I was delighted to discover reference to the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, in an otherwise bland National Geographic special on J.R.R. Tolkein. I am rather surprised that I didn’t stumble across this earlier in my scholarly trips around Medieval Europe, given my penchant for such things.

But I shall not look a gift horse in the mouth. Just three days ago, I was scarely aware of it; today, not only do I have a serviceable online edition, I discovered a shabby Oxford Edition at a nearby bookstore.

Kalevala madness abounds!

I hope to enjoy it over the rapidly approaching Thanksgiving holiday.

Right, then. My hand has finally uncramped, so on this glorious keyboard will I type a post of more length.

The Wacom tablet is really neat. We got the “quartz” model, which goes nicely with the shiny Apple hardware. The pen is great, though the location of the selection button will take some getting used to. The mouse is very sensitive, and it’s smoother than I’m used to. The mouse and scroll wheel require a good deal of force to use.

I’ve been dying to try Ink, which comes with Jaguar, since it was announced, and I finally got my chance today (as you can see by the results in the previous post, which I did edit up a bit by more traditional input methods). The results of my test were mixed. Simple text was easy enough to get in, but the recognizer stumbled on contractions and any sort of unusual word. I found it trying to split words (iBook turned into ‘i book’, and algorithms went to ‘a log rithm’) where I really didn’t want it to.

My handwriting is generally not the greatest, but trying to write in a straight line helped. Also, writing small seemed to help for some reason. I wager that with some practice I could get my speed up quite a bit, and I’m sure that it wouldn’t hurt my penmanship (unlike working on Palm’s grafitti, which improved my input speed but worsened my handwriting).

The thing that really got me was editing speed. When the recognizer messed up, writing out ‘+6′ instead of ‘the,’ I had to turn the pen over, select the passage with the eraser, delete with a backstroke, and write it again. I didn’t actually figure out how to join words that had been inappropriately split by the computer, nor could I figure out a way to insert a character into a word, or append a period or comma to the end of a word. It’s possible that with good input usage these things wouldn’t be needed, but I remain a bit skeptical.

One surprise was that I found the pen a lovely navigation tool as a replacement for the mouse. I took to it quickly; the only real curve was hovering the pen over the tablet rather than pressing down. I could easily get used to using the pen as my primary pointing device.

Do I think that pen computing has a place? Absolutely. I’m not sure that it’s “here” yet, or that it should replace the keyboard (try as I may to dislike it, I can input quickly on the keyboard without thinking anymore). I wouldn’t buy a tablet PC that had the pen as the primary interface, but it’s a nice extra peripheral.

I should add that it does graphics wonderfully, which is a good thing since that’s what it is primarily for.

Our new Wacom tablet arrived today, so I am giving the handwriting recognition Software that comes with Jaguar a run. If this post seems terse, this is why.

First impression is that my handwriting by itself is not good enough for the system, which is hadly a surprise given that my handswriting is at best not so good. But with a bit of effort on my part, the computer gets it right Most of the time.

Also understandably , it is a bit slow On the iBook. I imagine that the recognition algorithm taxes the CPU greatly.

Would I trade in my keyboard for it? Not a chance.

My previous weekend was almost entirely consumed in playing Arcanum from start to finish. I purchased it over a year ago, but never played through more than about half the game before getting distracted by the great shiny things of life. I’m glad I decided to play it again; it was worth it.

Arcanum is an old-fashioned computer role-playing game in the grand tradition of the Fallout series and Planescape: Torment. A huge world, an interesting story, and a huge range of abilities and outcomes. It’s set in a steampunk setting, which is as concisely as possible is a cross between the world of Tolkien and the 19th century industrial revolution. Elves in smoking jackets stroll down the street. Dwarves drink in taverns wearing chainmail and a top-hat, carrying a steam-powered battle axes.

On my most recent expedition to Arcanum, I decided to play the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. Insanely good looking (and a snappy dresser) as well as a smooth talker, she was adored by just about everyone she met. It was a hard road, as young Emma had no technological or magickal skills, but she seemed to attract a small army of followers who were able to take care of any things she couldn’t smile and talk her way out of. One cannot negotiate with zombies.

The main plotline, while dragging at times, is compelling, and picks up tremendous steam as it progresses. I suppose it’s for the best that it dragged, as there were a great number of incidental things to do which were not directly related to the overarching story. Still, many were small games in themselves. Young Emma spent most of her time amongst the well-to-do, but I am sure that there was equal depth of story for the more sinister of heart.

The period fantasy is done very well. Virtually everyone in the game is polite in a wonderfully Dickensian way (”Good show, madam!”). The costuming and architecture, machinery, and even the daily newspapers add to the mix. To top it off, it had a magnificent soundtrack, scored for string quartet. A far cry from the epic “this-is-exciting-damnit-its-got-brass-and-drums-see-see” of so many other games, the soothing score lent a huge amount of intimacy to the game. It made Arcanum was a cozy experience, like wrapping up in blankets on a stormy night and reading a good book.

In some ways I wish it were a book. Finishing it has left me wanting more, wanting to know the fates of many of the people I ran across. For all Emma was able to accomplish, there was so much more. Perhaps in a few months I will revisit the world and experience it again. Perhaps with someone a bit uglier. Maybe a gnome with a lisp and a penchant for firearms.

Pester is one useful piece of software, especially for someone as scatter-brained as myself.