The Low-Tech Times

Today, my wife and I went to the Shenandoah Valley Steam and Gas Engine Association Pageant of Steam in Berryville, Virginia. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm arrived just in time to rain on the parade of steam, but the event went on as scheduled. I used a cassette recorder to make a short audio recording of the noon whistle blow and parade of steam tractors.

The event also featured model-T fords, Stanley Steamers, a hay baling demonstration, a sawmill demonstration, corn dogs, and more. Fortunately, the weather cleared later in the afternoon.

I also shot a couple of short video clips, which I will try to upload in the coming days.

Google is a successful company employing a lot of smart people. They made over $4 billion in earnings off of $16 billion in revenue last year. They continue to enjoy a growing share of the search engine market.

Is Google so Smart that it Makes You Stupid?

Nicholas Carr at the Atlantic Online asks that question. As google does the work of the mind, he sees changes going on inside of his brain:

I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet.

Most would agree that using google to save time during research is a good thing, but perhaps it is taking something important away. I wrote a piece earlier in a similar vein touching on the fact that reliance on GPS navigation devices may lead to a loss of navigational skill.

Or Is Google Stupid?

Yesterday I wrote a piece touching on some problems with Google Maps. Compared to Google Search, Google Maps is a newer feature and it will likely continue to improve over time. Google Search remains the hallmark service offered by Google.

In addition to search, however, Google is also known as a leader in online advertising. The Low-Tech Times signed up for Google Adsense as a source of advertising revenue. Google Adsense scans the content of web pages and places relevant ads on the page. Sometimes it appears to work fairly well. Other times, the results are not ideal.

For example, I wrote a post on this anti-gadget blog slamming a robotic lawnmower and recommending low-tech grass cutting methods instead. Google Adsense placed ads directly below the post for:

• Robotic Lawnmowers and
• Gadgets for Men

Is that smart? Perhaps humans might be able to do a better job than Google’s algorithms.

It is certainly convenient to enter your address and a destination address into an online map site such as Mapquest or Google Maps to get step-by-step driving directions. I get the sense that many people take the printouts with them in the car without even looking at them first. However, the hi-tech mapping sites are not always reliable.

This unofficial google blog article points out some problems encountered last year from users of Google Maps, including one route that called for taking over 200 u-turns. That problem has apparently fixed since then, but who knows what other problems remain?

The Washington Post offers this column by Rob Pegoraro about a problem with online mapping services. The hi-tech mapping sites tend to avoid recommending highways with HOV (high occupancy vehicle) restrictions during certain times. Depending on the time of your trip and the number of passengers you will be carrying, the online directions may not direct you over the best route.

I recently used Mapquest to get directions from Virginia to a wedding near Ithaca, NY. Mapquest advised taking I-81 North; however, I decided to leave I-81N at Harrisburg and take Rte 15 North after consulting some real maps. On my way home I followed Mapquest’s I-81 route. My experience was that US 15 route was a shorter, faster, and more interesting drive. Much of the US15 route follows the Susquehanna River.

I’m not necessarily suggesting that everyone should avoid online map sites altogether. Mapquest has new functionality allowing you to specify certain roads to avoid. You can use that feature to try to force it to show you the route you want. However, I do recommend keeping real maps in your glove box and enjoying the satisfaction that comes from successfully planning your own route.