This picture is also blurry, and that is what happens when you let somebody else use your camera. Hold it steady, JP, like, are you on a prescription, too? Anyway, that’s the author here enjoying a “small” coffee at Starbucks in Coconut Grove. That tiled wall behind me is a fake, it is pre-printed on particle board. As you see, that Starbucks has a real set of lounge chairs of which I am partaking of one with a good book for an hour. That book is a series of short stories that translate English into Spanish side by side. The book is an excellent study on how few words even native Spanish speakers have to choose from. Where the English version is full of subtle descriptions, the Spanish version has to revert to repetitious phrases. To me, this explains why it takes so long to put an idea across in Spanish, each word has to serve so many meanings you might wonder if your translator is lying. Of course, if your translator is from Miami, you’d have to worry about that anyway.
Pudding-vision informs me I’m not the only person dissatisfied with the printer ink rip-off. Kodak has taken aim on the outrage and is heavily advertising a new type of printer that uses cheaper cartridges. Apparently the print head is placed on the printer itself, and the ink uses a pigment instead of a dye (although I don’t understand the difference). Overall, the savings is around 50% which is enough for me. You just know how much I love HP and Brother. I’ll have to check out the technology. Are the Kodak cartridges refillable? To me, $10 each is still too much.
Somebody has actually mapped out the road distances between all US cities. I’ll test it some more, but it looks like it works. I am 1,417 miles from home. The system uses only the shortest distance on main roads, but you can specify waypoints, as in Cincinnati to Little Rock via Atlanta. I’m still toying with the idea of video-taping by fixing up a camera mount on the passenger side head rest. That’s an idea I got from Makezine. I’m planning that trip to Texas I’ve been putting off for too many years.
Deja View, the video cam that makes sure you don’t lose any shots, is not on the market. I think the $399 price tag did them in, even on eBay. I did find several reviews written by pork-heads who totally didn’t grasp the concept, complaining that it “only recorded 30 seconds”. This camera was designed to retain the previous 30 seconds after you hit the panic button, a.k.a the “Grassy Knoll” feature. So instead of saying whoops you missed the shot, you just hit the button and there it is. The camera clips onto your sunglasses and looks where you look. The recorder is on a belt clip. “Pork-head” is being polite.
Possibly eBay has done a number on military surplus stores, or maybe it is the economy at large, what with Chinese imports. Either way, there are only two stores left in this area. Not that there was anything really surplus in the Florida stores anyway, they are still neat to look around and an Eden for those who like heavy-weight hiking gear. I’m in the market for a tarp and in the mood to look around at stuff.
Which all goes to show if you are going to lose a day, make it a Tuesday.
