A stranger in my driveway

Breaking the rules and publishing multiple blog posts today, but erring on the side of timeliness.

Woke this morning to find a new daily paper in my driveway – the Seattle Times. After 10 years of getting the PI, both in print and online, the printed copy is no more. Not a unique story – just another casualty in the two-paper-town war. Nothing wrong with the Times, just not my paper. This will probably be the push I need to get off the pulp wagon, and get all my news online. That’s green, right?

So – this is a surprise to no one, except maybe for the folks who ran the PI (Hearst). Print is dead, right? The New York Times figures that continuing to print their paper costs twice as much as if they gave every subscriber a Kindle 2 and an online subscriber! And they don’t do this because???

I thought about getting a Kindle last month (birthday present to myself :-)), but in the end, I couldn’t back a one-trick pony. I didn’t just want online news, but email, web, poker (I mean, ummm, games). So – instead I saved about $50 and got an HP Mini. For $329, it’s a full PC with a 10.5” screen. It shipped with Unbuntu, which I tolerated for about an hour, before installing Windows7 Beta 1 and a virtualized copy of Office 14. But - the killer app hiding in the bowels under the battery – a 3G SIM card slot – it’s mobile broadband ready. I’m sure AT&T will want a limb for another SIM card (the one in my phone didn’t work) – but I have amazing rationalization skills – it will be mine.

OK, so that’s my PI post, my NYT to ship Kindles post, and my new toy post, all in one. C’Ya next month :-).