iWork

I recently purchased a family license for iWork because Beth's laptop was flaky, and I thought old reliable Appleworks might be linked. I've played around a little, and comparing it to Office comes next, naturally.

Numbers: I think the multiple tables per page is cool. I think that what it does automatically is great. I like the use of labels in place of cell column letters.
I wish it would work better with database or flat file sources. I wish there were better ways to import data into Pages. I really like Numbers. I wish Apples manuals were a little meatier.

Pages: Great product, but why isn't there a template for Avery label sheets? This should be rather easy. Again, how do I fill a table in Pages from information in Numbers.

Since I never use presentation software, I will leave any comaparison of Keynote and PowerPoint to someone who cares.

I think I've pretty much abandoned hope for software priced above $1 and less than $100. The comparative advantage over OpenSource projects is too low to support the price. Have you looked at a software aisle lately? There is nothing good in a box. I was happy to pay the price for iLife, since they super-optimised iPhoto. I'm also a little disappointed with the preference for .Mac integration over easily supported web export options (iWeb, iPhoto, I'm talking about you). These are just clumsy from iLife. And, since I bought a mac back when .Mac was still free, I'm just a little jaded about the price for a subscription. Lastly, since my camcorder fritzed out, there's little need for iMovie (to me, at least). It was a cheap product when I used it, and I preferred final cut express (discounted at $99 when I bought it).

Time Waster

About two weeks ago I started playing Rule the Seas . It is like crack. I feel like one of the lab rats that got cocaine from pressing a lever, but only every five minutes. Right when you feel like the five minutes have passed, you start tapping madly on the lever to get your next dose.

Oh, and if you click the link and sign up, I get a small bonus. If you join PJ's gang, I'll get a little more help. And then I recommend you try not to play.

My blackberry makes it ever so tempting to do this every twenty or thirty minutes while I'm working. The downside is once a Captcha shows up, it never accepts the code from my blackberry, limiting me to maybe an hour or two before I need to go to a laptop.

Fairbanks

I just landed in Fairbanks a little after midnight. I was foolishly
worried that it would still be a little cool, and that I would have to
crawl out of the airport in the dark. Wasn't I wrong in both cases. It
is a few degrees warmer here than in Seattle, maybe 55 or 60 at
midnight. And it is not quite dusk, a reddish cloudy morning awaited
me, with patches of light perforating the clouds. The only hard part
will be rising in 4 hours. I did get a short nap on the plane, I hope
tomorrow goes smoothly.

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Tomato

I love reaction. Last year I couldn't get spinach, this time McDonald's won't put tomatoes on my sandwich. I understand there is no economical way to identify the risk of food poisoning, and it's not the sort of liability that a company wants to undertake. Maybe we need to start labeling the origin of our food. The Salinas Valley spinach outbreak was ultimately tied to a single source, but there was little way of identifying a bag of spinach from one plant. The agro companies don't give this. Consumers don't check it. I'm a huge fan of having lettuce in January, but it seems like local food would stop these nationwide outbreaks. Who knows, the variety of seasonal vegetable might just stretch out imagination.

Didn't I read that a vinegar water wash would make help kill bacteria on produce? How much trouble would that be for a company like McDonald's. Maybe I misunderstood, and tomatoes were just getting more expensive than they'd like to serve. I suppose it's possible that they could have just run out at the restaurant I went to, but she said "no longer serving tomatoes".

Lastly, I hate that Firefox's spellcheck expects an e in tomatos. I know it's the proper english, but it seems like a dead letter stuck where it has no place. Ditto for potatos.

Will GM really make the volt by 2010?

Ah, the Chevy Volt. The plug in car with a backup gas engine. Not a hybrid, which uses the battery to increase the fuel efficiency of a gas engine, but an electric car with a gas engine to recharge the battery. The vaporware affordable fuel independence vehicle. 40 miles to an overnight charge, fifty miles per gallon. All modestly priced at a Chevy price. Will they deliver this on time. I've seen print ads for this for over a year, and derided GM for advertising a solution they didn't have. They sure didn't make any friends in the environazi camp when they recalled all the EV cars after the leases expired and sent them to the trash heap. But let's just say they make it good. Lets say the release a car in 2010, and it costs under 30,000. Will my car make it until then? I sure hope so. Would I buy one, an american car that revolutionizes the notion of a car?

I'll be moving to Chicago in about a year. I think I can get plenty close in to the city and the airport to make a 40 mile charge a lot more practical than my current situation, where I typically drive 45 - 65 miles each way for work. I've been insulated from the gas prices because of my generous employer's auto program. But I see the $4.30 regular, and chuckle internally with an "I told you so" superiority. I'm excited for the return of regular rail service to America. Want to increase urban density (and heating efficieny), move back to a central terminal style transport system.

I'm thirty. I remember clotheslines. My parents likely knew of nothing else. We had a washboard in the basement, replaced by a washing machine. I remember laundromats. Dreary places, really, now the home of the less affluent. They used to be a sort of proletarian community room, mothers reading, children causing mischief. Now we can't abide to live somewhere without an in-unit laundry?

How many drop off laundries are there anymore? Not dry-cleaning, but a $10/load drop off, pick it up in six hours and get your shopping done while you wait sort of place. Sounds like a fantastic job for a young person.

I pledged two years ago to vote for John McCain if he ran, I think I still will. I pledge to buy a Volt if GM can deliver for 2010 under $30,000. And if not, Honda still has an excellent lineup of small cars.