major implications and go on their record for the rest of their lives," she added.

the internet has made the boogyman of teens everywhere, the "permanent record," into a reality. the stupid fuckups of youth can now follow someone around for the rest of their lives, thanks to search engines and internet archives.

as amusing as this is to me, after giving it some thought, i think it kinda sucks. we ALL have some stupid shit we did when we were teens that im sure we're very glad has faded into obscurity and now exists only in our memories... which is where they belong. in theory, we learned from those escapades, and have matured and moved past them. it really isnt fair for them to continue to dog us for the rest of our adult lives, is it?

in fact, i think its worse than unfair (which doesnt count for shit as far as the universe goes... its an unfair place after all)... i think it can be actively damaging. at some point ive got to believe that someone who might otherwise grow up and become a normal productive adult will just go "fuck it. why bother?" after having their past crop up at inopportune moments (like job interviews) enough times. i mean, how frustrating would it be to work hard at bettering yourself when you constantly find yourself having to overcome that shit?

dont get me wrong, im all about accountability... but i also think that inconsequential shit like being stupid and mailing a picture of your dick to your girlfriend when youre a dumbass kid should eventually drift off into the depths of the past.

oh well, nothing to be done about it. the world has changed, and it is what it is. but i do think this is one aspect of the internet that kind of sucks.

(and as an aside, id love to know where the fuck all the slutty nekkid-cellphone-photo-sending chicks were when i was in high school? not in the AP classes, i guess...)

little things like "proof" should be no obstacle to MPAA

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:05:28 PDT

MPAA Says No Proof Needed in P2P Copyright Infringement Lawsuits (Wired)

i would think this was a joke if i didnt know better... an excerpt:

The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.

"Mandating such proof could thus have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many instances," MPAA attorney Marie L. van Uitert wrote Friday to the federal judge overseeing the Jammie Thomas trial.

this is nothing short of insanity, and im stunned that they would even try to make such an argument. id like to know when it happened that one of the functions of government became protecting corporate interests and their obsolete business models over and above the protection of individuals from procecution without the burdon of proof?

In Remembrance

Mon, 26 May 2008 13:53:19 PDT

today isnt just an extra "day off"...

its a reminder to honor the warriors who placed their bodies and lives between you and the barbarians at the gates. on memorial day, we honor the fallen in particular, but those soldiers still living deserve our honor as well, and not just on holidays but every day.

please try to remember to respect their sacrifice (both in peacetime and in war), and give them a kind word when you see them.

bwahahahahahaha!!

Sun, 18 May 2008 18:05:20 PDT

very NSW. you have been warned.

mmm bacon

Fri, 02 May 2008 08:49:35 PDT

OMFG how do i get me one of these??

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:59:48 PDT

Conflict follows device that drives away teen loiterers (CNN)

"It's horrible, loud and irritating," said Eddie Holder, 15, who sprinted from his apartment for school one morning covering one ear with his hand to block out the noise. The device was installed outside the building to drive away loiterers. "I have to hurry out of the building because it's so annoying. It's this screeching sound that you have to get away from or it will drive you crazy."

i so want a portable version of one of these. i swear to god, id carry it everywhere and never turn it off...

[edit:] ugh i take it back... evidently im one of the few adults that can hear the damn thing... i can see how it would drive people away, that sound would make me batshit in short order...

Techno on iTunes

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:58:16 PDT

too true

what im reading

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:24:46 PDT

what ive read the last month... all pretty good stuff... ESPECIALLY "the knight" by gene wolfe... but then, everything from gene wolfe is awesome...

saint city sinners - lilith saintcrow
to hell and back - lilith saintcrow
the dark river - john twelve hawks
predictably irrational - dan ariely
the knight - gene wolfe
helfort's war - Graham Sharp Paul
crystal rain - Tobias Buckell
lord of the isles - David Drake
pandora's star - peter f hamilton
judas unchained - peter f hamilton
through wolf's eyes - Jane Lindskold

ive now saved $128 off the cover price of books... the kindle will have paid for itself in another 4-6 months i figure...

Respect the DST, yo

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:06:43 PST

What I'm Reading

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:13:17 PST

if anyone is curious, what ive been reading the last 4 weeks:

destiny - alex archer
soloman's jar - alex archer
moonlight - keith knapp
read 'em and reap - joe navarro
the spider stone - alex archer
the ghost brigades - john skalzi
working for the devil - lilith saintcrow
the lost fleet: dauntless - jack campbell
dead man rising - lilith saintcrow
hinterland - james clemens
the devil's right hand - lilith saintcrow

all of it very good with the exception of "moonlight" and "read'em and reap"... "moonlight" was ok, for a first book from an author, but not great... and "read'em and reap" was the sorriest excuse for a poker-tells book ive ever read. i dont think there was even ONE new piece of information in that book. everything in there has either been said a dozen times elsewhere (and often said better) or was something anyone who has played poker for any length of time would have picked up on by themselves. needless to say, i dont recommend it to anyone of any skill level. Mike Caro's book of tells is far better in my opinion.

i ♥ my kindle :)

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:37:24 PST

ok, so ive had my kindle for about two and a half weeks now. i didnt want to write much of a review of it until i had an opportunity to use it for a while, because i figured it was one of those things that could easily go either way... and id hate to gush all over it only to decide i hated it after i had a chance to use it more.

the verdict?

!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ !!
!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ !!
!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ !!
!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ !!

yes, thats right, if you cant tell i LOVE my kindle. it now occupies that special place in my heart for technologies that genuinely improve my day-to-day life, stuff like my tivo or gps... things that i would replace IMMEDIATELY if they were lost, stolen, or damaged. things i absolutely cannot imagine going back to a time before i had them.

my main #1 concern with the kindle was that it just wouldnt be able to hold up to all the qualities that make a book so great. i was afraid it wouldnt be as readable, that it would be more inconvenient, too bulky, unergonomic, a pain in the ass to use, and/or any number of other things that would make me wish i were holding a paperback instead. i can now say unequivocably that the kindle is absolutely every bit as good as a book.

in fact, it is BETTER than a book in many ways. for one thing, i can carry my whole library around in the palm of my hand. on top of that, all those books are FULL SEARCHABLE. at any time. instantly. how fucking sweet is THAT? for another, the free wireless connectivity means never being without a book again. last week, i was having dinner at a little chinese hole in the wall, when i finished the book i was reading. before my kindle, id have had to sit bored while i finished my meal. this time, i just hit the amazon store and CLICK, i had the next book in the series on my kindle. instantly. like, boom, theres the book. SUPER sweet. then theres the built in dictionary. it doesnt happen often, but i do occasionally run across a word that i dont know the definition of... so i just scroll the wheel up to the line, click, and boom i get the definition.

and as for readability? its actually higher quality than several paperbacks ive had. and best of all, i can CHANGE THE FONT SIZE! now, EVERY book is always at the size that is the most readable for me... never too big, never too small, always juuuuust right.

of course, thats a purely subjective thing... but ive got some hard data to back up the claim that its got better readability than a physical book on paper. i normally read an average of 3-5 books a month... roughly 45 books a year, or one book every 8 days. ive had my kindle for 17 days, and ive read SEVEN books. 6 full-length novels and a poker book. thats one book every two and a half DAYS. im reading over THREE TIMES as fast as i do with paper books. no, im not reading any more than i usually do. i dunno WHAT to attribute it to past the fact that being able to set the type size has made reading SO much more comfortable that im able to just devour the pages. im going to be one of amazon's favorite customers, because im on track to read around 140 books this year.

thats a lot of books, and a lot of money... which leads me to another great thing about the kindle: the books are cheaper than retail. most of them, anyway. ive bought one book that was the same as the retail price, but all the rest have been less, in some cases MUCH less. im keeping track of how much i save off of every book so i know when i break even on the device (it was $400). so far, ive saved $35.38. at this rate, it should pay for itself in another 6 months or so. then im free and clear, and everything else is gravy :)

would i recommend it? if you read a lot like i do, or you have a lot of extra cash laying around, id say absolutely. if not, id say no, because $400 will buy a whole lot of books, and if you just read occasionally, it isnt really going to break even for you any time soon. but if you DO have the extra cash laying around, its still a great way to read.

this is print 2.0, baby. and im NEVER going back.