Musings

Mostly when we’re on the road lately, we don’t have the chance to wend our way through small-town America, and miss the opportunities to discover the unexpected sometimes to be found there.

Today we managed to break the trend and as we entered the town center of Greensburg, Indiana, we could not help but spot a tree atop the courthouse tower. How odd!

So, of course, we angled to get a couple of shots of it. Which took us down a back street where we discovered the tree occupied a place of honor on the town’s logo.

So, even without Google, we discovered Greensburg’s claim to fame (including attention from Ripley’s Believe It or Not, reportedly) in a simple drive-by.

Googled information indicates there’ve been a series of trees (makes sense), and even multiple concurrent arboreal decorations over the last century, and, apparently multiple species.

The jokes are rampant. A town favorite: Where does the tree get its moisture from? The clock’s spring, of course!

We observed that it might be wise to revisit the old adage that the nut never falls far from the tree…

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Greensburg Indiana

Usually, I try to take a few minutes each day to peruse the news online, just to keep up with current events (as we were taught in junior high). Now, the WashPost reports there’s a web page, Brijit, that distills the best of the best (depending on your point of view) of the latest news stories. With their wee abstracts, they offer more than a simple RSS feed with a few lines of text.

The trouble, of course, is whether their idea of “good stuff” matches yours or not. And, I guess, how fast you can scan/speed read to discover what you think is important/relevant/interesting….

Roughly each week I consult Arts & Letters Daily, which also digests, but not the whole spectrum of topics….

Maybe if I augment my usual browse with ALD and Brijit I’ll stay current?

And remind me again why knowing current events are important? Why I shouldn’t do the ostrich thing?

Posted at 5:11 PM | 1 Comment »

…in which we discover that the fragile hard drive in my old machine yields most but not all of my files to the new machine.

…in which we discover work-arounds of one sort or another, and life returns to somewhat normal.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Stressful Sunday

…in which poor JCB had to take the “dead” (power supply problem) yet brand new iMac back to the Apple store to exchange for an undead one.

Now, silence ≠ dead, but a new super-quiet machine.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Reemergence

…in which a strong silent type followed us home today.

(See tomorrow.)

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Strong, silent

An actual chalkboard sign!

So, Google announces profits exceed expectations for this quarter.

I’m still trying to figure out how they’re making money from their free phone system—Grandcentral (as long as you can dial on-line). And, yes, even though we recently bought the iPhone, we also now have a Grandcentral number.

Like we’re addicted to phone-talk or something! (Not!)

Posted at 6:51 PM | Comments Off on Googling, broadly

I’m not the techno-person my husband is, but I have to admit I think our new Prius is a fun machine. And it drives well!

Now, more on this new needy-kid-laptop (by David Pogue, NYT) suggests I might find it fun, too.*

After all, it’s fanless (I’m sure they mean the kind with blades), you can dump a drink on it, and it’s name is XO, which in my personal symbolic dictionary relates to hugs and kisses. All fine things!

What may put me off was Pogue’s comment that “the membrane-sealed, spillproof keyboard is too small for touch-typing by an adult.” Whaaaa?

Then I looked at the picture, and it seems entirely serviceable for my hands.

Besides, have you heard of anyone who’s thrown away their cell phone ’cause the keys are too small (for either dialing or texting)? And some of them have teeny keys!

Grumphhhhhhh.

Oh, here’s the link to order yours—and one to be shipped out. The program lasts for two weeks in November beginning the 12th.

* Plus Pogue explains the $200 each cost (discussed previously), which would drop if production ramped up, although probably not to the $100 levels that promoters long touted—I guess before they really looked at their financial statements, or maybe it was just a strategy to talk up the product by talking down the prices (I hope not).

Posted at 11:40 AM | Comments Off on Fanless & silent

Love the white gloves….

When I delved into Tom Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999), I was impressed by how he roped together complex and disparate information to generate a well-rounded picture of the intricacies of globalization. Not that I totally agreed with him (plus he’s a bit too preachy for me).

In his column today in the NYT (now free!), Friedman asserts that Toyota may be attempting to “slow down innovation in Detroit” by uniting with the Big Three US auto manufacturers to keep “shielding Detroit from pressure to innovate on higher mileage standards”.

Tut tut. Friedman’s capable of more complex, robust, and insightful analyses than this.

Since, as Friedman notes, Asian and European MPG standards favor far more energy-efficiency than US standards, all these manufacturers must have staff working on high-efficiency compliance (engineering, etc.) willy-nilly. So, it would seem to me, the issue is not what the US law says, so much as allying with other manufacturers. Toyota achieves more by standing together with its automaker brethern, rather than, at this point, seeking to “enhance its own reputation and spur the whole U.S. auto industry to become more globally competitive,” as Friedman puts it.

But, really, that’s not up to Toyota. Globalization (remember the Lexus in his book’s title?) is already doing that. Regardless of the US laws.

The marketplace overrules US standards in this matter, but only as far as engineering and innovation. Meanwhile the world loses ’cause we pollute more than we should here, because we’ve got a lotta vehicles running a lot of miles across this nation.

Speaking of preachy, lemme move on….

Posted at 5:23 PM | 1 Comment »

When I returned from my relatively airport run, I found this machine partly blocking the driveway. It was escorted by another truck of the same size and a pickup.

Lacking jcb’s knowledge, I was unable to discern whether they were working on cable or telephone or even electric lines—the trucks just had contractor logos, no city or county office titles. Within the house, all seemed as functional as when I left!

Posted at 11:01 AM | 5 Comments »

Backlighting can be your friend!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on iPhone photography