Saturday, March 7, 2009

Rest in Peace Trixie.

I love you sweet kitty.

Trixie

Trixie - one of my two cats - has a kidney insufficiency. The vet told us about it a couple of years ago and warned us that it would shorten her life expectancy. She's more prone to bladder infections than a normal cat would be. She's had 2 since we were told about her kidneys. I can normally tell when she has one because she's lethargic and her nose is warm.

Well now her nose is cool but she's more lethargic than I've ever seen her. I'm taking her to the vets this later this morning, and I'm scared I won't be taking her home.

Say prayers for my kitty.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

03/03/09

Happy Square Root Day!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Home & Garden show

Husband and I went to the local Home & Garden show this past weekend - mostly to get out of the house. The one here in Columbus is set up with the Home show in one building and the Garden show in another. The home show was actually pretty nice. The only thing we inquired about was getting the attic insulated.

But the Garden show was a real let down. Most of the displays were set up behind big walls and one entrance in and one exit out. Needless to say the lines were horrendous. And the displays were pathetic. One had a plane crash theme. Another was Hollywood in the Tropics. Needless to say we didn't go in. How would those displays help me garden in OHIO? So we spent a little time with the few vendors not behind the "magic walls", bought flowers for the garden, and left. Very weird.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Is Planned Obsolescence Obsolete?

I was reading an article on USAToday's Tech section (not linking to it, sorry. I'm tired today!) about how Microsoft was working on Windows 7 and the next edition of MS Office. Why? What's wrong with the current versions? (XP, I mean. I've not used Vista so have no opinion about it).

That got me to thinking that may planned obsolescence doesn't work anymore. If we have to PAY someone money to persuade consumers that they need to buy a new product (marketing, PR, advertising) and another group of people to actually GET consumers to buy it (sales), maybe the world got along just fine without the new product in the first place.

I know that capitalism has been built on planned obsolescence, but that doesn't mean that we should be held captive to it. What would a new version of MS Office do for me that the current version doesn't already do a bang up job doing? For goodness sakes, I barely use all of the features in the current version of Word, why spend millions of dollar developing a new version.

And think of what else could be done with that millions of dollars, if we weren't using it to build a better mousetrap? Entirely new tasks that PCs haven't done before. Or ways to make computers more affordable so even more people can buy them. LOTS of things. But as long as our capital is otherwise occupied and it can't do those things. It can only ever do what's it's always ever done: build a different and persuade people it's better than the one they already have.

Maybe one good thing that will come from the current financial troubles will be more people thinking about why they're buying what they're buying. Get them to stop buying the newest version of something. Then companies will be forced to think of what they do with their money.

Boy it's a drag being an optimist sometimes.....