Kindle Madness

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I got my Kindle 2.0 at the end of February.  It's now the beginning of May.  I've been reading like a madman.  What's cool is that I'm noticing that my consumption habits with the Kindle are similar to those that took effect when I first got my iPod Touch.  That is, reading on the Kindle isn't reserved solely for when I have large blocks of time.  Much like when I would whip out my iPod and play with an app for a few minutes while waiting on line at the bank, etc. I'm finding that I'm not just reading on the train or before bed, but also whenever I can find a few spare minutes. Some might find the notion of filling every spare moment with electronic media consumption sad.  I like it, though.  There are all these little slices of time during the day where we're waiting in line for something, or otherwise detained, and without a little portable entertainment I'd be going nuts.

In the brief time I've had my Kindle, here's what I've read:

  1. The Yankee Years, Torre/Verducci
  2. Ulysses, James Joyce
  3. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
  4. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
  5. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
  6. UR, Stephen King
  7. Fool, Christopher Moore
  8. Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jules Verne
  9. Practical Demonkeeping, Moore
  10. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Verne
  11. The Stupidest Angel, Moore
  12. Afraid, Jack Kilborn
  13. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann
  14. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Moore
  15. The Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Moore
  16. You Suck, Moore
  17. No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels, Johnson-Shelton/Dobyns
  18. Playing for Keeps, Mur Lafferty

This reminds me of when I was a kid and a voracious reader...

eBay Needs To Get Into The Shipping Business

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It occurred to me that eBay would get a larger share of my spending if they were able to address one thing - shipping.  It's better to illustrate what I mean by way of example. I want a cheap landscaping/utility trailer.  There are thousands of them on eBay, and probably hundreds that fit the criteria I want.  I want something newer, so I can narrow down my choices from there.

Here's my problem.  If I go outside my immediate geography - say, 100 miles or so, - using eBay looks less and less attractive.  If a trailer I want to buy is more than 100 miles away, I'll spend at least $50 and several hours picking it up and bringing it back.  Alternately, I can ship it for more than what the trailer is worth.

Same goes for a lot of higher-ticket items that can't be shipped by conventional means.  I bought my camper on eBay last spring, but it took me six months of searching to find a trailer locally that met my criteria.  There were many more on the other side of the country that would have worked out just fine - I just didn't want to drive across the country to go pick something up.  I can't tell you how many cheap cars I passed up because I didn't want to ship them from California or fly out there to get them and drive them cross-country.

But what if eBay helped with the shipping on unconventional items?

What if sellers could bring their sold items to their local eBay retail store (yes, I know these aren't owned outright by eBay - bear with me a second), give the store an auction identifier and a shipping address, and get discounted rates on shipping long distance?  eBay could outsource to a freight or trucking business and make money.

Now, what if you could do this for any item and, as a seller, offer it as an option in your auction?  That would be huge.  I think it would be just the thing to grease the wheels a bit and get people to look outside their immediate geography for items they need.  There's a lot of pressure due to the economy for people to buy things used or barter for them (see Freecycle, etc.) and I think eBay could capture more revenue if they did this.  BTW, yes I do understand that we should try to avoid creating a larger carbon footprint by getting items locally when we need them, but sometimes given the choice between buying local and not buying at all, we choose not to buy.

What do you think?

UltimateEars Sent Me My Cable

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So on Friday I received an email from Ultimate Ears telling me my cable shipped.  And sure enough, it was in the mail today.  I'm really glad this came, because now I have my wonderful-sounding headphones back. I'm still a bit frustrated that it took so long for a warranty repair, though.  And I'm also left wondering how long this cable will last before it, too, frays and eventually dies.  This cable fits, but it seems to be different from the one that frayed.  The insulator appears to be made from a different kind of plastic, and the miniplug connector is a thin, straight gold-plated connector rather than a 90-degree one.  I guess we'll see how long it lasts.

Thanks to UltimateEars for finally making this right.  I was really beginning to worry that their takeover by Logitech would mean I wouldn't be able to get these fixed under warranty.