Mama can take my Kodachrome away

Polaroids are back in a big way. In the art world (Polaroid Art Show), in the book world ("FOUND Polaroids" by Jason Bitner, 2006), in digital and traditional scrapbooking (Polaroid Cluster at Scrappy Pony Designs), in Outsider Art (Polaroid House), and in the retro nostalgic revival movement (The Polaroid Project: save the Poloroid film factory-amass a collection from the world-and build a museum and ).



For years avid artists and photographers have use Polaroids to make transfer photo art (see also, Polaroid Transfer Art website) as well as abused Polaroid photo art via etching and scratching.





The best Everyman use of the old Polaroid however, is in the Poladroid Project (www.poladroid.net), a free software download to let you make Polaroids out of your digital (or Kodachrome) pictures. It even permits you the satisfaction of the full experience: waiting expectantly for the photo to emerge, and shaking the damn thing to help it develop quicker (a forerunner of repeatedly pushing the elevator button)!



Now today's youngsters who had no typewriters, no rotary princess phones, and certainly no Polaroid cameras, can experience the ooooo! and ahhhhh! of the Polaroid Experience.
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Available for both Mac & PC (n.b., would not download using Firefox).

Kindling?

KINDLE from Amazon is the latest entry in the attempt to finally shove an entire marketplace over to eBooks. Armed with Newer! Better! technology, this latest electronic offering delivers thousands of reads wirelessly for a per item fee ("No monthly service plans"). Most of the official product description waxes on and on about how easily and quickly the content is delivered to the Kindle. It's in the fine print however that you discover sometimes its just not that fast, and it certainly doesn't come cheap.

At $359 for the Kindle device, the cost of a book better be damn cheap, or the hefty upfront price tag for the pleasure of carrying around more technology better make your life incredibly better. Maybe brew a cup of tea for instance, while you peruse the NYT. Personally? I'd rather take out a library book (remember the public library where you borrow books for free from the government?) or buy a book that I can feel, write on, page turn, (heaven forbid) earmark, pile up, lend, borrow, steal, display in the shelves I built for them, and maybe eventually donate for a tax deduction.

I turned an entire room in my home into a library, installing permanent shelving so I can show off how literate I am. I even downloaded the entire Dewey Decimal Classification listing so I could arrange all my books in appropriate categories. How would I pompously belittle my guests with an oversized calculator?

IMHO, the model for a societal shifting eBook device should have included a free or neglidgeably-priced reader, with the profit coming in the content. After all, Content is King.

I'm a techie and love the latest gadgets, but you would have to use a hacksaw to cut a book away from the grasp of my hands, in order to insert a machine in its place, especially a $359 one.
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Faxing poetic

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{The first in a series of useful AND FREE! internet services}

FaxZero
http://faxzero.com/ has come in handy more than once. Here are two: while traveling, and when my fax was inoperative. I'm sure that there are many others but this is the one that I found, tried, and used.

You get to send up to 2 faxes per day, each no more than 3 pages (not including their cover sheet). Their cover sheet does include an advertisement, but not for porn, so that's a plus, right!?!

They print on their cover page your input Name & Company Name, fax number & email.
They also print your input Sender Name, Sender Company & fax number (no subject line but can't we all agree that fax subject lines are really a waste of time?)

I first received an email with confirmation link to confirm the send of the fax.
Once clicked, it was on its facsimile ferry way....back to me. Hey, I had to try it out first to see what boomerangs back.

It accepts either .doc or .pdf and my pdf came through missing some letters on one page. Yup, just an errant letter here and there on the first page disappeared in Internet Land, but I was not concerned since it was not important letters, like "z" or "q" which are worth 10 points each.

You also then receive a 2nd email confirming that the fax was sent, serving as your cyber receipt.

This is a good service for quick faxes direct from your computer documents, especially while traveling. Of course there is also a more robust pay service available from FaxZero and hundreds more online faxing services.
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