Thursday, March 11, 2004 Thursday, March 11, 2004We're planning to move further upstate from my job, for a number of reasons. This will extend my commute, but I think it's an acceptable tradeoff. Given that I'll be using more gasoline, and that prices will continue to rise as we descend Hubbert's Peak, my vehicle's fuel economy will be extremely important. This is easy to compare: FuelEconomy.gov lists the ratings for the Dodge Shadow and Honda CR-V. So, 67.2 miles per day, at 24 miles per gallon, at >$2.00 per gallon, is at least $5.60 per day in fuel costs, or $1,400 for the year.
The gas is still cheaper than my time.
8:50:38 PM # Google It!
categories: Family, Place
So much for the building trades as an employment engine.
2:24:54 PM # Google It!
David Sucher notes The New York Times' critic's thoughts on the New York Olympic Village.
My thoughts on the designs are quite frank: UGLY. Who the hell would want to live in those shitholes? Have we learned nothing from large-scale housing projects, and most of the rest of the 20th Century?
Modern materials do not age well.
1:51:07 PM # Google It!
categories: Place
My wife gave me The Da Vinci Code for my birthday, and I've been slowly reading it. I have stylistic issues with it, and little patience for Great Big Secrets. Oh, the horror. I am so shocked. BFD.
He'd better come up with Something Really Big, because this is just pathetic.
Eventually the chase scene starts, and the book picks up, to the extent that I read it until the batteries on my book light ran out. The characters are annoying: their symbolic interpretations dive to the level of "history is 'his story,'" and their abilities to solve riddles are almost pathetic. I have little patience with an author who hides things from the reader. Yeah, so the character's shocked. Why? Can you astonish me in the same way he is? This failure makes the whole work unbelievable.
Then again, if Dan Brown revealed their motivations in the first chapters, instead of the last, this would be less a thriller, and more a tragical farce.
10:23:51 AM # Google It!
Broadband Reports links to an AP article on E-Loan's offering callers a choice of whether to have their loans processed domestically or overseas. There's some discussion in the article about sending tax preparation paperwork to clerical workers in India.
My mother-in-law's firm does this sort of paperwork. There are certain advantages to having your paperwork done locally, by someone you know and trust. The funny part is that some of her clients live and work in India, for American firms, while she does their paperwork here.
10:16:49 AM # Google It!
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council is updating the regional transportation plan. They do have some concern about building walkable communities, and some suggestions for Brewster.
10:08:27 AM # Google It!
categories: Place
Tuesday, March 09, 2004The Recorder of February 13, 2004, has an editorial on the new-fangled 802.11g hotspot at the Highland County Public Library.
Highland County, arguably the last place people would expect to find choices, has stayed remarkably up-to-date. It's only been in the last few years that Highland has had local Internet access at all, beginning with service provided by CFW Communications. ... But so far nothing has topped — or stopped — the determined efforts of the Highland County Public Library to be ahead of the pack. Recently, the library began offering wireless service within its walls. This "Wi-Fi" stuff may be nothing but fancy computer service to those who haven't experienced it, but there are plenty who describe it as the wave of the future.
I know at least one librarian who does.
Highland is the least populated county East of the Mississippi, with 2,518 residents, and yet the library had 25,527 items in circulation last year.
10:36:31 PM # Google It!
Martin Schwimmer points to Malcolm Gladwell's latest, on the history of malls, in the The New Yorker. This looks like the sort of thing that, after I read it, I'll have some sort of intelligent comment like, "duh!"
Monday, March 08, 2004PLANetizen points to two interesting pieces: why don't small towns die? and a world-wide quality of life survey. The former is an article from American Scientist, "Small Town Story," [DOI] which attempts to model American migration patterns. Apparently small urban environments, of less than 1000 souls, don't just wither up and blow away: The number of small urban areas is relatively constant. The latter piece uses New York City as its baseline. I guess that means New York is normal?