PJ Trader

Today is President’s Day here in the US, a Federal holiday so the banks are closed, the post office won’t be delivering the mail, and the stores are having sales like mad.

While I’m officially not “working” today, as the company saw fit to let us have the holiday off, I’m still working since I brought stuff home to finish up over the weekend.  Plus, it’s a good day to work on a manuscript.  Lots and lots of uninterrupted time.

So after burying myself in my office, I’ve had the rare opportunity to observe the rest of my family in their daily routines.  The webdoggies have come to check on me.  Maisy finally settled into her afternoon nap.  Dawson has abandoned my chair for the sunlight pouring in the front windows.

And The Bob seems to find watching a televised radio show fascinating.  I don’t get it.  Why would you televise a radio show?  It’s two guys sitting behind microphones gabbing at each other.  What’s to watch?

When I commented on this fact, he brought up the knitting show that I watched for a few minutes last night.  “Why watch someone else knit?” he wanted to know.  Of course, that’s different, I said.  The woman was demonstrating a pattern technique, so I got to see how the needles were used.  Totally different, right?

I can see some marginal entertainment value in putting a DVD of someone else’s fireplace on your TV, especially if you don’t have a fireplace of your own.  You get the sight and the sound, without the heat, so if you’re in Hawaii, let’s say, it could bring back some fond memories.

But watching radio on TV just seems wrong.  But watching knitting isn’t.  Right?

The blogsphere is abuzz this week as new devices are being introduced in advance of the big World Mobile Conference (a major technology conference) happening in a few days in Barcelona.  That’s apparently where all the new toys and gadgets, the latest in cell phone technology especially, is announced.

Yesterday Amazon beat the others to the punch by confirming a not-very-well-kept-secret: the release of the Kindle 2.  For those of you who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last couple of years, the Kindle is Amazon’s pride and joy – an electronic book reader.  They began competing with the only other company who has been successful, so far anyway, with e-readers, pretty much trouncing the Sony e-Reader in sales and books sold.  Heck, when you’ve got the Amazon selling machine behind you, you’re pretty much guaranteed success.

And no, this is one toy I don’t own.  Yet.  I always thought I’d want the Sony, but the proprietary format of the books always holds me back from getting one.  The Kindle 2 promises to be easier to read, with massively increased grayscale, more memory, and faster page refreshes (an issue many an e-Reader of both persuasions has lamented).  The new device is sleeker, looking far less like Star Trek Classic notepad than before.  I still don’t like the ugly keyboard, but at least now the little chicklets are replace with more asthetic bubble buttons. 

Of major interest, however, was the announcement that Amazon would begin making their Kindle-only books available for other devices, such as cell phones (probably to jump onto the iPhone-can-do-everything-even-make-breakfast craze).  Of course, they don’t say WHEN that’s going to happen.  But we all like to think once in digital format, a book can be pushed out in multiple platforms.  (Being a member of the IT industry, I’m sure it’s not quite that easy!)

I like the way this is going, myself.  I like e-books and I like being able to read them wherever I have an electronic device and time to read.  Forgot my book at home?  No problem – jump on my handy-dandy cell phone and read one instead.

Here’s a good read from the New York Times about Amazon’s bid to make the Kindle the iPod of the e-book world. 

Now that I’ve confused myself with that statemet…

What about you?  Do you think the Kindle and Amazon’s annoucement to sell their e-books in other formats will catch on, maybe make e-books more popular?

This comes courtesy of the boys and girls over at Lifehacker!

I know some at-home workers, as well as some of us government workers, have to monitor our time for various reasons.  Or maybe writers are keeping track of their Butt-In-Chair time.  Here’s a nifty little application that might help you keep track of what you do.

Time Edition is a free download for Windows and Mac OSX users to do just that. It has an impressive list of features, among them its clean interface and easy to use controls, plus integration with iCal, Google Calendar, and Outlook.

I haven’t figured out a reason to use this yet – since I can’t install it on my new government computer, but maybe you need it.

Or maybe not.

Deborah Cooke’s third in her Dragonfire series is on the shelves TODAY. Kiss of Fate is Erik’s story, and long anticipated by her loyal readers. Get yours now and settle in for some hot times with these sexy shape-shifters.