For all the talk about home networking, it is still a finicky arrangement. Most people use it to share a high-speed Internet connection, for which it was never designed (referring to 802.x). It took nine hours to do get paid for six, mostly due to waiting for bus connections. That is a terrible situation that speaks volumes about the transit system here.Thus, one of my priorities is new transportation, and a scooter of some type makes sense. I believe I mentioned anything under 50cc and 30mph max does not have to be licensed* or insured. Mind you, if you take the vehicle on a main road, you are supposed to have $10,000 in personal liability. Few in Florida obey this law. I’ve looked at a bewildering number of such vehicles. They range from mopeds to motorized bicycles to a miniature Harley-looking rig from Honda. There is even a 70cc model designed to look like a 50cc for obvious reasons.
A small motorcycle makes logic for me. Most of my traveling is within four miles. I’ve been riding the bicycle so many years that it seems like a bad idea to start up a gasoline engine to go anywhere in town. Do I consider a larger motorcycle that I can tour with on weekends, or something for just around town? The selection is huge, so time to get my priorities straight. Due to rain, a motorcycle is not the total answer to moving around in Florida, also the highest pedestrian accident state.
I walked the last three miles home, which means a stop at the book store, which means trivia. Here’s something. Ricoh, the printer people, have perfected a plastic sheet that looks and acts like paper. The difference? It is erasable. You feed it through your printer a second time, and it comes out with your new printout. Ricoh estimates over half the paper used is for temporary documents, such as shopping lists. Called “The Clean Slate”, the plastic is predicted to cut the cost of printer operation in half. HP will no doubt invent an ink that won’t erase and charge $40 per cartridge.
This erasable paper must have been a good idea, since it has disappeared never to be heard of again. Even mention of the technology was obliterated from the Internet.
Closing the books for the computer shop is sad and revealing. Despite two bad quarters last year, I was making more than enough to be happy since this January. Alas, the same wasn’t the case for others. Although I am certain Fred and I will collaborate on other projects in the near future, this is the end of an era.
*[Author's note 2015-06-25: Wrong. It has to be licensed, as do all motor vehicles on Florida roads. Oddly, "motor" is not the same as "engine" and electric bicycles and such do not have to carry a license tag, nor do golf carts. However, Florida is looking at changing that law. Once again the change is not for the public good, but as a new source of revenue. How does the government even know whether people have electric vehicles in taxable quantities? Easy--people with nothing to hide must have told them. They love to pay taxes as long as you have to, too.]
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