Buzz over Ginger

Working in Barrows Hall today made me think that maybe it's time to get a set of BOSE Active Noice Cancelling headphones. (The $300 list price is what stops me.)

Frontier: Using directories for large publications. (This article might help people use the directories feature in Manila/Radio.)

Another article on Morimur, this time in The New York Times. I'm amazed that this album that I have so thoroughly enjoyed has been getting so much attention. Anything to bring more awareness to Bach, the most under-rated composer in Western music. :-)

When is it better not to believe your doctor? Sometimes, as in the case of Leroy Richmond--who came down with inhalation anthrax and survived--it was good that he fought his doctors.

Ginger (Segway) Unveiled

Lots of buzz around Dean Kamen's unveiling of the Segway Human Transporter (a.k.a. Ginger). [New York Times, AP, slashdot] I'm not sure exactly what to think of it. At first glance, it seems like a very high-tech scooter that will move with the rider in an unprecedented integrated way (SHT has a sophisticated balancing system, full of gyroscopes and computer control). I'm not about to give up my bike, however, and it doesn't seem to deal with one (of several) things that keeps me tied to my car: shielding from outside elements. (But these are my first thoughts written with little knowledge.) (A NBC video on Kamen's amazing wheelchair , a previous invention, gave a sense of what SHT might become -- imagine the super-wheelchair in the documentary transformed into a scooter.)

Now that I've had a chance to read more in slashdot and watch the video on the Segway site, I see that it's wrong to think of Segway as a replacement for a car or for a bike. In theory, it is a scooter for people who won't need to learn how to balance, I guess. Intriguing.

Nov Jan

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