Friday, November 9, 2018

Evanston: MORNING OF FIRE; an experiment; bragging; sign of the times

        I had never heard of John Kendrick until BookBub offered MORNING OF FIRE and I should have. He was an exceptional man who fell through the cracks of history.
       Only a few years after the United States came into being he lead an extraordinary voyage to establish an American presence on the west coast of the continent. Once there, after a torturous rounding of Cape Horn, he and his men and ships were as remote as if they were on the far side of the moon, and without Houston Control.
        Scott Ridley tells John Kentrick’s dramatic life and death well. A friend who is reading the book has been riveted and disgusted. Recommendation enough.


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        While still useable, my 12” MacBook is showing signs of age, so yesterday I rode the train to an Apple store and bought a 12.9” iPad Pro in the hope that it can be a laptop replacement, despite some reviews that say it can’t.
        I also bought a keyboard and pencil and am writing this on the iPad. It is too early to know if the experiment will be a success.
       With the keyboard attached, the iPad weighs about the same two pounds as the MacBook, is about as thick, is slightly wider, is considerably more powerful and has a bigger display.
        While I have used IOS on phones and an iPad mini, there is a steep learning curve. Almost nothing works the same as on other devices or my MacBook and the solutions to most of the differences are far from intuitive.
        The display is huge and vivid.  I like the touch of the keyboard better than that on the MacBook. Visiting sites on the Internet, reading in the Kindle app and magazines in Texture are all excellent. I have already become so used to the touch screen that I found myself futilely touching the screen of the MacBook.  And I am gradually figuring out how to do the things I want and need to do.
        An unexpected consequence of this transition has been to cause me to like iNavX less and iSailor more.
        When you buy charts from iSailor they can be downloaded to any number of devices. I opened iSailor on this iPad and my charts were soon all there.
       With iNavX the number and types of device are limited. Buy the Navionics charts for the US for your iPhone and you will have to buy a different version for iPad. Those charts are now available as an in-app purchase in iNavX. So yesterday I paid $69.99 and was informed that the charts were limited to this single device.
        A few minutes after making the purchase, I received an email from Apple that my ‘subscription’ would automatically renew at the same price a year from now.
        It turns out that I will not have to pay for the charts every year and that automatic renewal of ‘subscriptions’ is Apple’s standard policy. If I do not renew, I will still have the charts but I won’t get updates.
        I use both iSailor and iNavX. I find some actions easier on one than the other. However, I am now going to make a strong effort to use only iSailor.


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        This is unabashed bragging. I can’t even ask your forgiveness.
        I was feeling good when I did my workout Wednesday and instead of stopping at my age or 80, I went to 90 push-ups and crunches in the first set, a personal best for push-ups. I could have done more. I am not sure I could have done 100. Maybe one day I’ll see.
       90 push-ups would be doing my age through November 10, 2032. These dates are becoming ridiculous.


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        I had lunch with a friend today at a restaurant a half mile away. Seven people passed me walking the other way as I returned home. Every one of them was glued to their phones. One woman was staring at her phone while walking her dog.
        My friend, Michael, who is himself going home tomorrow after two months in hospital and rehab, tells me that his very superior dog, Rusty, is irritated if he sees Michael glancing at his phone while they are out walking.
        I am with Rusty.