Lifestyle

By Gregory Coan

For an IT guy, I have a pretty easy job. I’m part of a team of four, and I am the main Apple “guru.” While my compatriots spend their days cleaning viruses off staff PC’s and trying to figure out why the Microsoft email system isn’t functioning, I help students and staff produce videos, transform photos, edit artistic sound pieces – in short, I help people get things done.

You saw the commercials during the Superbowl -- “Anesthesia, ON,” and “Door, OPEN,” so you know that Microsoft has now made its way into the automobile industry. Recently, the very helpful Sharon Dash, Sales and Leasing Consultant of Paul Cerame Ford-Lincoln-Mercury on New Halls Ferry Road, invited us to test drive a Ford Focus with Microsoft Sync installed.

A major political force within St. Louis wants to demolish a viable piece of architecture for parking, and an apathetic community is allowing it to happen--it’s an oft-repeated scenario in our city, and the fact that it is happening again is no surprise, but nevertheless, borders on the ridiculous. Though this sad story generally brings to mind turn-of-the-century office buildings falling for massive parking garages downtown, this chapter is different.

BY GREGORY COAN

This week I got to check out a nice addition to Netflix, the Roku set-top home delivery box. Think of it as Netflix movies on-demand without the hassles of DVDs, envelopes, and stopping at a mailbox. The Roku box is the first entry in this arena for Netflix and according to the company there will be other devices coming in the future as well. Keep in mind the Roku box works with Netflix and Netflix only. So what does it add to your Netflix experience and is it worth the $99 price tag?

Though the phrase “doggy paddle” exists, not all dogs know how to swim instinctively. Many conditions can even impair the ability of a dog that DOES know how to swim. Falling in the water can often prevent a human from getting the dog out, breeds with low body fat like Doberman Pinschers and Boxers can have trouble in the water that can lead to hypothermia, older dogs tire easily while swimming; and breeds prone to hip dysplasia or other joint disorders can lose their ability to paddle. Statistics show that 1 out of 1,027 pets drown a year in America.

If you’d asked me two months ago to state my opinion about pit bulls, I would have said this: Humans have made some of them dangerous, and this doesn’t make pit bulls undeserving of life and companionship. They can be as gentle, loyal, and loving as any other dogs. And pit bull bans just hurt innocent animals and their families—the people who love them.

This could be a big year for developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. The developer who has assembled hundreds of parcels in north St. Louis without announcing a solid development plan will have to decide whether or not to apply for a new Missouri tax credit for land assemblage before other developers do the same. Since McKee’s attorney Steve Stone drafted the first version of the tax credit, I’d bet that McKee has a strong interest in applying.

Nestled between two prominent landmarks, the glitzy new Lumiere Place casino complex and the venerable Ashley Street Power House, stands a group of warehouse buildings. These aren’t the most iconic buildings – certainly not amid such strong competition. Still, the street wall presence of three buildings on Leonor K. Sullivan Drive between Carr and Biddle ties together disparate sections of riverfront fabric.

Did you know that the first computer was designed to function like the human brain? Loosely speaking, in your brain you have programs (talents/skills), RAM (short-term memory), and a hard drive (long-term memory). You even have a “tree” structure in your head, like a computer, which explains why some things take longer to remember than others—you have to find it in the right subfolder of the right subfolder of the right folder. Now, in a human, they say the memory is the first thing to go. In a computer, however, you can always improve your memory.

BY GREGORY COAN

I never wanted an iPhone. Well wait … I’m an IT Geek, of course I WANTED an iPhone but I wasn’t about to pay three or four hundred dollars for a phone. I already had a Motorola phone with AT&T and a laptop handy most of the time, so it all seemed a bit redundant to me. And I don’t really like talking on the phone.