You know, I’ve had this little Wacom tablet for a couple years now. I’ve rarely used it. I don’t even think about it most of the time either, probably because it’s tucked off to the side where I don’t even see it, buried under a dust cloth (i.e., paper towel) and miscellaneous computer cords and stuff. Even the pen, which used to be visible on the corner of my desk, is hidden behind a hard drive, and an envelope that’s really been there too long. I should file that…

It was originally used on my previous computer. It sat on top of it, in fact. I think. It’s been a while. Even there, I didn’t use it that often.

It was a package deal with animation software I bought. You could buy it at the same time as the software for a reduced price. A nice discount, as I remember. I think there was a choice of sizes. I chose the smallest. I figured that would be sufficient for my needs and I could always get a larger one if this animation stuff worked out. And, the small one was a really good deal. So, why not?

Shame that I don’t use it much. Or, rather, hardly at all. I wonder why?

Oh, yeah. Now I remember… I can’t draw.

That also explains why the animation career went nowhere fast…

It did seem like a good idea at the time though.

After the Apple iPad was revealed today, I followed some of the chatter online about the new device. Some of the criticisms revolved around the size. Some thought it would be too big to carry around.

Pictures, even with people holding it, often don’t give you an accurate impression of what something is really like. And dimensions give you an idea but are often molded by what you want it to be or think it to be rather than what is.

So, I wanted to see it for myself. Of course, since it’s not going to be available for another 60 days, and I don’t know of any demo units nearby (if they are even available to the Apple stores), I decided to make one.

Yes, I made an iPad. Sort of…

This mock iPad was created to size. It measures 9.56″ x 7.47″ x 0.5″, which are the dimensions of the iPad according to Apple’s website. Don’t know about weight. I would guess mine is very close. It feels like it could be 1.5 pounds, but I haven’t weighed it. Any at rate, I was more concerned about size.

While not something you could put in your pocket, it is also something that is not too big to carry around. It’s certainly smaller than a MacBook Pro and probably most notebooks.

It is smaller than a standard sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ paper. If you want something close in comparison that you might have around the house, take a look at an 8×10 photo. It’s going to be slightly smaller than that.

I’d guess it to be about the size of a textbook, though thinner. I don’t have any textbooks handy, but I do have some various books, and the iPad would certainly be in the range of a “normal” book size. Of course, it’s larger than a typical paperback book. But, it’s about the same size as a typical hardcover or a manual.

So, really, it’s not a size that would be unusual to carry if you’re used to carrying around a book or two. Plus, with it’s thinner size, it could easily fit in a briefcase or totebag.

It’ll probably be a good tool for students and businesspeople.

Here’s how it compares in size to the original Newton MessagePad:

As you can see, it’s quite a bit larger than the Newton MessagePad. But, it is smaller than the Newton eMate 300, which was a later Newton model designed for schools. Though it’s important to note that the eMate had a built-in keyboard whereas the iPad does not, though it does have an onscreen keyboard and will have an external keyboard available for use with a docking station.

The iPad is not going to be a replacement for a laptop but, for many people, I think it will be a useful alternative. There are times you want to take something portable with you but even a notebook computer can be rather bulky to carry around. If you need a computer on the road with you for video, design or other specialized work, then an iPad is certainly not going to be able to replace that. On the other hand, if you just need something portable that can do basic tasks, then the iPad has you covered. Apple will also have a version of iWork available for iPad which will be compatible with the Macintosh versions. The components of iWork are Pages (a word processor), Numbers (a spreadsheet) and Keynote (a presentation package), each available separately for the iPad at $9.99 each.

This would be great for writers, as you could take something relatively small with you on the go. Then, you can sync up with your Mac when you get home. And, since the iPad is fully Internet capable, you can browse the web as well. I’m guessing you can probably post to your blog as well.

For comparison, here is my mock iPad pictured with an MSI Wind notebook:

As you can see, the iPad is larger in one direction and shorter in the other direction as compared to the MSI Wind notebook. However, the iPad is thinner and (I’m guessing) lighter.

So, the iPad is going to be comparing to carrying a small notebook such as the MSI Wind, and possibly easier and lighter to carry around.

It’s also very Star Trek-like in that it is a lot like the PADDs they used in The Next Generation and subsequent series.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see once these start getting into people’s hands…

Probably.

No one knows what it’s going to be called, but some are guessing iPad, iSlate or iTablet.

If they went with iPad, that would fit in with the iPhone and the iPod.

After some little research of my own, I’m thinking it’s going to be the Apple iSlate.

My little research is this… ipad.com and itablet.com are registered by other companies. These registrations go back a few years.

On the other hand, iSlate.com is registered at MarkMonitor, to a generic sounding company housed at their offices.

MarkMonitor is some kind of registrar and “brand protection” service for large companies. The domain, ipod.com, is owned by Apple and also registered through MarkMonitor.

So, it would look to me like they are using MarkMonitor to conceal ownership before the grand unveiling, today, reportedly, probably.

So, we can all look forward to the Apple iSlate being announced today.

That’s my guess anyway.

Who wouldn’t want an automatic watch? I mean, I’m pretty sure you’d go crazy if you had to sit there all day, moving the hands on your clock every second to keep the time current. One Mississippi, move. One Mississippi, move. One Mississippi, move. Who wants to do that all day long? And who will keep your watch going when you sleep?

So, I’m pretty sure you’d want an automatic watch.

Of course, that’s not what is really meant by automatic! An automatic watch is a mechanical watch that is self-winding. That means, instead of winding it, it winds itself every time you move your wrist.

That means automatic watches won’t work for dead people. But, on the other hand, dead people don’t generally ask the time, so it’ll probably work out.

But, what happens if you don’t wear your watch daily? Well, in that case, you can buy a watch winder that will take care of moving the watch for you, you know, on your days off from watch wearing. This would also come in handy if you have seven automatic watches, one for each day of the week. The watch winder will then move the other six watches so they’ll keep on ticking and be ready for their day of the week to be worn.

You know, I think I’ll just stick with a battery-operated watch. Much less hassle. Maybe just keep an automatic watch on hand just in case of the apocalypse. Then again, after the apocalypse, how worried will you be about the actual time? Okay, I’d still want to know…

Yellow is typically the first to go. Being so light, it fades quickly, taking down the greens with it. Oranges too. In the absence of yellow, brown reddens.

Fortunately, we live in the digital age, where colors never fade. Of course, with new media comes new problems. CDs will last 100 years, remember? Nope. You see, when you burn a CD you are actually burning a chemical layer on the CD, turning the chemical black. So, you have a binary storage method used on the CD. Unburned sections are zeros and burnt sections are ones. But, what happens when those burnt areas begin to fade? Data loss. What was once read as a one is now read as a zero.

Magnetic media is better, but still subject to decay as well as data loss caused by exposure to magnetic fields.

The truth is that some CDs can begin to lose data after a few years.

How can you preserve your precious memories?

Store your most precious images and data files in multiple forms of media. Storage media is relatively cheap these days. Store a copy of your files on a hard drive and another on CDs or DVDs.

Transfer to new media as it becomes available. Check your data periodically. Burn fresh CDs or DVDs from time to time. Store CDs and DVDs in a dark location.

If you have old photos or videos, get them digitized ASAP. Video tapes, like the old VHS ones, have a lifetime of about twenty years, give or take. So, if you have old home videos from the 1990’s and especially the 1980’s, you need to get those digitized now!

You can use commercial services for the transfer or, if you are tech savvy and have a lot of tapes to convert, do it yourself. But be aware that since everything is moving to digital, it’s going to be harder and harder to find equipment that will be able to transfer your old VHS tapes to your computer or DVD.

When scanning your old photos into your computer, scan it in at the highest optical resolution you can. You want to retain as much data as possible. If you scan in at low resolution, which may be a default setting for some scanners especially if they are geared around scanning images for use on the web, the photo may look fine on your screen but won’t look as good when printed and especially so when making enlargements.

If photos are especially important to you, do not throw them away after scanning them in. In a few years, you may be able to afford a newer and better scanner that can scan the photo at an even higher resolution. But, still scan today so that you at least have a copy should something happen to the original.

If your photo collection is entirely digital, you might also want to print out valued images and keep them in a photo album. That way, should anything ever happen to the digital copy, you will still have something.

You know, it’s been a while since I visited Mr Baconpants, but this discovery made me think of him.

The Bacon iPhone Case

That’s right. It looks just like bacon, but it’s designed to protect your iPhone.

Apparently they have different sizes, so even if you just have an ordinary cell phone and love bacon, you still may be able to find a case to satisfy your cravings.

And, here is the direct link if you want to buy. (Don’t know if they ship to U.S. though.) Probably makes great gifts for the cell phone users and bacon lovers in your life!

Unfortunately, dogs may not know it’s not bacon!

Take your guesses what this was for.

For more wordless posts today, visit Wordless Wednesday.

Been busy converting old video tapes to digital. Unfortunately, after a day and a half of doing so, I discovered I wasn’t saving in the highest quality mode. So, some will have to be redone.

On the plus side, I think I have a couple shorts that I will be able to post, once I get them converted.

Yesterday, I was strongly considering buying a Flip Video - Ultra Series camcorder.

The nice thing is the small size, which makes it very handy to carry around. A lot of times, we get a video camera, thinking how we’ll record everything. Then, you record a lot of stuff at the beginning but, after the novelty wears off, it becomes a pain to lug the thing around and carry it around and so on. Even with the small hand-helds, you still get to the point where it becomes more annoying than handy.

But, with the small size of the Flip Video camcorder, it’s something you can carry in your pocket. It appears to be the size of a microcassette audio recorder (circa late 1980’s/early 1990’s, which is when mine is from), but records video and audio. Just slightly larger than a cell phone, it’s something I can imagine you can easily lug around and something you’ll actually use. On top of that, it uses standard AA batteries, so you don’t have an odd battery that you’ll have to charge (or hunt down to replace when it wears out) and so on.

Then, I read some reviews on it. Many of the 1 and 2 star reviews appeared to come from Mac users. Apparently, despite being advertised as working with Macs, it’s performance (judging by the reviews) on Mac systems seems dodgy at best. Plus, I would want to be able to edit videos with Adobe Premiere Pro, and apparently there are issues there as well. The Flip comes with its own software package but, according to the reviews I read, the Mac version is not quite up to par with the Windows version.

So, that basically convinced me not to buy a Flip Video camcorder.

Today, I did some cleaning and some yard work. Afterwards, I dragged out my old video camera. I am currently taking a break from converting some of my old videos (from the tape that was in the camera) into digital form.

The bummer is that the camera doesn’t seem to work in camera mode anymore. I can use it as a tape player, but, in camera mode, the video is bad. I haven’t tried recording anything (I want to convert the video tape to digital before I attempt that), so I don’t know if it records. But, just from the camera output, it doesn’t appear as though it will record video very well anymore.

So, there goes my plans to continue putting this camera to use again. And, that means I’m back to considering the Flip again. Maybe if I hear from more Mac users successfully using the thing…

Anyway, back to conversions. Maybe later I’ll have some video to put online. Maybe.

Yesterday’s eMail debacle has been resolved, for now.

The server was so overwhelmed by spam that it affected even outgoing mail. Some mail was stuck in the outgoing box for about a week.

Thanks, spammers! Much appreciated that your efforts to sell me junk I’m not going to buy from you continually interfere with the normal operations of my mail server.