Tag Archives: Disappointment

Not one of my successes

Memories, People,

About a year and a half ago I wrote the following about a former student of mine:

Tom Cruise look-alike, smooth-talking, thirteen-year-old Diran even had the older nuns under his spell. He was nearly expelled from Catholic school for smoking in the boys’ room, but given a warning instead. He finally was kicked out when he brought a knife to the school. Not one of my successes.

Today I learned that middle school was only the beginning. A little over two months ago he was involved in a high-speed two-state police chase.  Four years before that he was snatching purses from middle aged women.

He really wasn’t a bad kid. I expected him to grow out of his “bad-boy” phase and go on to college and end up successful. He certainly had the personality for it.  I expected, someday, to read about him in the paper — but not like this.

I wonder what happened. Why he risked his life and the lives of others by racing through the countryside high on medications.

Eye-fi — Not ready yet

Photographs, Technology, , ,


We were this close [imagine me holding up my thumb and forefinger about a centimeter apart] to buying an Eye-fi explore for our Ireland trip. It sounded ideal:

  1. It uploads photos from your digital camera to your photo site of choice
  2. It geo-tags the photos so you don’t have to do that

However, on further investigation, it is not “certified” (whatever that means) to work outside the US. And there are huge gaps in the areas that are already mapped.

It seems they are using a newish technology called Skyhook to map areas, and Skyhook is faulty. I downloaded their toolbar called Loki and clicked “find me”. It put me a mile or so away from where I actually am. Then when I chose to map my real location, I was asked to find my mac address. I’m too lazy to find my mac address. And, if I weren’t too lazy, what security / privacy issues would there be if I gave out that information?

I thought that Eye-fi used satellites like most other mapping devices. I’m very disappointed and won’t be spending $130 for a 2 GB card.