Steve Jobs to Cupertino... I pay taxes

Quoting from Apple Insider:

When one councilwoman asked if free Wi-Fi for the city was a possibility, Jobs replied, "I'm a simpleton, I've always had this view that we pay taxes and the city pays to do this kind of thing. Now if we can get out of taxes, I'd be happy to put up Wi-Fi."

Awesome.

The video is here on YouTube.

Dan

Chromebooks

Chromebooks are very cool.  What do I like best?  I think it's the pricing.  The lease idea is very innovative as it the bundling with Verizon data.

$429 wifi, $499 with 3g.  The 3g version comes with 100Mb/mo of verizon wireless data — FOREVER!  No contract, no extra charge.

The leased versions are $20 to $28/mo and the EDU pricing includes google apps for my school.

Seems like a very hot ticket to me…

Endeavour last flight launch photo's

These photos from NPR are most awesome:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/16/136363560/amazing-shots-of-shuttle-endeavour-thanks-to-nasatweetup

Dan

Live TV From the Moon

I haven't posted in a long time - maybe a year.  I've done lots of reading and a few other amazing things.  One of them has been a insatiable desire to watch podcasts.

So I'm watching Spacevidcast and Dwight Steven-Boniecki is on talking about his book Live TV From the Moon -- The Story of Apollo Television (amazon, kcls).  As luck would have it my local library had a copy.

What an amazing labor of love.  Dwight is a 'video geek' and he became interested in what it took to send live video from space -- political, scientific, engineering and logistical challenges.  It's an awesome and untold story.  It even comes with a DVD.

If you are a space nut run, don't walk, to read this.

Dan

Barnes and Noble

I was in the Bellevue Barnes and Noble today.  A couple of things worth noting.

First you enter and there is a booth-type display for the Nook staffed by a full time person.  It was really desperate (or so it seemed).  No takers except us.  The main features seem to be that you can play music and log into facebook.  I thought this was pretty crazy -- why compete as a cheaper iPad.  That doesn't seem like a winner.

The other thing that was a surprise was how much *less* floorspace is devoted to books.  There are all kinds of gifts and "junk" in the store.  Even and especially in the children's section it's 50% non-book.  There are even fewer magazines.  Very depressing IMHO because I do love a really good book store.  I will admit that Amazon is pretty nice.

Dab

New Kindle

Very impressed.  Still "just" a book reader but a solid improvement.  All people with older Kindle's should upgrade.

Newest Kindle

Germs

Just finished Germs (amazon, kcls).

It was shocking and chilling to learn some of the history about biological warfare.  It was a nuclear-like arms race between the USA and Russia with people like Iraq having a destabilizing role.  While it would likely take a government-scale operation to weaponize something, it's totally a backyard job to make something to kill thousands or tens of thousands in a small area.

The book ends in early 2001 and therefore does not cover the anthrax attacks in the USA.  However there is a great deal of discussion about anthrax and the challenges in weaponizing it.