Fast update while waiting for a flight

They rolled up the radio promptly at 2pm Friday, and I've been off the net since then. More later (maybe). Luckily the Portland airport has free, fast wireless; I have about another 20 minutes to boarding.

Friday afternoon I hooked up with a small tour going to FreeGeek. Fascinating operation -- they take in used computers (in any condition), recycle what can't be made to work, sell a few in their store, and give away the rest. After a volunteer has built six computers (which includes trainng, from the ground up), they get to keep one. Debian GNU/Linux, of course.

Spent a delightful Friday evening with cflute. Dinner, driving tour of Portland, ice cream, minor adventure getting the backup key out of the lockbox, house tour, music. Detail later, maybe.

Spent all day Saturday walking, mostly on the waterfront. From the access point behind the convention center, up the East Esplanade past the OMSI to where it ends at the opera house, then over whichever bridge that was (map's packed -- details and pictures later) to the park along the other bank. Detour to find Powell's travel store, which is gone. Obsolete map. Detour to Powell's main store. Feed the addiction. Up past the Broadway Bridge. Back to the hotel over the Steel Bridge walkway. Thai food in Chinatown -- the waiter recognized my penguin button and Freegeek flier -- turns out he volunteers there. Crash and burn, a tired but happy bear.

Got to bed around 11 -- good thing; there were people coming and going all night; woke at 2:30 or so. Snatches of sleep until I finally gave it up around 6:30. Coffee and a maple bar at the Coffee People. Out to the airport. And here I am, with about 5 minutes until my plane boards.

It's good to be back home...

... even if the second thing I had to do (after handing out the swag) was the dishes. But next time I come home to more dishes than fit in the sink, they stay there until somebody else does them. OK?

Among other things, it's nice coming back to my 17" monitor, my IBM keyboard, and my Linux desktop.

Gear

As it turned out, it was another hour before the plane was even ready to board. Something about not being able to put fuel in the previous flight, because flights were being diverted from Seattle. Is it just me, or has air travel gotten to be more of a hassle over the last 30 years? But this post isn't about airplanes...

First of all, let's consider the Mac laptop, which quit again shortly after I posted last. Stupid piece of **** -- basically a case of more beauty than brains, I think. Even when it's working, I can't stand limiting myself to a single button, the braindead single menu bar, a single desktop, and that horrid trackpad. Yeah, I know, I could buy fixes for some of that. The point is that on Linux I don't have to. Yes, I could use a mouse or a trackball, but not on an airplane or in my lap. And the menu bar, and the click-to-focus that goes with it, are unfixable. Oh, and the keyboard -- combined with the one-button trackpad, even browsing in Firefox is a two-handed operation. Feh. Think I'll order a mini for work (since many of my coworkers are writing software for it), and scrap the laptop. And when chaoswolf gets her Fujitsu laptop back from being repaired, the Thinkpad will be mine again. Mine, I tell you! Bwahahahaha!

Now let's switch to my Casio Exilim camera. In contrast to the Mac, this has performed perfectly, and has been a joy to use. With the strap around my right wrist (I'm left-handed, which helps), it rests easily in my palm, ready to use. A right-handed person probably wouldn't find it as convenient. The strap, I believe, came from a USB drive or some such -- it didn't come with the camera. My joy would be complete if I didn't have to take the stupid cradle along -- why can't I just plug a USB cable into it? For that matter, why can't I charge it through USB? But on the whole, it's a win.

Finally, my new Travelpro Flightpro 3 rolling tote bag. It's capable of hauling a considerable amount of paper or other stuff -- more than one can comfortably carry, in fact. That's OK, as long as it's rolling. Rather awkward on stairs, though, and there's this unfortunate little pause as you bend over to stow or deploy the handle. Mostly I like it -- I got in the habit of dumping my shoulder-bag into the big compartment, and carrying a water bottle in the side net bag. Besides a cavernous main compartment there are two thinner ones next to it, plus a flat one that's a little smaller on the outside. Let's call the big one "0", making the others 1, 2, and 3. I usually put the laptop in 1. Compartment 2 has a pair of smaller zippered pouches; I put a mouse in one and the Mac's flying-saucer power wart in the other. I just left the Mac connected to the wart, which made it fast and easy to plug in anywhere. Especially convenient since the Mac is basically unuseable on battery at the moment. It fits nicely under a convention-center chair, so it's out of the way. On the minus side, it fits under some but not all airplane seats -- I had to put it in the overhead bin on the flight home (in a 737). Going out, in an MD-80, it fit just fine on the aisle seat but wouldn't have fit under the window. What ever happened to standardization?

Oh, right -- this post isn't about airplanes.