Finally got my Kindle

kindle3
Originally uploaded by hellpop555

It might sound as if I ordered my Kindle weeks ago. Actually I ordered it Monday evening this week and received it yesterday. I have amazon prime and love to take advantage of overnight shipping.

I have powered it up and loaded it up with a number of free books. There are a lot of places to get free ebooks. I like wowio, tor, proj gutenberg, mobipocket, munseys, etc.

I haven't bought any Kindle ebooks yet, but have converted a few from pdf using mobipocket creator. Seems to work well.

I'll have more on what I think of the Kindle later. Back to reading.

Universal Password Manager

I've been using Universal Password Manager to store my passwords. I looked at a few of them, but decided on UPM for a couple of reasons. My problem is pretty much the same as everyone else in that in this day and age, everything is account/password protected. I have way to many accounts and passwords to remember.

In the interests of multiplatform support, database sharing and possible usb memory stick use, I decided to use UPM. I find it pretty nice and recommend using it. Now, only if I can find something to track my software licenses.

Final Fantasy Tests

Took one of those great Final Fantasy tests.







Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?



Final Fantasy VII

Been a while...

Well, it's been a couple of months now since I have posted something. I guess I've been kind of derailed with no good reason.

Winter is finally almost over. I say almost despite it being April 13th. In Chicago, we have really tough transitions between seasons. We had flurries today. Not good.

Anyhow, I've been looking at MMORPGs. I used to play City of Heroes back in 2004. I played about 3 months and got a few characters going but ultimately decided [for the best] to stop playing. I was playing like 4-6 hours a day which is a lot since I played typically after 9PM and had to wake up daily at 5:30AM to make my train to go to work. The joys of commuting into Chicago.

So now, under pressure by Yuan to get into WoW, I started looking at MMORPGs. I tried WoW a few years ago and couldn't get into it. I don't know why but it just didn't do it for me. Although I have played Warcraft (the RTS stuff) I just couldnt get into WoW. I think I've never really been a fan of the world. Anyhow, Yuan sent me a 10 day trial a couple of weeks ago. With more pestering, he got me to try it again.

It was ok but there were many things I did like. The install process took several hours (over a day) with me checking periodically for status. Not good. I did play WoW ultimately and it was ok. I was not overly impressed with the game though. I understand its huge and has lots of content but I just don't like it.

Interestingly, I did make a few characters with the kids and they loved it. Probably not good for them to watch me play but they liked it. Anyways, it got me thinking about the extensive character creation in CoH and I decided to pick up CoV to try it. Kind of an impulse buy. I got it the other day and have played a little bit. Still trying to figure out if I like it, but it seemed very similar to the old days.

So, I should mention that I have been playing Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core for the PSP. I played FFVII years ago on the Playstation [1]. It was one of my all time top games I have played so playing Crisis Core for me was very cool. I finished it in about a week maybe 10-12 hours of play. With looking at MMORPGs and WoW and CoH, I decided that I would try FFXI.

I was going to wait until FFXI 2008 came out on the PC but I couldn't wait. Really terrible since the game is coming out this week. In my defense, I just got a gift card in the mail, so i figured I'd get 2007 for $19 rather than 2008 for $29. Sure, 2008 will come with the expansion Wings of the Goddess, but I guess I can pick that up later for $19 if I really like FFXI. I guess the rationalization is $19 to try isn't bad and could be better than $29 if I don't like FFXI.

Back to the install times, MMORPGs are crazy slow to install with all the online content changing regularly. WoW effectively took a day or to install. CoH/CoV took like 3 hours. And FFXI is looking like 6+ hours now. I have to say that is a lot of install time.

WOWIO

Wow. I really am digging WOWIO. I found it several weeks ago from Steve Rude's update he sends me. It is a free service that has free books. It really is awesome and I recommend it to everyone. Check it out here.

Toonlet

I found this mildly interesting toon blogging site. I think it might be ok. I created a sample. Please check it out and let me know.

Novak XXtra Synthesized FM Receiver

I received my synth receiver the other day. I decided to order one up a few days ago because I have a Hitec Lynx 3D with the Spectra add on. That allows me to select a frequency for my transmitter rather than swapping in/out crystals. It pretty much a matter of turning a couple of dials and we're good to go.

My problem was that I didn't have this capability on the receiver side. So i figured I'd just pick one up. Somewhat expensive, but not too bad. In retrospect, it might have been smarter to get one of the newer 2.4Ghz radio setups like FASST from Futaba or Spektrum. Still makes more sense than picking up two or three more crystals.