The Black Campbell

Here was my initial impression of the new iPad.  So now I’ve had the thing for two weeks, and have been using the hell out of it.  Not what I expected to do; I figured it would be a cute toy I’d use occasionally, but I’m finding that for quick internet and email checks, I prefer to use the iPad over my laptop.  For certain things, the laptop is much easier and faster — using WordPress for one.  The software WordPress has out for the iPad is atrocious: it was impossible for me to upload content, the ability to choose categories, etc. was nil, and in Safari, it was worse — requiring me to go to HTML to do any work.  It was barely workable.  And Apple won’t allow Flash, so some sites are useless to the user.

However…battery life has proven to be staggeringly good.  I’ve squeezed 17 hours out of it (with 7% left) with the screen always at half brightness, and the wifi running much of the time.  I turned off the 3G, since I’m not subscribed to see if I can eek out a bit more.

Sound and video quality is very good for the 9″ screen.  I downlaoded a few hours of Cato Institute talks from iTunes for free and that sucked up 2gb only.  Loaded a few movies for a trip would be nothing.  I’ve downloaded a few dozen free Gutenberg Project books from iBooks, the Craig Ferguson bio (well worth a read), a sci fi novel.  From Kindle I stocked up on a bunch of stuff on the Progressive era and libertarianism.  Total of 38 books, 3 hours of movies, 300 pics, and about 400 songs, and a bunch of free apps…I’ve still got 26.3GB left.

Apps:  I found free chess, checkers, go, poker, blackjack, solitaire, and Need for Speed (but no free backgammon!  Damn!)  All work well, and NFS has been like crack to me.  I am however, enjoying running my Aston Martin DB9R through the streets at breakneck pace.  I’ve got a weather app, word processor that I’ve done up a nice resume, some RPG adventures, and works on dissertation notes while out and about.  Occasionally, the memory (I think it’s .5GB RAM) will fill and the machine will kick you out to the main menu.  But I haven’t lost work when it does, so I’m okay with it.  It’s still less twitchy than my Palm Tungsten C could get.

Typing on the iPad can be a pain if you’re doing heavy typing.  The dockable or wireless keyboard is eventually a must if you’re using this as a road warrior machine.  But I find the screen keyboard works well for quick missives and some light work.  the auto spell check is a pain in the ass, if you’re not paying attention and has a habit of swapping word on you, if you stop paying attention.  It’s easy to miss the space bar and hit the frame around the usable face.  Otherwise, I find it easier to use than most thumb keyboards.  Funnily, typing one handed while holding the iPad is easier than doing the traditional two handed hunt and peck.

I bought the dock adapters for USB gear and SD cards.  It pulled the phots from my camera card immediately without issues.  I haven’t tried the USB adapter yet.  I haven’t tried the earphones yet, so I can’t comment on the sound quality on headphones yet.  Apple does need to add the ability to use SD cards through the adapter for extra storage.

Verdict hasn’t changed — this thing is slicker than snot, looks incredible (although a strongly suggest the Apple cover or an aftermarket case or you’ll scratch the hell out of the pretty aluminum body and the face.  Yes, it gets fingerprints on it; I have a wee microfiber wipe I keep with it to occasionally clean the screen.  It is sexy and I’ve already convinced two friends they need one,.

Functionality:  this is a good on the road machine.  The wifi is solid, connects easily (save in my house, where I suspect the router is dying after 6 years), and I haven’t tried the 3G, yet.  (I intend to while in Scotland, but that looks like it might be an adventure in itself, as I might need to swap out my Micro SIM card for one by Vodaphone, O2, or Orange once I hit Edinburgh.  On that Apple gets a big fail — enough with the AT&T shit!)  Music selections from the iPod program will play while you are doing other things, I found out by accident the other day.

Typing email, surfing the net, doing spreadsheets in Numbers, or docs in Pages (it will import and export .pdf and .doc), getting directions — it’s very easy and with 3G, would be more so, I suspect.  (Although I hear AT&T’s networks are seriously clogged from iPhone usage in places like San Fran and LA.)  Watching TV or movies, listening to music — all easy.

Now…as a gaming machine.  It’s great for driver games thanks to the accelerometers, but as an RPG device:  you can have your .pdfs of books and characters it.  There’s no multitasking (yet, but iPhone4 has it, so the iPad will soon enough) so you need to swap between files, but it does remember where you were last in a book.  iBook will have native pdf capability in a few weeks, but there are plenty of free pdf readers.  There’s Diceshaker — a free die program for RPGs that will do any of the standard and a few non-standard die rolls.  Put the program icons next to each other, it’s as simple as hitting the home button and tapping the appropriate button and you can swap back and forth.  Have all your characters, dice, rules, etc… with you, plus internet capability for answering obscure questions.  I was able to use the iPad as a picture and map device for the players tonight, to give them an idea of the interior layout and look of a British airship from the 1930s.

Is it useful as a gamer tool?  Oh, yeah.

Here in The Washington Post.

The main problem with NASA is the incredible amount of administrative waste and abuse, coupled with an institutional mindset that is highly risk-adversive…not the right attitude when shooting your ass into space.  NASA has been a relic of the Cold War and Jet Age for some time, and has needed to be trimmed and focused on the future of space travel.  that means not building yet another space truck like the Space Shuttle.

There needs to be closer ties with commercial space exploration, and more support for the private sector to jump in on the space race.  This means less regulation of the space industry by the FAA.  This means a concentration on the real explorers of the next half century:  robots.

It’s time to stop pussy-footing around in low orbit and shoot for Mars with robotic explorers that are capable of setting up the habitats necessary for an eventual manned mission.

Most of the complaints about cutting NASA’s budget come from people who still view space as a means to national pride.  The benefits in glory do not outweigh the cost with government in charge.  There is the argument about the Chinese and Russians holding the “high ground”, but most of the military space applications are handled by the US Air Force; I don’t see their budget getting chopped badly.

It’s time to start working toward a viable exploitation of space.  That can only happen when the bureaucrats are out of the way and there’s a profit to be made.