Neptune Hotel, Providence

It’s a funky old downtown hotel, several steps up from the sidewalk.  The esthetic seems to be artsy threadbare.  Several good bars are just around the corner.  The train station is about a mile away.

A friendly clerk handles check in at the desk and explains that there is hotel bar, but only open on certain nights, and a coffee shop only open in the mornings.  She finds the bellman, who then carries my bags up with cheerful solicitude.  The main hotel is another half dozen steps up.  

The lobby is small, with black couches and bad lighting.  Neon signs decorate here and there, and a generous expanse of mirrors improves the sense of space.  The floors are tile or planking with occasional rugs.

From the main floor, you go up in a “Lift” that has a door on hinges that opens on a steel cage.  The cage travels slowly up and down in a concrete shaft that you could reach out and touch as it slides past, if you were so foolish.  The concrete is raw between floors, with a painted red door at each floor.  I’m told the hotel was once a brothel.

The lights are garish, I can say that.  None meant for reading.  All dim and glaring at the same time.  The halls are shadowy.

The room is dark with spots of illumination at key points.  When the sun comes in the western windows, the light is good.  There is a vintage half-couch that molds you into a laid-back posture almost like a hammock.  Hm.  The bathroom is black tile, gloomy, and there is no hot water.  

The television is easy to operate, unlike in most hotels.  A tiny desk allows work at a laptop.  There are plenty of electrical outlets.

The bed is big and comfortable, with adequate covers and good pillows.  I slept well and made it to the train station by 5 am.

Desk clerk at the entrance
Desk clerk at the entrance
Steps from the entrance to the lobby
Steps from the entrance to the lobby
Gloomy lobby with neon
Gloomy lobby with neon
Door to the list
Door to the lift
The lift is thirties vintage
The lift is thirties vintage
Windows to the west
Windows to the west
Semi couch and coat rack
Semi couch and coat rack
Tiny desk in the room
Tiny desk in the room
Organizing on the bed
Organizing on the bed

End of another iPad experiment

I’m trying to remember when I started my latest experiment with the iPad.  My first experiment began in 2010, when the first iPad was released.  I wanted a real electric tablet!  That lasted a few years. 

Eventually I realized what it couldn’t do and lost interest in it.  I took an interest again when Tim Cook introduced the Pencil, but it was reserved for the high end users, and I waited.  Then the Pencil was broadened to all users.  I made my move.  I bought.

Immediately I came up against two hard facts.  The operating system was clumsy, and the Pencil wasn’t made for handwriting.  But, I didn’t give up.  I set my mind to give it a good effort.  Well, that effort is over now, and I’m relieved.

The operating system was nothing but a constant bother.  Every action took at least four steps.  The iPad didn’t know how to organize files.  It didn’t know how to move files to or from other devices.  And it didn’t know how to receive input from the user.  Using it was like trying to build cabinetry with mittens on.

Let me just point out that I am experienced in using the most mature and sophisticated operating system in the world: Mac OS.  It is the operating system that taught the world how to use computers.  

What do I mean?  For information organization and presentation, the Mac wisely drew on the file system that Western society had been developing for centuries:  the hierarchical file system. Looking at the Mac screen, any office worker would see a representation of the same files and folders they saw in cabinets against the wall.  They understood it.  I’d like to say more, but not now.

There was really only one viable way to get information into an iPad, and that was through a keyboard.  But the iPad didn’t have one, it only had a cartoon of one.  So, you have to add a keyboard, and then you were back to an imitation laptop computer with a clumsy operating system.  You want to copy some files from a hard drive?  The iPad was surprised by that.  Sure, the iPad would figure out a way, but you were going to have to help it.

What about the Pencil?  For years, Apple barely acknowledged the concept that pencils are used for handwriting.  Then, they began to admit, that yes, a pencil is not just for drawing.  Expectations rose.  They announced that the user could now use the Pencil to write in Pages, their word processor, and in many other places!  Amazing.

The problem was in the execution.  My handwriting on the iPad produced text more erratic than a seventh-grader’s typing.  It proceeded between frequent scratch-outs and rewrites.

Then the system errors began.   I had bought a refurbished iPad Pro.  The screen started dimming and brightening randomly.  I like my screen bright, so I kept going to the Settings and setting it to bright.  Apple has created an annoying ability for the operating system to decide when to change brightness, supposedly based on ambient light, and I turned that off.  But another version of that control was hidden in some collection of automatic controls that must have been designed by the marketing department.  So I went there and turned it off.  The random brightness changes continued.

Through all this troubleshooting, I was assisted by some great technicians at Apple Support.  In the late stages I took the iPad to the Apple Store Genius Bar a couple of times, leaving it overnight or for a few days.  Finally, the Support team decided I should send it to an Apple repair center.  They turned it around pretty fast, but the repair did not fix the problem.  Finally, they decided to replace the defective tablet with a brand new top-of-the-line iPad Pro.  They were going all out for me.

Unfortunately, iPad pros now use FaceID, which I spurn, so I sold the iPad Pro and bought a great iPad Air with TouchID.  I felt a little sheepish, because I was rejecting the Support team’s ultimate gift for something less, and in a way that implied criticism of the iPad Pro.  But, I got the Air, along with a new Apple Pencil 2, and it was great.  The handwriting recognition improved a little, but then regressed.

I’d been using the iPad Air for almost a year when the new problem began.  The iPad stopped opening pdfs.  I frequently used the iPad and pencil to sign documents for work, so this was a mission critical problem.

Back to Apple Support I went, and they began to work with me over a couple of weeks.  Finally, the engineers were stumped.  They said to wait until the next OS update to see if that happened to fix it.  While waiting, I decided to run some tests of my own.  I deleted a couple of apps, and the iPad began opening pdfs again!

What were the apps?  They were two handwriting recognition apps.  I had downloaded them in my never-ending quest to use the iPad as a real electronic tablet.  That was the last straw.

I decided to end my iPad struggles.  I got rid of the iPad.  I bought a 2017 MacBook 12” from Other World Computing.  I’ve given up on handwriting recognition again, and the iPad, for a long while to come.  But I have have a sleek little laptop for my mobile computing, and it uses the best operating system in the world.  I love it.

New birth of freedom

I’ve been working on a rewrite of the Constitution.  Several writers have plowed the ground, outlining the issues and some paths forward.  I had to think the problem through.

We are at the point with our Constitution that the Founders were at as the Articles of Confederation were breaking down.  Our Constitution is breaking down.  Those brilliant men in convention in Philadelphia put together a solution that held for over 200 years (with the assist of the savior of the union).  Where are we going to find brilliant men- and women- like that?

I’ve been reading the Federalist Papers.  Three of the conventioneers– Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay– wrote a series of articles explaining the defects of the confederation and urging the benefits of a federal republic.  Their arguments still ring true.  And now we have almost two and a half centuries of experience to inform our understanding of the situation we are in.

We know the defects of our Constitution on a very practical level.  But we also know the sound foundation on which the defects have wreaked their havoc.   We don’t have to start over completely.  It’s an interesting challenge.

I can’t resist.  I want to give it a try.  I want to design a structure to function without the defects.  That’s what I’m trying to do- write a first draft of the new constitution.  I’m already on draft five, but when I let it out, that will be the first draft.  Ideas welcome.

Robin Cravey

Sunset Valley to Lake LadyBird

Mostly sunny sky.  Heat forecast.

Stopped at La Madeleine for some orange juice.  Sat at the table and studied the map.  I wanted to cycle from Madeleine to the river without going down a major street—Lamar, Menchaca, S. 1st, S. Congress.

Found two.  I chose one:

Jones Road to Packsaddle Pass.

At Packsaddle Pass, turn left and then to Redd.

At Redd, turn right and to Banister.

At Banister, turn left, after several blocks 

Dogleg right and to Garden Villa.

At Cardinal, turn left and to S. 5th.

At S. 5th, turn left.  Home free.

It would be helpful if Cumberland would connect with Bridgeway.

I had to cross a few major streets, but I never had to ride on one.  All easy neighborhood streets.  On S. 5th, new apartment complexes joined old ones and crowded out more houses.

I crossed the river on Pflugerville Bridge, and on the north side I discovered Mañana, an airy cafe with as much outdoors as in, with a long shelter for shade.  The tables are full.  Half the people are chatting with each other, the other half are gazing at their phones.  Families with kids occupy several tables.  One daydreams while her father looks at his phone.

Sunset Valley to Lake LadyBird

Mostly sunny sky.  Heat forecast.

Stopped at La Madeleine for some orange juice.  Sat at the table and studied the map.  I wanted to cycle from Madeleine to the river without going down a major street—Lamar, Menchaca, S. 1st, S. Congress.

Found two.  I chose one:

Jones Road to Packsaddle Pass.

At Packsaddle Pass, turn left and then to Redd.

At Redd, turn right and to Banister.

At Banister, turn left, And after several blocks 

Dogleg right and to Garden Villa.

At Garden Villa, turn left to Cardinal.

At Cardinal, turn left and to S. 5th.

At S. 5th, turn left.  Home free.

Roll down to the river.

It would be helpful if Cumberland would connect with Bridgeway.

I had to cross a few major streets, but I never had to ride on one.  All easy neighborhood streets.  On S. 5th, new apartment complexes joined old ones and crowded out more houses.

I crossed the river on Pflugerville Bridge, and on the north side I discovered Mañana, an airy cafe with as much outdoors as in, with a long shelter for shade.  The tables are full.  Half the people are chatting with each other, the other half are gazing at their phones.  Families with kids occupy several tables.  One daydreams while her father looks at his phone.

Trip Sheet

Decline and Fall

There is a specter stalking America.  It is the specter of Totalitarianism. This specter inhabits the body of a demonic demagogue.  But it is supported by mobs of the unthinking, the amoral, the ambitious, and the avaricious.  It is opposed by a quavering line of political time servers wondering how much they must risk to stop the destruction.

The destruction continues apace.  The demagogue and his henchmen unilaterally disarm the nation’s intelligence services, stand down our defenses against foreign influence, discontinue our efforts to root out the manufactured lies and myths infecting our discourse, give a green light to corruption.  The demagogue cavorts across the globe, bullying our friends, befriending bullies, betraying the free people fighting a menacing dictator overseas. He exploits every weakness and buried flaw in our constitutional system to seize power. 

What is an alarmed citizenry to do? The long game is to rethink our political organization and governmental structures. Even our philosophy of society. But the immediate crisis requires us to go to the barricades. Will we fight as hard for our freedom as the embattled peoples in Ukraine? As hard as American soldiers once fought in the trenches of a burning Europe?

The first order is to choose the real leaders among our political classes. Who will stand and fight? Who will advance? Rally behind them.

Running series
Democrat at the Breakfast Table

Afterthoughts

There’s no way to sugarcoat that election.  It was a whuppin.

The newspapers are full of analysis.  The Democrats didn’t understand, or they did it wrong, and here’s what they should have done, and finally, here’s what they must do.  There’s a lot that needs to be said, and a lot that just wants to be said.

I’ll just say a few things.  Here’s my answer to the question I posed in July.  I’m sorry to say that Biden choosing Harris as his running mate was one of his mistakes.  This is not because she was unworthy.  It was because Biden chose someone he did not have confidence in to carry forward.  That inflated his conceit that only he could do it.  It also reduced his party to tongue-tied indecision.

Kamala, for her part, ran a spirited campaign, but one obviously missing any forethought.  She was light on her feet and did a creditable job of making it up as she went along.  That wasn’t enough.

I can’t say much about how Trump won.  I do know that a majority of voters were willing to risk the destruction of our democracy in order to get off the track we’re on now.  That should be clarifying.

What can we do?  In the short term, compromise where we can, resist where we must, and fight where we have the people with us.   But we have some big long-term work to do.  Thinking to do.  First we must think philosophically, then strategically, then intentionally, and then tactically.  Don’t rush this.  It’s important.

Kamala Harris for President

Kamala Harris has risen brilliantly to the opportunity that fate has given her.  She began her short race for president with a smile that outshone the sun, giving the country new hope.  She has laid out her case for election deliberately, forcefully, and convincingly.

Her case is a good one.  First, and it must be said first, her opponent is a malignant man of the worst character and the most dangerous ambition.   She, in contrast, is a dedicated public servant with strong patriotic values.  Second, her vision for the country is one of reconciliation and modest but solid advancement.  Third, she has been part of an administration that has already accomplished landmark advancement toward the country’s goals.

It is the duty of all citizens of good will to turn out to vote for this remarkable stateswoman.  While in the booth, we must also vote for Democrats for Congress, to give the future President Harris the majority to accomplish great things.  Let there be no doubt on November 6 that this country has chosen the path of freedom, democracy, and progress.