Friday Four

1. I'm going to get an e-book reader soon, but a good review I bumped into at the beginning of my survey of the options caused me to hold off on my decision until some of the newer models were released. I was particularly curious about the Kindle Fire. Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, however, has all but extinguished that curiosity by panning Amazon's tablet. He goes into great (but highly relevant) detail, throws in perspicacious observations about tablets as such along the way, and nails the coffin shut for me by calling it "a bad Kindle". I want something like a Kindle: Getting some tablet functionality would only have been a nice extra for me, as I strongly prefer netbooks to tablets.

As a bonus, Arment refers to the current state of the economy as an "economic depression". I like a man who calls a spade a spade.

2. Nathan Zegura makes the case for Green Bay wide receiver Jordy Nelson as the most efficient fantasy football player of the season.

Nelson is only the 70th most targeted receiver on a per-game basis at 5.1 targets per contest, but that has not stopped him from racking up 633 yards and seven touchdowns through nine games.

Needless to say, he's on my roster. I know you don't care, but my opponents do each week, and that's enough to put a smile on my face.

3. Google now has a verbatim search function or, as I think of it, you now have an easy way to turn its auto-"correct" off.

[W]e've received a lot of requests for a more deliberate way to tell Google to search using your exact terms. We've been listening, and starting today you'll be able to do just that through verbatim search. With the verbatim tool on, we'll use the literal words you entered without making normal improvements...

I hope Google is as responsive to criticisms of their new, tablet-centric email interface. 

4. This recipe for crockpot chicken with artichokes -- with double the onions, olives, and artichokes -- has lately been a tasty way to save time from cooking for other things.

-- CAV

Updates

4-16-12: Added hypertext anchors.