Archive for September, 2010

Penobscot River Rafting

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Hurricane Earl, if you want to call it that (it was pretty week) hit Boston Friday night, and hit up at the rafting site from 7am to 10am Saturday. I managed to convince everyone to stay home Friday night and drive up Saturday. The rain was all over by the time we got up there. We did talk to some boy scouts who in addition to to crowding the hot tub, had rafted on Saturday, during the storm. They all said it was very wet but they still had fun. I was glad to have no rain on our trip, but it was cloudier, windier, and cooler than I expected, so I was not quite dressed appropriately, and got very cold when the wind and clouds combined. There are some stories about the rapids on the map.


View Penobscot Rafting Trip in a larger map

I also want to tell a brief story about the baby squirrel pictured below. He was tiny and cute and very energetic. He visited us on Sunday at sunset for the first time. He did quite a bit of hiding from me while I was trying to capture his picture. Eventually he scampered off with a bit of wood that he perhaps confused for food. Anyways, when I woke up in the morning at 7am I noticed that our basket of dry food had been left out and not placed in a car. Then I noticed that said basket was rustling, and shortly after that the head of this small squirrel was visible. He exited the basket with what was left of a packet of Hershey’s milk chocolate following a night of smore making. I ran up to him and he ran away, leaving the chocolate on the ground beneath the picnic table. I picked up the chocolate, put it on the table and walked away for a few minutes. When I came back the chocolate was gone without a trace. I sincerely hope that chocolate does not harm small squirrels.

Google Instant Search

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Today Google unveiled Instant Search, which shows results as you type in the search box. I decided to try out a very simple test case to see how it did. I chose the test case “How do I turn off Google Instant Search”, and some shorter versions “Turn off Google Instant Search” and “Google Instant Search Off.” Surprisingly google instant search requires the user type out the entire query for these sure to be popular search terms before returning any useful results. The entire point of Google instant search is to provide results before the user hast to type out the entire query. I’m sure in a few days this fail will be corrected, after some 25% of the internet starts searching for how to make things go back to the way they used to be.