Since the weather has been wet and windy here in Florida, we decided to take a road trip north from Delray Beach towards Fort Pierce. Our plan was to putter along and check on a couple sailboats. We opted to drive the A-1-A route along the shore and stopped at several of the pull-offs along Hutchinson Island. Before grabbing lunch, we spent 30 minutes in the wind along the jetty at Fort Pierce Inlet (below). The pier fishermen were out and the boats contemplating venturing out into the Atlantic all turned back; it was a bit rough. All in all we had a nice day and enjoyed both the drive and looking at boats for sale – AND ‘no’ … we didn’t buy one … YET. 😉
It’s hard to do much better than grab 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place at what many consider to be the toughest race on the planet: The Dakar Rally. This impressive and resounding victory marks another important step on the road to dispelling the myths that still linger around what TDI clean diesel technology can do. Congrats to Team Volkswagen and the individual winners who took their respective Touareg TDIs all the way to the podium. Check this gizmag post for in-depth coverage of the race, as well as some great photos from this year’s Dakar Rally.
One of the noticeable economic signs for average Americans that our economy might be in recovery is the rise of fuel prices. An article in this mornings Wall Street Journal stated that “Gasoline prices are throttling toward $3 a gallon” and that “gasoline futures have rallied 21% since hitting a low in February to close Wednesday at $2.2851 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange.”
While rising retail prices for gasoline is expected to continue as demand increases during the vacation and travel season, the recession has been keeping people closer to home and spending their money on necessities … if they have money. Currently gasoline is averaging $2.75/gallon which is up 5.5% and 42% higher than last spring. The Energy Information Administration also released a report this week saying that gasoline “will likely exceed $3 a gallon at times.”
BUT … just to be a contrarian, China is experiencing inflationary pressures which could trigger weak demand for oil keeping crude prices from rising as demand in the United States returns – LINK.
Murphy’s Law enacted itself today while I was enjoying continued R & R; a work related issue came up requiring me to access information with my computer. Unfortunately this was information that I didn’t properly back up during my recently Windows 7 reformat and updated notebook computer. I of course have a backup, but it is at home on my Hammer NAS N1200 and there is even a copy on my Passport 320GB hard drive. Unfortunately I don’t have the HD with me (who really wants to carry more gadgets on a plane?) and I didn’t set up the ability to FTP to the NAS. Frustrating to depend on my client for information on a previous project. (BTW, I’m including my son’s Palm Centro photo on the right for today’s personal vacation photo)
While pondering the thought of correcting the problem when I return, I wondered just how my current connection was going to work anyway … so I ran a DSLReports speed test on my Sprint Palm Pre and MyTether app tonight – passable.
While I do enjoy a routine that includes focusing what’s going on in the world, it’s nice to escape and check out for a few days.
After a perfect ‘beach Monday,’ our day Tuesday was cloudy and smattered with sprinkles, although temps were in the 70’s. We spent the morning hiding from the rain, but still on the beach. Taylor and I headed to Panera for lunch and to be able to check email and return a couple phone calls for work. Gma and Gpa took us to Duffys for ribs and I had to agree that they neared my memory of our old favorite, Tom’s Ribs, from a decade ago; wow has time flown by?
We’re enjoying a relaxing spring day listening to the wind and waves in the Florida sunshine. It is a welcome change from the 2009 – 2010 winter that seemed to have lasted long enough, at least in our corner of Ohio. Hopefully we will return in a couple days feeling regenerated … I’m sensing my batteries recharging already.
We had a slow start to the day after a frustrating delayed flight out of Cincinnati — we were switched to a smaller plane. I was sardined into the just in front of the lavatory seat behind two babies (with full diapers) and a 3-4 year old (really a very good kid). Thankfully things got better once on the ground and we’re now comfortably enjoying my mother and father-in-laws hospitality. I’ll make tonight’s post a quick and post a Palm Pre 13 second test of Facebook’s video embed feature for the appreciation of a couple of my son’s friends … here you go Mike and Aaron – Mmm. 😀
I’m a couple days late in commenting on the newly released Facebook application for the Palm webOS smartphones, but wanted to mention that it has been significantly improved. If you are a Facebook user, or even a newbie, the enhancements available for the Pre and Pixi make the popular social networking site almost worth using. Currently I avoid using FB since my college age children and their friends couldbe sharing things I really don’t want to know – although I’m sure they are spending all their free time studying in the library.
The updated Facebook application has an entirely new interface of six buttons and a quick update bubble. The free application can be downloaded directly to the phone from the Palm app catalog and now includes a helpful datebook EVENT button – great for remembering birthdays and social events that are being shared.
Posting “What’s on your mind?” is as easy as pie and pops up as the default or by selecting the NEWS button; it also includes a camera button for those using the Pre or Pixi’s excellent camera or internal photo storage (also the new webOS 1.4 update now includes video camcorder features with a direct upload to Facebook – sample here).The PHOTOS button itself offers access to galleries of shared photos which is really slick. This was a favorite feature for sharing photos … although it was very good in the previous version. The INBOX button includes a friends avatar, name and first line from your friends messages, along with approximate date (ex. 1 week ago). An easy to use SEARCH button pulls up access to your friends in a list format and it can be searched by ‘flick’ scrolling or by typing a first, second, third letter in order to drill down and find the correct person’s Facebook “wall” (options then include “Wall, Info or Pics”). Finally the ME button brings up one’s own “Wall” (Info or Pics) as well as a place to post. Everything works exceptionally fast and without lag.
All in all, this a significantly improved application for the Palm webOS platform … and almost enough to get me using Facebook.
The current Obama philosophy of social and economic justice continues with an attempt to move forward with expanding government, even as polls show Americans objecting to the existing health care bills. The concern for many of us is that we are becoming a nation of ‘takers.’ Current progressive Democrats are moving in a direction that squeezes the ‘makers’ in this country too hard. Recent articles and opinion editorials that I’ve been reading has me pondering what Americans really want: a government centered social democracy like Europe … or individual centered liberties and rights our nation has had for over two hundred years.
We want “a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, but shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement.”
— Thomas Jefferson
John Stossel highlighted and offered a few thoughts last month on how local, state and federal government in our country continues to grow and is squeezing even the smallest businesses to the point of giving up. Time is running out to save traditional America and as more and more of our fellow citizens are becoming dependent on Uncle Sam – when ‘takers’ outnumber ‘makers’ it will be a lost cause (Stossel Hulu video below).
March 4 is the anniversary of the first flight of the airship Hindenburg, which is better know for the 1937 German Zeppelin disaster at Lakehurst Naval Air Station New Jersey. Aviation contact Dan from airships.net(Twitter: @airships) emailed some information about the website which includes sections of special interest for pilots,such as flight procedures, flight instruments and navigation.
The airships.net site is a non-commercial enterprise and reviewed by a team of respected airship historians – link. The website includes interesting photos, diagrams, and video about the Hindenburg’s history, technology, passenger decks, crew areas, a flight schedule, passenger lists, information about the Hindenburg disaster, etc. If you have an aviation interest, this site is a good source of accumulated archival information; I’m adding it to my blogroll. (Maiden Voyage YouTube video clip below)
