New Toy Update . . .
I mentioned the other day about my new Dash Cam, and our Thanksgiving trip back to Katy was my first chance to really try it out.
I really like the quality (1080p) and the color is good too. In addition I like the 140° view. My other dashcam, the one in the rig, has a 170° angle, which means the view is more distorted.
You can check out a sample below.
A really great deal for only $50.
I also got another new toy recently, a little sister to our Amazon Echo Alexa, an Amazon Echo Dot
Only about 1.5 inches high, it does just about everything the full-size version does. The only downside is that the speaker system is not as good due to its smaller size. For this reason the Dot is really made to be hooked up to a Bluetooth or external speaker.
But in real world use it seems to work just fine with the internal speakers. Besides its smaller size, the other thing I really like is the fact that, unlike the Echo which is powered by an AC adapter, the Dot is powered by a standard USB-micro HTML cable just like your cellphone or tablet.
What all this boils down to is that that Dot is great for use on the road. We have used our big Echo traveling in the rig where there is plenty of room, but the Dot is much better for use in the truck. And since it’s USB powered I can plug it right in rather than having to use an inverter.
Even better, the Dot is only $49.99 compared to $179.99 for the big sister. And even more better, right now through Cyber Monday, the Dot is only $39.99. A great deal.
We used it to listen it to iHeartRadio, our 9000+ songs in Amazon’s Cloud Storage, or the 2 million+ songs we get with Prime Music.
Looks like Google has finally come out with their version of the Echo called Google Home. I imagine though it’s going to take them a while to catch up with all the things Echo offers.
I’ve enjoyed all the back and forth on Facebook about whether or not stores should be open on Thanksgiving for shopping. There was a lot of discussion on both sides, citing greedy corporations, angry shoppers, etc.
Hearing this always makes me think of the Blue Laws here in Texas when we moved out here in December 1978. Not only were no big stores open on Sunday, there were a lot of strange restrictions on what you could buy.
Things like the fact you could buy cloth diapers on Sunday, but you couldn’t buy disposable ones. You could buy a hammer or a screwdriver, but not nails or screws. In fact there were 100’s of these weird differences. Eventually the big stores had enough and many started opening on Sunday, pretty much daring the authorities to punish them. Finally in 1985 the whole thing collapsed. At this point, even the churches couldn’t stem the tide.
But what really broke the dam was an article in the newspaper that revealed only about 5% of the working population was employed in retail sales affected by the Blue Laws. The other 95% were police, firefighters, EMT, doctors, nurses, etc. Others worked at refineries, chemical plants, TV stations, and the like.
Landon got to tell Santa Claus his Christmas Wish List today at Bass Pro Shot.
Thought for the Day:
“Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings.” ― Robert Benchley
gdghdgh
