08:09 – With autumn arriving in Winston-Salem, there’s a little Jap in the air. Our overnight lows have been in the mid-40’s (~ 7C). We aren’t running the furnace yet, so during the day it’s getting down to the mid-60’s (~ 18C) indoors. We generally don’t switch over the whole-house system from cooling to heating until mid- to late-October, instead using the natural gas logs in the den on chillier evenings.
We ran out of chemistry kits yesterday, when I shipped the last one in stock, along with a couple of biology kits. Fortunately, we had another 30 chemistry kits in progress, with 15 of them requiring only boxing up. We’re in good shape on forensic science kits, but we’re down to a dozen or so biology kits, so building another 30 biology kits will be next on the to-do list. That and building the first batch of life science kits, once I’ve actually finished writing the lab manual for life science.
10:35 – Until a couple of weeks ago, I’d planned to vote for Gary Johnson. Then OFD got me to thinking that maybe I shouldn’t vote at all. Well, I’ve made my final decision. Pat Condell for President.
Have you thought about publishing the lab manuals as ebooks for Kindle or Nook. It may not sound like that big a deal since you can already put PDFs of the lab manuals on a Nook or Kindle. However, not all of the homeschooling parents are as tech savvy as the readers of your blog. But what I was thinking of was a free way to advertise your science kits. Or if you so choose, a way to get paid for advertising your science kits.
Has anyone tried using a Nook or Kindle while it was sealed in a zip top bag? I’m wondering if this would work as a way to prevent ruining a book reader to prevent spills in the lab.
At the moment the heading (day, date) is missing.
Day and date fixed. Sorry.
As to Kindle, I’ve thought about it, but the problem is that technical books don’t do well on small-screen devices. They’re even pretty bad on an iPad, let alone a small monochrome Kindle.
There’s no reason a quart ziplock bag wouldn’t work fine to protect a Kindle.
I’ve used a Kindle through a sandwich bag. It was alright. The bag was annoying at first, but static charge eventually held it to the screen.
I second the point about the Kindle’s inadequacy for technical books. It was just about bearable to use it on a well-formatted, informal mathematical text. Anything that involves flicking between pages or illustrations would fail.
Although I don’t know how well the new Kindle Fire range works for textbooks etc. Does anyone have any experience?
I sent RBT an email with a link to an ISO for W7.
Thanks!
I tried to use one of your books on my monochrome Kindle. It was awful. The iPad was better, but not ideal.
We ended up printing one of your lab manuals out and putting it in a binder.
I have used the iPad for following recipes in the kitchen. It is fine if everything you want is on one page, but aggravating if you have to flip around from page to page. It didn’t seem worth the hassle to me.
That job isn’t the one best suited to Mr. Condell. I think he should be Special Envoy to the Middle East, or Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East. The only more obvious pick is Nigel Farage for Ambassador to the European Union.
I think Pat would be ideally suited to command of a Minuteman III squadron… 🙂