November 11, 2005
It doesn't apply to us
Blackberry - This is so like our government. Excerpt from today's WSJ email to subscribers:
U.S. Government Asks Court To Ensure BlackBerry Service
The U.S. Government is seeking to ensure BlackBerry emails continue running among its staff if a Virginia court issues an injunction on BlackBerry sales and service in the U.S.
“The U.S. government is a major user of BlackBerry devices and technology to allow its employees to access email, and to send messages, when they are away from their offices,” the filing said. If there is an injunction “it is imperative that some mechanism be incorporated that permits continuity of the federal government's use of BlackBerry devices,” it said.
So the government might stop the sales and service of the RIM Blackberry über-cell phone/PDA device to the general population, especially professionals who find them invaluable for getting their work done on the road and in the field, but exempt themselves from having to do without their convenience. “Go ahead and stop the taxpayers who pay our salaries from buying & using this phone, but please, high court, don't let your injunction effect us!” Can't live by their own laws and rulings.
And no, I don't own one. My cell is the incredibly ordinary Motorola i530. No camera, no Java, no MP3 playing, no Bluetooth, no calendar, no email, just a black and white screen, but rugged as hell. Heck, I could fend off a mugger with my cell. My laptop is a laptop; my camera is a camera; my MP3 player is an MP3 player; my cell phone is a cell phone. To heck with “convergence”. I've been hearing the term for over half a dozen years now.
Chunky’s - I forgot to mention this earlier this morning. I was perusing the Milford Cabinet last night and there was a front page story that our humble little town might get a Chunky's Cinema Pub. If it becomes reality, that would be so cool. Our area would have such an unusual mix of quirky movie theatres: the Milford Drive In, the Wilton Town Hall, and a Chunky's.
Oh, I remember the Wilton Town Hall well...only went there once while Ernesto and I were still living in Nashua during our BK (Before Kids)life. Neat place. We saw Pedro Almodovar's "All About My Mother". I miss going to the movies more than once a year...
Posted by: kristen at November 14, 2005 07:56 PMHi Kristen,
It's been a few years since Michelle and I went to the movies together. Actually we didn't go very much before kids, but since then it's been ages. I take the kids a few times a year, especially at the major holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years or Easter. It gets them "out of the house" so that Michelle can prepare a holiday feast without a lot of interruption.
Nowadays we tend to just wait until things come to DVD. If you look at the queue on the right side of the main page, it shows what we currently have rented from Netflix. There's a huge tendency for it to be biased with movies waiting for Michelle and I to see. Almost anything that comes for the kids is consumed within a day or two and gets returned for more. The slightly more grown up stuff for us often sits there for a couple of weeks. By the time the kids are all in bed, we often don't have the stamina to stay up for a couple of hours to watch a movie. Sad, ain't it? ;-)
Now that you're moving back towards southern NH, you'll be glad to know that the Wilton Town Hall is also useful for families. For instance, last month I took the kids to see "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were' Rabbit" there at an afternoon matinee. We sat next to another family we know that also has five kids. Between the two families, they all enjoyed the time there. So yes, Wilton Town Hall isn't always esoteric movies. They do show the popular blockbuster now and then.
Posted by: Scott at November 14, 2005 10:10 PMRegarding RIM Blackberry devices, I found the following in the Washington Post:
Approximately 10 percent of the more than 3 million BlackBerry users in the United States, are state and federal government employees who use the devices to keep in contact when out of the office.
Posted by: Scott at November 17, 2005 05:44 AMToday (Nov 30th) the WSJ followed up with the following bit of editorializing:
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Whatever happens, however, the U.S. government wants to make sure its "crackberry" addicts still get their fix.
[...]
We don't know who's right on the technical point, and this is not the place to delve into the mess that is the U.S. patent system. What caught our eye, however, was the government's claim that it is "imperative" that its use of BlackBerries not be interrupted. Most businesses that use BlackBerries -- including ours -- would certainly be put out by any service interruption, but would find ways to work around it. Surely the government, which has gone from zero BlackBerry use to several hundred thousand in just a few years, could do the same?
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Suddenly the expression "above the law" comes to mind...
Posted by: Scott at November 30, 2005 10:22 AM