Welcome to my musings on whatever topic catches my eye, plus stories, recipes, handyman tips, welding, photography, and what have you. Oh, and analog/digital hardware design, and software. Please comment on the blog post so everyone who visits can see your comments.

Year: 2008 (Page 1 of 10)

eBook Reader Ripoff

Why is it that eBook readers cost more than a whole computer, even more than two computers? One does not need to be an engineer to see that this sort of pricing disparity is, obviously, a ripoff. It’s obvious to anyone simply from the fact that I can purchase TWO Eee PCs for the price of one eBook reader.

An eBook reader is a very simple device, vastly simpler than, for example, an Eee PC. An eBook reader has no keyboard, no hard disk, very little RAM. In fact all it needs internally is an inexpensive microcontroller ($5), monochrome LCD, a $5 SD memory card for storage, and a small battery. Yet eBook readers range in cost from $299 to $650! The prices on eBook readers are a ripoff and until someone comes out with something sensibly priced they are not going to sell as well as they could.

The retail price of a top quality eBook reader with an excellent monochrome display and an SD card memory slot should be no more than $99 to $129. I don’t see why someone does not produce such a device. eBooks can be managed by software on one’s home computer and written directly to the SD card. No cables required. With today’s SD card capacities one can stored hundreds, even thousands of books on a single SD card.

I can’t believe that someone has not designed such a device yet. There’s a whole market here for someone who wants to step up and produce such a product.

EDIT Apr 14, 2019: This problem was solved with the introduction of devices like the Nook.

Journal of the Voyage

During the voyage from the Caloosahatchie River, Florida (Fort Myers) to Rio Dulce, Guatemala I kept a little written journal. I have posted those journal entries along with some photo links on my blog.

Here’s a little index to the nine posts:

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 1
Departure!. Down the Caloosahatchie, past Sanibel, to the Gulf

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 2
Dry Tortugas midday and a swim

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 3
A Carnival Cruise ship, A/C problems, and a swim

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 4
A close call during the night, lots of traffic in the Yucatan Channel

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 5
Isla Mujeres at 3 AM, sleep, refuel, swim, continue south

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 6
South behind Cozumel, fighting the north setting current, Dolphins!

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 7
Mexico/Belize border, Grennell’s Channel at 9 PM

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 8
Belize coast, a swim, Placencia, Great Monkey Caye

Caloosahatchie to Rio Dulce, Day 9

Threading between the cayes, Livingston, Rio Dulce!
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