Off-grid high tech living
July 25th, 2008
Living off-grid, originally uploaded by It’s a mobile world.
I’m out in the Swedish’s countryside enjoying peaceful and sunny holidays. But not even here I can stop thinking about my research.
This days I’ve been experimenting with high-tech living off-grid, using my mobile phone for taking pictures and uploading directly to flickr using 3G and then blogging from it, using the sony ereader in the outdoors instead of carrying a heavy bunch of books, reading my emails and updating facebook in the middle of the forest, and using only solar energy to charge the devices!
How can ICT and mobility help living more sustainable in rural settings? how these technologies can help living off-grid, in places without electricity?
December 14th, 2009 at 4:21 am
I have been looking at the Kindle online for about six months. I would come very close to making the purchase, but I’d realize it didn’t make economic sense: I didn’t read enough books to justify the upfront investment; I couldn’t share books with friends; I would be giving up library borrowing; and I’m not even sure I own the books I purchase for the Kindle (much hoopla about this, I know). It didn’t make good economic sense to buy a Kindle. Now that I own one, I still agree with that conclusion – but I give the Kindle five stars. Why? Because the Kindle isn’t about saving money; it’s about enjoyable reading. And the Kindle is a glorious success at this. I can’t explain how nice it is to read without turning pages and fussing with bindings. If I want to hold a cup of coffee (or a glass of scotch) in one hand and the Kindle in the other, it’s no problem at all. I can access the relevant control (”Next Page”) without any fuss. If I want to lay the kindle flat on my desk and not touch it but to turn the pages, fine; no problem. For me, this is the main advantage of the Kindle. It sounds a bit ridiculous to complain of books being cumbersome, but you’ll understand after finishing your first Kindle edition book. That said, being able to wirelessly download books is a wonderful, if sometimes unwittingly expensive, feature. I love waking to the New York Times every morning and having various magazines delivered throughout the week for mere dollars a month. Granted, I expect to spend more on actual reading material, but I also expect to read more, which more than compensates for a slight fiscal uptick.
So, my recommendation is this; buy the Kindle, planning wholeheartedly to return it if you’re not completely taken by it. It doesn’t make a lot of economic sense, so you need to love it when it arrives. If you don’t, it’s not the device for you.