Drive-Bys

These things ROCK. Seriously. Rock.
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Giggle of the Day:


moar funny pictures

(Picture sent by my lovely Son-In-Law.)
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Ken Lammers has a dandy review of the Kindle up at CrimLaw, and I agree with him on just about every level, especially this one:

If Kindle was less than $100 the iPad wouldn't even be a serious competitor.

Then again, I've maintained for a while now that the device ought to be a loss-leader instead of a profit center.

I also think a lot of people got them as Christmas gifts this year (just like me), as I'm spotting a lot more of them on my commute to and from work each day. If you're alone anywhere and you want to strike up a conversation, all you have to do is haul your Kindle out and someone will be asking you about it in minutes.

I like mine so much that I finally convinced my financial advisor that Amazon was a good buy right now... and, after she did the research and realized that not being back-lit makes it really easy on the eyes, she gave in and bought me some stock. (Which, BTW, is doing quite nicely.)

If what you want is a reader that you can use for email or simple web searches in a pinch, this is is the doohickey for you. If, on the other hand, you want it for gaming, music, videos, and the like, go get on the iPad wait list. Personally, I think there's plenty of room for both devices on the market.
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Epitaph:

Ray Tourville was a sage with scissors.

Whoever wrote that lovely obit really knew loved that man. (No, I've never heard of nor met the man before. That first line just caught my eye as I went scrolling past the obits today.)
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Question of the Day:

Will it waffle?

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Via Dr. Helen, I tripped over this post questioning whether men are better bloggers than women. Author Susannah Breslin then slots female bloggers into three categories:

For the most part, I’ve found, women bloggers fall into three categories: “mommybloggers,” “ladybloggers,” and “women who blog like men.”

Phooey. (I love that word.)

Then she says,

I’m a woman who, more often than not, blogs like a man. Sure, I’ve sometimes been known to tread into the dreaded territory of “feelings” and “relationships,” posts I often regret having posted. I’m far more comfortable weighing in on topics and in ways I venture Wente would deem more “male”: current events, heated debates, racy subjects. I blog like a man.

That is the most sexist bunch of claptrap I've heard in a while, as it insinuates that if you engage your brain, you are acting like a man -- thus, if you feel or intuit, you are feminine (and stupid!); if you posit or use logic, you are masculine (and smart!).

Who believes that line of horse hockey in this day and age?

What the blogosphere needs is fewer Martha Stewarts and more Danica Patricks, more real debate and less positing women as the victims of a patriarchal society gone bloggy-wild, more men that blog like women and more women who blog like men.

Nah. What the blogosphere needs more of is writers who know and are comfortable with their own voice, regardless of age, gender, color or creed, and who are passionate about their subject(s). Really, it's those things that make a blog readable.

As for those three rigid slots she sees for women bloggers? I suggest she visit a BlogHer conference just once, and that would peel her eyeballs opened as to just how vast the borgaschmord of women bloggers is and how diverse their subject matters.
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Whoohoo! It's warm outside.


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