Category: Modern problems

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If you want to lose all your work…

Just turn on iTunes!

I swear, after the latest update to iTunes I’ve had more crashes and slow shitty operation than I can ever remember having.

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My computer is a very busy machine. As a general rule I have many applications and processes running all the time.

It’s not uncommon for me to have several file copies running at once. Plus routine backups, and various downloads running Via Safari or FTP.

Often there are so many processes running that I honestly forget how much my computer is doing while I’m typing away on a blog or working on the book.

That is until I think, “Hey I meant to load that application on my iPad.“

Then I’ll bring up iTunes and watch hours of work and backups and file copies turn to shit.

I thought programs in the Apple OS were supposed to be sandboxed. I thought I was supposed to be able to kill programs that had fucked themselves over without having to worry about other programs being disrupted on the system.

Not if iTunes decides to hose you.

How can one single program fuck itself over, then fuck over file copies and the ability to save files in 3 other applications?

How can one single Apple Written and sanctioned program refuse a Force Quit Command? How can that same program prevent access to the UNIX Terminal where I could issue a Kill command directly to the OS?

How can one signal entertainment program violate all the rules and seize control of the system in such a way that only a hard power down will return control to me The User!

Talk about a way to really piss off a user…

I shouldn’t have to shutdown every other program to use iTunes but that is clearly what I’m going to have to start doing. 


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Talk about a time waste!

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It was a simple enough thing…

I wanted to change my Google News from a two column format back to a one column format.

I’d decided to try the two column format a couple of months ago and recently decided I really didn’t like the way it looks or works on my computer screen or more importantly my iPad.

So I clicked on the little gear at the top of the page. Guess what? The control for columns isn’t there…

I can adjust all the feeds but can’t DELETE certain feeds entirely (an annoyance since some of the so called Google news feeds are so poorly written as to be unintelligible).

So, I start hunting for the control that will let me have a single column of news articles.

1.5 hours later I’ve found many things I don’t like about Googles accounts, their Google+, and their Blogger account management.

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After signing into the Google Dashboard which very helpfully shows me all my Google applications and services but will not allow me to DELETE those services that I’m no longer interested in.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to disassociate myself from the Google tit.

I found a listing of applications for my Android phone(s). EVERY Application EVER! Including those that I didn’t pay for, and those that I downloaded only to be disappointed by.

Google says these applications are installed on my Phone… They’re not!

Again, the helpful dashboard displays it all very nicely, but won’t permit me to edit the list or delete those particularly disappointing applications that shouldn’t have ever seen the light of day.

Also included is a Product List.

Within the list are a number of services that 1) Ive never used, 2) I have no need of, 3) I don’t care about.

However all show as active on my dashboard and account. What are these? Why are they here, and how do I control them? Apparently I can’t.

I found 247 photos in The Picassa section of my Dashboard.

What bothers me is that SOME of those photos I believe came from my iPad. WTF?

I have another problem too. I’ve deleted many of those photos both from the web and from my phone and yet they keep coming back.

Obviously, I’ll check the setting on both the ipad and the my android phone and delete the photos again. (Thank god there are no sexting photos!)

I just deleted the Google+ application from my iPad simply because I wasn’t using it. Honestly, I’ve lost about all interest in Google+. I do suspect the Google+ application was the source of the photo sharing from the iPad. (I probably clicked through a sharing question without fully realizing it’s importance.You know, the question just before the one that authorizes Google or it’s assignees to remove your left testicle in the event of a 3rd world food crisis.)

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Then there’s the list of Blogs that I subscribed to when I was using Blogger.

Many of those Blogs I’d like to unsubscribe from.

If you click on the helpful “Settings” link, you’re taken to a login page that wants you to sign in using a social media login. Or you can create a google account. 

Wait! I’m signed into a Google dashboard, from an existing Google account and I’ve clicked on a link that implies I can alter the settings to a blog that I’ve subscribed to… What???

How about a link that simply says UNSUBSCRIBE! You’d think that wouldn’t be unreasonable from the freaking dashboard Link labeled “MANAGE BLOGS” 

If they mean manage the blogs that I created then why do they show me all the blogs I’ve subscribed to and how the hell do I delete the Blog I created?

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Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

It appears that the only way to clean up after myself and remove things that I no longer wish to have associated with me is to close and cancel the Google account those things are associated with.

Fine by me! 

This may have made my decision about my next phone… Quite probably it’s not going to be an Android. 

My world is far too complex as it is…

I see no need to make my world more complex with useless “Dashboards” that don’t actually allow direct control of the account without companies collecting yet more data on me.

Why the hell should I have to associate a Twitter Account with a Google account JUST TO REMOVE a blog that I don’t read anymore. Come to think of it I don’t use the Reading list anymore either.

I’ve been noticing this surreptitious collection trend more and more lately.

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We’ll let you change your account information IF you give us;

Your Phone number OR

You allow us to link to your facebook for the purposes of directed advertising OR

Let us know your twitter ID so we can scan your tweets for sales and marketing information. OR

You let us plug into your life in a myriad of other ways.

Given the recent NSA monitoring disclosures, for me it begs the question…

Just WHO am I giving this information to?

Does a company really need to have a profile on me that links my entire online footprint together? That profile is essentially defining me, my politics, preferences, & shopping habits. God help you if you’re vocal about what you perceive to be wrong doing on the part of our government or it’s leadership.

I did a search the other day for a gold jewelry item. From the moment I did that search… ALL of my web search pages have links back to various jewelry vendors. 

I decided not to purchase the item but I’m being pounded again and again by advertisements from vendors for something I’m not interested in and probably WON’T be interested in. 

Thank god I didn’t look up Venereal Diseases!

I understand that a FREE account isn’t necessarily free.

I don’t mind a reasonable trade off. But where does it stop, and when does the collection of data become too intrusive?

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I suppose that as of today, I have an answer to that question. 

Google has become too intrusive. I’m thinking that it’s time to find another search engine, and to make sure that all Google related cookies are gone.

It does make one wonder about just disengaging altogether.

Maybe wired phones, printed books & newspapers, and snowy TV was a better era in American life.

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Am I becoming anti-technology or just paranoid?

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There was a time when I didn’t mind playing with Windows, Mac, Linux, UNIX, Android, and IOS all at the same time.

I actually liked the challenge of cobbling together all the bits necessary to connect disparate machines & systems into a nicely unified whole.

This led to about 20 email addresses and nightmares in synchronizing various contacts lists.

Lately, I’ve been on a simplification kick. I’ve been deleting accounts of various types that no longer serve me. Now I’ve gotten to the point where I’m looking very hard at email addresses.

I have an Android phone, I have Mac computers and an iPad that I freaking love. 

By definition this means that I have to have at least one gmail account. It also means that I have to connect the Mac & iPad to that gmail account in order to keep the contact lists current between the devices. 

This is an uneasy connection / alliance at best. When it works it’s mostly ok when it breaks it’s a royal pain in the behind.

I’ve gotten tired of fighting to keep everything in sync. 

I’ve long believed that technology should be transparent to the user. With Macs in general that is true. But sometimes trying to work outside the Mac empire is… well opaque. 

I’ve finally gotten to the point that I just don’t want to have to fiddle.

With the recent revelations about the monitoring our own government is conducting, It’s time for me to consolidate and reduce my internet footprint to as minimal as possible. One easy way to do that is to standardize on Apple devices and services exclusively.

Obviously, that won’t stop the monitoring, but at least I’ll know where I’m bleeding information from.

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Some days… Or Weeks I just can’t catch a break

This has been one of those weeks. There will be a few blogs I think over the next days, possibly hours but don’t hold your breath… This week has been a week of interruptions. Mind you any one of these interruptions is a minor event but the frequency and wild differences have added up to it being Wednesday as I started this blog… and in all likelihood the blog wont be posted until Thursday.

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Today I tried to remount a blind in my front window. 

This blind broke on Thursday last week. It was dropped off on Friday morning to be restrung It was picked up Monday and I tried to put it back up today. Well I succeeded in putting the blind back up.

This task was not as simple as you might think.

You’d be perfectly justified in thinking “what’s the problem you just snap it back into the hangers and that’s it.“

Well you don’t live in my world. 

In my world you’d experience a scenario more like the tale of woe below.

I found that there was no way get the blind back in the window. The window has over time become trapezoidal in not one but two dimensions. Then I noticed during the windows transformation from a rectangle to trapezoid, all kinds of cracks have appeared in the drywall.

During these discoveries I wonder what’s going on. So I measure the blind then I measured the framing around the window, then I measured the window itself and found that the blind is about 3/4″ longer than the window. That would work just fine if the window opening wasn’t a trapezoid that was narrower at the top than at the bottom.

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I reconfirmed several times that the blind which had been returned to me was in fact the correct blind. Standing there screwdriver in hand I sigh.

The recognition that this is in fact my lot in life I tromp downstairs for the Dremel  

I spend the next hour & 1/2 carefully reshaping the endcaps shaving off thin bits of the plastic so that I can hopefully shove the thing back in the window. Finally, when the plastic endcaps are thinner than tissue paper and the unit still won’t fit in the window I start thinking of alternative avenues to my goal.

This shouldn’t be this hard, the blind had fit in the window previously and it sure as hell didn’t grow while it was at the manufacturer being repaired.

I’ve noticed that the blind will easily fit in the window opening that is nearest the room, and that it only starts to bind up when you get within 2 inches of the already mounted brackets.

I sigh… slump shouldered admitting defeat. 

I tromp down stairs and bring up the big tool box and the DeWalt.

The new plan is to move the brackets closer to the room side of the window opening. The DeWalt unscrews the first bracket from the window with ease.

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Beneath the bracket is the mess that the original “Installer” created. Pilot holes are a good thing, apparently the installer had never heard about pilot holes…

Tromping back down stairs to get the BIG CAN of spackle.

While I’m waiting for the spackle to dry I’m measuring and marking the new mounting spots. The DeWalt drills a nice clean pilot hole, then dies half way through driving the screw into the header. No problem, I grab the spare battery pack…

It’s dead too!

Sigh… (I’m starting to sound like Kif Kroker from Futurama)

I’m hungry. I look at the clock and … CRAP! It’s afternoon! Fine! Battery pack in the charger, Lunch on the counter. Then while I’m waiting for the DeWalt to be usable again, I’m cleaning and spackling all the cracks in the drywall around the window.

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What the hell? I’ll vacuum and watch an episode of The X Files.

I realize I’ve been screwing around with this whole blind thing for about 4 hours and not getting anything that I needed to do, done. Little things like oh I don’t know… looking for a job perhaps?

Battery pack fully charged, I pop it in the DeWalt and drop the second one in the charger.

First bracket tightened, I move on to the second one. This time the screw will require a drywall anchor. For some reason the pilot hole completely misses wood. I drill a bigger hole and push the anchor into the drywall. 

This anchor is my preferred type because it’s threaded and in general does less damage to the drywall as you’re mounting it and it also stays put very well because it’s not an expansion type anchor.

I begin slowly screwing it into the drywall and then there’s a “crack”, followed by the anchor disintegrating and creating a major hole in the drywall.

Oh! Guess what? I found the header above the window. 

The anchor bound against the header and shattered. Lovely! My only option is to create an even bigger hole to drill the remains of the anchor out of the hole and then I’ll use another type of anchor. Why? You ask. 

Well the problem is obvious after I drill the destroyed anchor out of the window. The position for this mounting bracket has the screws coming up in a seam between two 2x4s that make up the header. Oh hell now why would the builder not use a solid 2×4, its simple… the builder was a fucker interested in ripping me and the insurance company off in as many ways as possible during the rebuild.

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The fucker succeeded, he knew he was closing his company and retiring as he was building my home. The only justice is that apparently right after his retirement his health took a turn for the worse. I’ve heard that retirement in some cases isn’t a good thing. Apparently getting up and going to work every day, plus the attendant moving around tends to keep you healthy. This guy went home and sat on his ass, I don’t know whats’ happened to him since I found out that my home warranty was essentially toilet paper.

I pull out a very nice plastic butterfly anchor (These are freakin great but tough to find sometimes and they can be pricy) Insert it in the very large hole, pack some spackle around it then mount the bracket. That anchor is never coming out of the drywall I pray to god I’ll never have to deal with it again. I know that I will at some point in the future be cursing myself for doing what I just did.

Maybe I’ll have sold the house and moved to Costa Rica by then… (Not holding my breath)

The third bracket mounts smoothly. Hey, I’m going to finish this “Simple” home project before sundown yippeee!

I snap the blind into the newly mounted brackets, It’s still a little tight and without the sculpting and shaving I did on the endcaps it still wouldn’t fit But it’s up there and it’s solid. Briefly I think with my luck this bitch will have lost it’s programming but I’ve been assured that will not be the case…

I step back to admire the fill and texture work I did around the window. 

Yeah! It was a pain in the ass but totally worth it. The blind and the window look good and I’m enjoying the feeling of satisfaction at a job done.

I grab the remote for the blinds, select the channel that the blind is assigned to & push the down button.

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… Absolutely nothing happens

ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

The blind has lost it’s programming…

This means that either the motor has been damaged or the programming was simply flushed. Either way I’m going to have to take the dam thing down again.

I leave it where it is, 

Walk across the room, pour myself a whiskey and move into fukitall mode.

I’ll deal with it tomorrow, I’ve got a meeting to attend and I need a shower… After I finish my drink…

 

 

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Restless…

My eyes open. Something has disturbed my sleep, I listen for any strange sound.

Crickets and wind.

The house is illuminated enough for me to see clearly. Tell tales and indicator lights on every single piece of electronics combine to create a kaleidoscope of light. 

The green indicator on the smoke detector on the ceiling winks red briefly. This potentially signals dust in the unit or time to replace the battery, I’ll have to service the unit tomorrow… today.

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The intense red light on the bedroom TV tells me that the unit is off but has power from the wall. I wonder if I can turn that light off then worry about the TV having wall power if it doesn’t come on when I press the switch.

I’m informed by the bedside clock, that it’s 2am in full color and that the unit had been able to sync to the atomic time beacon. The clocks EL panel flares brightly as it comes back on. During the sync, the panel is turned off so that the clock can “hear” the beacon better.

I get out of bed, I need some water. 

Green light from the hall smoke detector paints a circle on the floor lighting my way to the kitchen.

The kitchen is illuminated by the clocks in the stove and the microwave. Further illumination is provided by the EL panel in the alarm system keypad.

Yet more light spills from the living room, a byproduct of a digital picture frame. I get a glass, as I press the glass against the water dispenser in the door of the fridge, bright white LEDs flare to life blinding me momentarily.

Impulsively I switch off the digital picture frame… it’s ever changing images are annoying out of the corner of my eye.

The darkness advances a little bit but is beaten back by the clock in the cable box, the backlight of the thermostat, and light from the appliances in the kitchen.

I move through the living room drinking my water. From the slider I can see the towns on the desert floor their lights twinkling in the distance.

I grouchily consider replacing the LEDs throughout the house with simple diodes. If something doesn’t work then I’ll investigate why.

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Why are we so afraid of the dark? Why can’t we turn off the lights on our ever so helpful equipment?

Maybe it’s just me… I’ve always had great night vision, maybe all these indicators and tell tales aren’t annoying to most other folks.

Then, I notice the moonlight. The cloud cover has broken, moonlight is bright in the yard. I step onto the deck. No one can see me, looking to the East over the roof I can see the moon is almost full.

It somehow feels right to be in the moonlight. I can see clearly and while I’m a little chilly It’s nice to have a moment of freedom.

Still don’t know what woke me up. 

I finish my water, look around for a little while longer, then head back inside.

My head hits the pillow, and I sleep soundly till sunrise.