Geekishly gloating

[mdlbear]

There are actually three things I can burble about right now. The main one is that my coworker presented a paper this week on the project that our group has been working on. So there are things I can talk about! (And some that I still can't.) I can at least point to the abstract, which is here, though you probably have to be an ACM member in order to download the paper.

Basically the thing is an e-writer -- an e-reader with pen input that lets you write on things like forms and book pages. The next prototype version, due soon, is about the same form factor as the Kindle DX only with WiFi instead of cell, and (because it's a research prototype) Debian Linux.

The other two are the fact that I'm pretty much off the hook for the demo next week -- I've already mentioned that one -- and that the Dell Mini-10 that I won at OpenSourceWorld arrived yesterday.

The Dell came already defenestrated, with Ubuntu 8.04LTS installed. Plusses include the almost-full-size keyboard, scroll gestures on the trackpad, a gig of RAM, and 16 GB of solid-state disk. Minuses include the trackpad, the fact that one does not put swap on a flash drive, and the fact that it's just a little too big for the cases that used to hold my Magio laptop. Still, it's a sweet, shiny little thing. It hasn't been named yet.

Comments

[shadowe_wraithe]

Hmmm, sweet little shiny things are good! Glad she arrived and you like her as well!

Am excited hearing about the project...if they need testers (jumping up wildly waving her hand) Pick Me! ;-)

I truly would love a Kindle, but the cost...not even if I win the lottery!

Love to you and YD and Colleen!
Shadowe

[mdlbear]

Unfortunately the next several rounds of testers are all accounted for -- the first trial will be at University of Maryland, the second internal.

*hugs* and love.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the e-writer project! That sounds really cool. I've been hoping for more entities that can display pdfs at 8 1/2 x 11, search pdfs, search across many pdfs, *and* allow markup (and if the markup could be transferred to others of its kind that would be top notch.) Did I mention folder or tag support would be nice too?

Of course, this is my particular hobbyhorse: if that doesn't quite describe your project that's okay. :-)

Oh, and from one e-book geek to another--there is already a specific entity called "e-reader"--I forget whether it's a program or a device--and so some e-book geeks get their fur rubbed the wrong way when people refer to an e-book reader (a dedicated device for reading e-books: which presumably would be a superset of your e-book writer) as an e-reader. Even though I agree that "e-reader" is otherwise a reasonable shorthand for "e-book reader." Just thought I'd mention it.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I second the comment about being willing to beta-test!

[mdlbear]

/me grins. Unfortunately, the next batch of prototypes are all spoken for. I hope to have more information soon, though.

PDFs, it turns out, make a truly awful format for e-books.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

The Dell came already defenestrated, with Ubuntu 8.04LTS installed.

Ha! Gonna send that to a professional wordies list!

[mdlbear]

I'm surprised you hadn't heard that usage already; it's pretty standard in Linux circles.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

So I found when I googled it. I'm not a Linux user.... yet.

[mdlbear]

That's fixable.

[shadowe_wraithe]

And if you use Ubuntu, it is actually not too bad to learn...this coming from a Windoze hating, but must have to use certain programs person, who wished that all her favourite proggies ran on WINE...*Whimpers Sighs Snarls Sighs*

I had to use Ubuntu for a while due to hardware issues, and it really wasn't difficult, once you understand, and realize how to do things in it. :D

[mdlbear]

Debian's better if you're an old Unix geek like me. (Though if you're still using SunOS or something else BSDish you'd probably like Slackware.)