Looking for a quick way to access an article cited in my book, I opened the Kindle app on my laptop and was going to click on the URL. Instead I got the message below. Yes, I have loaned my copy to a reader, Christofer Hoff. In a new feature, Amazon allows you to loan an eBook for 14 days.
Absent-mindedly, I next pulled up the Kindle app on my Android phone. Same message. Then on the Kindle device. Same message. What's that Einstein said? "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results"
Yes, I was on a roll, and in a zone.
I was in a training class with Amazon developers learning about the magic behind the locking of my access, unlocking of Christofer’s access, and the synching across our devices.
Then I drifted back 20 years. I was recounting a trip to an IBM training center near Dallas to learn about fun stuff like row level locking and two-phase commits in distributed databases.
Next I found myself in modern-day Cupertino in a class with explains the mechanics behind the Match functionality in the Apple iCloud. It reads the fingerprints of the music on your iOS device and loads a higher quality, DRM free version of those tunes to your cloud account and from there synchs to your other devices.
Amazing how distributed today’s “databases” are.
When I finally snapped out of it, I did what I should have done to start with. I Googled the article. Unfortunately, it is now behind the publisher’s paywall :)
Oh, but what a nice, geeky detour! And yes, Einstein very much approved of daydreaming.
