prod & ponder

Was I camped out to buy an iPad on Saturday? Of course. Here are my initial, random musings and observations for folks considering the device:

* It’s a wonderful device for consuming media (video, web surfing, etc.) and light personal stuff (email, calendar, etc.).
* MobileMe plays nicely with it, so no problem having it instantly sync contacts and calendar information across my computer, phone, and ipad.
* I like the Apple case. It doesn’t add a lot of bulk to the tablet and it makes it easier to grip the tablet with one hand (between its weight and slick surface, it’s a bit unnerving to hold with one hand otherwise).
* The on-screen keyboard is pretty good, but despite being a good touch typer, I still have to frequently peek down at the keys because of the smaller size and lack of feedback.
* It pairs up nicely with an Apple bluetooth keyboard, which is how I’m writing this entry now. The media keys even work, so I was happily surprised when I hit the play key on the keyboard and music started playing in the background.
* The iWork apps are ok for a first cut, but there are some very annoying and potentially deal-breaking omissions for folks who wanted to leave their laptops at home for some projects. Importing documents into Pages risks loosing fonts (if it’s not a font included in the iPad) and document footnotes are dropped in the conversion *ack!*. Importing Keynote presentations has the same limitation with fonts and it balks at some graphics in slides.
* I was worry that the iPad may be sluggish, but it’s downright snappy with pretty much every app I’ve tinkered with. The glaring exception is OmniGraffle, which (at version 1.0) is too sluggish to be useful.
* The VGA cable only works with playing videos and Keynote presentations.
* Many of the iPad apps I’ve downloaded have been promising, but rough around the edges. I’m confident that will change, now that more developers have their hands on actual iPads.

Ok, that’s my 2 cents after a weekend of playing with the iPad.

During my blogging absence I’ve taken up improv theater in a big way. Am I any good at it? Well, judge for yourself… If you’re looking for something fun (or just ridiculous) to do tomorrow night, come catch my improv team, Monster Manual, compete in the Washington Improv Theater’s Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament (FIST). Friday (3/4), 9:30pm, Source Theater, $10.

More details about the competition are here.

You’ve got to start them on the coffee habit early!

Relax. It’s just coco.

Read it and weep…
Alumna sues college because she hasn’t found a job.

Yesterday I commented that, “with all the Harry Potter books and the lag time between film releases, I get confused. Is this the one with Ewoks?”

Well, thanks the wonders of Facebook, friends helped set me straight:

“This is the one where he is molested by the bike shop owner. Mr Drummond gets very upset about it.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t the one with David Bowie?”
“This is the one with Harry’s full frontal nudity. Or Ron’s. I’m not sure which.”
“*I* thought this was the one where he sees dead people.”
“No, no. Hermione falls in love with a hot teenage vampire but Ron, her friend, is revealed as a Native American werewolf and he’s in love with her and they fight and the Ents show up.”
“This is the one where all the students from the Eastern European wizard school are actually vampires and come back to exact revenge for losing the Tri-Wizard cup. The Hogwarts students need to fight them off while also battling rumors that the school is quarantined due to swine flu. I’ve seen Harry’s full frontal nudity. It was artfully shrouded by lighting.”

Well, after all that, of course I had to go see the movie this afternoon, and *spoiler alert* THEY KILL GANDALF!

With all the Harry Potter books and the lag time between film releases, I get confused. Is this the one with Ewoks?

Sure, it might be totally unrelated to the crash, but at first glance this April 2006 NTSB advisory to WMATA (that went unaddressed) sure seems to foreshadow what happened: http://www.ntsb.gov/Recs/letters/2006/R06_01_02.pdf.

I’ve seen the NTSB memo mentioned by a few news sources, but with no direct link. I’m at a loss why news sources so rarely link to primary source documents.

I’m a zealous advocate for deep and inclusive democracy, but it would help if I could be dictator for the day. Just saying.