I’ve always liked having scriptures on my PDA or phone, but since moving to a BlackBerry from Windows Mobile, it’s been a bit of a pain.  The only real option is MobiPocket, which I’ve found to be a little clunky and slow, even on a relatively fast BlackBerry (Curve 8900).  I used YanCEyWare on Windows Mobile; if you’re on a WinMo phone, it’s head and shoulders the best solution.

Anyway, back to the Kindle.  If you’re looking in Amazon’s Kindle store, you’ll see a few options with rather idiotic reviews and no details about what’s contained.  My key requirements were semi-decent speed, inline links to footnotes and cross-references, and sizable text.

Well, the answer is to use the BlackBerry version provided by LDSBookClub.com.  This is a partially stupid option, but you can get the file for free this way.  The reason it’s stupid is because you have to download an executable in order to get the file itself, and it’s not set up to really just “work” for your Kindle.  Not tricky, but honestly, it’s just a little shady to take a publication the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes available for free and use it as a loss leader for your own sales.  Just make the file available.

Anyway, once you’ve gone through their installer, you should have the file stores someplace on your hard drive.  You can run their launcher, right-click on the “LDS Scriptures” book in the MobiPocket PC app, and select “Open Containing Folder”.  That will put you right there.  Take the file (LDS Scriptures – Blackberry.prc) and drop it in your Kindle’s documents folder.  Voila.  It’s a very workable, well-linked set of Scriptures for your Kindle.

I hope this helps save someone some time and effort (not to mention some money).

Anyhoo, everyone hates those crazy impossible packages, right?  Here’s where the IRONY attacks.

The device designed to save us from this terrible packaging comes in exactly the packaging it decries.  Looks like I’ll be using my poor teeth once more, like the lady seen here.

<rant>
So what’s going on here?  We’ve got a reasonably powerful device with web connectivity, and a clock is the best we can come up?  Surely the other top sellers will be better.  Let’s see; we’ve got a mediocre home screen customizer with really tiny Windows 95-style graphics.  There’s CorePlayer, which is decent, but it used to be free (back when it was still TCPMP).  There’s a tweaking app which makes tweaks to the registry for you and may have some other useful features.  Next is a notes management app, and then ANOTHER STUPID CLOCK.

I can’t put money down for this stuff, especially when I see some very nice free apps on the market.  Google Maps is very well executed.  Windows Live Search is very functional and simple to use.  Yahoo! Go is a pretty good piece of software, too; a little slow, but it’s a beta still.  These are all free.

Where are the professional, useful applications?  Where are the real developers hiding? 

What about all the wonderful Web 2.0 (forgive me) web apps available?  I’m talking about Google Docs, Mint.com, and similar.  Where are useful apps like those in a portable format?  So far the only strides have been online versions of Gmail and Google Reader ( and a few others).  Where is the creativity?  Where’s a blog tool that supports WordPress?  Where’s an IM tool that works?  Where’s a real replacement for Microsoft Reader (MobiPocket really sucks)?  Nah, we don’t need that; we need a ringtone manager or seven different weather apps.
</rant>

Here’s my point, in case I haven’t hammered it in enough.  Before developing another alarm clock or home screen plugin, step back and see what would REALLY be cool.  Until then, I suppose we could always take our agendas to the eXtreme.

Let me begin by saying that the official branding from Garmin is n

So what makes a great nerd watch also a great every day watch?  I guess the key here is practical technology.  Guys like me enjoy things that are solar powered, and this watch delivers there.  A full charge gives the watch 11 months of battery life (in perfect darkness), and 5 or 10 minutes in the sun gives it a full charge (I read somewhere in the manual that it takes 8 hours under fluorescent light, which is more realistic if you’re a regular reader).  The other fun bit of technology is the automatic time setting from the atomic clock in Colorado.  We’ve got these atomic clocks all over my house; there’s something satisfying about having everything ticking exactly the same.

Another thing about this watch is that it’s very similar to the first real watch my parents got for me, a great old feature-packed Casio with a big black rubber wrist band.  Very nostalgic.  Plus the fact that it’s pretty much bulletproof, being a G-shock and all, just completed the package.

So there you have it, another post of Zarch’s every day gear.  If interested, here’s the page from Casio with all the specs.

Still, a nerd likes to tweak, and this thing seems pretty tweakable.  Might be worth a look when the prices come down, neh?

Here at the Modstomp Manor we’ve got a hankering for tiny mp3 players.  I go through about 6 a week.  With that in mind, watch for me to pick up one of these in the next couple of weeks.  Gizmodo has some details on the new Zen Stone Plus in all its tiny OLED glory, so take a look.  Expect some follow-up from us down the road.