it’s been years since the last time i’ve had to deal with the dmv, and like everyone else, i have bad memories of total chaos, angry unhelpful employees, and really long lines.
i went in today to replace my CA license with a NY one. walking in, i got in line for the ‘information nazi’ who was quickly calling people forward, figuring out what they wanted, and then dispatching them…mostly sending them home. “got your passport and social security card? no? come back when you do!” you could tell that slightly fumbling or misunderstanding of what she said would lead to scolding. i felt sorry for the non-native english speakers.
anyways, because i spent a good amount of time beforehand on the dmv website deciphering what needed to be done, i was in and out within an hour! i gotta hand it to them, the ticketing system was really easy to understand and efficient. some smart engineer out there did a good job designing the workflow. =)
in contrast, having to get my replacement social security card was a really bad experience. i mailed in my request, which required sending in my passport for id. i waited nervously about 2 months for it to arrive, without any sort of status update and worried the whole time that i’d lost my passport. before it came, i tried going to the local social security office to check the status…but it was so crowded i just ran away.
i installed pmwiki onto my web host. the idea is to build a knowledge base of ‘all my stuff’ on a site that i can access from any browser. it’s password protected so i can’t show you. it’s cool, though. really.
i’ve been playing with the ubuntu distribution of linux. installed it on my pc so i can dual boot to it instead of windows. it’s pretty neat - easy to set up, works out of the box, has all the basic applications most people need. and it’s stable, secure, and FREE.
amo brought over 2 really old computers from her work that were basically unused because they’re like 7 yrs old - pentium iii 500mhz’s with 128mb ram, 40 gb harddrives. they crawled along with windows98. installed ubuntu, and now they’re running firefox & openoffice at somewhat usable speeds. and most importantly, they can be used with almost no worry about getting viruses.
ok, gotta get this post in, too…so, i went through a bit of effort because i just had to set up my pc and mac mini with wireless keyboards and mice. turns out, the wireless stuff blows. the wireless mice aren’t very accurate (unless you buy an expensive one). on top of that, i realized that typing on them was a bit of a chore, because the keyboards felt mushy - yet i love typing on my laptop.
enter the kensington slimtype keyboard. it’s a full-sized USB keyboard for your desktop, but the keys use the laptop-style “switch mechanism” (whatever that is). it’s awesome. i love typing on it. i replaced both keyboards. and they were only $27 each!
opera, my favorite web browser, is now totally free (it used to have little ads in it). go try it. i swear it feels way faster than other browsers. unfortunately, it’s not quite as compatible as Firefox - every now and then you’ll come across a site that it won’t work with. my favorite and most used feature is pretty simple: keyboard shortcuts for forward (”X”) and back (”Z”). on opera, zipping forward & back is instantaneous. it also doesn’t delete any text you might have typed into a web form. how many times have you filled something out, then accidentally clicked a link foward, and went back to find everything you’d typed was gone?
