Boarding @ the 'loaf

Jack & I had an interesting adventure last Saturday -- we went snowboarding at Sugarloaf in Carabassett Valley, Maine. A pilot buddy of mine who lives in MA called me on Friday to see if I wanted to meet him up there at 9:15am. He was bringing his two teenaged sons and had arranged a cab ride from the airport to the mountain.

My biggest challenge was getting Jack up at 6am so we could get the airport and takeoff by 7:15. I had the plane placed in the hangar overnight so it was warm and easy to start. We were wheels up at 7:15 on a crystal clear, cold winter morning. The sun was up and there was very little wind. Flight time was estimated at 2 hours exactly, twice as long as my buddy Dave. We'd agreed to make contact on 122.750, the air-to-air frequency and sure enough at 8:20, Dave called me on the radio.

He was about 25 miles behind me, but his Cirrus cruises at 20 knots faster than my Trinidad -- our ETA's for Sugarloaf were identical. At 4 miles out, I did a 360 to allow Dave to pass and go into the airport first. The runway was clear, but somewhat icy, so speed control was critical for the landing. We both made perfect landings, parked the planes and Greg, our cab driver, was there to help move our gear. We were skiing within 25 minutes.

The conditions were hard-packed snow with lots of "corn", but as the day wore on, the snow loosened up and the conditions improved. The skies were perfectly clear and you could see for miles in every direction from the top of the mountain -- absolutely beautiful!

During lunch at The Bag, the boys discovered they were all addicted to Halo 3 for Xbox. Since Microsoft has designed the Xbox to allow users to play against each other over the internet, a "battle" was scheduled for that evening -- Dave's two boys against my Jack and his buddy Keith. We skied until 3 pm and then it was back to the airport for an uneventful flight back to Westchester. During the trip home, Jack assured me "Keith and I are going to destroy those guys." To ensure success, Jack actually went over to Keith's house to play from there and spent the night. When I asked him the next day about how they'd done, he said, "man Dad, those guys could go pro! They owned us! It wasn't any fun -- it got so bad, we didn't even want to play anymore!" I think he might have over-estimated his ability :)

In the end, it was a great day made possible by the magic of general aviation. A day trip to Maine for snowboarding ranks very high on my list of fun ways to spend a day!

The Way We Read

I am going to make a prediction:

The e-reader is about to change the publishing industry just like the MP3 player changed the music industry.

Just as people no longer buy albums on vinyl or even CD's anymore, people will soon no longer buy books, magazines or newspapers in printed form. Forget waiting to save money by buying the paperback -- all books will be $9.99 or less, because with an e-reader, you're simply purchasing the content -- the intellectual capital. Publishers will no longer have to worry about production costs, print quantities or shipping. E-readers will allow the consumer to purchase an electronic copy at a fraction of the cost to produce an actual book, magazine or newspaper. No wasted copies, no storage concerns, just pure profit.

E-books and e-reader software have been around for sometime, but I'm talking about something slightly different. Reading content on any device with a "video screen" (PC, i-Phone, cell phone or PDA) is hard on the eyes over time. These new devices I'm referring to have a different type of display, called "electronic paper." Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed later. You can even read it in direct sunlight, just like a book. The devices are just a little bigger than a paperback, weigh less than a pound, go for days without recharging and can hold hundreds of books -- even thousands with larger SD memory cards.

Just like there are lots of MP3 players, but the segment is dominated by the iPod, there are multiple e-reader device manufacturers (Sony, iRex, Rocket), but I believe the Amazon Kindle will dominate the category. Here are my reasons:

1. Wireless downloading of content: Being able to buy books and read content from the web without being tethered to a computer is by far the greatest advantage of the Kindle over all other devices.
2. Cost of books: Almost every book on Amazon for the Kindle is $9.99 vs. $14 to $25 for other devices.
   
3. Number of books: Amazon has the widest availability of titles, by far.
4. Amazon.com: All the features of the Amazon.com website are available wirelessly on the Kindle
5. "Ask Kindle": The ability to submit a question to a dedicated research desk that will return a detailed answer to the user within 24 hours on any topic. Currently this is a free service.

The kindle is not without it's faults as well -- only available in white, can't read PDF's, slow to make magazine content available -- but the wireless "WhisperNet" that makes the device capable of updating it's content untethered is so important that the Kindle will dominate the category until the other manufacturers offer the same ability.

I want to use my e-reader to read the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal on the train in the morning on the way to work. With the Kindle, I simply keep it charged -- the content is there every morning automatically. All the others would require me to tether the device to a computer at home and leave that computer turned on all night to collect the content when it becomes available. A much more complicated and less desirable experience.

I'm traveling and get a suggestion on a must read book. With the Kindle, I can immediately go to the Amazon.com web site, lookup the book, decide to buy it, wait less than one minute for the book to download and then be reading the book! Fantastic!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am waiting for the Kindle 2. No idea when it's coming -- the rumors are first quarter '09 -- but I am willing to wait. I believe it will have a slightly larger screen and slimmer design and will have corrected all the first generation quirks.

Fat and Thin Envelopes

When I was a senior in high school, my January & February were spent going to the mailbox and looking for college admissions letters. Back then, you didn't even need to open the envelope – a fat envelope was an acceptance, a thin one was a rejection.

My daughter Kelsey has already heard from 4 of the 11 schools to which she's applied. These days they have what is called “rolling admissions” -- the earlier you apply, the earlier you get notified, so she may hear from all of them prior to February. All of her notifications have come via e-mail. Days later the fat envelope shows up. The good news is she has been accepted at all 4 – she's batting 1.000! For me it was 7 hand written applications, lots of waiting, then 4 fat envelopes and 3 thin ones. Today it's e-apps (so why not do 11!), rolling admissions and e-mail notifications that appear on your PDA.

It has been amazing to watch her stress level drop as the notifications have come in. The first one she received came from Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) They even offered her an $8,000 annual scholarship! Unfortunately, she applied to this school by mistake. She meant to apply to Indiana University -- Bloomington campus, but using the electronic application, she failed to select the correct campus and did not notice it until she got back a confirmation e-mail. Instead of going through the protracted process of canceling the Purdue application and transferring it to Bloomington, she just put in a new application. In the age of electronic apps, it is simply a few keystrokes and an additional $40 (what the hell, it's my money not hers). Even though it was not a school she wanted to attend, the acceptance notification had an enormous calming effect on her. There was at least one school out there that wanted her!!

The next school she heard from was the University of New Hampshire, her favorite school during our preliminary visits. Since then, she's been walking on air. Everything from now on is gravy. She next got accepted at Penn State and IU – Bloomington. IU has offered her a $9,000 annual scholarship – that's gotten her attention. Obviously, her mother and I are very proud of her, but more important, she's proud of herself. The spring decision-making process should prove interesting.