Quixotic Perspectives

I ordered a new computer Tuesday – a Toshiba M400 tablet pc.

Almost three years ago, with the help of my workplace at the time, I got my first laptop computer, a Toshiba Portege 3500, a first generation tablet pc. I have been thrilled with what it has enabled me to do since that time. I love taking class notes on my computer in my own handwriting. It allowed me to create an online newsletter for my classmates within my first year at grad school studying Chinese Medicine. It seems like it has become a portable extension of my brain.

But, the A/B wireless standard is beginning to show its limitations, especially as I have more desire to get away from my desk. At almost three years of seven days a week of frequent use (at least for someone who is not in a 24/7 tech-related job), my current machine is getting a little long in the tooth for me. Also, the arrangement that had been made on the business lease essentially put me into a perpetual lease because of a fair market value rather than $1 buyout option (not my doing).

With the new order, I went with 12 months same as cash. Bye-bye never-ending lease. Because of a backlog of orders (it’s a popular machine), I may not see my new computer for nearly a month. I’m very, very excited both for the machine itself and for the experience of the building anticipation as it comes closer to delivery. Little kid at Christmas excited…

I thought it might be interesting to track some of the specification differences between the first generation through to the third generation to highlight some of the things I’m looking forward to.

My PDA has infrared, but its slowly dying, so I’ll probably be switching to a Bluetooth-enabled device eventually, in the meantime, I still have my docking cradle.

For the most part, it seems like Toshiba has made incremental advances between the three generation of tablets. Between the M200 and the M400, some interesting changes take place in moving to an internal expansion bay for the optical drive. Most notably, video goes from a dedicated graphics card to integrated graphics with dynamic memory allocation. A little more subtle, the operational shock and vibration limits go down.

I’ve been impressed with my Portege 3500’s ability to take a beating without a whimper. I’ll be interested to see how my new M400 will feel.

The M400 also looks like it’s moving to support more multimedia peripherals such as a digital camera or perhaps high definition digital video and audio through the docking BUS.

Mostly, I’m looking forward to taking advantage of the speed of the 2.0 GHz duo-core (related TabletPC ReviewSpot Core Duo Article), 667 MHz BUS speed combo on software that hasn’t played nice together on my 1.33GHz, 133MHz-BUS speed,1 GB Ram current machine.
Oh – and the upgraded wireless.

And better speakers. (Are they going to be buried under the screen in tablet mode? If so, how will they sound?) Of course, just about anything will sound better than my current speaker. Although when I’m at my desk, I tend to use external speakers with a subwoofer through the headphone port.

Oh oh oooh! and I just want to play with the fingerprint reader!

Of course, I’m going to have to try the latest beta of Vista once my new toy arrives for pure geek pleasure. It will probably take me at least three to six months of saturation followed by intensive psychological therapy to revert back to only moderately geeky.

Checking the status of my order online, I see that my warranty has already shipped (can’t wait!!!), and the order for the computer is being processed.

UPDATE

Estimated Ship Date is now April 5th. Maybe I won’t have to wait a month. YAY!!!

This seems too much like the philosophy of the current administration, doesn’t it? Very scary…

Another Calvin & Hobbes from uComics.com.

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times is one of my favorite columnists. He is one of their “Premium” columnists behind their firewall, which I know many refuse to pay for. But for columnists like Kristof, Krugman, and Rich, I’m willing to pay.

In his Sunday column, Kristof returns to the subject of violence in the Darfur region of Sudan, which is now spilling over into Chad. Kristof had invited Bill O’Reilly to join him on a trip to Darfur, and even received over $700,000 in pledges from readers to sponsor O’Reilly’s trip (a round trip – I imagine the pledges might have been even more to leave O’Reilly there).

Bill O’Reilly refused to join me on this trip, passing up the $727,000 that my readers had pledged to sponsor his trip to Darfur. But Ann Curry of the “Today” show and a top-notch NBC crew did travel with me on this trip. Unlike Bill, Ann didn’t flinch at traveling in janjaweed-infested areas or at staying in a primitive $4-a-night “hotel” with no plumbing. (O.K., she did shudder just a little at the wildlife in the hotel’s outhouse.) If you want to break your heart, watch her reports beginning tomorrow – and ABC and CBS, where are you?

This trip took Kristof and Curry to Koloy, Chad.

Politely but insistently, the people in this town explained that they were about to be massacred.

President Bush is showing signs that he may be ready to stand up to the thugs in Sudan, but China is protecting Sudan, Europe is inert, and the African Union can’t even muster the courage to call for immediate U.N. peacekeepers. So the people here are probably right to resign themselves to be slaughtered – if not sooner, then later.

This entire area gets no visits from diplomats and no help from the U.N. or aid groups, because it is too risky. Only one organization, Doctors Without Borders, sticks it out, sending in a convoy of intrepid doctors three days a week to pull bullets out of victims.

The people of Koloy are still waiting to be massacred. Think for a moment what it would be like to huddle with your family every day, paralyzed by fear, waiting for the end.

And then remember that all this can be stopped. You can go to www.millionvoicesfordarfur.org and send a postcard to President Bush, encouraging him to do more. At www.genocideintervention.net, you can find a list of “10 things you can do right now.”

Maybe it seems that you have no real power to change anything in Koloy, but, frankly, right now you’re the only hope that the people in Koloy have.

There are many things happening in the world around us that make us feel powerless, and stories like those that trickle out of Darfur can top the list. At times it seems like Kristof’s is a lonely voice in a dark and hostile wilderness. But I have read his work and I have seen people respond to his calls for action. Sometimes it is a collection of thousands of little actions that are necessary to make the difference.

For those that subscribe to Times Select, you can read Kristof’s full column here.

If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it? – Steven Wright

When Exercise Can’t Lose

A refreshingly straightforward Washington Post article about diet, exercise, and losing weight.

From uComics.com

Via Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly Via Talkleft.

And the original source: http://neuropolitics.org/.

BTW, just in case you haven’t noticed a couple of the links to the right, I’m definitely a cat person, and miss having a cat. Actually, I think I need more friends with cats who I can visit…

I recently had a last straw customer service experience with my soon-to-be former internet service provider, SBC. While their service has never been extraordinary, I did appreciate being able to take care of several services with one bill. But it’s not worth it anymore.

My wireless router developed a problem where it would not consistently transmit a wireless signal. The USB connection seemed to work, although it had problems connecting once or twice also.

For the wireless connection, I escalated through a series of steps to try to get it to work. I shut down and restarted my computer. I used the Windows repair connection function. I turned off and reset the modem/wireless router. I tested my computer’s ability to connect wirelessly in other locations to other networks I used. I came to the conclusion that the problem was indeed with the router, that it wasn’t going to resolve itself, and that I had reached the end of my limited knowledge and experience. Time to call tech support.

To be honest, SBC’s customer service support is not the worst in the world. After about 20 minutes of searching through their online support FAQs, I was A) able to determine that my issue wasn’t to be found in the FAQs and B) able to find a number to call for live tech support. A toll free phone call and somewhere between three and five hoops to jump through with the annoying automated voice system I was able to speak to a “tech”.

At least SBC isn’t Netflix… Via Biz Bytes

Like so many companies these days, Netflix makes it nearly impossible to find a customer service phone number online. I spent a solid hour looking for one. Nothing. Nada. Not even close. They would rather drive you to the brink of insanity than let you speak to an actual person. … given no other choice, I carefully crafted my e-mail and demanded a specific, personal response to my questions.

….After a heated exchange, I eventually got a human being (I think) to respond to my e-mail. Perhaps their ERM system is designed to recognize patterns of escalating expletives, and then, and only then, refer it to a service rep. Dan Briody

a whole lot (more…)

Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be!
- Don Quixote via Wikiquote

I have a friend who thinks I have misnamed this site. I don’t think she understands the reference and thinks its too obscure.

From the musical Man of la Mancha , “To dream an impossible dream,” and “Dulcinea ” are beautiful pieces of music. I’ve been able to see the whole musical once and have come across bits and pieces of it several times. I have also read a significant portion of the first book in Tobias Smollett’s translation, but haven’t gotten to the second book.

The thing I most admire about the story is its simultaneous simplicity and complexity. Much of Don Quixote’s actions are utter folly, but even so, he succeeds in changing the world around him. Over the course of the story, there is incredible movement in the characters, particularly in how the roles of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza flip.

Reality can change based on our perceptions. Sometimes by stretching our perceptions, we can achieve previously unimagined acts of beauty. I think some of the most rewarding times in our lives will be spent tilting at windmills.

If you’re not familiar with the story, you can read more about it at Wikipedia. If you’d like to go further, you can read the story online here. If you’re interested, I would definitely recommend seeing a musical version of the story.

In another life it seems, I majored in philosophy as an undergrad. In particular. I was drawn to 19th and 20th century continental existential and phenomenological thinkers. While there are many notable philosophers here, for me, Soren Kierkegaard stands out.

Before going further, let me note that I will make no claim to any great depth of philosophical study. In the course of my undergraduate work, rarely did we read texts cover-to-cover. Instead, we would read fragments, chapters or segments that would bring up key points, and then we would explore those thoughts.

I bring up Kierkegaard at this time for a couple of reasons: first for his use of pseudonymous authorship, and second for his rigorous pursuit of a self-defined authenticity toward his understanding of his own identity. Most scholars view each pseudonym to have a unique voice. Further, most do not believe that the aggregation of pseudonymous views could be compiled somehow to arrive at Kierkegaard’s personal views.

Regarding authenticity, Kierkegaard was a Christian who didn’t want his identity as Christian to be defined by church authorities with whom he disagreed. This desire went so far that he famously declared that he did not want to be buried in a church cemetery.

Johannes Climacus was the pseudonymous name Kierkegaard used in one of the texts I studied. As I recall from my studies of so long ago, Kierkegaard admonished others that his was a personal journey and we should not follow him. While I admire and would like to emulate the style, I do not want to duplicate his steps or reinterpret the meaning of his work for eternity. It evolves with the changing relationship of author and reader to the work over time through different experiences.

To represent personal changes in authorship perspectives, I will sometimes use the handle Impossible Dreamer, and other times J.C., in deference to Kierkegaard. Though I have a notion what each will represent, I expect that may also change over time.

J.C.