My new Kindle 2.0

[ScholasticSpastic]

I expect to receive delivery of my new e-book reader tomorrow... er, later today. I shall tell you all about it. Eventually. Perhaps take some pictures of it. I have already arranged to have Darwin's Origin of Species downloaded to it as soon as it's finished charging. There are some larger, more expensive microbiology tomes I'm sorely tempted to dl to it as well. I also expect that my Prof. will be able to email me pdf files of papers relevant to our work for my review- a benefit for both of us.

I hope to be able to sing its praises as it ate about two months' of my food money.

[Psi Wavefunction]

Reading papers on an e-book type thing? But...but... the need to scrible! You just can't take that away!

(it's VERY obvious when I've read a paper... there'll be notes and comments EVERYWHERE, else I can't understand. Because I'm a bit too dumb to get through those things without doodling... )

[Trolldor]

[Trolldor]

That aside... I don't see the use of these e-books. I've got a laptop and I've got paper, what more do you need?

[MedGen]

Am I weird in that I don't make notes when reading a paper? Unless I need it for specific methods, etc or review writing I don't take notes. It's the same with seminars, I only take notes if really have to. :

[Trolldor]

I sit in class and do nothing, same when we have guest speakers.

[ScholasticSpastic]

You are not dumb, Psi. Or, if you are dumb, I wish more people could be dumb. The big win for me is information density. I quite like the idea of having access to all the technical and recreational reading I want without having to lug books around. Or access a computer. It measures about the length of a piece of paper and the width of a pencil. Sciencey books are big and laptops require pretty frequent charging. I can haul the Kindle out into the desert with me and, if I don't waste power on the cellular or voice options, it'll go about two weeks without needing a charge. Having that much information in so small a space with so little power use is a seductive proposition for me.

The way Amazon.com is working the Kindle 2.0 looks pretty slick. If it's even half as slick as it seems I won't regret spending my food money on non-essential technologies.

[Psi Wavefunction]

Am I weird in that I don't make notes when reading a paper? Unless I need it for specific methods, etc or review writing I don't take notes. It's the same with seminars, I only take notes if really have to. :

No... you just have a good memory/brain. I've always found it necessary to actually interact with stuff on paper to get my thinking straight. Online quizzes tend to be a problem for me for that very reason... <_<


If I go to a seminar for the fun of it, if it's not actually related to my research... I don't bother taking notes; just sit back and enjoy. But if it's for research, I always feel as if this or that detail might come in handy... and perhaps I could see it when flipping through my notes and think of something useful. I guess it's like being obsessive compulsive around data/ideas, in some way...

[Psi Wavefunction]

You are not dumb, Psi. Or, if you are dumb, I wish more people could be dumb. The big win for me is information density. I quite like the idea of having access to all the technical and recreational reading I want without having to lug books around. Or access a computer. It measures about the length of a piece of paper and the width of a pencil. Sciencey books are big and laptops require pretty frequent charging. I can haul the Kindle out into the desert with me and, if I don't waste power on the cellular or voice options, it'll go about two weeks without needing a charge. Having that much information in so small a space with so little power use is a seductive proposition for me.

The way Amazon.com is working the Kindle 2.0 looks pretty slick. If it's even half as slick as it seems I won't regret spending my food money on non-essential technologies.

I can see the usefulness of that... perhaps wouldn't mind eventually getting one myself, in some distant future when I make more than my monthly rent + breadcrumbs...

A stack of papers can get quite heavy... but it's also rather satisfying when it's a stack of read papers! It's as if you can quantify how much you've learned, in grams...

[ScholasticSpastic]

Kindle has an annotation option. Just sayin'. Not going to actually endorse the thing until I've had a chance to play with it.

[MedGen]

A stack of papers can get quite heavy... but it's also rather satisfying when it's a stack of read papers! It's as if you can quantify how much you've learned, in grams...

A-fucking-men.

[leo-rcc]

My ebook reader on my Blackberry has an option to make side notes as well. The screen is only so small that the reading part is not very satisfying. But I managed to read "The God Delusion" and "The History of the revolt of the Netherlands" on it. I was looking at the Kindle but it is not handy in the Netherlands so I am looking at the Sony or a similar reader.

[ScholasticSpastic]

My new Kindle 2.0 is now charging for the first time. I suspect I'll have to refrain from gushing until it is finished charging. Meanwhile, I am reading the surprisingly large user manual. Kindle 2.0 appears to have one of the largest ratios of user manual to buttons and gewgaws I've encountered so far.

[ScholasticSpastic]

It has a search function that allows me to search all media stored on my Kindle. Citations just got a lot less tedious.

[Psi Wavefunction]

It has a search function that allows me to search all media stored on my Kindle. Citations just got a lot less tedious.

You could just hijack your lab's copy of Endnote