Amazon Kindle: Magic Device from an Alternate Reality

Ninja is unpacking my new Kindle

I bought an Amazon Kindle yesterday – and it arrived today! There may have been an element of gadgettery addiction involved, but there certainly was another reason for me: with our move to the New World coming up, it doesn’t feel right to buy large books on software development when space and weight in that container will be at a premium.

I always thought of the Kindle as something like a pocket book replacement for when you need to kill time on the tube. I’m not reading anywhere enough Agatha Christie novels to make the Kindle a viable purchase.

On second thought though I’ve discovered that you can buy all these huge geeky dictionary like books on it too. I’m talking about those 1000 page epics about PHP and MySQL etc. You can buy the Kindle editions from Amazon cheaper than the printed versions, they don’t use up precious space on your shelf or on my tiny desk and I can bring them with me anywhere I go.

Sounds good, huh? With battery life of up to one month (cough!) and my impending purchase of The Definitve Guide to Apache Mod Rewrite I thought I’m going to treat myself. Let me share my first Kindle experiences with you in this article.

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Adtec RD-60: The Future of Satellite Transmissions

Since we started to explore the possibility of satelite transmissions in 32APSK last year, Adtec have been busy working on a new box that could potentially revolutionise the way we think about satellite receivers.

Imagine we could have 30% better pictures and 4x the amount of discreet audio channels than we currently have, but at the same time use the same amount of satellite space and hence maintain transmission cost? Or perhaps reduce the costs and keep the current picture quality?

Well the Adtec RD-60 makes this possible: by combining H264/MPG4 and 32 APSK instead of the current broadcast standard of MPEG2 and 8PSK you can save money or increase the quality of your transmissions. Too good to be true? We’ve tried it – and it works 😉

The unit is currently in its final testing stage and I was one of the lucky geeks to get my hands on this new puppy. In this article I’ll share my brief experiences and will talk you through what this new IRD has to offer.

This review is based on a courtesy unit that was given to us at IMG for testing. We’re using Software Version 1.02.14 E

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Horizon S3 Pro: my Russian Panoramic Camera from an Alternate Reality

After a long journey from the Zenit factory in Krasnogorsk near Moscow via Atlanta and Miami, my brand new Horizon S3 Pro camera has arrived here in London (with Chinese newspapers as packaging material). What an international adventure!

This is a slit-exposure camera like the Widelux and Noblex – neither of which I could afford. I always wanted one of these cameras and finally bought one on eBay.

I have used this beauty for nearly a year now and can give you my honest opinion about it:

The Horizon S3 sucks. Period.

Let me tell you why I think that, but let me also show you some impressive results this camera can deliver – if it doesn’t eat the film before you get a chance to develop it.

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