April 2009 Archives

So we fly over to London because the pound has sunk to levels that permit Americans, the few that still have a couple of dollars left, to buy a manorial house or three. Not that we really want a manor house. We just want to get one with a family crest because we still don't have one. I think a great business would be to develop new family crests that people could add to their wedding registries. I mean how many waffle irons do two people really need - we find four quite sufficient. Just a thought. And if someone starts a business and makes money at it remember I thought of it first and so you owe me 80% of the profits.

Anyway, we flew over on Virgin Atlantic - still my favorite way to jump the pond. We got a very nice deal that got us upgraded to Upper Class without having to spend all the money that we were reserving for impulse purchases of country estates. We took the redeye which leaves New York after 9:00pm. So my question is, why, when I can fall asleep sitting upright in a plane, on a train, on the subway (or the Underground this week only), or even in a car driven by a teenager, can I not sleep on an overnight flight in Upper Class. They make up a lie flat bed with sheets, a nice pillow that I don't have worry is full of some new strain of flesh eating bacteria or whatever, and even a nice sleep suit. Which is what the hoi polloi in First Class apparently call pajamas. Couple this with a class or two of red wine before boarding and a full day careening around New York in taxis driven by people who have had their adrenal glands removed so that they don't experience fear, even then, I cannot for some reason slip into the sweet, sweet bonds of sleep. It perplexes me greatly.

Via Jaunted today an article about a new car rental service called car2go that will be rolled out first in Austin, TX. Like Zipcar the service will deploy cars on the street available for rental whenever you want. From the sounds of it you have to sign up first to be a member of the service since a membership card is required to unlock the car. But the cost is pretty reasonable - 25 cents a minute. And most cool - the cars that will be available are Smart Fortwos. I love these things. I want to have one to drive around the house. The distance between the fridge and the TV in the family room means that I can't get a ham sandwich in the space of a typical commercial, but with the Fortwo and a little Tokyo drifting I may just be able to achieve my dream.

Seriously I'd love to have access to this service. For instance, we're going to San Diego this July and we're not planning to get a rental car because we're staying down in the Gaslamp Quarter and really wouldn't need it. But if we had something like this service available we could pop up the coast for dinner at a favorite restaurant one night, without going through all the hassle of getting taxis and such. Mary has reminded me that on a dollars and cents basis the service is only a good deal if one is talking about renting one of the cars for a very limited time but I think she's missing the essential issue here. It's a Smartcar and they're cool!  

Someone has now released the first mass produced color ebook reader. Wow, I'm so impressed. Of course at $1300 a pop I'm ging to have to get that home equity line of credit to afford it, but it's worth it, right?

Not quite sure what Fujitsu is thinking here. Go after the early adopters, you know like the ones that stood in line overnight to get a crack at the iPhone? Or perhaps it's something like the yacht salesman - 'if you have to ask the price you can't afford it'. I'm really looking forward to a full color ebook but I'm thinking I'm going to be waiting a little longer. It's been an interesting week - on the one hand we have a $1300 device that can be used to read books I can buy for $8, and on the other hand a $2000 car is put on the market. I'm betting on the ebook holding up better than the Tata in a rear end collision but that's about the only selling point I can think of.

It's a crazy mixed-up world.