Day: June 30, 2009

The Great Uniter

Finally, as US troops withdraw from Iraqi cities* we learn how influential George W. Bush was in bringing together people of vastly different ideologies.  From this morning’s Associated Press piece on the withdrawal:

“All of us are happy – Shi’ites, Sunnis, and Kurds – on this day,’’ Waleed al-Bahadili said as he celebrated at the park. “The Americans harmed and insulted us too much.’’

* Of course, “withdrawal” is used loosely here.  From the same article:

Despite today’s formal pullback, some US troops will remain in the cities to train and advise Iraqi forces. US forces will return to the cities only if asked. The US military will continue combat operations in rural areas and near the border, but only with the Iraqi government’s permission.

We’re Number One! Occasionally!

The public transportation system in the Boulder, Colorado area is the Regional Transportation District or RTD.

As in most cities, there is no competing public transit network.  Boston has the T, San Francisco has BART, and even New York has its subways and buses cooperating nicely as the MTA.  In Boulder, it’s RTD.

I therefore raised some obvious questions when I saw this banner on a visit to Colorado last year:

We're Number One... of One!

We're Number One... of One!

Chief among those questions: considering the complete lack of opposition, what exactly happened in  1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007?

In their defense, I lived in Colorado for quite a few years, including most of those in question, and I took the bus virtually everywhere.  (My parents would rightly challenge me if I said “everywhere,” having driven me and my friends to every conceivable neighboring city on more than a few occasions — thanks, Mom and Dad — but on balance I used RTD most often.)

I did endure Dick (his real name, as far as I ever learned) for my entire middle school career — the white-haired man who, despite an undying hatred for children and everything they stood for, picked up both the morning and evening runs most likely to have middle school children aboard every day.

But to compensate, I had a driver for much of high school who was fantastic, and whose name I have now completely forgotten.  The proper bus stop I used was about a block from the end of my street, but every single morning this driver would pull slowly up to my intersection and open the door, knowing in advance that I’d be sprinting breathlessly down the street to meet him.  (I always felt guilty about that, but less so when another kid did exactly the same thing at the next stop every morning.)

People like that should get medals.

Or, failing that, they should just hang a big banner on the side of the highway proclaiming that in three out of 13 years referenced, the agency beat itself to become number one.

Verizon LG Bluetooth

I learned today, as evidenced in my previous post, that I can easily transfer pictures from my LG phone to my iMac using Bluetooth.  Since this was not immediately obvious to me, I’ll now share the steps I took for the benefit of all mankind.

First, I made the phone discoverable (Settings > Bluetooth Menu > Options > Discovery Mode > On)

Next, on my iMac I opened the Bluetooth System Preferences pane and clicked the “+” button at the bottom of my list of devices.  After some searching, it discovered my phone and let me select it.  At some point I got to a screen that implied the only thing I could do with this phone was use its Internet connection.  False!

I ignored that screen entirely — in fact, I quit out of the setup wizard at that point — and went back to the Bluetooth System Preferences pane, which now included my phone in the list of devices.

Clicking the “gear” icon at the bottom of that list, I chose “Browse Device.”

There were my files!

It also looks like I could transfer new MIDI ringtones to my phone in that way, although like a civilized adult I want my phone to make a ringing sound when someone calls me.

iMac & Phone: Connected or Not?

Connected?

You can see that the iMac was somewhat conflicted about whether the phone was connected, but otherwise the whole thing went quite smoothly!

srouH erotS

I noticed this sign at the Verizon store in Cleveland Circle:

sruoH erotS

sruoH erotS

Here’s a tip: when posting your store hours, have the sign face outside the store.  Most of the people inside don’t need to know your hours, ’cause they’re already indoors.