Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

118 Logan Ave.
August 02, 2006

We’re only going to be living in Downingtown for a couple more weeks. Every other day, I drive past a house at 118 Logan Ave. where we lived until I was 10 years old.

If I remember correctly, these houses were built with the intention of being used by the families of the people who worked at the Sonoco paper plant across the street. My grandfather used to work at that plant, and his office was only a short walk away.

The house is now completely boarded up. I walked around the ground and took pictures, since I don’t have any from when we lived there, and I still have memories of the place.

Does Your Government Protect Your Privacy?
August 01, 2006

I’ve had many discussions with Brian about the US government and politics and such. One of the main points of disagreement that we always come around to is whether privacy is a right granted to the people of the United States.

His position is that privacy is not a right. The governement has as much or more freedom to revoke your privacy as it deems necessary to protect you from our country’s enemies. Since our enemies seem to be everywhere these days, your privacy - for as much as it could aid efforts against terrorism - is forfeit.

Get Your Mom and Dad on Flickr
July 31, 2006

Sign up for FlickrYou’ve had a digital camera for a long time, and you’re savvy enough to experiment with your digital photos online. You’ve got a Flickr account or a Zooomr account, and you’ve been sharing your photos with distant friends and family for quite some time. Mom and Dad have no trouble using the web these days, so they can easily peruse your photos to see what you’ve been up to.

Last year, your parents got digital cameras as a gift, and they’ve really enjoyed the savings compared to film-based cameras. You can just take the camera’s memory card to Walmart (or wherever) to print out only the pictures that you want to keep.

Well that’s great, but there’s a problem. Mom and Dad, wouldn’t it be nice if you could share your photos with your friends and family just like your kids do? How do we do that, anyway? Here it is, plain and simple.

Good Management
July 31, 2006

Berta’s sister, Mary Ann, and Mary Ann’s husband, Ryan, came to visit over the weekend. On Saturday night we took them out to Buca di Beppo, a local chain restaruant that serves mainly Italian dishes, family-style.

To avoid the 35-minute wait for a table, we elected to eat outside. The outdoor tables were on the shady side of the building, and the temperature was dropping as the sun dipped below the horizon. It was still in the upper 70’s with decent humidity, but much better than it had been outside all day, and probably worth avoiding the wait.

We sat down and placed our order - a small plate of spaghetti, a baked pasta sampler, and a small plate of chicken marsala, along with some garlic bread and a small salad. We had our drinks pretty soon, and our salad and bread was delivered in short order.

We waited a while before a waiter made an appearance so that we could get more plates for the kids. Apparently, our two kids didn’t register when we said “six for outside” and were seated at a four-person table. We were also missing some silverware and napkins. When the waiter (not actually a waiter, but an expediter) brought some extra napkins, he dropped them on the table in the puddle he had left from spilling Ryan’s water, rendering them completely unusable. Oh, but it gets better.

I Want My HDTV Review Site
July 27, 2006

A HDTVI asked on Ask Metafilter where I can find a good review site for TVs. Nobody has come up with a great answer yet.

I think this is a real problem with review sites these days. I’m getting fed up with the choice of information they do or don’t provide, and the quality of the information that they offer. For example, nearly every site seems to value the consumer review. Why?

Consumers are a picky lot. I have been a technology advocate for may of my friends. They’ll ask me what hardware I like for a specific function, and I tell them. But I’ve learned to add that tag line on the end: “That’s what I would do, which is not necessarily the best for you.” Often I’ll tell them what would work for them, if I know, which I often don’t because I’m not shopping for them. Likewise, there are two problems with sites that provide only consumer-based reviews.

First, I have no idea of the technical knowledge of the reviewer. If the reviewer is a 70-year-old book author, she might really enjoy her TV, but when it comes down to actual performance, it might really stink.

Second, most consumer reviews are typically “I liked X, I didn’t like Y, you should [not] buy this.” They don’t detail the item itself so I can make my own determinations or search for answers in the review. So if I wanted to know how many HDMI inputs a particular HDTV provided, I’d usually be at a loss with consumer-only review sites. Finding specs for a class of electronics from differenct manufacturers is a pain.

So consumer-only review sites aren’t complete. What else?