A Dreary Bay-Area Day

Last night I rode back to my sailboat from my office just before the rain started. I managed to put my bike away and then the sky opened slightly with a heavy mist coating everything. I just buttoned up the boat and pulled out my guitar for several hours of practice.

The rain falling on the boat deck has a very comforting sound, making it easy to fall asleep. This morning I woke up to the same sounds of rain around me. I altered my usual routine to make sure I stayed as dry as possible by staying inside the boat. Then at the last minute, I got my bike out of the boat, vacuumed the cabin, and rode off to work. I arrived less than 15 minutes later and very pleased with the high-quality rain gear I purchased several years ago.

Once at the office, I spent more time on an exercise bike looking out the window at the rain soaking everything outside. Fortunately I could look at the miserable weather from the comfort of the company gym and didn't have to try and go anywhere on my bicycle.

Now I am at the San Francisco airport getting ready to catch my flight back to Salt Lake and am pleasantly surprised that my projected departure is still on time. I also find myself in front of a large window looking out at the poor baggage handlers having to do duty in the elements outside. It does not look pleasant.

It is days like this that make you want to curl up with a good book or jot down your thoughts on a computer. When I look at the technology involved in keeping me from having to live in the outside elements I have found something to be thankful for. That is important during this time of the year.

No Exciting Computers

I had a bit of time to think as I walked the 3 miles to my office this morning. Mostly I thought about how I had already crossed the threshold of distance to where summoning Uber seemed a waste even though it was raining. What driver would pick me up for such a short drive. I did think about other things and one of them surfaced again when I go to the gym at work and prepared to get another 30 minutes of exercise. I briefly glanced at the locker-room TV and noticed that one of the ESPN commentators has the same laptop I do. It seems like the vast majority of people have settled on the same few laptops. There just doesn't seem to be any exciting new computers these days.

Naturally I have spent part of my day thinking about the state of computing hardware and what would make me excited. The size of a laptop is something that used to differentiate various models. Now it seems we have settled on small, medium, or large and each has its merits. We also used to have peripherals such as floppy, CDROM, or DVD disk drives. Now it seems that everyone relies on network connections and doesn't need removable media any more. What about case material? Well you have the brushed aluminum look, solid black carbon fiber, or some colored plastic cover. All of that is boring. About the most exciting difference between laptops is the lit brand logo that appears on the back of the screen. Some love the simple Apple logo while others prefer the 3 intertwined-snakes for the gamer specific Razer laptops.

As I thought about the lack of excitement in the computer market right now, I realized that we can't really blame the hardware manufacturers. It is tough to get excited about new hardware when it all runs the same old software. You have your choice between Windows, MacOS, or Linux. Even then Linux really isn't an option for most people as it is still more of a hobbyist's operating system unless you are working with servers.

So what will it take to get me excited about a new computer or laptop? I don't know. Perhaps this just means there is a new opportunity out there for something extraordinary to come along. I would hate to think that computers have evolved as far as they will go.

Low-Tech Solutions

Last night it was time to fly from the Bay Area home to Salt Lake. I fly with a friend who lives in Utah like me and also works just South of San Francisco. He usually picks me up at my office and we drive to the Oakland airport. My buddy has arranged parking in a garage close to the airport but it still requires that we walk about a mile to catch a shuttle bus to the terminal. Usually it is a pleasant walk even though it might be in the dark. Last night it was pouring rain. That complicated things.

We knew it was going to be a wet walk and so I picked up some large trash bags from the office. I also had the foresight to copy down the numbers to 3 different taxi cab companies that operate in the Oakland airport area.

We got to the garage and decided it was too wet to try and walk, so we called each of the cab companies. Others must have had a similar idea because we couldn't get a taxi for 30 minutes. That was going to make us late for the flight. Ultimately we had to walk to the shuttle stop armed with only our large garbage bags. We stayed mostly dry until the sidewalk started flooding. It didn't take long before our feet were soaked. Our only recourse was to pull out more plastic bags and put them over our feet. The bags lasted only moments before they succumbed to the asphalt and grew holes.

My travel partner and I made it to the airport and while we were not completely dry, our luggage was, thanks to our low-tech plastic bags. With all of the technology around us, sometimes it is something as simple as a plastic bag that can solve a problem.