K.C. trip, day two: mid-afternoon report
Oct. 25th, 2003 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterSo, here we are at Union Station again.
The morning was spent in first getting breakfast, then going over to Micro Center and spending a couple of hours shopping around. We had a decent time...I showed the Apple sales folks Dead Troll.com, and Travis was immediately roped into discussing Apple stuff with sales folks and customers ("This happens every time I come here," he told me). I looked at cases, and saw that Ampex had a couple of really nice ones but they were just too expensive...I'll be going with one of the ones from the online dealer.
However, I did end up getting a keyboard and mouse there. After trying quite a few of them and dithering between an IBM and a Microsoft, I finally ended up going with a Logitech multimedia keyboard that had a decent keytouch feel and a lot of multimedia controls located above the keyboard. And hey, why not. I also got a Logitech optical mouse on Travis's recommendation, and an A/B monitor switcher and monitor cables so that my new box and my old box can share a monitor at need. (I went bare-bones...didn't get one of the ones that let it share keyboard and mouse too because I already have keyboard and mouse for that older computer and, since the new one is USB, I'm not sure I'd be able to get Linux to use it.) Also got a cheap microphone for in case I ever do any online vocal chatting and another handsfree kit for my cellphone clearanced to $3.
I saw a UPS marked down from $190 to $70 and considered it seriously, but ended up deciding I didn't have the money for it at this point. Likewise, there was a nice color Clie marked down to $150, but again...I can't afford that now. Have to set priorities.
After we finally got done at Micro Center, we headed uptown to eat lunch at a New York style pizza/deli place, then to 9th and Grand to get photos of the Toynbee Tile. We stopped along the way to get some shots of the Eagle Scout Memorial, which has some of the statuary from the old Penn Station building. The Toynbee tile was just as expected...a little island of strangeness in an otherwise mundane world. It's kind of reassuring, in an odd way. Somewhere out there there's this completely enigmatic individual (or individuals) going around the continent melting these tiles with their indecipherable message into the pavement of city streets. It's a mystery that will probably always remain a mystery to everyone except the person or people unknown who is or are responsible. There is still unfathomable mystery in the world, even in this day and age.
Anyway, after that we came back to Union Station, where I used the wireless hotspot and my bank's webpage to transfer some money out of my savings account to cover the computer parts I bought and am going to buy. After we get done netting, we're going to take in the Liberty Bell 7 exhibit. After that, we're going to swing by Travis's place of work to pick up a USB PC card he promised me, and head to what Travis says is the best used bookstore in the area. (I insisted on keeping it to one this trip, as I'm already spending too much money on other things). After that...who can say.
Now that I've said all that needs saying, I'll close for now and enjoy the rest of the time I have until the battery gives out...or, more likely, until Travis,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tbutler, finishes updating his own journal as I see he's now doing at this point. Until then, I'll just sit here and enjoy the historic ambiance juxtaposed with the modern-day computer.
You know, now that I think about it, the modern Internet and the historic train system served kind of the same kinds of functions. For instance, it was due to train schedules and conductors' pocketwatches that we got standardized time zones in the USA to begin with...and now you can use the Internet to sychronize your computer, and thence your own watch, with the atomic clocks that keep national standard time. The train carried people and mail from place to place all over the country...and now the Internet carries e-mail and videoconferencing so that people can meet face-to-face without having to travel. Okay, maybe it's stretching the point a little, but there are similarities and parallels in the old and the new that are brought together in this place.
The morning was spent in first getting breakfast, then going over to Micro Center and spending a couple of hours shopping around. We had a decent time...I showed the Apple sales folks Dead Troll.com, and Travis was immediately roped into discussing Apple stuff with sales folks and customers ("This happens every time I come here," he told me). I looked at cases, and saw that Ampex had a couple of really nice ones but they were just too expensive...I'll be going with one of the ones from the online dealer.
However, I did end up getting a keyboard and mouse there. After trying quite a few of them and dithering between an IBM and a Microsoft, I finally ended up going with a Logitech multimedia keyboard that had a decent keytouch feel and a lot of multimedia controls located above the keyboard. And hey, why not. I also got a Logitech optical mouse on Travis's recommendation, and an A/B monitor switcher and monitor cables so that my new box and my old box can share a monitor at need. (I went bare-bones...didn't get one of the ones that let it share keyboard and mouse too because I already have keyboard and mouse for that older computer and, since the new one is USB, I'm not sure I'd be able to get Linux to use it.) Also got a cheap microphone for in case I ever do any online vocal chatting and another handsfree kit for my cellphone clearanced to $3.
I saw a UPS marked down from $190 to $70 and considered it seriously, but ended up deciding I didn't have the money for it at this point. Likewise, there was a nice color Clie marked down to $150, but again...I can't afford that now. Have to set priorities.
After we finally got done at Micro Center, we headed uptown to eat lunch at a New York style pizza/deli place, then to 9th and Grand to get photos of the Toynbee Tile. We stopped along the way to get some shots of the Eagle Scout Memorial, which has some of the statuary from the old Penn Station building. The Toynbee tile was just as expected...a little island of strangeness in an otherwise mundane world. It's kind of reassuring, in an odd way. Somewhere out there there's this completely enigmatic individual (or individuals) going around the continent melting these tiles with their indecipherable message into the pavement of city streets. It's a mystery that will probably always remain a mystery to everyone except the person or people unknown who is or are responsible. There is still unfathomable mystery in the world, even in this day and age.
Anyway, after that we came back to Union Station, where I used the wireless hotspot and my bank's webpage to transfer some money out of my savings account to cover the computer parts I bought and am going to buy. After we get done netting, we're going to take in the Liberty Bell 7 exhibit. After that, we're going to swing by Travis's place of work to pick up a USB PC card he promised me, and head to what Travis says is the best used bookstore in the area. (I insisted on keeping it to one this trip, as I'm already spending too much money on other things). After that...who can say.
Now that I've said all that needs saying, I'll close for now and enjoy the rest of the time I have until the battery gives out...or, more likely, until Travis,
tbutler, finishes updating his own journal as I see he's now doing at this point. Until then, I'll just sit here and enjoy the historic ambiance juxtaposed with the modern-day computer.You know, now that I think about it, the modern Internet and the historic train system served kind of the same kinds of functions. For instance, it was due to train schedules and conductors' pocketwatches that we got standardized time zones in the USA to begin with...and now you can use the Internet to sychronize your computer, and thence your own watch, with the atomic clocks that keep national standard time. The train carried people and mail from place to place all over the country...and now the Internet carries e-mail and videoconferencing so that people can meet face-to-face without having to travel. Okay, maybe it's stretching the point a little, but there are similarities and parallels in the old and the new that are brought together in this place.
