Musings

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

I read about Negroponte’s program to get laptops in the hands of kids around the world, which I think is a terrific idea, and I got confused. In his package deal, sponsors pay for two laptops, one they get and one that’s sent “away.”

I’m confused about two things. One, the laptops cost something like $100, but the two-laptop deal is $399. I’m reasonably competent at addition, and there’s a real gap there. Presumably some funds are necessary for shipping and handling for the give-away laptop, but $200 seems rather excessive. Second, how many of these laptops are destined for kids here in this country? After all if they are for disadvantaged kids, we’ve got quite a few within our national boundaries, and they should not be overlooked.

Still, I’m tempted to participate. This deal kicks in 12 November.

How ’bout you?

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Yeah, I know; this is not a horse. But it’s the closest I had….

While browsing tables of contents for issues of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, I ran into this term: horselads.

The term harks back to the days of horse-farming in rural Britain, and to the social hierarchy on rural farms (those Brits!). Horselads were at the bottom, while still valued for their knowledge of work horses, although they were assigned other menial field labor. The horselads received room and board as part of their compensation, in part because the farms were relatively isolated, or at least by keeping horselads resident on the farms their labor was assured.

Horselads could be recognized by their by their distinctive dress at the hiring fairs where they looked for their next position—they moved each year—while striving to move up the hierarchy.

Because of their low status, annually fluid employment situation, and the way written history (even modern history) is generated, little directly from horselads has made it into records. Giles and Giles opted to examine the graffiti in barns where horselads lived and worked to obtain insights into their lives.

Conclusions: horselads wrote about sex and the ladies, they glamorized themselves, they recorded song lyrics, they wrote about hardships (extreme weather, boredom), and they drew pictures (mostly line drawings) on the same subjects (especially the first).

I wondered if the horselads are in the direct social ancestry of North America’s western cowboys, but these British researchers do not address this point.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

I’m still on the fence about whether this is a fake sign, meant to terrify (or at least drive off) Bad Guys. After all, don’t you expect an alarm system to be, well, loud?

However, this sign still makes me smile!

Posted at 8:49 PM | Comments Off on Loud sign

Light inspires me.

Light plus texture—truly exciting.

Thinking about fabric today (not like Ababsurdo or Mouse). Instead, we’re considering getting new curtains for the living and dining rooms. The consumer role is not one of my favorites. Additionally, I think this new curtain thing may require me to somehow convert some panels with fabric that I like into pinch-pleated drapery that I—we—will enjoy living with, which will require me to dip into a skill set that I have but rarely choose to activate.

What irony—curtains block that same inspirational light….

Posted at 7:54 PM | Comments Off on Obscuring? light

I renewed my acquaintance with Athens (the Georgia one) today. I found my favorite fountain fenced and dry.

Perhaps a metaphor for…?

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Fenced fountain

Love having friends in from out of town! Now we can get caught up not only by telling stories, but by looking at pictures posted on the web.

Love that modern technology!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Story telling