WOO HOO!! XO Computers Available from Amazon in November!

Woo Hoo again! The XO, a computer developed out of the MIT Media Lab )and intended for distribution to children in developing areas of the world), will be sold to the public by Amazon as part of an upcoming fundraising initiative. They were sold last year, but then the program was run by the developers themselves, and it didn't go well (it went ok, but not great I guess). I can't complain, though; ours was delivered, sans instructions or almost any documentation, on December 19 or 20. It's the coolest thing on the planet! It has a reader application so you can read e-books, it as a few (children's) games, with more available - free - on their site, it has several usb ports for use with other hardware, like iPods and a mouse, it has a video cam and speakers, and yes: WI-FI!!!! I've taken it on vacation several times and used it to access my email; what a great toy! Oh yeah, and the kids like it too.

Anyway, this was announced only today and for further information, you can look here:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114103&intsrc=hm_list

or here:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150642/amazon_to_sell_olpc_xo_laptops_from_november.html

The way it worked last year was that you paid $400 and received one XO computer. Since the XO only costs $200, the other half of your payment is tax-deductible as it goes to send another computer to a child in a developing country. The one I gave last year is somewhere in Mongolia now. Cool, huh? And we got a tax deduction too! Rock on, gadget junkies!

Opera Rules!!

Today at 1PM Google released their first browser, "Chrome."  Let's see how it goes.  Me, I'm hesitant since I'm a diehard fan of the "Opera" browser; it's lightning-fast, sleek-looking, takes up little precious hard-drive space, and lets me save my bookmarks as icons (yeah!!!).  And it doesn't crash as often as ANYTHING ever put out by Microsoft (take that, Internet Explorer!!!!!).  Did I mention it's FREE? Yeah, I use IE if I have to (occasionally, some low-rent websites can't be viewed by Opera), but ONLY if I have to.  Opera is great and I just wish more people knew about/used it.  Here's the link if you wanna check out this fast, EASY browser, and if you need help downloading it or using it, write me (or make a comment to this post): http://www.opera.com/.

On the off chance you want to try the Google browser, here's the link: http://www.google.com/chrome. Good luck with that!

Seeing Ghosts

With the recent spate of suicide-by-train deaths in this area, I’m noticing something I’d not really heard in the several years I’ve been here: long, insistent train horns being blown between the two nearby stations. As the engineers leave one, they begin a series of long horn blasts that really get your attention, the kind that make you wonder if everything is ok, or if they see something on the tracks and they’re trying to warn it to move. I can understand why they do it. Because of the suicide deaths of the three boys in the past three months (they were 17, 18, and 20, I think), I’m sure this line has become somewhat of a last-choice assignment for the staff of these trains (ie, when given their schedules, they heave a heavy sigh when they see they’re coming down here).  

Also, do you think they pass on information from engineer to engineer? Do you think they – the engineers - try to prevent it in any way other than blowing their horns more? Do they slow the trains when they approach certain crossings (like the one near me)? And do they support each other when it happens? Does it happen enough that there are that many other engineers who’ve hit people?  

This whole thing is so sad, and not only for the families of the boys, but also for the train staff. It’ll never be enough to hear “it wasn’t your fault” or “you know he wasn’t in his right mind” or “he shouldn’t’ve been playing on the tracks.” All the engineer remembers is that there was someone on the tracks and he hit him. And killed him. I’m sure that’s not an easy thing to deal with, or drive away from. And even when in their conscious mind they know that the boys were drunk, or off their medication, or lovesick, their unconsciouses must play vicious games with them, replaying the event over and over, during daylight and night.

I wonder if they get psychological help when this happens [there goes another series of horn blasts]. I mean, how can an engineer go back to work when he’s constantly hallucinating about young men playing on the tracks directly in front of his several-thousand-ton train? That can’t be good, for him or the train he’s driving. I wonder if they have on-site psychologists or if the engineers get time off to see someone on their own. Do they get automatically transferred to another train line? Do they retire early? What exactly do they do for the train staff when this happens? Has this even been an issue before? And, has this ever happened so many times in one short period on one line?  

We’re seeing a bunch of suicide prevention talks and articles geared toward the kids. I really wonder what’s being done for the staff of those trains… [another bunch of horn blasts].

Which Came First? "Buffalo Soldier" or "The Tra-La-La Song"?

 I realize I'm old enough to be contemplating things things of a much more serious nature, but this was brought up recently and I felt I needed to find out the answer: which came first, Bob Marley's song "Buffalo Soldiers":

(check out what he sings at 1:33 in the song)

or the theme song from The Banana Splits, also known as "The Tra-la-la Song"?

I had to dig a little, but I've indeed found that the tv theme debuted with The Banana Splits in 1968, and the pop song was recorded in 1980 and released in 1983 (posthumously).  Makes you wonder what Bob Marley was watching when he composed the song.  But wait, he was a rasta, which makes me wonder even more...

What Exactly IS a "Lolcat"?

A "Lolcat" is a picture of a cat - or kitten - that has a cute caption appended to it. The "lol" part of the name refers to the im shortcut which means "laugh out loud," which I do A LOT when I see these.  There's a certain new "lolcat" language that's developed too; it takes a bit to get used to it, but once you do it's great (and cute).  There are some wonderful ones out there: cute ones, funny ones, scary ones. Some of my favorites can be found on http://icanhascheezburger.com. This is a great site with thousands of funny pics, mostly of cats. Go there, have some fun, enjoy!

Big Black Dogs = Marshmallows (at least ours is!)

As you can see from the pic to the right, we have a big beautiful black doggy.  When our last (big black) dog died, and I became lonesome, I specifically looked for a large dark dog for our family.  I learned during that search that black dogs - specifically big black dogs - take the longest to get adopted out.  (Note: we're an "adopt" family; we didn't consider buying, as we think there are so many unwanted animals out there)  I was really amazed that so many people have a "thing" about black dogs, especially large ones, as I've found they've the best personalities and are great with children.   That's been my experience anyway.  And to point out how great they can be, I've tried to show people the big baby that is our dog.  He's sweet, energetic when he wants to be, swims better than most humans, and is not aggressive to other animals (he doesn't care about squirrels and is often scared by small dogs (really!!) ).  Relative to other dogs I know, he's the epitome of the well-trained family dog.

This article was in an area paper recently and it discusses the "black dog situation".  I hope you read it and consider a black dog the next time you go animal-shopping.  They're wonderful!

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080811/LIFE05/80811005/1006/LIFE

PS  Don't forget to look on Petfinder to see what animals are available to be adopted in your area:

http://www.petfinder.com/

Cheer Up Kids!

For whatever reasons, it's seemed to be a bit stressy around here lately.  So I've taken it upon myself to cheer you all up.

First off, a video from a classic movie, featuring two actors the likes of whom we won't see again:



And I thought of this last night, as the rain cleared and we chased a beautiful rainbow that seemed to end over the ocean:



Hope your day gets good!