Signs I'm Getting Old - Technical Convergance Edition
I realize that I'm way the hell outside the target demographic for them (technically savvy, yes, but way too damb old), but I'm not sure I get the latest mobile convergence represented by portable everythings like the Nokia N-series. Okay, so the N80 has "a three-megapixel digital camera, email, MP3 player, personal organizer, game console, and WLAN connectivity". I read that as a crappy camera, a miniscule MP3 capacity until expanded, a game console with a tiny little screen and a personal information manager. What good does having all of this in one package do if each of the things that it does, it doesn't do very well? The N91, which is focused more on the music, has a 4GB hard drive for MP3s but a lower-res camera. Oh, and unlocked versions (in other words, the ones you can get without signing up for a 3-year commitment to some cell service) are running around $1000 US.
There's something really wrong with the TV ads that they're running for convergence devices like these as well. You see the cute 20-something bopping down the street listening to her tunes, switching over to pick up a 5-second phone call, then switching back to her tunes. Tell me, when is the last time you saw Miss Thing walking down the street (or having a coffee at Caribou or checking out at the drugstore or sitting in the waiting room at the dentist's office) when she wasn't actually talking on the phone? Incessantly? Loudly? Something tells me the MP3 component isn't actually going to get much use.
Like I said, I know I'm the wrong demographic and maybe in part it goes back to my discussion of MP3s in general a few weeks ago. I want a higher definition camera, my video games on a bigger screen with better graphics, my MP3s (when listening to a compressed format is acceptable) in the smallest formfactor possible (trying going for a 4 mile run listening to your tunes on an N91) and my cellphone to be as unobtrusive (and as little used) as possible. For the folks that they are marketing this stuff to, it appears (to me at least) that lower quality is an acceptable tradeoff for convenience. Me, I'll continue to festoon myself with various Eagle Creek bags to lug my crap around in and endure the snickers of the younger, hipper, lo-fi generation.
Tonight's Feature will be...
Gumball Rally! Quick, if you read this soon after I post, it's not too late! I first saw this movie when I spent a drunken weekend with Lex at Davidson when we were undergrads (it's interesting how many things I can point to as having happened during a drunken weekend with Lex) and it blew me away. Many, many times funnier than the later Cannonball Rally. And it gave me one of the movie quotes that I use most often, from Raul Julia as Franco Bertollini as he rips the rear view mirror off and throws it out the window: "What's-a behind me is-a not important!" Catch it on, of all things, the Speed Channel on digital cable tonight at 8pm EST.
The thing that would make the evening complete would be an un-censored showing of Used Cars, but alas, I can't find it anywhere.
Not The Best of Times, Not the Worst of Times
I will be quite happy to see the ass-end of this week. After such a wonderful, restful week at the Outer Banks over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was not prepared for this. A bad cold (or allergy attack - I sometimes can't tell which) that has given me a wracking cough, my everyday PC starting to spontanteously reboot and now will not come up at all (I was about to hit send on a reply to your email, mapgirl, when the system breathed its last - sorry!), the anticipation of a termination notice coming today for all of us on this account as the customer is taking the service back in-house but mostly the worry about my best little buddy Damien, who has a fast-growing, nasty-looking growth on his mouth and went in for surgery Thursday amid cautions from the vet of how quickly these things usually spread. Ack!
I didn't want to post any of this until I could do so with a little less downage, so now that we're reaching the end of the week things are definitely looking up. The really good news is that the vet called late yesterday and while they wanted to keep him overnight, Damien came through the surgery well, they removed the growth as well as a probably unrelated lump from his left side and his x-rays showed nothing in his chest. Both lumps are being sent to the lab with results coming mid-week. I know he's likely going to have reoccurrences but my main fear that we were going to have to make some tough decisions right now are allayed and he's coming home this evening. Almost as good, my boss let me know yesterday that he's got more than enough work on other accounts for me and that he's gotten my termination notice cancelled. I expected it to be rescinded later regardless, but Lord knows I'd rather not get it in the first place! The computer thing is still a problem (I'm using the computer I built specially for photo processing and my vinyl audio rips to do this - I don't want to turn it into a general-purpose machine) but I went out to Best Buy to pick up a replacement power supply (I'm pretty sure that's the problem) and realized that for an additional 20 bucks I could get a spiffy new shiny black Antec case so now instead of a reclamation project I've got something fun to do Sunday while it rains all day! Still coughing my head off (didn't get much sleep last night) but these things usually run their course in a week so I'm anticipating feeling a lot better by Sunday.
This is all by way of apologizing for being a bit self-absorbed the last couple of months - between the studio tour, the much-needed rest last week and with the yuckiness of this week, I haven't raised my head up very often to look beyond what's happening within a hundred feet of wherever I am. I think it's time to get back in touch with the rest of the world.
