This has been day 2 of the partial retirement adventure. I don’t count the weekend. I took the puppygirls to the dog park today. They had not been since they were baby puppies.
Even though there was only one other dog there, they had a great time. Smellfest-2018! They are anxious to go back soon
I got my loaner CCTV set up. The machine itself is not only large but the lowest magnification is HUGE. Better than nothing, though.
I also contacted Eschenbach about repairs. They are really tightening up. Not only no more loaner machines but also you need a credit card on file to get service. No shipping and handling costs paid either.
I got the puppygirls out to the pool this afternoon. Took a look at the pool deck and thought it would be a perfect way to describe geographic atrophy.
What am I talking about? Well, a few years back my husband painted the concrete around the pool. Apparently, his family has something against naked concrete. Anyway, a back injury and my complaining the pool deck looked like it had the mange made him decide not to try to paint again. Being fanciful, I see all sorts of ‘maps’ in the peeling paint. The way the paint is peeling is similar to how your macula is degenerating with geographic atrophy. Patches here and there.
Just a thought. A weird one, but a thought.
And thoughts lead to intelligence which leads to artificial intelligence which leads to a new topic. Tada!
Watch out Microsoft! Google is nipping at your heels!
The Macular Society ran a post about how Google is launching a new Android app. This app, called Lookout, hopes to give Microsoft’s Seeing AI a run for its money. Lookout is reported to be able to do for Android users what Seeing AI does for Apple users. Only they hope to do it better, of course.
Lookout is reported to give auditory cues to what the VIP may meet in his environment. It is designed to wear on a lanyard around the neck or in a shirt pocket.
Lookout is supposed to process things in the environment and share what it believes to be relevant. Sounds like a pretty big order to me!
Supposedly Lookout is programmed to learn what your tastes are and point out to you things that match those tastes. Great as long as you don’t want to experience anything new. It sort of sounds like if the Italian restaurant is next door to the Indian restaurant, Lookout will always steer you in the direction you usually go. In my case, I would be eating a lot of Italian even if I were interested in a culinary adventure. I might not even know the Indian restaurant is there.
Not sure that is the way it is going to work but that could be a problem.
Lookout is again said to have four modes: home, work, and play, scan and experimental. Scan is supposed to have a text to speech feature. Thus, it can read to you.
So, there you have it. Blow by blow of my second ‘work day’ off the job. But don’t worry, you’re going to get a reprieve. I work at the counseling center tomorrow!
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go!
Written June 12th, 2018