Of the 32,741 post offices in America, the Postal Service is reviewing about 3,200, or nearly 10 percent. The Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent agency, posted 700 of them on a 12-page list at its Web site, www.prc.gov -- but the site was almost impossible to reach, apparently overwhelmed by people trying to find out if their local branch was in danger.
The Postal Service is in trouble, both because of the economy and changing times. People are paying bills online instead of putting a check in an envelope; they are sending E-mail instead of letters. The Postal Service says it may lose $7 billion this year.
ABC News
The list at prc.gov
August 4, 2009
The Struggle to Stay Wired, in a Hotel Room or a Crisis
THE first thing I do when I check into a hotel room on a business trip is head directly to the desk to make sure the Internet connection works. If the Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection does not snap to life, I am ready to march down to the lobby and threaten to check out if the hotel can’t fix it.
The nonnegotiable demand for connectivity says less about our impatience and sense of entitlement as business travelers (or so I’d like to think) than it does about our basic needs. We’re accustomed to being connected, we need to be connected and we get upset when we’re not.
On a video clip that has been widely shared online, the comedian Louis C. K. tells of being on an airplane with Wi-Fi when the man seated beside him suddenly loses his connection and explodes in curses about airline incompetence. “How quickly does the world owe him something that he knew existed only 10 seconds ago?” he asks.
The New York Times
The nonnegotiable demand for connectivity says less about our impatience and sense of entitlement as business travelers (or so I’d like to think) than it does about our basic needs. We’re accustomed to being connected, we need to be connected and we get upset when we’re not.
On a video clip that has been widely shared online, the comedian Louis C. K. tells of being on an airplane with Wi-Fi when the man seated beside him suddenly loses his connection and explodes in curses about airline incompetence. “How quickly does the world owe him something that he knew existed only 10 seconds ago?” he asks.
The New York Times
August 3, 2009
Death stops Future Shock
There is nothing so future shocking as the death of a loved one. While the world races on, and man continues his quest for knowledge and the technological tower of Babel, the memory of those who have gone on stays fixed in time, never moving, never changing. At times, their nearness seems to fade beneath the ever present squall of the machine of time. And at other times, their memory makes things like Twitter, Facebook and the iPhone seem inconsequential.
I would like to pause and take this moment to recognize my wife's younger brother Jed Bulla, who was killed in a car wreck 4 years ago today at age 17. His death is a constant reminder to our family of all that is important: each other. All the rest of it is just clutter.
July 30, 2009
July 28, 2009
Warning: The Wrong Tweet Can Get You Sued
A Chicago-area woman is being sued for $50,000 by her landlord over a critical Tweet, the Chicago Sun-Times reported today. The landlord is quoted as describing itself as a "sue first and ask questions later kind of an organization." The tweet in question appeared to go to fewer than 20 friends of the sender.
Listen people, you can get sued for Tweets the same as you can get sued over something you post to a Web site or blog. You may think you are only tweeting to friends, but unless you select "Protect My Tweets" on your Twitter "account" page your tweets are both public and searchable. Facebook isn't safe, either.
David Coursey,PC World
Listen people, you can get sued for Tweets the same as you can get sued over something you post to a Web site or blog. You may think you are only tweeting to friends, but unless you select "Protect My Tweets" on your Twitter "account" page your tweets are both public and searchable. Facebook isn't safe, either.
David Coursey,PC World
Texting While Driving Is Deadliest Task
Dialing and sending text messages on cell phones while driving greatly increases the risk of crashing because these activities take drivers' eyes off the road, according to a study released Tuesday by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
The study tracked the eye glances of drivers and labeled as most dangerous those tasks that drew drivers' eyes away from the road the longest.
By that measure, sending text messages while driving was the most dangerous of all the tasks. It increased the risk of a crash over 23 times for truck drivers and is equivalent to "traveling the length of a football field at 55 mph without looking at the roadway," the study said.
Information Week
The study tracked the eye glances of drivers and labeled as most dangerous those tasks that drew drivers' eyes away from the road the longest.
By that measure, sending text messages while driving was the most dangerous of all the tasks. It increased the risk of a crash over 23 times for truck drivers and is equivalent to "traveling the length of a football field at 55 mph without looking at the roadway," the study said.
Information Week
July 27, 2009
July 22, 2009
The National Data Center and Personal Privacy
"The modern computer is more than a sophisticated indexing or adding machine, or a miniaturized library; it is the keystone for a new communications medium whose capacities and implications are only beginning to realize. In the foreseeable future, computer systems will be tied together by television, satellites, and lasers, and we will move large quantities of information over vast distances in imperceptible units of time."
"The National Data Center and Personal Privacy",Authur R. Miller, The Atlantic, 1967, courtesy of Modern Mechanix
Read the whole article here
Modular Men
Dear faithful legion of 'The Modern Malaise':
My brother Melvillian and I have been co piloting this blog together since it's inception from our wild rants on humanity, technology, the past, the present, and the future. Melvillian has lately bowed out of The Modular Man for reasons that may stagger our audience: he was blogged out. He is a very busy man, what with blogs, radio shows, school, family, the summer of George, ect. I am sure this is not the last we will see of him, and he will be WATCHING from afar.
Last night, he did a radio show dedicated to this corner of the globe, and it was excellent.
So then, I tip my hat to my brother as I begin the journey of posting all things modular by myself. Please feel free to contact me with anything that raises the hackles on your sensitive necks, and bear with any lack of postings for some days, as well as a lack of imagination in others.
Alright then, to it!
My brother Melvillian and I have been co piloting this blog together since it's inception from our wild rants on humanity, technology, the past, the present, and the future. Melvillian has lately bowed out of The Modular Man for reasons that may stagger our audience: he was blogged out. He is a very busy man, what with blogs, radio shows, school, family, the summer of George, ect. I am sure this is not the last we will see of him, and he will be WATCHING from afar.
Last night, he did a radio show dedicated to this corner of the globe, and it was excellent.
So then, I tip my hat to my brother as I begin the journey of posting all things modular by myself. Please feel free to contact me with anything that raises the hackles on your sensitive necks, and bear with any lack of postings for some days, as well as a lack of imagination in others.
Alright then, to it!
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