by David | Dec 24, 2007 | media, technology
Google Maps’ Street View feature – wherein they send car-mounted cameras tooling around the streets of an area and use whiz-bang technology to stitch the photos together into an eye-level view of everything along the streets – has come to Boston. So,...
by David | Dec 22, 2007 | culture
As a follow-on to recent discussion about the paper accoutrements of pre-digital life, I sent my mother to the post office in the freezing cold to buy me 100 self-adhesive stamps today for my new year cards. OK, she was going anyway and I did give her money and it...
by David | Dec 21, 2007 | travel
I took the shuttle to New York tonight, to visit family and friends. As the plane banked left over lower Manhattan, entering final approach to La Guardia, I chanced to look up from my book and out the window, through a passing gap in the thin clouds, directly down...
by David | Dec 17, 2007 | culture, economics, technology
Sadly, that’s not quite the same thing as “the last check I’ll ever write” but it’s not far off. I’m deep into the ebills thing. Deep. Kudos to my bank for making this service so sticky. It used to be you had to pay extra for your...
by David | Dec 16, 2007 | economics, technology, transportation
Fellow geek driver C sent this my way, evidently having missed my April post on the same topic: Left-Hand-Turn Elimination It seems that sitting in the left lane, engine idling, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear so you can make a left-hand turn, is minutely...
by David | Dec 16, 2007 | photo
Well, I’m slightly ahead of the game this year, having posted the 2007 teaser on December 22. This year’s card will be a little more enigmatic than average, and in that vein, I’ll show you only a bit of it. I’ll say that you’ve seen part...
by David | Dec 9, 2007 | culture, economics
It’s winter. There’s no getting around it, denying it, bargaining with it, raging against it – it’s colder than a really cold thing. It’s also the “holiday season” when we get whipped up into a consumerist frenzy and fray our...
by David | Dec 8, 2007 | technology
At The Museum of Useful Things in Harvard Square, the answer is definitely, “yes!” They will seal “anything that will fit” in a 16-ounce tin (probably aluminum, but you know what I mean) can for $4, using a wonderfully old and weird...
by David | Dec 5, 2007 | culture, reading & writing, technology, working
More synchronicities and reveries. Last week, I joined some good folks from two of my favorite TLAs, PRC and MIT for a reception at the new gallery space at MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics, which was created in collaboration with the Photographic Resource...
by David | Dec 4, 2007 | technology, travel
It was my first semester away at college in a small Connecticut town. A group of other freshmen were talking about going down the hill into town and I heard the word “subway” in the conversation. “There’s a subway in this town?” I asked...
by David | Dec 1, 2007 | culture
I picked up J at her home on a quiet L-shaped street in Somerville and was blinded and reminded of the season by this house across the street. The proud family was gathered outside checking wiring and talking bulb sizes. People driving by stopped short, or pulled...
by David | Dec 1, 2007 | eating
I swear this sign was not put up because of me.
