A Modest Proposal for traffic safety.

The GPS receiver has become a must have accessory for many automobile owners.

Its amazing powers of location coupled with an accurate map can help to guide the most directionally challenged to their destination.
The problem arises  when the GPS's internal map no longer matches the reality of the road.
Updates are available from the manufacturers, usually at a cost.
There is a technological cost as well. The units generally do not update themselves.
They require a web connected PC or Mac, software, cables, and the ability for follow instructions.
In short, beyond the capabilities of most users.
Most people will use the same GPS until it physically fails.
It is painfully obvious when a GPS directed driver with an out of date map meets a new traffic pattern.
The car slows, turn signals go on, but the expected turn does not materialize.
The car stops in traffic, the drivers brain apparently has locked up.
Most of the time there is adequate signage directing drivers to the appropriate turn or ramp for the new traffic pattern.
The magic box, does not show the new traffic pattern , so the only solution must be illegal U-turns and making your own road.

The solution could be found in several places.
GPS units could be required to update their maps regularly, without user intervention. That would require a radio system , and cost more.

Automotive GPS systems could use something like Google Maps or TeleNav which do not hold local maps, but download map tiles of the area via a cellular data connection.
These maps are generally updated more frequently. Most smartphones have this capability today.
Just Bluetooth or WiFi link the phone with the auto navigation system.

The basic GPS could be cheaper and not upgradeable. They just quit after some time period, 1 year or there about. That GPS would go out of date, but then become unusable and no longer a problem.
Not very sustainable.

Make the portable GPS easier to update, with reminders. Really annoying reminders.
 Keep the price about the same.

I just want to keep people headed in the right direction, in spite of their techno toys.

In the spirit of easter

So today was a slow day.
I ripped old vinyl to FLAC's.
Got them on the NAS so I can enjoy them again.
The workflow took a while to get used to.
I am using Audacity, a right nice product. Version 2.0 was just released a couple of weeks ago.
It would be nice to have something that would automatically split the tracks, but hey if I Really wanted something like that I should learn to write the proper scripts or something like that.
Looking through the old albums was fun.
It makes more sense to me at this time to rip old records rather than buy new cd's.
I don't listen to them enough to worry about the quality and I already spent the money thirty years ago.
Anyhow it was nice to listen to some classics from the '70's .

Once again, letting a couple of days lapse between musings.
When I saw Curate used in story about a selection of coffee in a shop I had to bite my tongue.
I don't want to seem obsessed, so I will drop that train of thought.

My very short drive to work offers a postage stamp view of humanity on it's way somewhere.
It sort of balances out.
There seem  just as many boorish swine drivers as there are polite ones.
It does seem to matter a little if the person behind the wheel is traveling in a straight path, or needs to make a turn from a connecting street.
The connecting street types run more stop signs and red lights and feel obligated to cram their cars into already filled intersections so that they do not miss 'their turn'.

A longer commute would put me under.
With luck it will not lengthen any time soon.

So I dropped a quarter in the RantOmatic and this is what came out.

If I see the word Curated used for anything other than an exhibit of artwork I may loose it.

This morning in the Washington Post real estate section there was an article about an interior designer who when decorating her own home "threw in traditional touches to create a 'curated' look".
Give me a break. How about a home that looks like a person lives there.
Just below this article is a picture of a house that was designed out of a Design within Reach catalog, specifically the Herman Miller section.
It looks curated because it is a sterile room with a theme presentation.
A 50's 'Mad Men' theme park.

I have to admit that I would love an Eames Chair, but that doesn't mean the whole  place gets thrown in the 50's way back machine.

Getting back to Curated.
Enough.
If you picked out some favorite things for other people to eat, listen to, watch, touch, whatever...
Just say that.
Now if you are a MFA and you curate your spice drawer...well..I understand there are meds for that sort of thing.

OK.
Just trying to keep up some sort of momentum.
I really don't want to drop into a rant rut.
It can be an attractive place to be after a days work, or the nightly news, or a trip down Whats Hot .

Well, that was interesting. Took a ten minute trip to rantland and then deleted it.
Sometimes it's just good to make yourself type it up, then delete it.
Sort of mental palate cleansing. Sorbet without brainfreeze.

I have hesitated long enough.
Tools like this have been around for decades.
You poke around in the workshop long enough and you pick up that one tool that has been collecting dust in the corner.
At one point in time that tool called out to you from a catalog or store window.
You just had to have it right then.
It arrived back at the shop with you, perhaps admired for a while. Perhaps set down and forgotten.

So it's time to reacquaint yourself with your shop and the various tools scattered around.
Time to get to work.
Today is just this much.
I have read that you should carve out a couple of minutes a day to write something.
Here we go.