I have been the proud owner of a Kobo Touch for a bit longer than 3 months. So, what have I found?

• The device itself is pretty petite. Next to almost every other e-reader out there (maybe excepting the Nook Touch) it really sizes itself down and reduces itself to almost just a screen and a border. This is both a curse and a blessing: it's not the 10inch screen I wish I had, but it fits comfortably in several larger pockets in my clothes.
• The touch interface is nice, and the gestures are natural. Finger smudges don't matter quite as much as I thought they would, with the matte surface taking minimal finger oils. It is unnerving to have your headphones brush against the screen and move the page around, though, since the touch sensing is infrared based.
• Like I suspected, the touch interface makes reading PDFs bearable. Since lots of long-form web material is tied up in PDFs, this is a deal-maker.
• There are not a plethora of options in the software. This isn't a deal breaker, though, partly because I couldn't return it if I wanted (since Borders is dying and all) and because the defaults are usually good enough that I don't care.
• I will say that I am not such a fan of the home screen with only 5 book covers: Kindle's linear listing of books is much more my style. Ah well, such is life.
• The battery doesn't last forever: I can maybe get 150 pages from a charge? I mean, I finished 2 around 200 page PDF textbooks in some 3-4 charges, so it frees up my cellphone from having to blast photons from an LCD. It's a pretty good battery life, me thinks.
• It is not quite as convenient as I hoped it would be: social rules sometimes make it awkward to pull out the thing and start reading, or my subway stop is coming up, or other such things.
• Reading the thing in direct sunlight was wonderful.
• Not having time to read from the Kobo due to school is annoying.

With the next generation of e-readers quickly approaching (mostly ~$200 faux-tablets), this review may become quickly deprecated. Oh well?

Random thought: this does remind me of a potential e-reader format, which has e-ink on both sides and requires the user to turn the device over: you solve slow redraw rates and add in more physical interaction in one fell swoop. And end random idea.

Oh my only a month left.

• Techshop laser class: I know, I already did a laser cutter class but Techshop is much more concerned with how their equipment is used than your usual hackerspace, and hence whatever previous experience I have is null and void. Which is a good thing, because my previous experience pretty much adds up to... null and void. Essentially. The class was very straight forward, and was geared towards people that would never set foot in a hackerspace. Hell, even some old lady that could've been my mom attended the class. Now, I have to put this class to good use, and I figure cutting for 2 hours will break me even. Better get started...
• Another outing to the San Francisco Symphony, this time to see the somewhat traditional Four Seasons mashup concert, featuring Vivaldi and Piazolla with their respective Four Seasons (no, I didn't like Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks). In contrast to last week's concert, the soloist was amazing: she had ideas that really challenged my preconceived notions of how the Four Seasons should be played, and just killed the Piazolla pieces. I need to get my hands on her Four Seasons album, and then be depressed I didn't at least seriously try playing as well as her.
• Happy Hour! The usual, except there was also a commercial space meetup at the same time, and I got to talk to guys doing space. Very different from the usual social media/analytics/ads dance in the valley, and gave me much needed perspective.
• ebook reader reconnaissance: earlier I've mentioned my thoughts on ebook readers, and how I lacked one, but recent developments have had me reconsidering my position. First is the fact I keep finding myself in public transportation with nothing to do, or sitting anywhere without anything to do. The second was finding out they have touch-based ereaders now, which may change my objections to the Kindle. Previously, I hesitated buying a Kindle because its handling of print-sized PDFs was subpar, and didn't want to shell out almost twice as much for a 10 inch model or one of it's brethren (really, $300+?). But upon finding out touch-based PDF handling was fairly snappy, I've given serious thought to the Kobo Touch. I went and tried it out at a closing Borders today, and got to see everything but the PDF handling. However, it's almost enough for me to order one, and I'll sleep on it for another night or two before buying one, receiving it in the mail, and reviewing it.
• Throughout the week, I've been working on my reprap. This is week 1 of the build, and I've been breaking new ground. Hopefully this won't stretch out to a week 3; eventually, I'll post my build log as a project, probably after I'm done with the mechanical build, hopefully sometime this week