March 29, 2011

           It is great to be productive again, particularly my brand of productive. My productivity is not at the expense of an open and active lifestyle. I get out plenty more than most, and when I do, it is not sitting in the audience drinkin’ and talkin’. However, I need a certain conditions to be productive because it takes place during the times most other people waste watching TV. That is correct and I’ve said that for years, all my hobbies with the exception of music take place during the same stretch others are wasting their lives.
           However, I require the same parameters for my hobbies as the TV watchers. Quiet, comfort, electricity, coffee, and long uninterrupted stretches, all must be present in the right combination. Whether I am reading, thinking, writing, studying robotics or planning a trip to Colorado, I require all the factors listed. Let’s just say, thanks to some greedy people, since last year I’ve gotten way ahead on my reading and am now catching up on the rest. But as far as socializing, it is my critics who need to get a life.
           The lady who was going to rent until she find out Wallace was an old guy who smoked, finally reports success getting the donated cooker and water purifier past customs in Haiti. The system there is like Canada, where they intentionally charge more to import something than it costs new. I’ll look up the island location, cape something I think. The cooker holds two pots at a time, so it can’t feed the whole village. I’ll pass the hat around for donations, as the guy they sent there had to pay the customs out of his own pocket, something like $230. You may recognize the cooker from pictures here last December 19.
           I may have a new camera sooner than planned, my Jazz 150 began acting up exactly like the old 152, it won’t turn on when connected to a computer. It has a removable SD card so I get the download. I’ve been looking for a camera to modify with the Arduino for time-lapse photography anyway. Hang on, it’s a good thing I double-check, the mounting brackets were the same in both models, so I got the 152 working again. But the 150 has a real contact switch, not a circuit switch to trip the shutter. Darn, now I have to think.
           Windows 7 and Vista have two major changes. One, they’ve done a MicroSoft classic and scrambled all the commands. That’s so you get to relearn everything all over again. But they have made a travesty of the search command, the one that used to block half your screen. Now, search makes no distinction between file names and contents, so you get incredible numbers of results to sift through. Hooray for MicroSoft. Try to find the screen saver, and good luck.
           I tested their Voice Recognition. What a piece of shit. It has no settable options, no list of commands, no simple interface, and it cannot be set to work with word processors other than those from MicroSoft. Isn’t there a law against lock-ins? MicroSoft voice recognition is one more reason to hate overly political software companies.
           Recall “Sleeping With The Enemy”? I saw the movie today. It has the same plot but takes a different emphasis than the book. Good, since the book was about the airhead logic that too many women use to justify not doing things either right or logical. For example, in the book, the woman opts to take several pairs of sensible shoes instead of food in her getaway kit and nearly starves.
           Once the producer wisely decides to sidestep that theme, it was actually decent entertainment. Too bad more battered women don’t look that good, one might say, but not me. Then, I’ve also met too many divorcees whose real complaint is that after marriage they could no longer do as they pleased without consequences. I didn’t say that was right or wrong, I only said I’ve met a lot of them.

Addendum March 30, 2011:
           Here are some photos of the solar cooker and pasterurizer in Haiti. The pasteurizer is the long object behind the little girl in the front with a red shirt. The solar cooker is in the upper right side. The pasteurizer looks like a heater but produces water far too scalding hot to be used directly, the water comes out around 40 degrees hotter than tap water. The cooker is set up on concrete blocks for stability and safety. Note the dark colored pots that just barely fit into the cavity. These are a matching set. Light colored pots won't cook the food.
           Note also the cooker, with the traditional Haitian breakfast of bananas and eggs. I'll talk with management at Jimbos to see if we can run an extra 50/50 or something to offset the scandalous fees charged by the government in response to this charitable act. In the end, it seems the fees amounted to $300. I can't cover that, but I feel obligated as I attended the free show and a simple wave of my hand can make the largest single donation to the committee. Check after Saturday for the results.

Charity Address:
          Time Of Now
          1926 Madison Street
          rear
          Hollywood, FL 33020