Be careful what you wish for…
This video will cover a lot of ground fairly quickly.
There will be some announcements, some more announcements, and finally,
some announcements.
First, as I’m sure you’ve gathered from the thumbnail my wish for a general purpose
E-ink display had already been granted.
Sort of.
On one of my strolls through the comments section, I noticed a few people bringing up
one of two devices.
And, because I lack self control, I purchased this one.
This is a Boox Max2, from Onyx.
It is, to the average person, an e-reader with a very large display.
In fact, one would probably call it an overpriced e-reader, an assessment I’d agree with were
it not for some of the competition its up against.
Otherwise, yes.
This device is known mostly for its 13.3 inch E-Ink Carta display, and for its Wacom digitizer
and stylus, allowing for either a high-quality note-taking experience, or some hard core
doodling.
But, there are two specific features of this device which I find quite interesting.
First, is the simple fact that it isn’t just running some weird e-reader specific
software.
No no, this is running Android Marshmallow.
Now, that’s not great given how long ago Marshmallow came out, but most apps will still
work with it.
The other signature feature of the device is the fact that it can, indeed, function
as an external monitor over HDMI.
Now, having learned these two things, and having expressed interest in a productivity
device that didn’t glow in my face at night, I decided that
by golly I was going to get one.
And of course, I have one right here!
You saw it before!
*sigh* you have to think through this stuff...
Now I’m not going to talk about this device much here, aside from say that you almost
certainly should not buy this; instead I’m going to make a series of videos on my second
channel, Technology Connections 2.
Over there, I’ll introduce the device, give you a tour and maybe mini-review, and demonstrate
its many, many faults.
Again, to the average person; do not buy this.
What I want to do here is chronicle how I’m using this, and see if it helps with my sleep.
I’ve been struggling with waking up later than I want to, and while I don’t often
seem to have trouble falling asleep, it may be that the stimulation from screens late
at night is doing more harm than I realize.
It’s also possible that I’ve simply been desensitized to light as a stimulus, and the
light from the rising sun simply isn’t enough to get my body stirring.
Or it could be my problems are completely unrelated to screen time.
But I’m willing to take the time to figure it out, and I hope you’ll join me along
the way.
If this ends up radically changing my sleep-wake cycle, then you can bet I’ll renew my push
for reflective display technology.
I’ve put a link to the introductory video of this device in the description, so be sure
to check it out and subscribe to the second channel if you’d like to see more of it.
And speaking of the second channel, while not a whole lot of stuff goes on over there
right now, I am working on changing that.
I’ve never considered myself much of a vlogger but I’m hoping to make more one-off videos
over there.
I recently had a …
fun
… experience at my car dealer, and through yelling about it
on Twitter and interacting with people across the opinion spectrum, I’ve come up with
some thoughts.
I haven’t compiled those thoughts yet, but that’s a bit of what I’d like to do more
of over there.
Just talk about stuff.
And thankfully, I’ll soon have a little more time to do just that sort of thing.
Which is a wonderful segue into my third and final announcement, and boy is this a big one.
You may have heard at one time or another that I make these videos at home, and ever
since I put this set together, my living and dining room have been the site of all your
favorite technological shenanigans.
Well, I’m so very happy to announce that I won’t be those rooms of my home anymore!
Technology Connections has a new studio space!
In fact, I’m in it right now!
This is the new Technology Connections Headquarters, and I have many, many people to thank for it.
With the help of family and friends, the entire set was deconstructed, moved down here, rebuilt,
and if I did it well enough, you might not have noticed.
In fact the E-ink video was shot right here,
so if you didn’t notice anything strange afoot,
*maniacal laughter*
I just did that to be silly, but the new Headquarters has been in the works for some months now,
and it’s finally to the point that I can use it.
Here, let me show you around.
This room is purpose-built for making videos.
An unfinished ceiling allows me to rig lights as required, with individuals quadrants of
the room being controlled by these switches.
Dedicated electrical outlets for set elements allow me to control the set’s lights and
power with ease.
And complete separation from where I live means that this room, my new workspace, won’t
ever take up space in my home again.
And, let me show you what I’m seeing.
Look at all that space behind the camera!
There’s room down here for so many new projects and ideas, and I’m excited to start exploring them.
There’s still much work to do in places that you can’t see, but it’s ready to
make new videos today.
Right now.
In fact, that’s what I’m doing right this moment!
How neat!
None of this would be possible without the help of many people, from close family and
friends, to the people like you who watch these videos, to the amazingly generous people
around the world supporting the channel through Patreon.
While this means different things to each among those groups, thank you so much for
your support.
Thanks for believing in me and what I do.
And thanks for not only making Technology Connections possible,
but for making it so much better.
Here’s to the future!
♫ your favorite smooth jazz hit of 1992 ♫