Sunday, May 22, 2005

Dramatic pre-storm beach pictures. 

Movie of a woman playing on beach with dog pre-storm.  

Steve Gillmor: "Schmidt says the battle is over and RSS has won." 

Rex Hammock discovered the truth about my new Sienna.  

Wow Frank Paynter sings like the Beach Boys!  

Dori Smith: "He won't read this, but it's kind of fun to needle someone when you know it's completely behind someone's back." 

Today's song: "On Deadman's Curve, I used to shut 'em down..." 

The Media Drop lists newspapers with RSS feeds. 

Potkast calls itself "The Google Of Podcasts." 

Interesting application of OPML by Wiley & Wrox. 

I plugged the OPML into my directory displayer, and it worked.  

Adding spice to Joi's online life 

Joi Ito is in a rut and is asking for... well I'm not sure what he's asking for. But I have some advice anyway. Heh. Here it is.

Try podcasting! It's fun and new, and people are happy when they're doing new things and growing. I'm having a great time, almost a year into it, still discovering new stuff every day.

And the flamers, well, they're part of the package. They're the web equivalent of people shooting at you. And if people are shooting at you, as some wise person once said, you must be doing something right. Really, I'm not kidding. I actually talked about this in yesterday's podcast.

You should listen to the flamers, up to a point. They are an indicator that lots of people are listening. Yes, they drown out the good people. It takes some time to get used to that. But the good guys figure out how to get through to you anyway.

I've been down the road you're going down, it's actually a loop.

New car 

I did the deed. I bought a new car yesterday. I spent more time shopping for this one than I ever had before. I shopped while driving cross-country, looking at cars parked in rest stops, reading reviews on Edmunds, Yahoo, MSN and others. Perhaps the best review I read was written by Philip Greenspun. When I had narrowed it down to two models, I used the excellent resources on the web to find out what others had paid for the same car in the last few months, and to find out what my trade-in was worth.

I got the car for two reasons: My old trusty Lexus RX-300 was six years old, and there's a lot of new technology in cars in the last six years; and I needed more space. Since I live without a permanent home, at least for now, my car has to be able to carry all I need to live. I couldn't get a bicycle, for example, because I had no way to move one. This new car, while not much bigger than the old one, is configured for cargo, I can get a bike now. That's an important innovation because I've been walking so much and losing weight that walking now no longer is very much exercise at all. If I want to get to the next level I have to upgrade.

I went with the Toyota Sienna over the Honda Odyssey largely on price and availablility. The local Toyota dealer had several cars that fit the bill, the Honda dealer had only one. So I was able to work out a better arrangement with Toyota. As both vendors say, both are excellent autos, full of features, fun to drive, really groomed for the market. I looked at Dodge and Chevy too, but the American cars just aren't in the same class as the Japanese.

I'll probably be reporting on the technology of the car as the weeks go by. I'm going back on the road in July, heading west, of course, because there is no more east (I'm looking out the window at the Atlantic Ocean as I write this). I also plan to spend much of August in Europe -- London, Switzerland, Italy and on trains.

Anyway, it's so exciting to have a new car! I really like this one. I think I'll take a couple of trips today.