Returning From A Break

It felt good to get away and take a rest from the world of blogging for a bit. It gave us a chance to research some new material and to begin work on some of the changes we had planned for this blog. Unfortunately, they are still not complete enough to flip the switch. but they are coming along and should certainly be ready to implement by the fall. In the mean time, we have tried to catch up on the news and enjoy the summer happening around us.

We notice that there is a new computer store along Truman Avenue in Key West that specifically caters to the Mac crowd. We haven't had time to visit the new store, but we hear good things. The lonely Mac group in KW has needed a store devoted to the Mac for some time now.

And the new iphone has made its debut. Anyone out there have one and can give us the real scoop on how they like it? Can we believe all the reviews?

Here in KW, the new City Manager has taken over, and is being paid what he indicated he would accept, not what he Commission's negotiator proposed.

The politicians are beginning to get their campaigns in gear. Can you believe it, former Mayor, Jimmy Weekley, who lost by 24 votes to the current mayor, is set to make another run? So the citizens will have a chance to re-think their last choice, or to say, "none of the above."

We saw one of the candidates for the Utility Board out collecting signatures for his nominating petition the other day.

Commissioner Rossi is also running again. He and Todd German are locked in an election battle and are trading contentions. Guess we expected that.

The feds have their undies in a bundle over the Hemingway cats.

The Michael Moore movie, Sicko, is at the Tropic Cinema. We haven't seen it yet, but plan to do so.

The controversy over the assisted living facility proposed for the Truman water front is raging. We noticed that Truman Annex resident and occasional commenter here, David Lybrand, was part of a debate over the issues involved in a recent edition of the Key West Citizen. Both sides make some good points, but we have not yet decided which side deserves our support. Our current feeling is that there is much that needs clarifying and not enough plain talk at the forefront of the debate. The stakes and suspicions appear to run high on both sides.

Today is Independence Day, the day to think about "a more perfect union" and to honor our freedom that we so often take for granted. When you think about that In the larger scheme of things, some of the feuds we have over civic issues in KW seem small indeed.

Worth A Listen

If you haven't listened to Pandora, you should. You'll become a fan. Pandora gives you a chance to program your own Internet radio station with music you like. And it's legal.

Unfortunately, as of May 3, 2007, Pandora has been forced to block foreign listeners because countries outside the U.S. don't have the equivalent of the law that provides a virtual automatic license for music streamed on Pandora. It has not been able to negotiate enough foreign licenses to make the streaming to foreign countries financially viable.

Pandora has no commercials, and you decide on the music, so the station is a real treat. Try it!

Geeks Search For Porn

"If there were a competition between a Playboy editor, a photo lab technician, and a voyeur for the person who has seen the most random pictures of naked people... the only way any of them would win is if the Geek Squad agent was late to the contest." So says an article on the stuff that computer geeks come across (search for) on your computer when you take it in for repairs. Do you think that won't happen in Key West? Think again.

"Let me make it clear again: if you have any interesting pictures of yourself or others on your computer, then they--will--be--found. Some geeks are like bloodhounds when it comes to pornography," says one geek.

You just may not know about it, because you won't be around while your computer is being "fixed." In addition, most geeks, and a good many non-geeks carry a thumb drive so they can copy stuff from a computer. You can locate every image on your hard drive just by using the windows search function. And geeks can be "like bloodhounds when it comes to pornography." In addition, if you use Window's Internet Explorer, you should know that Windows keeps a retrievable record of a lot of your user names and passwords, even to your banking websites, whether or not you chose to save them.

So you may want to keep those naughty photos you and your "other" have been sharing on that camera and not in your computer. Of course, if you keep those images in your mind, you are even safer. That is, at least until someone develops decent mind meld techniques. Spock, where are you when we need you?