Toys I like

Even though I’m very nerdy, I’ve never been much into toys and gadgets. I’ve always feared and mistrusted them, more than liked them. Tha’ts why I love Free Software: I get to be in control of the gadgets instead of them controlling me. So you see I have a somewhat complex relationship with technology: I seek to understand it in detail because I loathe and fear it.

But there are a few gadgets with which I’ve found myself totally delighted:

- Sansa Fuze player: An iPod Nano clone that plays Ogg Vorbis! It sips batteries, is easy to use, and plays Open and Free format audio!

- Asus EEE 1000 laptop. This thing is amazing. Runs Linux flawlessly. All the hardware in it is well-supported in Linux and my Debian distro (debian-eee, based on Lenny), just installed and ran on it with only a very minor amount of fussing. The keyboard is usable, the screen readable, the Wifi and even the webcam work, and it hardly uses any electricity at all and runs for 6 hours on a battery.

I’m also pleased with by Etymotic in-ear headphones (I use them often with the Sansa), because they block out external sounds almost completely. I can walk down a city street past a bus, listening to ambient music, and hear every texture of it.

I don’t expect to be buying very many more gadgets, nor for many other people do be doing so either, but at least I’m enjoying these ones, for once.

Change Moment

On a bus in San Francisco, late at night, the day after the election, at the Civic Center bus stop (Civic Center is a gathering place for homeless and street people).

Bus driver (black guy in his 40’s) picks up an elderly black homeless guy in his 60’s or so. Takes a while for him to get all his stuff hauled up the steps and onto the bus. Bus driver asks him for payment. Homeless guy gets irritated with the bus driver for asking for the $1.50.

Homeless guy: It’s a new day! Obama is the President of the United States. You don’t have to be no Uncle Tom no more.

Bus driver: Get off my bus.

Homeless guy: I paid my fare! I ain’t gettin’ offa no bus.

Bus driver: You called me an Uncle Tom. Get off of my bus.

Homeless guy: I paid my fare!

Bus driver: There’s another bus behind me. Get off.

Homeless guy: Another bus? Where? I can’t wait no 20 minutes. I got a plane to catch!

Bus driver: You got a transfer, take the next bus. Where’s your transfer?

Homeless guy: I ain’t got one.

At this point, we’re all starting to laugh. But minutes have gone by. A bystander close to the front of the bus (also black) is getting impatient, and speaks up:

Bystander: I’ll give you a dollar to get off of the bus…

Homeless guy: OK!

And he grabbed that dollar and high-tailed it off of that bus so fast, it could make your head spin.

The whole bus busted up laughing.

It may be a new day in America, but it’s still America, and money is still king.