This post is part of the "Good Things, Bad Things" list I am trying to compile to describe our life here in Cincinnati before the first anniversary of our relocation.
A good thing about life here is the abundance of gadgets and technology. But it is not uniformly distributed around the US, between companies, or among people. For example, we are connected to the internet using a fiber optic cable and we have a bandwidth of 30Mbps download. That's something that most Americans can't get because the infrastructure just doesn't get to their houses. Some of them also don't want to be connected to the internet all the time, and prefer the old fashioned dial up.
However, if you are a technology enthusiast, like we are, you can get almost anything you want, for a price that is. I have a new Kindle2, which can download books using the cellular network provided for "free" by Amazon ("free" means it's part of the book's cost and there is no extra charge for it).
When we first moved here we decided that since we didn't have a lot of money we should not get a TV and rely on internet connection and online entertainment options. As most of these websites don't work outside of the United States, Israelis rarely experience them. However, we have found out that we can follow almost every show that plays, a day or two after it was aired, at any of the websites of TV channels: ABC, NBC, TBS, CNN, and I guess several more - all have sites that allow you to watch TV. There is also Hulu, which aggregates several of these networks for our convenience. From Israel we can watch channel 10 (except for the football games, which was very annoying), but their relying on Windows Media technologies is very annoying compared to the superior Flash technology that all American channels use nowadays.
And then you have Netflix, which for a very small fee a month ($9) streams unlimited videos and TV shows which were distributed on DVDs, or sends the DVDs (one at a time) home.
So, basically, we don't need any TV now. In the future we may get a computer to act as a media player and stream all the videos that we want to a computer monitor (30 inch maybe?).
The main problem nowadays is cellular connection. When we first arrived here this was one of the first thing we did, thinking that we will have to communicate in some way or another with one another and with others. So we went to the only company that was generous enough to give us a plan without credit history: Verizon. It was a huge disappointment. It seems that the company messes up the user interface of it's phones, in the name of uniformity and "ease of use". I couldn't deal with my pay-as-you-go phone, which was really horrible, and switched to T-Mobile as soon as I could. There I could keep my old Sony-Ericsson, because they have a GSM network, but they don't have a 3rd generation network in Cincinnati area. How pathetic is that? And what good does it do anyone that they have Google phones if they don't have the 3rd generation infrastructure to support them? In general it seems that none of the American networks supports 3G very well outside the main cities along the coast. And that is my main complaint about American technology: you can get it, but it is limited to the rich areas and rich people living in them. Try to get internet connection or 3G in Kansas or North Dakota. You'll be happy to have limited cellular connection and dial up internet there...
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Good Things, Bad Things: Society
This post is part of the "Good Things, Bad Things" list I am trying to compile to describe our life here in Cincinnati before the first anniversary of our relocation.
There is no way around it, American society is a very ill society, almost to the point of a-socialism. If I may add a word to the English dictionary I would call it asociety. From top to bottom, from social infrastructure to daily life - nothing works in this asociety. On the list of bad things in Cincinnati, and perhaps the entire nation, I would say that American society is by far the worse.
American society is plagued by the following social pandemics: xenophobia, prejudice, and puritanism. I will now go on to explain in short what each pandemic is and how it manifests itself.
Americans are xenophobic. I don't think it's the result of the atrocities of September 11, most probably it is rooted far more in the past. They hate, fear and are repelled by foreigners on any level from the federal to the personal.
On the Federal level, this xenophobia starts with their requirements for visas. For example, Israelis are able to enter Canada as tourists without a visa, whereas they are required to have a valid tourist visa to enter the US. One may say that this is because Israelis tend to overstay their visas and work illegally. While this is true for some Israelis, it certainly isn't true for all, but more importantly the same incentives for Israelis to overstay in the US apply also for the Canadian case, so why the difference in policy.
On the personal level this xenophobia manifests itself in the most bizarre ways that American will use in order to avoid having strangers and even acquaintances in their home. For example, if they throw a party, they will do it in their yard or garage, just as long as no one will be allowed in their home. We see that every weekend in the area and it's unbelievable. It is as if Americans are afraid of having people in their homes.
Unfortunately, this xenophobia is not limited to their domiciles. D now faces something that I realized when I started working at the University: people hardly speak to each other at work. When they do, it's mostly on work issues and not personal stuff. As unbelievable as it may seem, people can spend a whole day here without ever talking with any of their peers. In Israel, when you're working there is always people to talk to. When you enter the office there's always "what's up?" and "how are you?". When one gets coffee (another big problem here), someone always joins in and you talk while making coffee. You even drink it together most often. People go to lunch together, all in the name of socializing. People care about each other and become friends, and then they invite each other home. It is unheard of that people are not invited to eat lunch with others on their first day at a work place. Absolutely none of that happens here. People here are like impenetrable bubbles, or even repelling magnets; if two happen to be too close to each other they utter "excuse me" and scurry away from each other without making eye contact.
The strangest thing is that Americans do it with the utmost politeness. If you happen to walk across someone he or she always greets you hello or nod their heads. They smile. They say "excuse me", and "thank you", though they don't say "your welcome" here, just a kind of an impolite "uh-huh".
Xenophobia goes well with prejudice. It's not pure racism as used to be here in the past, but undoubtedly it's better to be a white male than a black woman. Not to mention an alien. In Cincinnati neighborhoods are color-coded: the good are populated by whites and the African-Americans reside in the bad ones. This goes on to affect the schools they will study in, thus affecting their chances of social mobility. In general I would say that a black may become rich and successful, but it will take a unique talent, whether in sports or academy. The vast majority, perhaps 99%, will not be able to escape the fate of their ancestors. Perhaps a new African-American president will help bridge these gaps, but I have serious doubts. I think that most whites are still afraid of the Blacks around them, either because they have a different skin color (thus evoking xenophobia) or because they are used to thinking about them in terms of poor and violent people.
Perhaps as a method of helping them feel better about their ways, the people here tend strongly to be puritans. It's not a simple "bible-belt" thing, as we don't live in the area, but it's close and stems from the same Christian devotion. For example, women here tend to wear clothes that are less revealing than in Israel, while the summer here is as hot as in Tel Aviv. In D's new work place they have a booklet of instructions regarding proper behavior and attire: no Crocks, no jeans, and naturally no cleavage. Understandably, they will avoid saying words like fuck and shit, but they will also use words like gosh and hack, instead of God and hell, all in the name of the God they will not utter His name. Confused? So are we.
What's even worse, it seems to me that Israeli society is striving hard to become more American than American. Which means that we take the things that work well for us as Israelis and befoul them by imitating probably the worst society to have ever existed since the Roman Empire.
There is no way around it, American society is a very ill society, almost to the point of a-socialism. If I may add a word to the English dictionary I would call it asociety. From top to bottom, from social infrastructure to daily life - nothing works in this asociety. On the list of bad things in Cincinnati, and perhaps the entire nation, I would say that American society is by far the worse.
American society is plagued by the following social pandemics: xenophobia, prejudice, and puritanism. I will now go on to explain in short what each pandemic is and how it manifests itself.
Americans are xenophobic. I don't think it's the result of the atrocities of September 11, most probably it is rooted far more in the past. They hate, fear and are repelled by foreigners on any level from the federal to the personal.
On the Federal level, this xenophobia starts with their requirements for visas. For example, Israelis are able to enter Canada as tourists without a visa, whereas they are required to have a valid tourist visa to enter the US. One may say that this is because Israelis tend to overstay their visas and work illegally. While this is true for some Israelis, it certainly isn't true for all, but more importantly the same incentives for Israelis to overstay in the US apply also for the Canadian case, so why the difference in policy.
On the personal level this xenophobia manifests itself in the most bizarre ways that American will use in order to avoid having strangers and even acquaintances in their home. For example, if they throw a party, they will do it in their yard or garage, just as long as no one will be allowed in their home. We see that every weekend in the area and it's unbelievable. It is as if Americans are afraid of having people in their homes.
Unfortunately, this xenophobia is not limited to their domiciles. D now faces something that I realized when I started working at the University: people hardly speak to each other at work. When they do, it's mostly on work issues and not personal stuff. As unbelievable as it may seem, people can spend a whole day here without ever talking with any of their peers. In Israel, when you're working there is always people to talk to. When you enter the office there's always "what's up?" and "how are you?". When one gets coffee (another big problem here), someone always joins in and you talk while making coffee. You even drink it together most often. People go to lunch together, all in the name of socializing. People care about each other and become friends, and then they invite each other home. It is unheard of that people are not invited to eat lunch with others on their first day at a work place. Absolutely none of that happens here. People here are like impenetrable bubbles, or even repelling magnets; if two happen to be too close to each other they utter "excuse me" and scurry away from each other without making eye contact.
The strangest thing is that Americans do it with the utmost politeness. If you happen to walk across someone he or she always greets you hello or nod their heads. They smile. They say "excuse me", and "thank you", though they don't say "your welcome" here, just a kind of an impolite "uh-huh".
Xenophobia goes well with prejudice. It's not pure racism as used to be here in the past, but undoubtedly it's better to be a white male than a black woman. Not to mention an alien. In Cincinnati neighborhoods are color-coded: the good are populated by whites and the African-Americans reside in the bad ones. This goes on to affect the schools they will study in, thus affecting their chances of social mobility. In general I would say that a black may become rich and successful, but it will take a unique talent, whether in sports or academy. The vast majority, perhaps 99%, will not be able to escape the fate of their ancestors. Perhaps a new African-American president will help bridge these gaps, but I have serious doubts. I think that most whites are still afraid of the Blacks around them, either because they have a different skin color (thus evoking xenophobia) or because they are used to thinking about them in terms of poor and violent people.
Perhaps as a method of helping them feel better about their ways, the people here tend strongly to be puritans. It's not a simple "bible-belt" thing, as we don't live in the area, but it's close and stems from the same Christian devotion. For example, women here tend to wear clothes that are less revealing than in Israel, while the summer here is as hot as in Tel Aviv. In D's new work place they have a booklet of instructions regarding proper behavior and attire: no Crocks, no jeans, and naturally no cleavage. Understandably, they will avoid saying words like fuck and shit, but they will also use words like gosh and hack, instead of God and hell, all in the name of the God they will not utter His name. Confused? So are we.
What's even worse, it seems to me that Israeli society is striving hard to become more American than American. Which means that we take the things that work well for us as Israelis and befoul them by imitating probably the worst society to have ever existed since the Roman Empire.
Good Things, Bad Things
I have been toying with the idea of writing a list of things I like and dislike about Cincinnati, and America in general. The more I thought about it, the more it appeared to me that this list is going to be long and hard to complete. Not to mention the fact that it's going to be impossible for any reader to follow.
So, instead, I decided to compile this list in parts, where each part will try to encompass a single aspect of our lives here. I think that it is becoming to do it between America's birthday and the anniversary of our arrival here, so hopefully I will be able to complete it in the allotted period of time.
Naturally, most of the analysis will be based on a comparison between the two countries that I lived in: Israel and here.
What are the topics?
So, instead, I decided to compile this list in parts, where each part will try to encompass a single aspect of our lives here. I think that it is becoming to do it between America's birthday and the anniversary of our arrival here, so hopefully I will be able to complete it in the allotted period of time.
Naturally, most of the analysis will be based on a comparison between the two countries that I lived in: Israel and here.
What are the topics?
- Society
- Technology
- Academy
- Food and nutrition
- Economy
- Health
- Weather
- Infrastructures
- Privacy
- Services
- Distances
Friday, June 26, 2009
The siege syndrome
Israelis like to say that they are under siege. I don't know if it stems out of the Holocaust, the first decades of Israel's existence, or maybe from millennia of antisemitism in Europe, but it is quite preposterous now. It is not that Israelis, and Jews in general, are liked everywhere nor by any one, but enough with this siege syndrome. So, when I get an email asking me to support Dr. Yoram Blachar, who is up for or has been elected as the Worlds Medical Doctors Association (or something of the like, I don't really follow) against a fierce opposition that claims that he supported Israeli torture of prisoners, or a highlight about an Israeli Facebook group, whose goal is to counter another Facebook group that calls for a boycott over Israel, I am left speechless. This is preposterous. At least theFacebook group could attach a link for the other group that we know it is real.
And even if Facebook decides to boycott Israel - fine, let them. They won't be the first nor the last to do so. I think most Israelis drive cars manufactured by companies that used to boycott Israel until the 1990s, succombing to Arab and Isalamic pressure. Mazda, Toyota, Honda, and Mitsubishi - all had been boycotting Israel until the peace process with the Palestinians began and the Arab boycott was lifted in the 1990s. Of Japanes car manufacturers, only Subaru were selling cars in Israel in the 1980s or earlier. Mitsubishi were the first to break that boycott in 1989 or 1990 if I remember correctly.
Being paranoid is not a problem, naturally. People might be trying to hurt you. As anything, it is a good thing when taken moderately, until it makes you do stupid things. It seems to me, from afar, that the new Israeli government has been adding to this siege syndrome. I wonder if it is for political survival purposes, gaining internal cohesion before some controversial military act, or something done without a goal. In any case, playing with fire might get you burnt. I hope this will not be the case for us.
And even if Facebook decides to boycott Israel - fine, let them. They won't be the first nor the last to do so. I think most Israelis drive cars manufactured by companies that used to boycott Israel until the 1990s, succombing to Arab and Isalamic pressure. Mazda, Toyota, Honda, and Mitsubishi - all had been boycotting Israel until the peace process with the Palestinians began and the Arab boycott was lifted in the 1990s. Of Japanes car manufacturers, only Subaru were selling cars in Israel in the 1980s or earlier. Mitsubishi were the first to break that boycott in 1989 or 1990 if I remember correctly.
Being paranoid is not a problem, naturally. People might be trying to hurt you. As anything, it is a good thing when taken moderately, until it makes you do stupid things. It seems to me, from afar, that the new Israeli government has been adding to this siege syndrome. I wonder if it is for political survival purposes, gaining internal cohesion before some controversial military act, or something done without a goal. In any case, playing with fire might get you burnt. I hope this will not be the case for us.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Las Vegas
I promised in my Delta tirade that I'll write about our trip to Las Vegas. What can be said about Las Vegas that has not been said before? Probably nothing. Therefore, this post will only list a few points that I find unique.
Las Vegas is expensive. Don't let yourself be fooled by the low accommodation prices (we stayed at the Stratosphere for about $40/night). The main idea is to lure you in, and once you're there everything costs. A lot. I like to use an index that I call "The diet index" - how much you pay for a Diet Coke or a Diet Pepsi bottle at a vending machine. As I am addicted to these drinks this is an important index for me. In Las Vegas the average vending machine price was ~$2.50 for a 590ml bottle. That's about twice the price I pay at the university for the same bottle, and I think that the ratio of 2:1 is quite typical to Las Vegas. We ended up spending around a thousand dollars during the five days we stayed there, not including the flights and hotel room. And we actually spent less than the $100 we intended to spend on gambling, so most of the money was spent on food.
Las Vegas is disorienting. D already wrote about the way hotels are trying to disorient their visitors. However, there is more to it. Hotels, and lots in general, are just huge. I think that the lots are measured in squared kilometers (or their American equivalent) and not dunams. Hotels are built huge in order to be able to give it some theme, for example The Paris Las Vegas, The New York New York and The Venetian are all trying to imitate the look and atmosphere of their respective city. That goes both inside and outside. This imitation requires a lot of space and thought. Space is abundant as Las Vegas is practically built out of the desert, but it's not that simple. Since tourism is mainly concentrated at the Las Vegas Strip, which is a single boulevard, the best hotels compete for a central location ("Location, Location, Location").
The disorientation is not limited to the facades of the hotels. It's mainly inside the hotels. In an effort to block the outside world from the gamblers inside the casinos, there are no clocks and very few windows, thus the sense of time is lost. Add to that the constant bombardment of jingling sounds and dazzling lights and inside the casino from all the slot machines, and one can hardly process where one is or what was his or her intentions. The paths between slot machines form a grid that do not lead to or from any exit or entrance, again trying to create a maze where a person will get lost and start playing. Once you're seated at a card table or a slot machine, waitresses with minimal clothes will come to offer you free drinks, in order to keep you sitting. I wonder how come they don't connect people to mobile latrines.
Las Vegas is also the most liberal city I know in the USA. In this sense it even surpasses Tel Aviv. Prostitution is legal in Nevada, and so is gambling (of course) and drinking outside. Almost all the grand hotels offer topless spectacles with some kind of a plot or another. On the strip there are trucks advertising escort services 24/7 (or at least at any hour that we happened to be outside). At every strip corner you can find several magazines with nude photos with the same services. I have to say that you can find that in Tel Aviv as well, but at least in Las Vegas it's legal. D and I have agreed that legalizing prostitution is beneficial to all parties involved, especially the women working in it. One has to accept certain facts about human nature, even if they are not nice, for example people will always want to drink alcohol or prostitution will never be gone. Legalizing prostitution will take crime lords out of this business, just like the Mafia lost ground when drinking was legalized after the Prohibition.
All in all, it was a long awaited vacation and I'm glad we took it. Now we are already back to work: D at her new internship and I teach a (yet another) new class.
Here are some photos that D took:
The Las Vegas Strip as seen at night:
Piazza San Marco - An indoors view at The Venetian:
Gondolas at the Central Canal, The Venetian indoors:
A night look of The Stratosphere, where we stayed:
My D standing inside a street of The Paris (indoors again):
This is a slightly exaggerated size of the actual daiquiris sold in Las Vegas. This one is from the indoors of The Miracle Mile shops, Planet Hollywood
The Paris outdoors:
This is a typical casino room at Las Vegas: a lot of noise and commotion. This one was taken at the New York, New York.
And this is how The New York, New York looks from the outside:
Las Vegas is expensive. Don't let yourself be fooled by the low accommodation prices (we stayed at the Stratosphere for about $40/night). The main idea is to lure you in, and once you're there everything costs. A lot. I like to use an index that I call "The diet index" - how much you pay for a Diet Coke or a Diet Pepsi bottle at a vending machine. As I am addicted to these drinks this is an important index for me. In Las Vegas the average vending machine price was ~$2.50 for a 590ml bottle. That's about twice the price I pay at the university for the same bottle, and I think that the ratio of 2:1 is quite typical to Las Vegas. We ended up spending around a thousand dollars during the five days we stayed there, not including the flights and hotel room. And we actually spent less than the $100 we intended to spend on gambling, so most of the money was spent on food.
Las Vegas is disorienting. D already wrote about the way hotels are trying to disorient their visitors. However, there is more to it. Hotels, and lots in general, are just huge. I think that the lots are measured in squared kilometers (or their American equivalent) and not dunams. Hotels are built huge in order to be able to give it some theme, for example The Paris Las Vegas, The New York New York and The Venetian are all trying to imitate the look and atmosphere of their respective city. That goes both inside and outside. This imitation requires a lot of space and thought. Space is abundant as Las Vegas is practically built out of the desert, but it's not that simple. Since tourism is mainly concentrated at the Las Vegas Strip, which is a single boulevard, the best hotels compete for a central location ("Location, Location, Location").
The disorientation is not limited to the facades of the hotels. It's mainly inside the hotels. In an effort to block the outside world from the gamblers inside the casinos, there are no clocks and very few windows, thus the sense of time is lost. Add to that the constant bombardment of jingling sounds and dazzling lights and inside the casino from all the slot machines, and one can hardly process where one is or what was his or her intentions. The paths between slot machines form a grid that do not lead to or from any exit or entrance, again trying to create a maze where a person will get lost and start playing. Once you're seated at a card table or a slot machine, waitresses with minimal clothes will come to offer you free drinks, in order to keep you sitting. I wonder how come they don't connect people to mobile latrines.
Las Vegas is also the most liberal city I know in the USA. In this sense it even surpasses Tel Aviv. Prostitution is legal in Nevada, and so is gambling (of course) and drinking outside. Almost all the grand hotels offer topless spectacles with some kind of a plot or another. On the strip there are trucks advertising escort services 24/7 (or at least at any hour that we happened to be outside). At every strip corner you can find several magazines with nude photos with the same services. I have to say that you can find that in Tel Aviv as well, but at least in Las Vegas it's legal. D and I have agreed that legalizing prostitution is beneficial to all parties involved, especially the women working in it. One has to accept certain facts about human nature, even if they are not nice, for example people will always want to drink alcohol or prostitution will never be gone. Legalizing prostitution will take crime lords out of this business, just like the Mafia lost ground when drinking was legalized after the Prohibition.
All in all, it was a long awaited vacation and I'm glad we took it. Now we are already back to work: D at her new internship and I teach a (yet another) new class.
Here are some photos that D took:
The Las Vegas Strip as seen at night:
Piazza San Marco - An indoors view at The Venetian:
Gondolas at the Central Canal, The Venetian indoors:
A night look of The Stratosphere, where we stayed:
My D standing inside a street of The Paris (indoors again):
This is a slightly exaggerated size of the actual daiquiris sold in Las Vegas. This one is from the indoors of The Miracle Mile shops, Planet Hollywood
The Paris outdoors:
This is a typical casino room at Las Vegas: a lot of noise and commotion. This one was taken at the New York, New York.
And this is how The New York, New York looks from the outside:
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Kindle 2: impressions of the first two weeks
One of the best things about living in America is the ability to experience all the newest technologies. That is, if you have the money, which we usually don't. However, in the case of Amazon's Kindle 2, one can almost find the perfect excuse for buying a Kindle: it will eventually save us money, as I am an avid reader. So, as the inventory of new books for me to read was diminishing we decided to get me one instead of new books.
After receiving the Kindle 2 I can say that it is a fun gadget and it does make you want to read more. It is fairly easy to use, although in today's world of touch screens I was expecting it to have one as well. I think, however, that there are too many buttons to control the device. For example, there are two "Next Page" buttons, one on each side of the gadget. Most of the functionality is controlled by the "Menu" button and is quite basic.
The display itself is very readable and easy on the eyes, due to the Kindle's best feature: the electronic ink screen. The display is very power efficient and uses battery only when the display is changed, for example when you turn a page. So far I am very impressed by the efficiency: I haven't charged the Kindle since the initial (and partial as I was too eager to start using it) charge. In the time until now I have already finished one book and more than a hundred pages. On the other hand I scarcely use the wireless capabilities, because I haven't downloaded a book from Amazon yet. The Kindle is equipped with an experimental basic text-based web browser. We tried to use it in Vegas to get some information from the Lonely Planet website, but it was too slow and awkward to use.
The web browser also emphasizes one of the few shortcomings of the device: the display refreshes very - very - slowly. There is a significant latency between the command you give (e.g. turn a page) and the refresh of the display. It's less than a second, but more than a comfortable time lag.
By a recommendation of one of D's classmates I downloaded several books from the free and open library of Project Gutenberg. The books in this library come in various formats, ranging from simple text files to a variety of e-book formats, but none of them is the Kindle's native - and property of Amazon - format. However, Kindle itself supports several e-book formats, some of them can also be found at Project Gutenberg. You can also use Amazon's services to reformat a file that is not supported by Kindle, e.g. Word documents or PDF files. To do that just send the file to an email address provided by Amazon. The reformatted file will be sent back to you either by email (for free, but then you have to manually transfer the file to your Kindle) or directly to the Kindle (for $0.10). See the link above for more details.
One last feature, which I find very useful and I enjoy a lot, is the built-in dictionary. If you happen to encounter a word that you don't know (and it happens a lot in Project Gutenberg's books, as they are all from the 19th century or older), simple use the navigation joystick to point at the word. The dictionary will automatically show you the meaning of the word, and if you want to know more, you can press "Enter" to show a page with the definition. If only I had had that before the GRE course I took...
In summary, I think that the Kindle is an excellent book reader and something that I will recommend to any book-lover. The only small problems with it are the slow refresh rate of the display, and the non-functional web browser. If Amazon are looking at further improvements to the Kindle I recommend they start there. In addition, I think that the price ($359.00) is too expensive, and should have at least included a free gift for several books to be downloaded from Amazon. In a short time the Kindle changed my reading habits and made reading a better and a more educating experience. Just remember: you cannot use it to read books during take off and landing, but I think it's okay to use it in steady flight if you turn off the cellular connectivity.
After receiving the Kindle 2 I can say that it is a fun gadget and it does make you want to read more. It is fairly easy to use, although in today's world of touch screens I was expecting it to have one as well. I think, however, that there are too many buttons to control the device. For example, there are two "Next Page" buttons, one on each side of the gadget. Most of the functionality is controlled by the "Menu" button and is quite basic.
The display itself is very readable and easy on the eyes, due to the Kindle's best feature: the electronic ink screen. The display is very power efficient and uses battery only when the display is changed, for example when you turn a page. So far I am very impressed by the efficiency: I haven't charged the Kindle since the initial (and partial as I was too eager to start using it) charge. In the time until now I have already finished one book and more than a hundred pages. On the other hand I scarcely use the wireless capabilities, because I haven't downloaded a book from Amazon yet. The Kindle is equipped with an experimental basic text-based web browser. We tried to use it in Vegas to get some information from the Lonely Planet website, but it was too slow and awkward to use.
The web browser also emphasizes one of the few shortcomings of the device: the display refreshes very - very - slowly. There is a significant latency between the command you give (e.g. turn a page) and the refresh of the display. It's less than a second, but more than a comfortable time lag.
By a recommendation of one of D's classmates I downloaded several books from the free and open library of Project Gutenberg. The books in this library come in various formats, ranging from simple text files to a variety of e-book formats, but none of them is the Kindle's native - and property of Amazon - format. However, Kindle itself supports several e-book formats, some of them can also be found at Project Gutenberg. You can also use Amazon's services to reformat a file that is not supported by Kindle, e.g. Word documents or PDF files. To do that just send the file to an email address provided by Amazon. The reformatted file will be sent back to you either by email (for free, but then you have to manually transfer the file to your Kindle) or directly to the Kindle (for $0.10). See the link above for more details.
One last feature, which I find very useful and I enjoy a lot, is the built-in dictionary. If you happen to encounter a word that you don't know (and it happens a lot in Project Gutenberg's books, as they are all from the 19th century or older), simple use the navigation joystick to point at the word. The dictionary will automatically show you the meaning of the word, and if you want to know more, you can press "Enter" to show a page with the definition. If only I had had that before the GRE course I took...
In summary, I think that the Kindle is an excellent book reader and something that I will recommend to any book-lover. The only small problems with it are the slow refresh rate of the display, and the non-functional web browser. If Amazon are looking at further improvements to the Kindle I recommend they start there. In addition, I think that the price ($359.00) is too expensive, and should have at least included a free gift for several books to be downloaded from Amazon. In a short time the Kindle changed my reading habits and made reading a better and a more educating experience. Just remember: you cannot use it to read books during take off and landing, but I think it's okay to use it in steady flight if you turn off the cellular connectivity.
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