Woe is We

The summer washout continues here in Southern Ontario. Last night we had warnings of severe thunderstorms with accompanying accumulations of large hail and possible funnel clouds. This morning we’re enjoying a good old fashioned gully-washer. Don’t know about you, but I have enough fungus growing between my toes already. Having grown up on a farm I pity anyone attempting to make hay this summer. Getting onto low-lying land with any heavy equipment especially if it is heavy clay will be impossible. The people who grow our fruit and vegetables are saving on irrigation costs but at the expense of sun to ripen and hale damage. Anyone who checks their sink after they rinse their head of lettuce knows why the Holland Marsh sinks an inch a year.

Spent over an hour this morning working out what was causing Internet Explorer to crash every time I attempted to open it unless I loaded it without add-ons. Finally determined it was the Google Toolbar that came bundled with some other software I recently installed. How much do you want to bet it has nothing to do with software incompatibility and everything to do with the rivalry between Microsoft and Google? I’m not normally one to subscribe to conspiracy theories but I figure this one’s a fairly safe bet.

Say Goodbye to the cassette tape. The Audiobook industry was the last sector in which cassette tapes were widely used. Cassettes can do one thing other mediums can't, "remember" exactly where you left off the last time you played them and they could do that even as they were transferred from one player to another. The recording industry began with Edison's cylinder; moved on to records in their various forms; thence to 8-tracks and cassettes; then CD's; and now MP3 players. On the horizon are memory cards with no moving parts which will be capable of storing entire record libraries. I think I'll go wind up my old Victrola.