Traffic data is key
A few months ago I headed to FL with the girls for a visit to the Grandparents. I did a little test to compare the cars GPS with that on the iPhone, both to see if they suggested the same path and to generally see how useful they were.
The big difference of course is traffic data. Now I know some of the newest in car systems have live traffic data but mine doesn’t and without it I would have wasted a few hours sitting in traffic. I have one picture from the iPhone to illustrate the value of traffic data.
Without that data I would have sat in that red traffic for at least an hour but probably longer. I of course never knew what the issue was but with that warning I safely hopped off ahead of the slow down and cruised past it on a parallel highway at around 60mph so I barely lost any time.
So in my case the cars GPS is cool and has its value but the next time I go to buy a car I don’t think I would consider one unless it has live traffic (and maybe weather). With the iPhone and most any other modern smartphone you have all this in your hand so even if the car can match it I am not sure it would be worth the extra expense.
I don’t see it
The resemblance that is. Last night I was working on cleaning up the iPhoto library and was confirming pictures of myself using Faces. It was pretty accurate, occasionally finding a few family members and calling them me, but for the most part it was spot on. This image was the one that amused me, clearly not me, but iPhoto thought it was.
I suppose it isn’t a bad thing to look like the NY Mayor but I just don’t see the resemblance.
Disappearing in the digital age
If you have about 15 minutes to read this you should, it was a great piece on how someone tried to walk away and start a new life (as an experiment) and how the community was challenged to help find him.
Of course those that do this for real wouldn’t likely gather the attention and sophisticated audience that would organize around tracking them down, but it does help to understand how people are able to disappear from their life and start over. The challenge was put out to catch Evan within a month to claim a $5k prize, which helped to motivate catching him. In real life I expect most that do this don’t have a reward and you can only imagine the police force having few resources to keep up a search.
Evan in this piece makes a few intentional mistakes to help motivate the search, but it still took a wide network of people to uncover his new home. I wonder if he would have been caught it he truly had done all he could to avoid it.
Marin at 3 – dancing has begun
It has been a while since I posted a picture of Marin, who recently turned 3. She joined her sister this year at the Decatur School of Ballet. You can see her here lining up to get ready for some serious learning.
What a busy month
It seems September and now October have turned out to be even busier than I expected – both at work and at home. I realized I hadn’t said much of anything for almost a month so I wanted to get something out. In early Sept. I had something happen that caused me to change course. A visit to Emory for a Heart Scan revealed that I had some risks, both from genetics and from my own doing.
That was enough to get me going – I have started paying close attention to what I eat and have a few goals to get myself on a course that will significantly lower my risks. It has been just over a month and all is well so far. I haven’t felt like it has been a tough sacrifice to give up certain things and since I am still quite active I have quickly dropped some weight.
It feels good to get back into college shape and ideally I will even get into the best shape of my life in the coming months. I am not sure if other major hospitals offer a deal on a similar test, but for anyone with a family history of heart issues I strongly recommend getting yourself screened.
Co-founder of Baskin-Robbins ice cream stores dies
I know growing up I spent many afternoons riding my bike to the nearest Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. This was of course back when you didn’t concern yourself with healthy eating or crossing a major six lane road on your Schwinn BMX bicycle.
I don’t live too far from that store now and it finally closed a few years back as the area declined. Now a large Wal-Mart sits on the space where it and the old Avondale Mall (or Columbia Mall as I knew it first) used to live. As a kid it was cool to have a Mall within riding distance and in its prime the mall sported both a Sears and Macy’s.
Newsvine – Co-founder of Baskin-Robbins ice cream stores dies at 90
