And the Winner for my Ebook Reader is

iRex iLiad: All the pieces
Originally uploaded by centrax

I've been doing reviews and investigating ebook readers for a while now. Ok most of Febuary. I believe that the ebook reader will be to reading what MP3 Players are to music. We all have something that plays MP3's and we all know how we use it. We don't buy CD's just digital music from Amazon.com or other MP3 vendors.Ebook Readers will be doing the same for the things we read.

With things like Feedbooks.com which takes blogs and Rss feeds and turns them into PDF's for you to download as well as regular books. Amazon.com to buy digital media for books and other book vendors. You can read what you want. When you want it.

The iLiad has one advantge over the other eBook readers I checked out. That was the fact that you can take notes on the screen and merge them with your books. You can highlight and write on the screen. The iLiad is open source and has alot of 3rd party applications. It also has the largest screen. Accepts Compact Flash (CF cards) as well as MMC (sd cards).The model I want has wifi.

The makers of the iLiad, iRex, has released a new model for 2009. The new model is called the Digital Reader 1000. It boosts a 10 inch screen instead of the 8.1 inch of the iLiad. It also doesn't require a Travel hub to connect to a PC, AC power or EtherNet .The new models suspends and the iLiad does not but has a 15 hour of on time battery life more or less. Long boot time due to the lack of suspend modes.

As I sit here now I think I can live with the chinks in the armour.

The Travel Hub power for external connectivity and power means I buy an extra travel hub and power connector. Carry them in the bag with the laptop or what ever. That will allow me to power anywhere and connect. Plus I'm saving space because I nolonger need my moleskin.

Screen size I don't think I'll have a problem I have a much smaller and more normal book formfactor.

CF cards are all over the place. 2 gigs or 36 gigs it's still alot of books.

Programing a Web Based Game

I've been wanting to program a web based game for some time. I spoke about an OOP method for doing card games. I wanted to do something more advanced and gamer like then a poker web game. Something with more then one player and interacting with other users. I found one.

I have a friend producing a small box game called The Hell of Stalingrad. This game simulates the battle of Stalingrad in World War II. It uses cards for locations and to fight the battle with little pieces and dice rolls.

There are a few differnt types of cards that will be come differnt decks. One Deck will be the location deck, the others are the formation cards (representing millitary assets),an event deck (effects of politcal and historical events), and a combat deck.

The location deck is each location in the city. Some of the location give each side bonuses and flaws to fight the battle there. For example one location maybe near the river. If this happens the Germans will win that location and only have to fight for the remaining 3 locations.

The formation deck is the troops to fight with they may be armour or infantry or mechinized. This formations can be given bonuses and effect the battle with the combat deck. They can also be depleted and resupplied this is a tapping and untaping effect.

I think this will be alot of fun with the silverlight pieces and a bit of a coding challange.