There is so much drama in Brooklyn sunsets
Yellow-Red-Purple sunset in and a one-eyed monster tree.
Kings Highway at 16th Street.
I came across this postcard recently and could not pass it up even at $16. It shows Kings Highway from the elevated subway platform of the Brighton line. Unfortunately I could not get the same viewpoint because a huge ugly advertising billboard is blocking the view.
The picture clearly (well, maybe not so clearly) shows the Avalon Movie theater, which history you can learn at http://www.cinematreasures.org . Now that building houses a CVS pharmacy on the ground floor and Touro “College” on the upper, windowless floors.
The water tower, cool streetlights, Cafe Avalon, Modern Beauty Shop, Kings Highway Realty and Mortgage Corp, the soda fountain which name I can’t make out, the cool cars — all gone. Parking is still a problem though.
eBookery
I am going to break my rule of not repeating slashdot news. Why? Because Apple called. They want their ipod ebook back.
Eink. How the hell can do you pronounce that? Oink? Well, if it’s not vaporware and actually performs I might forgive them this silly name.
Yeah, the design looks horrible from the first glance, especially in comparison with my beloved Rocket and Softbook. But they have this shiny new screen.
Check out their management team. Jerry Kaplan is nowhere in sight. Maybe they have half a chance. Also, one of the co-founders clawed his way to a President. They did not make him CEO, so that makes me think that a search for a “professional” CEO is underway.
Interesting, the entire team except for the CFO majored in chemistry, math, physics or engineering. Even the sales dude. Does a chem major a good sales dude make?
This Public Announcement
is brought to you by the letter F, Microsoft and the Matrox Foundation For Crappy Hardware Drivers.
It’s 3AM. Do you know where your emergency repair floppy and a registry backup is?
Some Microsoft Poetry
I have not had any problems with Windows 2000 for years. Until the last couple of months. One of the patches must have done something to the crispy crunchy goodness that is Windows graphics code. Since then – nothing but trouble. It seems to begin when I have too many windows open. It happens both at work and at home where I have completely different video cards.
I already replaced a floppy drive in my home computer with an internal memory card reader. This left me totally unprepared to nasty progression of : messed up window rendering -> bungled driver upgrade -> 640×480 only mode -> 640×480 only mode in safe mode only -> crash -> crash -> crash -> fundamental system file corrupted -> repair boot that DEMANDS THE STUPID RAID DRIVER ON A FLOPPY -> a whole weekend with a computer that has all my files on it that won’t even boot. This is what you get when your operating system of choice has graphics code mixed in with everything else.
That’s it. From now on there will be a fully built Linux server with all my files on it somewhere in my apartment. Hopefully in a couple of years I’ll be able to make a complete switch to Linux. Lets face it: Windows XP is slow, buggy and generally crappy. Especially in it’s Tablet PC variety. I can’t even imagine what crap they are whipping up right now without Dave Cutler, but that doesn’t matter. It’s going to be too little too late. Now, if there was a whole lot of developers walking around MS campus with Cutlers boot squarely up their collective asses things might have been different. And now Windows 2000 is messed up by patches. Linux starts to look better and better.
Poetry in Motion
Came up with this during my morning subway ride:
Magnetic flux in a white glass tube
Bounces greenish light
From stainless steel guts
Of a stainless steel worm
That travels beneath the waves.
An empty Greek cup
That held a drink
Of infusion of coffee beans
Is clenched in a hand of a woman who sleeps
Not seeing any dreams.
A holy book in hands of a man
Holds a promise of mystical lore
Wrapping words of wise men
Of time gone by
Around holier word of fore.
A cat in a box
With plastic doors
Looks outside with fear.
The stainless steel worm
Makes no sense
To a being with claws and hair.
Keys in a clip
On a belt of a man
In a jacket of steely-blue cloth
Can open doors
In a tower of grey
Containing amazing wealth.
A plastic red sack
With symbols of black
Carries cheap and expensive treats
That smell of a place
That is far, far away
Not connected by rails.
The ceramic song
Of passing stops
A swirling mosaic sets
In the minds of passengers riding the worm
That eats the electric thread.
Knowledge Worker’s Dream
I recently remembered the most amazing story that I’ve read 5 or 6 years ago, and my wife found the book that contains it yesterday. The book is called “Fairy Tales For Computers“. , and the story is “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster.
The story was written in 1909 and since it’s in public domain now, so the full text of it is online.
It’s a story of a future in which people live in small apartments underground, all cared for by an almost Matrix-style machine, communicating almost exclusively through telepresence.
“‘Who is it?’ she called. Her voice was irritable, for she had been interrupted often since the music began. She knew several thousand people, in certain directions human intercourse had advanced enormously.”
…
“Vashanti’s next move was to turn off the isolation switch, and all the accumulations of the last three minutes burst upon her. The room was filled with the noise of bells, and speaking-tubes. What was the new food like? Could she recommend it? Has she had any ideas lately? Might one tell her one’s own ideas? Would she make an engagement to visit the public nurseries at an early date? – say this day month.
To most of these questions she replied with irritation – a growing quality in that accelerated age. She said that the new food was horrible. That she could not visit the public nurseries through press of engagements. That she had no ideas of her own but had just been told one-that four stars and three in the middle were like a man: she doubted there was much in it. Then she switched off her correspondents, for it was time to deliver her lecture on Australian music. “
Living constantly communicating with hundreds or even thousands of correspondents, looking for and generating “ideas”, being served by and cared for by automatons – isn’t that a knowledge worker’s dream? Are you scared yet? Don’t “accumulations of the last three minutes” strike you familiar? Your inbox, your livejournal “friends” feed?
Too bad that “A Logic Named Joe” is not out of copyright. These two stories together are an irrefutable proof of time travel. But none of you will read it, so nobody will believe me anyway.
The Mystical Isle Of Coney
Wow, I haven’t been to Coney Island in years. Holy crap, just look, look what’s happening there!
The terminal is disassembled, Philips’ Candy Store is gone.
I probably purchased my first candy apple and salt water taffy in America there with hard earned money. I used to pass them by every day when I worked at Nathans. And now I don’t even have a photo of my own to remember it.
Well, on the other hand the new terminal looks pretty cool.
It reminds me of Tesla’s Wardenclyffe building.
Futurama.
Wow. Now I know it’s almost future. The company that is building my promised flying car has a stock symbol – MLER.PK.
