Early Saturday Morning Ramblings

While the southeastern part of the U.S. is being pounded by Charley, here in New England it seems to be blossoming into a fine summer day.

Exhaustion hit last night during the opening ceremonies for the Olympics on TiVo.

Okay, I will admit it right here, I don't get the Olympics. I could go into great detail, but from the 1936 Olympics on, it has become a political showcase and spitting contest. Perhaps my perspective is slightly warped by its presentation on network TV in the U.S., but, I find it all almost as interesting as watching golf or fishing.
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While browsing the internet this morning, I came across a bit about a laptop that is geared for AOL. It comes loaded with Sun's StarOffice 7, and connects you directly to the AOL service.

Is anyone really that devoted to AOL that they would want a machine to load directly to their server and have their interface pop up as their opening screen? I guess so.

Back in the stone age, ten or fifteen years ago, when we were traveling around the country in our RV, the high tech wonder was being able to stop at any Sears and pick up your Prodigy Mail on their computers. We've come a long way, with WiFi enabled laptops, DSL and Highspeed cable connections. Why would we want to take a step back and lock ourselves into a pay for view portal?
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While finally watching The Italian Job, (***) I was overwhelmed by the amount of product placement. Admittedly, I do that in my blogs just because I can, but I hope it's not in-your-face.

Of course the product placement worked, I really really-really want to go out and buy a Mini Cooper. They looked like so much fun in the movie. I doubt I will be allowed to drive it like a skateboard up and down the concrete banks of the LA River, but I would like to try and navigate Cambridge, MA in one.

In the beginning of the movie, the fella in charge of blowing things up was reading a book called How to Think Like DaVinci. I have not been able to find the book online. I am surprised not to find it on Amazon. Perhaps I have the title wrong.

Since The Da Vinci Code, the wise old man has become very popular. Do you think he would be amused by all this attention? I believe he would.
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Speaking of famous wise old men, I am still lingering near the end of the biography of Benjiman Franklin. He is being carried to the Constitutional Convention in a divan chair carried by convicts from the local prison. He his teaching some of the more hot headed representatives the art of compromise. He is going to die soon and I am not looking forward to it.

I am annoyed at Tennessee for picking such a silly name when it could have been called Franklin.
=30=