The Goal of Existance

Is knowledge, science, understanding what we are, where we are and what has and will be.

Self knowledge is part of this, but mysticism as comfortable and fun as it may be has no part. What does it create do or contribute? What is the point of a heaven if all you do is stand around all day and worship. That'd get bloody boring rather quickly I'd hope, both for the one being worshiped and those doing so. And who cares if you might be reincarnated as a bacteria it's hardly useful to worry about that, your not going to remember.

Instead why not seek out real knowledge, how to help others or ones self. Seek to extend your days and minimise your impact while expanding or helping to expand our knowledge.

As in the end, all that may well remain of us is our contribution to knowledge, which should it reach the necessary levels, may end up sustaining us and allow us to remain as we seek to expand it and seek out new wonders.

After all the universe doesn't care about you and chance ain't going to hand you a free survival card just because you believe it should. Learn and grow, expand your capabilities and knowledge and you might just manage to stay ahead of the reaper.

But don't forget to bring the other living things with you, or you'll end up cutting your own throat with out even noticing.

Kindle 3 in NZ

A few thoughts on the Kindle 3

• The eInk screen is amazing to read from, after reading 4 book on the device and reading until 2am in the morning there is no eyestrain unlike when I use an active display such as my netbook or cellphones.
• Books load quickly after the first time, when they appear to be indexed.
• The kindle store works well and with your credit card details linked to your account can be bought with only a couple of clicks.
• The purchased books arrive very quickly over both wifi and 3G.
• Also books purchased directly from there website arrive next time you connect the kindle to a network.
• The battery life is impressive on the first charge I've read 5 or so books before getting a battery warning, should last 8 or 9 books by the time it's had a couple more charges.
• Battery life is a function of page turns, so appears to decrease as you increase text size and spacing. But leaving it in suspend for a week has little or no effect.
• It's highly impressive to switch the device off and have the kindle render a graphic on the display and leave there while it's 'off'.
• The text is very clean and easy to read.
• The device is quite small about the size of a midsized paper back and incredible light!
• The size and weight make it alot easier to hold than an iPad for reading.
• The refresh rate when turning pages is quite acceptable, if you hit page advance when you reach the bottom of the page it should have refreshed by the time your eye reach the top.
• You can change the font, spacing and orientation of the text.
• The 3G makes is easy to buy a book and start reading it pretty much anywhere.
• The downside is it makes it a little too easy to buy a book that catches your eye, and with the purchase only requiring a click or two could easily get out of control.
• There are a lot of free ebooks in the correct formate available from third parties such as baen, including some complete series, which helps make the device even more valuable

• The webbrowser is rather basic though usable, a 5 way pad is not the best way to browse the web.
• The music player is completely basic, no gui just plays stuff in order in the background, the built in speakers are of reasonable quality.
• The book reader as usual is the standard robotic voice, and won't make audio books obsolete any time soon.
• The books seem to have US$2 surcharge on them to cover the cost of sending them Internationally via 3G, this applies both when buying via 3G or Wifi, which as far as data charges go is a complete rip off!
• Book prices are in US$ so while the books are still cheaper than a normal priced paperback they're not incredibly so (NZ$17 for the most expensive I've bought)
• While the book range is decent I've run into a number of books that are not to be sold in NZ

Overall I'm very happy with the device I just wish the book prices were in NZ dollars and didn't have the US$2 surcharge!