o bernie, where art thou?

I have been waiting impatiently for the next batch of transcripts of Bernard Cardinal Law's deposition. Wouldn't you know it, his minions obtained another order blocking their release for the moment. However, I note that this order was, of course, immediately appealed.

The Boston Globe, by the way, which seems to be owned by the New York Times, has turned itself into quite the portal on American priest pedophilia. Well, we all have our niche. I suppose they're looking to get a Pulitzer, and the 'Net is a nice way for them to display a portfolio of their work. All this, by the way, despite a visually dreadful home page with a violently oscillating lavender column on the right that I get a migraine just describing. Geez. The New York Times on the Web has the right idea--make the page look like a physical newspaper, white is so soothing--but what's a parent company to do?

pacer lags behind?

Well.

I tried to access my PACER account (federal court bankruptcy electronic access to information) for the first time ever, without success. The elves at the Bankruptcy Court emailed me and said that PACER was compatible with Internet Explorer 5.0 and 5.5. Well, shucky darn, I am using IE 6.0. They had no solution. Do I have to downgrade my browser in order to access the bankruptcy courts? This is not good.

but not a fork, i bet

The tip of a chopstick makes an excellent emergency stylus. Not recommended for when one is actually eating.

air keyboard?

According to Handheld Computing Enterprise Weekly, and also reported in PC World, no less than three companies are working on "virtual keyboarding," to be released for the PDA later on this year. What "virtual keyboarding" means in its new definition is that you wear a device on your hands that interprets your finger movements (in mid-air, on the back of the airline seat in front of you in its upright and locked position, etc.) as if they were taps on a keyboard in front of you.
What absolutely amazed me is that both articles I read expressed concern that users would worry about looking "weird." Geez. My immediate reaction upon reading about the Samsung Scurry, for example, was: I must obtain this product RIGHT NOW.. After several years of walking down the street appearing to talk to myself (while actually using a cellular hands-free headset, of course), I have lost all possible self-consciousness about looking weird. Everyone around me is too preoccupied with their own problems anyway to notice me. And although I like my PDA's fold-up keyboard well enough, and tolerate Graffiti, I would leap at the chance to type more freely. Hey, dictating into the thing would be pretty special too.

My main concern about a virtual keyboard is whether it is trainable to my usual hand position, or whether I have to hold my hands in a certain way. I am hopelessly devoted to my Kinesis Classic Contoured Keyboard, which allows me to hold my hands in a natural position and has undoubtedly forestalled the onset of the otherwise inevitable case of repetitive stress injury from the amount of keyboarding I do (not to mention the castanet use). Note to folks in Puget Sound: Kinesis is headquartered, or was, in Kirkland, and you can buy refurbished units from the showroom for half the (considerable) cost of one of these things. If I have to hold my hands a certain way, there's not much advantage to a Scurry over the Stowaway, other than the Cool Factor, which admittedly fades. But if I can truly type with my hands in any position, why, I'm sold.

So if you see me walking down the street in Seattle, talking to myself and typing in the air, don't pity me. Admire me. I've figured out a way to make walking billable.

batteries not included

I really long for the old days, when my wind-up traveler's clock took me around the world without batteries at all.

Then came my first Palm, and it used AAAs, but that was okay, because it only ate them at the rate of two or so per month.

Now I have an m515, and a cellular phone, and they both have rechargeable batteries with absolutely no gumption. Sigh.

What's a Goddess to do? If I spend a whole day doing business in my car, which is not unusual, I can drain both the cell and the Palm by the end of the day, and they both plug into the single cigarette lighter that my car possesses. I shudder to think that there may be a USB hub for a cigarette lighter off which I could daisy-chain all my chargers. Even with a Mercury Grand Marquis, it could spell engine trouble.