people who like rtf should really switch to markdown
If you write documents at all on your computer, this matters.
RTF. That's Rich Text Format, a document file type originally introduced in 1987. Yeah, it's that old. The only reason anybody knows about this format is because of WordPad, the built-in basic document editor in Windows 95 all the way to Windows 11 (but not for long, which I'll get to in a moment). Prior to WordPad, the basic Windows rich text editor was Write.
There are still people to this day who are all about their RTFs, and it's for one reason.
Speed.
Before getting into that, it used to be the way that all GUI document editors were lickety-split lighting fast in Windows. Whether it was WordPad, Microsoft Works (remember that one?) or Microsoft Office, you could double-click a DOC and whammo, it would open right up with almost no wait time. It was great.
Microsoft Works went away, and Microsoft Office over time got slower... and slower... and slower... to the point where if you wanted that lickety-split speed back, you had to use something else. Sure, there was OpenOffice and LibreOffice, but nope, not fast enough.
Then came internet-based document editors. It didn't speed anything up. Instead of waiting for a program to launch, now you're waiting for an internet-based app to load. And if you're required to login just to edit documents along with 2FA authentication, yep, add that to the time you have to wait just to edit a document. Ridiculous. You'd literally be able to load paper in a typewriter faster to get to your document writing sooner.
This is why people still use WordPad. RTF is an ancient file format, but that's what WordPad uses, and it's got that lickety-split fast speed that never went away. Everything about it is lightning quick. Quick to launch, quick to edit, quick to save.
WordPad has very little in the way of features, but when you want a document editor that has rich text features that's fast-fast-fast and just works, WordPad is really nice...
...or at least it used to be.
Windows 11 no longer auto-installs WordPad on clean installations of the OS, and you probably won't see it any more at all in future Windows.
This is where markdown saves the day. It's a different way of editing documents, but once you get used to it, you get all the speed back.
Markdown documents can be made using any plain text editor. Notepad, Notepad++, Kate, nano, Vim, whatever. All that needs to be learned is how markdown works. Do an internet search for "markdown cheat sheet" and you'll see what I mean.
After that, all you need is a markdown viewer.
Yes, you can include images. For local images (which is the smarter way to go about it), you can keep things easy just by keeping image files in the same folder you save your MD files to.
There are both standalone and web browser markdown viewers. In Chrome, for example, just go to the Chrome Web Store, search "markdown" and the viewer will be one of the first results. Firefox has it also.
The greatest thing about a markdown document is that no standard program/app is required to edit one. Again, use any text editor you want, save as file.md or whatever you want to name it, and that's it.
You get your bold/italic/strikethrough/whatever, but more importantly you get the speed back that you lost.
In fact, you can load/edit MD documents faster than RTF since there's barely any overhead when using a plain text editor.
Some people like markdown so much that it's the only format they use for documents. When you want all the speed and something that formats text and can include images, you really can't do much better than markdown.
garmin "timeline" feature that's existed for more than a decade
Ordinarily, when one uses a modern Garmin DriveSmart 66 or DriveSmart 76, they see the Recent menu option from Where To? screen and think, "That's all there is?"
No. There's more.
Some wonder if a Garmin navigator has a Google Timeline-like feature. Yes, it does. The screenshot above is from my DriveSmart 76 using the Trip History feature. This is in every 66 and 76, but it's not from the Recent menu option. Instead, you choose Apps and then Trip History, and that's where you find it.
Is Recent different from Trip History? Yes, it's two separate things. With Recent, that's just a quick list of the locations you've navigated to. With Trip History, it shows how many trips you've taken sorted by date, total time spent traveling, total distance traveled, and each entry shows the exact departure and arrival times.
For privacy, yes, you can reset/delete Recent or Trip History or both. When on either screen, the top left hamburger menu is where you access the ability to clear the records. With Recent, the only option is to clear the entire list. With Trip History, you can clear the entire list, or select an individual entry first, and just delete that one.
A victim of poor naming?
Here's the interesting part:
The Recent list has been a feature in every single Garmin navigator going all the way back to 2005 as far as I know.
Trip History has been a feature since 2013, except it wasn't called that. It was called Where I've Been.
If you have an older model such as a nuvi 2597, nuvi 55, nuvi 67, DriveSmart 51, Drive 52 or DriveSmart 65 among several others, Where I've Been is located from Apps. It looks slightly different from the 66/76 Trip History but has the same functionality.
Most people never knew many older nuvi, Drive and DriveSmart models had this feature the whole time, but it's always been there and ready-to-use.
the biggest behind the veil i've ever seen
I recently went to Billings Productions in Allen Texas to see some animatronic dinosaurs. It was great, but this does have a sad ending.
When you see Billings Productions from the outside, it's a 50,000 sq ft building that just looks like any regular industrial commercial building in an office park:
Then you see the rest of the building and think wait a second, what's all this dinosaur stuff about?
Inside, you see some dinosaur displays. Looks nice, okay...
Then you go on the tour, enter the warehouse, and, WHOA...
This is no ordinary tour.
Usually, when you see animatronic dinosaurs, it's for displays that have already been completely prepped and set up. This is different.
Here, you see the actual storage and work area where all this stuff is made.
Everything is as huge as it looks, and you see it all.
And it keeps going...
The level of detail is incredible.
Some areas show the parts used, models, and so on.
It was truly a treat to see all this.
And, again, it just keeps going...
This is one of their animatronics plugged in and doing its thing:
Bear in mind that for most (if not all) of the giant displays, animatronics are there. There is a steel skeleton on the inside, circuit boards, wires, the whole show. It's all there.
You're probably wondering why I would even go to see this. After all, the tour is mainly designed for kids.
Well, that's the sad part.
Billings Productions is ending public tours on May 25 of this year 2025. Yes, this month. As in under a week from the time I publish this.
And, even more sadly, this:
It's unknown whether they're going to renew their lease, but the fact this sign is up at their building showing their address looks like they won't be...
...and that is why I went there. I had no idea what to expect, and was genuinely surprised to see the actual workshop where all these giant animatronic dinosaurs are made. Yes, they get shipped all over the world. Yes, this is an actual real workshop where these giant things get designed, constructed, repaired when brought back, and so on. Billings Productions genuinely does use the 50,000 square feet they have.
It will be sad to see it go.
the garmin that handles heat best
When hotter weather begins, I switch over to a Garmin that can handle the heat, because if I didn't, there would be problems.
While my Garmin DriveSmart 76 is oh so nice (it truly is), having a capacitive screen mounted to the windshield during hot summer daylight driving makes me nervous.
This is a followup to what I said here, because it contains some additional info.
The maximum temperature the DriveSmart 76 can handle is 131F (45C) while plugged in, according to the manual. For most of the year, I have no worries about the temperature of the 76, except summer.
I always take the screen of its mount and place out of the sun whenever I park where there isn't any shade and have been doing that for years, so that's not the problem.
It's two very specific driving situations where I get concerned. Slow city traffic and long journey highway driving. In both situations, there are longer periods of time when sunlight is coming through the glass and beating on the back of the Garmin screen. Yes, the A/C is on, but the 76 has a capacitive screen than runs hotter...
...hence the reason I switch over to an older resistive matte screen model, the Garmin Drive 52. True, it's not as big nor as advanced as the 76 and doesn't have voice control. But the speaker is loud enough, the matte screen is daylight readable, and most importantly runs cooler.
A Garmin GPS navigator with resistive matte screen handles hotter temperatures better. It's not that the operating temperature is any better, but rather the screen itself doesn't generate as much heat.
Also, the fact the older matte models have a thicker bezel means there's some extra area for the heat to spread out. It may not look like much, but it counts.
In the way my car is laid out on the inside, I can't mount a Garmin screen in front of a vent because then I can't read it. This means it has to be on the glass at lower left corner.
I have two options. Use the 76 and pray it doesn't overheat and get damaged, or just switch to a 52 and use that until the weather cools down.
The 52 works for me for the hotter months. And yes, I did say before that I use a over-decade-old matte screen model for hot weather driving. While that works and I still could use it, I found that I like the extra features of the 52 (specifically, the on-map Turns list, which is very nice to have).
parker 60r taught me what less aggressive safety razor means
I felt that I didn't give the TTO a fair shake, so I bought the Parker 60R safety razor and gave it a go.
When I said that at some point I may buy a proper TTO, I thought I might as well do it now. TTO means twist-to-open. This is when you twist part of the handle and the razor opens up to allow loading of the blade.
Some call this a butterfly safety razor, some call the mechanical opening part doors, and others call them flaps. Whatever you choose call it, it is a TTO style safety razor.
I actually might switch to using this full time. While my Parker 78R works very nicely, the 60R is the one that finally showed me what a "less aggressive" safety razor actually feels like.
What is the aggressiveness of a safety razor? It is a combination of smoothness of shave, ease of shave, how much skin irritation you encounter, and how well the blade works to shave your beard.
Some men argue the aggressiveness of a razor has everything to do with the blade used. Then there are others that say no no, it's about your technique and the blade doesn't matter. And then there are yet others that say nope, it's about the razor used that determines the aggressiveness of a shave.
So which is correct? All of them.
Blade: A decent DE blade will shave mostly well on the first shave and then very well on the second shave. It's the third shave where you should notice a blade losing its sharpness.
Technique: This comes in two parts. Learning how to angle your safety razor and learning the razor itself. Presuming your angle is correct, some razors are easy to learn while others take more time to figure out how to get the best shave out of it.
Razor: A razor's head shape, comb type (open or closed), width, angle (straight or pre-angled), weight, handle length, handle grip and other factors all determine how well or not well a particular razor works in your hand.
And now I can talk about the 60R.
The 60R is a lightweight at 2.75oz - which I wanted. Some guys prefer heavyweight like the 65R (which is almost 4oz). I don't. For me, lighter is better as long as it's not a featherweight, which is the 60R isn't.
When I first used the 60R, it felt weird only because I was accustomed to the 78R, but then got used to it quickly and found it an easy razor to learn. Even after just one shave, I could tell that I could get along with this.
Even though every Parker razor comes with 5 DE blades, I decided to try a Shark Super Chrome since I have a bunch of those.
I was able to figure out a good angle, did my standard two-pass (lather face, shave, rinse, lather again, shave again), and everything went well. No nicks, no cuts, no missed spots. That's as good as I could ask for.
In the end, it wasn't one of those "I have to learn shaving all over again" things. The 60R was easy to get along with.
Where I really felt the difference is that the 60R pulls less than the 78R I was using. I had a smoother overall shave.
Is the 60R like a vintage Gillette Super Speed?
No.
The 60R is longer at 4" (101.6mm) while the Super Speed is a 3.3" (84mm). 60R is also heavier at 2.75oz while the Super Speed is 2oz or even slightly lighter depending on what year it was made. And, of course, the handle is different also where grip is concerned.
Some newly made safety razors are very true-to-spec to the old Super Speed, but not the 60R. This is fine because the Super Speed is almost a featherweight, and I'm not sure I could get along with that. The slightly heavier 60R is about as light as I'd want to use.
On the subject of grip, that's really the only knock I have against the 60R. With the 78R, it doesn't matter how slick your hand is from shaving soap/cream/gel, you're not dropping it. The grip pattern on the 78R handle is excellent. 60R does have decent grip on the upper portion of the handle but not-so much on the lower part. Yes, it has some fancy pattern there and looks nice, but what matters more is grip.
The less aggressive nature of the 60R head is good enough to where I can deal with the less-grippy handle.
How will this perform for the long term? No idea. I would imagine that all TTO safety razors wear out quicker than a 3-piece just because of the mechanical component. With the 3-piece, I can't see that wearing out unless the screw threads decided to give up the ghost (very unlikely). TTO however isn't nearly as robust of a system.
I understood all this before getting the 60R and will be keeping mine.
Would the 60R be good for most guys?
I'd actually say go for the 99R model instead for two reasons. Heavier, which most guys prefer, and I can tell the handle has better grip just by looking at it.
Strictly speaking aesthetically, the 99R has more of that old time barbershop look compared to the 60R. For some guys, the look of the razor matters and the 99R is definitely the better looking razor.
I'm also pretty sure the 99R is the most popular Parker model next to the 78R.
Alternatively, there is Parker's Super Speed-ish model, the 87R. No, it doesn't have a flared tip and it's heavier than the Super Speed at 3oz, but it's a shorty and as close to a Super Speed as you'll get with a Parker razor.