July 9, 2007 - not a Blackberry in sight.

When you have fresh Kentucky Mud…..

Yes, that’s my daughter. We’ve no plans for Institut Villa Pierrefeu.

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads!

Especially those new dads in the Web and Search Community…

Ahmet
Max Kalehoff
Mike the Internet Guy (Mike Belasco)
Jason Murphy
DrewÂ

…who have I missed (pls post below!)

 

Location undisclosed - ROTL - an IBM Laptop

My phone camera sux. It was much more convincing in person!

ibm-guy

On a clear blue Bahamas afternoon, we lifted off from the Congo City Airport bound for Nassau on a quick little plane with a group of extremely friendly people. Many had come to the San Andros Island homecoming festival held in Congo Town, others were just hopping islands. The Nassau Airport required three screenings of our carry on luggage - and the metal detectors are turned up to full sensitivity - reassuring, but slightly inconvenient. BahamasAir and WesternAir were easy airlines to fly on and I felt safe on both. Make sure you review your flight times carefully as they seem to have a way of adjusting slightly, and our email notifications set up for the rest of the trip by Orbitz don’t work for these airlines. Nothing major at all, we sailed through without a hitch - just take a look before settling in to wait for your plane or exploring the airport. The Nassau airport is bright and airy… a nice place to spend a few minutes. The NAS airport does not have free WiFi, which would have been nice. Their WIFI was on, but port 80 was blocked. Other ports were open, oddly, and I could IM, Skype or do RDS without a problem. I saw at least three others walking around with laptops looking for somewhere to connect. Don’t forget to turn on your firewall to “full, no exceptions” when using airport wifis… and only use the official airport wifi hubs. Every airport I go through seems to have “free public wifi” available as a peer to peer network, yet I know these are probably network sniffers of some sort or another on someone’s laptop.

I do wish we could have stayed longer in South Andros Island. I’m not just talking about the “hospitality” crowd, but everyone we saw were genuinely friendly.

If you’re heading to San Andros for vacation, here’s a few tips:

• Bring a grocery list for your family and ask the driver to stop you by one of the small shops on the way from the airport. The taxi services are expensive and this will save you money and time. Of course this assumes that your accommodations have refrigeration and cooking capabilities. To go to the store later will cost you $20-30 round trip for a cab! The mail boat carries supplies to the island and arrives Tuesdays, so the store’s inventory will diminish as Tuesday comes around, particularly on fresh milk, etc.
• If you want to have beer or wine in your room, ask the taxi driver to swing by the liquor store just south of the Airport in Congo Town. The wine and beer are less than half the cost of what you’ll find at your hotel or at resorts like Emerald Palms. The store is run by the wife of the Police Commissioner, and it is well stocked and the staff is friendly.
• There is a small fresh fruit stand nearby called “Jeff’s Fruit Stand” that has freshly picked selection. The stop is easy and on the way on the east side of the road, stop and get some things there to, as the grocery stores do not have fresh fruits. The hours of operation are not entirely clear, but most things close on the island at 5:00pm, including the airport.
• Take about three times the bug spray you think you need. Don’t take the fruify “cosmetic” kind either - take the deep-woods-smells-like-crap kind that hunters use or SkinSoSoft from Avon (strongest they have.) The female no-see-ums (sand flies) and mosquitoes are incredibly aggressive. The come in waves - one day they won’t be there at all, and other days they are unbearable. Some tips for Sandfly management: When possible, cover your arms and legs with long sleeve garments, Take your vitamin B; Sandflies don’t like vitamin B and Avoid wearing dark colors, apparently sandflies are attracted to dark colors.
• Sunscreen, of course, in abundance.
• Benadryl (or generic equivalent) in case you have any kind of allergic reactions…. or if the sandflies get you.
• Drink lots of fluids if you’re out and about, carry water with you if you’re going beach walking. There are few places to buy things here.
• San Andros is an isolated place. Prepare yourself before venturing out.
• Bring your cell phone, and buy a BaTelCo SIMM if you plan to use it much. If you plan on making more than 60-90m of calls during your trip, buy a SIMM card for BaTelCo to save the roaming rates. Cell coverage is excellent (at least on the East side of the island,) so having a cell phone with you is a good idea. These pre-paid SIMMs can be bought on island pretty cheap, so you may want to wait until you’re in Nassau for the best deal….but make sure you have enough layover to go buy them (Nassau operates efficiently and with great friendliness, but you are now officially on island pace.) Write down the phone numbers of some taxi services and the hotel you’re staying at in case you need a ride.
• Try the Goombay Punch, a local soda. It’s incredibly good. Buy a six pack, you’ll wish they had it in the states.
• Beach shoes. Unless your feet are really, really tough, wading on the volcanic rock and shelling can be hard on the feet. A pair of beach shoes can make your days of tide pool exploration much more fun.
• The water on this side of the island is pretty chilly but the winds blowing over it make for a wonderful breeze on warm days however. Don’t expect Waikiki bay warmth in the water.
• You will need to bring CASH. Don’t expect your credit cards to work here except in the resorts. I felt very very safe carrying cash on this island… much safer than carrying it in the States. Bahamian and US Dollars can be used interchangeably and are all accepted everywhere. I didn’t try traveler’s checks, but don’t think they would be well regarded. Western Air requires cash payment at time of the flight for your island hop, but you can buy round trip tickets. There are no apparent ATMs on the island, and no place to wire money that I know of.

Back to work!!!!

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One of our bags had been diverted to North Andros Island (might as well be Hawaii) which threatened to limit our wardrobe to two changes. But our hosts made calls to friends, favors were returned and arrangements made to send the bag with the ex Bahamian Prime minister in his private plane. Nice. I met one of his entourage who was excellent company for the short run to the airport airstrip to pick up the bag. I engaged him on the ride about their election (May 2nd) and campaign (the purpose, it seems for Mr. Prime Minister’s visit.) He told me of struggles against government corruption, for improved education and opportunities for people throughout the commonwealth especially for those on the outer islands. The Bahamas is a Constitutional parliamentary democracy, and elections will put officials in office for five years. There is great hope for improvements. The Free National Movement was the most active while we were there.

This party seemed very popular…for as we made our way down the roadway, locals sitting on porches and pickup beds made special efforts to holler out with warm waves. I’ve noticed in South Andros at least, the “double toot” of the car horn seems a universal gesture of greeting.

We arrived to find the closed, but a knock on a side door drew out a drowsy customs official opened the door (I think we interrupted checkers and beer.) He quickly “screened” my bag, so with a wave we were off. Ah… fresh clothes. At dinner, the staff at the restaurant were clearly excited about the arrival of such famous politicians. We planned our meal early so to hopefully avoid the madness given our distinctly non-celebrity status. The kids had great fun capturing geckos and crabs, engaging in great civil engineering projects on doomed sandcastles that didn’t last the night. Freckles are emerging, hair is bleaching and we’re all adjusting to this pace quite well.

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From Nassau we flew in a tiny plane towards Congo City - a place that, from the Satellite map looks like a blurry line (airstrip) in the center of a forest of mangroves and palms. Watching out the front of the plane as we approached this tiny brownish runway was among the most intense of air travel experiences I’ve ever had.

Once down, we met Ms. Lloyd - and her warm smile and reliable diesel taxi snagged us up and took us to a local market for some groceries. We met our first locals who offered more of the smiles that seem to be easy currency on this place. We arrived a day before the supply boat, so the store’s inventory was limited, but we managed to grab some basics. I think we’ll make our way over there today for some milk and so on.

So now, oceanside, I’m watching rays meander by in the aquamarine water and hanging on a hammock beneath palms. A few hundred paces from the cabin one can easily pretend you are stranded, Castaway-style as all signs of civilization vanish. Everyone asks me if we’re going to “Atlantis“…. no, this is quite the opposite. The moon is full which rises just after sunset tonight. Good luck? Let us hope.

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Mark Wilson at Gizmodo just referred us to the x-paste toothpaste despenser, a very cool-looking way to get toothpaste onto the brush and off of the counter that will be sold at Sharper Image. To most, this was just a cool gadget reference, something that Gizmodo does every day with great skill. But to me, it was much more.

It was the first blog post that brought a tear to my eye.Â

You see, my late grandfather patented a toothpaste dispenser as a part of his dream to escape the coal mining career that was slowly breaking his body (and, sometimes, his spirit.)  He’d been bruised and had his arm broken by the billy clubs of state troopers as they broke the economically disasterous and sometimes violent coal mining strikes that plagued the land in the 1960s. The safety of coal mines was abysmal, in fact, his leg was crushed in a cave-in making it hard for him to work. So with his Ben Franklin notebook in hand, he sketched idea after idea, and in 1965, he took this one to a lawyer in the tiny town of Central City Kentucky, spending his savings to file patent 3,198,389 for the “Tooth Paste Dispensing Cabinet” shown here.

Modern technology and design has made the x-paste dispenser a true marvel that my Grandfather would have admired.  But even with his fake-wood-grained version and its “denture tray” practicality, he is someone I admire for trying to use his brainpower to pull himself out of the hole where he spent his days. I think with a little more advice and time, he could have taken his product to the next level and made it into a success. For today, I’ll hear his voice in my head talking about it, once again seeing him trace the motion of the gears as they squeeze the toothpaste onto the brush there at the kitchen table of their tiny house, and for a moment I’ll see it hanging on my bathroom wall signed “TBD, Inventor.”

Update: A great post about starting small with a new product was found over here at newsday.com. I thought it was relevant to this post. Perhaps it would have been a better way for him to go than to go directly to GE and Sunbeam, like he did.

Steampunk - Science Fiction where characters (often scientists) fight against an oppressive establishment often using ultra-modern technologies presented in Victorian-era form factors.
Okay, I admit it. I’m a steampunk fan. Not as much the literature, but the imaginative machines and bizarre mixes of digital and non-digital elements, craftsmanship, and tactile sensibility of the artists.

I first got a sense of Steampunk type hardware ideas while watching Brazil, Edward Scissorhands, Wallace and Grommit, and Harry Potter. Someday I will own a nixie clock. I have a wood en box in my garage full of antique tools. So I thought it would be a good idea to list a set of great steampunk-like sites that give a well-rounded overview of the phenomenon, along with a few words about each. If you have one to add to this list, post in the comments with a link. I’ll look-see and possibly add it to the main post as well. Steampunk Labs, Artists, History

• Robots of the Victorian Era
• Radio Guy

• Brass Goggles
• Steampunk Magazine - the journal of misapplied technology
• The Steampunk Workshop - awesome stuff and nicely done photos
• Datamancer - home of the home of the The Nagy Magical-Movable-Type Pixello-Dynamotronic Computational Engine (also featured on Wall-Street Journal Video)
• Steampunkopidia
• Dr Grordort’s Rayguns - this site is amazing. Check the custom cases.
• Stephen Berkman - Love the photography style … reminds me of Nine Inch Nails artwork. Perhaps NIN copied HIM!
• The Retrocomputing Museum
• Vladimir Gvozdev’s terrific artwork - sites’ a little hard to navigate.
• Da Vinci Automata - clockpunk
• Stephane Halleux - do not miss this gallery (example to right)
• Steampunk Fashion
• Steam Brass and Fzz - Check the lamps
• Steampunk Jewelry
• Christopher Locke’s Heartless Machine - Check out the Scissor Spider
• A Better World -Gaming console and ipod imagined in Steampunk Style
• Alex CF Artwork - Many Dead Thinks - brilliant research cases.
• Eccentric Genius - Antiques from a Parallel Universe.
• Spookypop - Wow, a lot of talent in one place (note, you must click on the vines on the left to navigate the site.)
• Animals from Junk - Steampunky
• Steampunk Labs
• Insect Lab
• Steampunk Jewelry and Goggles at EDM
  
• Art Donovan / Steampunk Design

Steampunk Devices

• Gramophone Ipod
• Steampunk iPod NEW!
• Steampunk Lamps
• Steam-Powered Computer
• The Electriclerk
• Automatic Tea Machine
• Steampunk Watches
• More Steampunk Watches (you can buy)
• Cool Steampunk Clocks
• Steampunk Tree House
• Steampunk Lightsabre
• The Vulciana Watch - I want one!
• Photos of cool devices on Flickr
• Steampunk iPhone - this thing is the coolest
• VictorioNixie Tube - Awesome Mod of a toy (also on video.)
• A couple of awesome clocks and some amazing Russian stuff.
• Steam-Powered Robot
• Steampunk LCD Monitor (with a few “how-to” photos)
• Pierre Matter Sculpture
• Steampunk R/C Centipede
• Big Steampunk Animals - wow, check out the crashed spaceship

Interactive Steampunk & Multimedia

• A Modern Compendium of Minateur Autometa
• Crazy Machines (my kids love it)
• Nine inch Nails Closer Video (mature / language / NSFW)
• Steampunk Rayguns (G Rated)
• The Golden Compass Movie Trailer

Articles / Blog Posts

• SlashBoing - Steampunk Eye
• Wired - Steampunk Design
• Gizmodo - Steampunk Laptop
• Gizmodo - Steampunk Keyboard
• Cre.ations.net - Jar of Fireflies

Stuff you can buy

• Steampunk Supplies/Salvage from Sequential Glass
• Klockwerks - amazing clocks
• Steampunk Watches
• The J Peterman Company Iron Gothic Clock
• Steampunk Gift Guide - Make Magazine
• Skerror’s bunch of great dark, gothic-modern designs.
• The Golden Compass , the Cryptex and the Spy Insect
• Steampunk iPod Skin (I tried to order this but javascript errors prevented it bah!)

Misc Fun Steampunk-like Sites & Resources for Steampunkers

• Wallace and Gromit Cracking Contraption
• Make Magazine “My God, It’s Full of Wires”

Gears image by mehrit used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License

Jeez. I don’t normally post stuff like this, but I definitely need to take the rest of the day off and listen to some old Floyd…

LONDON (Reuters) - Syd Barrett, the troubled founding member of Pink Floyd, has died aged 60, after living the life of a recluse for the last 30 years. “The band are naturally very upset and sad to learn of Syd Barrett’s death,” Pink Floyd said in a statement on Tuesday. “Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire.” http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13814051/