Started playing Go a little while back, playing against the computer. Won’t bore you with the details, or at least not yet, but having recently won my first no-handicap game after a fierce fight in the center, I was playing with the record of the game and ended up creating the following:

Game record – 9×9 komi 6.5 – Black: Mathieu White: Laptop

I kinda like it, esthetically and functionally. I just might make more of these. For the moment, it’s way past my bedtime and I can’t quite see straight. Nite-nite.

Noticed something about the Sony Reader’s screen today, while reading outside in the harsh sunlight and heat of high noon, here in Singapore… The screen fades to illegibility.

It’s disconcerting the first time it happens. Cycling a page will display it anew, but past a certain point (temperature, I think, blocking direct light doesn’t seem to help much) it fades too fast to read more than a few words.

No lasting harm done, once you’re back inside the screen is back to normal. Still, any situation that denies you access to the written word is hard to accept for a reading junkie.

Sometimes, for a consultant in communications, I can be a bit obtuse. It only dawned on me on this second trip to Singapore that a cellphone with a pre-paid SIM with enough minutes to last the two weeks I will be here would cost less than $9US a day, and only that much because of the crappy exchange rate.

So I bought one this morning, the number is: +65 9279 6875 and should reach me until I leave on the 9th. Please keep in mind the time zone when calling, it’s exactly 12 hours from the US East Coast, and 6 hours ahead of Europe.

Oh, the only selection criterion for the actual piece of electronics were:

1. Cost (duh)
2. Charge-by-USB, which I demand of every gadget I buy now
3. Weight/Size, as in lightest/smallest possible after the above are met

NB: I’ve set my Skype-In number to forward to this number for the duration of the trip, so if a US number is cheaper for you, feel free to call that instead. If you don’t have that number and want it, drop me an email or leave a comment here.

NB2: Saw the same phone/SIM card package in a 7/11 two days later for 40% less. At that price, I’d get it even without an expense account…

Left the house Saturday morning, 8:30am taxi pickup. Open the door of the hotel room Monday (yes, Monday) morning, 2:30am local time (2:30pm Sunday back in Jersey). The entire weekend spent traveling.

Incidentally, managed to not only completely lose a Sunday, but it was my brother Greg’s birthday. Sent a belated birthday email from the hotel room, claiming it was still the right day back where I live, even if it wasn’t where he and I currently happen to be.

Anyhoo, Happy Birthday, Greg!

I took the Sony Reader on its first business trip this week (overnight to Minneapolis) and am taking it again on the trip to Singapore (blogging from the Continental lounge at Newark). All I can say is, it r0x0r5.

Just for fun, I made a pile of the books I would have taken with me on such a two week trip (at least 5, and I would have bought a couple more during the trip). The pile took up over half a cubic foot, and weighed almost three pounds (it included some hard covers from the library). Makes a huge difference when you limit yourself to carry-on luggage, lemme tell you.

As for the reading experience itself, it has been a pleasure. I particularly enjoy being able to just lay the Reader down, not having to hold it open like a book, especially paperbacks, and being able to resize the font on the fly as needed.

Lastly, being able to slap electronic documents on it was a huge help with the usual paper printouts that accompany a trip (itinerary, hotel details, meeting logistics, etc…) and with reading briefing documents without powering up the laptop (and frankly, in more comfort than on the laptop screen, particularly in bright daylight).

All in all, a very satisfying addition to the pile of electronics I take with me on trips, and with charge-via-USB, no extra cabling/power bricks required. Best buy in a while!

NB: Full disclosure, I brought one dead-tree book (a light one) for two reasons. One, they can’t ask you to turn it off during take-off and landing (yes, I’m an addict, sue me). Two, it’s a reference book which I don’t have in electronic format (it’s a book about Go, the game) and which I need to pore over repeatedly, so it will see more use than a read-once-thru novel.