I've found my next laptop
Unfortunately, it's not going to be ready until 2020. But it's going to be COOL.
Unfortunately, it's not going to be ready until 2020. But it's going to be COOL.
Yahoo weather says that the high tomorrow is going to be 107. Then on Wednesday, it's going to be 95. Then on Thursday it's going to be 75. At this rate you'll be entering a new ice age some time late Sunday.
Where I'm currently living in Austin, nothing I need is particularly close. So, if I need groceries, or a dry cleaner, or a box of junior mints, I have to drive a bit. It's beginning to strike me as fairly stupid to do all of this in a car that's about four times the size it needs to be to hold me and a soiled shirt. Furthermore, parking in Austin is often a pain in the butt. It got me thinking...
I've listed the three most obvious alternatives in the headline of the post. Anybody have experience with any of these modes of transport? (I'd keep the car, of course, but I'm thinking about some other, smaller, more efficient means of transport for my routine errands.)
A few weeks ago I got a Blackberry Curve. It can do so much more than any phone I've ever had, it got me thinking...it's possible NEVER to lack the information you need, no matter where you are in the world. So, I began working to create that reality in my life. (Sidebar/disclaimer: I'm not one of those people who thinks it's actually important to have 24/7 access to email, a phone, my computer desktop, etc. I just think the idea of being able to is cool.)
One of the things I decided I wanted in my never-disconnected world was constant access to my calendar, contacts, and task list. I keep all of this in Outlook 2007. Outlook 2007 syncs with my Blackberry, so as long as I've got the Blackberry with me, I've got Outlook with me. But if I've got a choice between working from my Blackberry and working from an actual computer, I'd rather do the latter. So, how to sync my Outlook with some sort of Web-based service...?
That's where Plaxo comes in. Plaxo is free. It will sync with Outlook 2007. It works with Windows Vista. And it syncs calendar, contacts, and your task list. It is, therefore, the "Holy Grail of synchronization" (a phrase I stole from some other guy who was trying to achieve the same sort of always-connected existence).
I looked at a number of other services--including the obvious ones, Google and Yahoo--and either they weren't free, or they wouldn't sync with Outlook 2007, or they wouldn't work with Windows Vista, or they wouldn't sync calendar, contacts, AND the task list.
Only Plaxo would do all of this. I can get on the Web, see exactly what I could see if I were looking at Outlook at home, and do so without paying a dime. Accordingly, Plaxo wins a hearty recommendation from me.
Footnote: I don't get paid for this, nor do I get "Plaxo Points" or anything like that. I just think it's a good service, so I wanted to share.
Anklenote: Mapquest Navigator for Mobile is also very cool (though it costs money). If your phone is GPS-enabled, you can get turn-by-turn voice directions through the phone. Unfortunately, I sent the Mapquest people an email 10 days ago, and then again 3 days ago, and I still have heard nothing. I'd be happy to sign up for an annual subscription if they'd respond. But it appears they're not going to, which means that I won't be subscribing. Bad business...
I do a lot of shopping online. Sometimes, though, I just can't bear to wait the week or so that it takes between the time of my final "submit" click and the time the thing actually arrives on my doorstep. Of course, some enterprising Inter-preneur (did I just coin that phrase?) has come with a solution. It's called TheFindLocal.com. It allows you to search for an item, and then gives you results from online stores AND brick-and-mortar stores in your local area.
Pretty cool.
Footnote: pretty cool, yes, but not perfect. It's not as if the search engine has access to your local store's inventory. Basically, if it shows that the local store carries it, what it means is that the store generally carries it, either online or at a physical location. But even if it's just the former, you often can order it online and have it delivered to your local store -- quickly, and with no shipping charge.
Ten years ago, it didn't take much for me to get into an argument with someone about all of the taboo subjects: politics, religion, abortion, the designated hitter rule, what have you. At a certain point, though, I started to pick my battles. I never really worked out the criteria in my head, but I knew there were certain things I could let slide, and certain people I was prepared to indulge. Now that I think about it, I realize that if I thought to myself, "This guy is pretty harmless," I would let it go. But if I thought to myself, "You know, there's just something sinister about that comment," then I would jump into the fray.
Well, tonight I was at a party at which an older, intelligent, experienced gentleman said the following: "Once you get outside of the United States and you see some of these so-called totalitarian regimes from the inside, you realize that the United States is every bit as bad as they are."
Now THAT is the sort of statement I cannot abide. So, I challenged it, and the room cleared as we argued over the course of the next 90 minutes.
You won't hear me apologizing to the hostess tomorrow. I don't care how expensive the wine, how tasty the caviar, how polite the company, there are certain provocations that demand a response.
You'll have to determine your own threshold on various subjects. The important point is, though, don't be afraid to draw a line and defend it, regardless of the setting. As long as you are diplomatic in your delivery, the truth is never gauche.
We've all seen/heard this by now: the cute blond pageant girl flubbing a question about why many Americans can't find their own country on a map. Actually, it was popular months and months ago. As I've seen and heard it again a few times in the last couple of weeks, though, I've come to believe that it's probably the single most flagrant, unselfconscious display of stupidity I have ever seen. Here again is the transcript of her remarks:
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because,
uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I
believe that our, uh, education like such as in, uh, South Africa and,
uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they
should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S.,
uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian
countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.
Now, I'm not trying to be mean here. There are just some things that some people shouldn't do. Carl Lewis shouldn't sing the national anthem, for example, and this girl should not be in beauty pageants. She's not smart enough. Someone should have told her that. If she wants to make a living being cute without saying anything, she could be a model. But opening her mouth and expressing any thoughts whatsoever is a BIG mistake for her. Someone should have helped her steer clear of that mistake.
I know what she would say, because she said it on the "Today" show: "I misunderstood, I made a mistake, I drew a blank." Okay, well, which one of those was it, exactly? Also, her actual answer at the pageant was more consistent with stupidity than with any of her three explanations. "U.S. Americans"? Use of the phrase, "like such as"? Calling Iraq "the Iraq"? And if you actually saw her on "Today," you realize she's just not very bright.
This may sound disingenuous, but it makes me angry that no one stood up to save this poor girl from herself. Or perhaps they did, and she's just strong-willed and/or unjustifiably confident. In that case, she has only herself to blame.
One of the few people in the world that I actually loathe is Kevin Trudeau. You probably know him as the "king of infomercials." He's done prison time for credit card fraud, and he's paid huge fines to the FTC for false advertising. He seems to have some objection to making an honest living. Unfortunately, despite being a proven criminal and a known con artist, he's still allowed on television to sell his books (the most famous of which is Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About; by the way, he can only sell books now because he's prohibited by the FTC from selling any other kind of product or service).
Anyway, I'm flipping around the channels tonight, and I see him sitting at a desk with four attractive women, doing an infomercial, hocking his latest book, Debt Cures They Don't Want You To Know About. At one point, one of the women asks him an extended question. As she's speaking, a graphic pops up to identify her. It says: "Sara Jean Underwood, 2007 Playboy Playmate of the Year."
As I said in the headline, I am not kidding.
Footnote: you know who else was sitting around the table? Terri Oullette, aka "Terri O," formerly of Good Morning Arizona. If she's still a Valley resident, and if I ever see her around town, she's gonna hear from me about her Trudeau blood-money.
Again, I am not kidding.
I rarely listen to political talk radio, mostly because I listen to sports talk radio instead. Today, though, I listened to Rush for a little bit. It's easy to dismiss him as a blowhard, but he definitely has some talent. For one thing, he's clever. Today, for example, he referred to the NAACP as the NAALCP, which he said was the National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People. Funny, and true.
So, Rush's popularity is the thing I get. He's not a sophisticated political thinker, but he can be creative, clever, and witty in a way that most other talk radio guys aren't.
The thing I don't get is why they don't make more cool-looking cars. If I had an unlimited automobile budget, not only would I buy a car that was nicer on the inside, I'd buy one that looked cooler on the outside. You know, like a BMW of some sort, or maybe a Mercedes, or a higher-end Lexus. But the only cars I can afford are ones that have a so-so interior and don't look great on the outside, either.
Now, I can understand why you're not going to find an affordable car with a really nice interior. You know, cuz leather costs more than not-leather, electronic seat adjustment costs more than manual seat adjustment, etc. But why should it cost any more to make a car cool-looking? All we're talking about, really, is the body design, right? So, why not just take a car with the same interior my current car has, the same stuff under the hood, BUT give it a really cool-looking body? Would that be so hard?
