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(COOLLIST) A few small repairs
A few things struck me during my month in Florida. I'm not talking
about that tire I hit on I-95... more like ideas.
1) Commercial radio can be very bad. I guess I've been spoiled by the
Atlanta and Austin radio markets. Atlanta has 88.5 and 91.1 that
usually have something that I either like or something I've never
heard before. South Florida had very little of that. I was
complaining about the state of radio to a fellow programmer there, and
he told me the only decent station was one run by high schoolers
during the day for credit. Most of the time, I was stuck with one of
two stations, the interchangeable Mix 102.3 and Planet Radio 103.5.
I'm not sure how these both managed to be on the air at the same time
-- more than once I flipped from one to the other to find them playing
the same song. Overall, 102.3 was slightly better, but only because
they were very new and had few advertisements.
2) While commercial radio sucks, they occasionally play good songs.
Every once in a while, I would have to crank the stereo on the
bare-bones rental with which I was stuck because something would come
one that really grabbed me. Specifically, Paula Cole's single "Where
Have All the Cowboys Gone?" and the Shawn Colvin track "Into the
Fire". However, if I hear the Wallflowers again, I think I will
scream.
3) Cruise control is one of the greatest applications on
micro-controllers and should never be omitted from a rental vehicle.
Especially when you're driving back to your hotel at 2 in the morning,
trying to keep your speed just below the point where the patrol cars
will notice.
4) Geeks are everywhere. You just don't see them much because they
tend to work long hours.
Anyway, I'm back in Austin for the near future now. No travel plans
until May when I go to Charlie's wedding. I just saw my buddy Gail
and her friend George who road-tripped from GaTech out to Texas for
Spring Break -- it was a lot of fun.
Finally, a sad tale. I returned back to Austin to find out that my
favorite origami store had folded. Gotta run!
--
Benjamin L. Combee (combee@techwood.org) <URL:http://www.yak.net/combee/>
...if the highlight of your day is prowling through signatures looking for
pithy quotes or neat phrases, then consider a career with the IRS or NSA...
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