Archive | November 29, 2003

Scott Dierdorf writes a great column in the Baltimore Sun this week, picked up by my local paper — haven’t found a link online yet. In it Scott bemoans the machine that takes more to maintain than it gives us back. In part, he says:

Would John Steinbeck have finished The Grapes of Wrath if he had to spend his time ferretting out the spyware from his computer? Would Ernest Hemingway have even started The Old Man and the Sea if he had been occupied with critical Windows security patches every two weeks?

Very good stuff. Check it out, if you can, and send along a link if you find one.

Friday was “Buy Nothing Day,” but unfortunately, I didn’t stick with it this year, the first in a decade or two. At 5 AM, I could be found outside the local Best Buy with Laura, shivering in the cold. We bought a laptop that’s the graduation present for my son. What a miserable experience! An hour of standing around outside followed by a mad and completely disorganized crush into the store, and an hour-and-a-half of standing around to purchase the one item.

I hope it will be two decades before I shop again on madness day.