Category: Technology

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It’s the Apple WWDC!

I’m not quite as interested as I’ve been in years past. But I’ve got laundry running and vinegar in the drain traps, (I prefer that to caustic chemicals due to the septic system,) so I’ve got a while before I can go anywhere.

I should probably make a grocery/dog treat run but neither are critical so It’s not going to matter if I put it off a day.

I’ll turn on the WWDC in the background. I’m curious about the new features coming in the latest versions of Apple operating systems. Since my iPad, watch, and computer are all less than a year old there will be some relevance to me.

I’d have upgraded my phone but I really like the blue color and the Purple from last year was not attractive. For some reason I don’t want to go back to space gray on my phone. It’s shouldn’t matter since my phone is usually in a case, but when I’m around the house it’s not unusual for my phone to be naked. (Okay so my phone is a slut! Who cares?) perhaps I’ll upgrade my phone in the fall or maybe I’ll wait another generation. By that time the phone will be 3 – 4 generations old, the battery will be on its last legs and maybe Apple will move everything to USB C so I can toss all the Lightning cables.

I liked the additions to the various OSs. I can see using some of the newer features frequently and how they’ll make my life easier. I really liked the improvements to the Hiking app on the watch. I also like the idea of having the health app available on the iPad. That should make evaluating the data a bit easier with a bigger screen.

The larger MacBook Air is interesting too. Especially since it’s got the M2 chip, the ability to have a ton of memory and storage, and an 18 hour battery life. That makes that particular machine probably the hot ticket coming this fall.

I have to admit that I’ve been interested in the Mac Studio since it’s debut. I didn’t go that way because I like having a laptop.

However, the power of the new iPad Pro with an M2 chip is astonishing and I could see using the iPad as my only portable computer, then having something like the Mac Studio if you needed a real powerhouse when you got back home.

This is especially true since Apple Logic Pro and Final Cut run on iPad now. There are a lot of other “standard” office applications that run just fine on iPad but it you needed video or audio you had to go outside the Apple ecosystem. Those barriers are gone and honestly my M2 iPad Pro is about as functional for my needs as my laptop. I could see the iPad / Studio blend now.

I wasn’t all that interested in the AR thing that’s been rumored for such a long time. Now that I’ve seen it, it’s as expected, very expensive.

That being said, I can see the potential. I can even say I’m interested enough that I’d like to see it live and in action.

If it worked well enough, I could see it replacing TV screens for those folks that live alone. I’ve considered that possibility with just my iPad and Mac. Then again, I don’t watch cable, or broadcast TV so I might be an outlier case.

Come to think of it, I haven’t to my knowledge watched any TV using the “new” (10 years old now) digital channels that are coming from broadcast stations these days.

I literally have no clue how that works. I’ve not lived anywhere that digital channels received via an antenna were available. Even the Escondido apartment was in a “Signal Hole”. It didn’t matter too much since the cost of internet only was higher than the cost of internet and cable TV combined. Talk about desperate to keep TV subscribers! I honestly don’t recall watching anything on TV for three years. I’d watch something on a streaming channel or a movie on DVD.

That was probably due more to my weird schedule, than the quality of TV. I got home from work about 2PM and was in bed by 7 or 8 PM. So any TV I could watch was talk shows or soap operas. Other more interesting dramas were on way past my bedtime. I didn’t pony up the cash to rent the DVR feature on the cable box.

I gotta say, having a virtual screen that you could make a big as you wanted without needing a sound system for surround sound might be a slick way to really enjoy some movies.

The price tag of 3500+ might be off putting.

I did like the use case Apple showed where the lady was on a full flight and tuned out the plane and other passengers entirely.

Hell that could make flying bearable again!

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All I wanted was to listen to music…

Riiiiight!

I pulled a thread, and now none of the smart lights in the house are working. The security camera is also offline. I managed to kill the battery in my phone about 5 PM.

As Mr. Scott once said, “The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog up the works!”

This is what happens when you have a “smart house”

I have no clue exactly what the hell is going on. But I’ve done factory resets on my router, and all the smart light bulbs. I’ll be factory resetting the HomePod Minis, the Apple TVs and the Big HomePods.

I’ve been playing whack a mole. I’d get the lights working, then move on to the next thing that was broken, and boom the lights stopped working. Then I’d fix a light and something else would suddenly go offline.

It’s the darnedest thing.

For those of you wondering why I’m mistrustful of AI, here’s a perfect example why i don’t trust AI and think all AI systems should have a kill switch! That switch should be something totally mechanical that can’t be programmed around. Possibly augmented by a very large Axe.

None of the stuff at my house is particularly complex but something is running through the devices like a horseman of the apocalypse.

I’m thinking that I may have to power down then reset each and every device in the house to factory default then add them back one at a time.

I’m also thinking that I’ll need to delete the house from all the HomeKit enabled stuff.

By the time I’m done with this, chasing this problem around and around the house will have cost me 2 days. I started farting around with this Bullshit at 8am yesterday morning. I was listening to music, then suddenly there was no stereo. I asked the question, “Why?”

Before I knew it, I’d been consumed, as had my day. I actually had other things that I’d planned on doing yesterday none of which I got done except the laundry…

It’s also a good thing that I didn’t have any video I need to preserve. Because the security camera has been removed and re added to the home controls twice and will require the procedure again. Each time, any recorded video stored in the cloud is erased.

Totally brilliant bit of software engineering there. Another interesting feature is this, If the camera is offline in the Apple Home application then you can’t even look at video that’s recorded in your iCloud. So once the camera goes away and requires that you delete it and re-pair you’ve lost anything and everything stored for the last 30 days anyway.

I’ll be looking at a different paradigm for cameras in the future.

What’s the point of having the data recorded but completely inaccessible due to some silliness caused by a software update. Isn’t that the point of storing videos in the cloud???

Apparently, I’ve missed a memo somewhere.

Here’s the update. Flushing everything seems to have worked. I now have music throughout the house again and the smart lights are working. This was definitely the brute force method of solving the problem. I’m sure that it will reoccur at some point in the future.

That cynicism comes from experience with technology. Even if you’re not the one fiddling around with the devices, there’s always someone in development who’s tweaking a line of code here or there. Then someone else decides that a software update is necessary, or some scumbag hacker takes advantage of a security flaw and causes an update. One way or another, something is going to change and your nice stable system will be completely hosed.

I’d really like to be able to bill for the time lost to SPAM Email and all the software update related issues. The folks I’d like to bill are the little scumbag hackers, or their parents, or their countries of origin.

Well on with the rest of the day.

Have a great weekend

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This is either going to work really well or…

I’ve screwed myself!

The SPAM levels in my incoming email have gotten completely out of hand. I’m clocking sometimes as many as 35 items an hour.

This is insane and wasn’t a problem until the FTC gave PayPal my email address!

I got up this morning to 200 new junk emails sitting in my SPAM filters. I have a choice, I can ignore all the emails while they take up space and CPU cycles as each of them is checked for viruses, then put in the junk mail folder, OR I can tell my computer to delete anything that doesn’t look like real business!

I’ve hesitated enabling draconian deletion protocols because there are some folks and / or emails that are useful even if they’re sending unsolicited emails.

However at this point it’s become a serious annoyance.

Today, I told the computer, if something looks like junk mail, just delete it. Don’t put it in the trash, don’t put it in the junk mail folder, just wipe it from the datastream completely.

I know that I’m going to be missing some emails that might be useful and it’s possible that someone will complain that I didn’t respond to their email but those are the breaks.

Of course, there is the possibility that I stop getting emails altogether. Hmmm, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad…

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I got to thinking about the whole Video Interview Thing…

Something about the “One-Way” interview has been bugging me. I tried to sort it out in the blog post here. I failed to clearly analyze what it was that concerned me.

I was denying my suspicious nature. A couple of good night’s sleep later and my concern clarified when I started down this path.

Have I become too suspicious? It that suspicion justified? Have there been simply too many bullshit recruiters and promises?

As I was thinking about it, I found myself asking this question.

“Why the one way video interview?”

The hiring manager still has to make time to review the video. Then they have to arrange to call the candidate back for another interview. This whole one way video interview paradigm saves no-one any time.

Why not just Zoom meeting or FaceTime, or whatever in the first place? Why add a layer of complexity?

Then it hit me.

The one way interview does allow for isolation, racism, and sexism.

The candidates are speaking blind to a dispassionate recording system. But the managers can review the video and easily allow racial, gender, or age bias to guide their candidate selection for second interviews. Since the hiring manager reviewing the videos doesn’t have to actually connect with the candidate, they can forget them without guilt.

It’s all done in the privacy of their office with no oversight or questioning of their choices or motives. It’s unlikely that anyone will take the time to review the reject pile.

If the manager said candidate X, Y, or Z isn’t appropriate, who’s going to go look at a video? Who will have the time to notice that the hiring manager is only interviewing candidates of a particular color or gender…

I’ll grant you, this can happen in any interview situation. But since most interviews are done with a minimum of an HR representative and the Hiring Manager present there is some oversight.

The old, “sort through resumes,” pick out those that have the skills you need and call those people for an interview tended to prevent racial stuff because you couldn’t justify hiring a less qualified candidate over someone more qualified, if you were hiring only on the merits of experience.

Looking at a resume you only had the name of the individual. I’ll grant that in more recent years, it became possible for racist bias to rear its ugly head because of the names some parents gave their children. “John or Julie Green” was pretty generic. (I’ve worked with two John Greens. One was white, the other black. Both were great guys and excellent programmers.)

With “Jose or Julia Verde” you could infer that they were of Spanish/Latin origin, but from where was the question. Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador? You might be able to narrow things down if they’d attended college or trade school in another country. If all their education was in country, you’d be fairly certain that they were at least first generation, so communication wouldn’t be an issue.

When you get to “DeKanye and Shaquanda Green” well, the parents of these children set their kids up to be victims of racism. It’s not right, but it is sadly true.

This name thing also works the other way. My surname screams white, and possibly NAZI to boot. So in this period of time I’m as susceptible to racial bias as poor Shaquanda. The only way we truly escape bias is if everyone changed our names to numbers. Perhaps our phone number or our social security number would eliminate all name based bias.

But we’d still have the physicality bias to contend with. The only way to eliminate that is to have everyone work from home and no video conferencing at all.

Which brings me back to the things that had been bugging me about the whole “One-Way” interview process.

1 It doesn’t save anyone time.

2 The candidate has little or no control over how the interview is used.

3 The “One-Way” interview can promote racism or sexism with no oversight.

4 This interview format imposes technological barriers such as compatibility and internet speed.

5 Technological barriers may indicate the economic level of the candidate, and be used in an exclusionary way or result in lower offered wages for the same work.

Now that I’ve worked through it I can tell my brain to work on something else. I hate it when my brain is chewing on something but can’t figure out what caught my attention.

If you’re looking for a job, consider the “One-Way” interview carefully. It may not be as much of an advantage as it’s purported to be.

I’d welcome an interactive video conference interview. That would in fact save everyone a lot of time and prevent un-necessary driving around.

Now I’m off to figure out why something Apple related isn’t working after their latest software update. I think it’s a bug but need to check out my settings before contacting Apple.

Talk about a company that needs good old fashioned manual testing and human eyes looking at their products…

Oh well, that’s never going to happen!

Have a good day.

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I hate these sort of things.

I’ve started applying for jobs again. I feel like I’m banging my heard against the wall but like the lottery, you’ll never win unless you play.

So I’m looking for jobs and applying only for positions that I’m qualified. I strongly suspect if everyone did that and the hiring / recruiting / HR departments actually read the resume and application materials then the whole process would be easier.

I too have considered writing a bit of automation that simply applied for every job on every job board that was remotely similar to my actual career.

After all that’s what the people at Indotronics do when they solicit my application. Hey Indotronics people, I’m a software tester, not a welder!

Not that it matters to them. I’m absolutely convinced many so called recruiter organizations are just scam operations. I’ve been convinced of that for literally two decades.

Anyhow, I sent an application to a company on Thursday. They responded asking me to do a one way video interview. Basically they want me to log onto some service, then do a monologue for their amusement about why I should be permitted to work for them.

I’m sure I’m being too cynical, but this feels like the whole “Who’s the most popular?” “Who’s going to be class president or Prom King?”

We all know the people who typically received the nominations for these positions weren’t actually the best and brightest, typically they weren’t even the kindest.

They were the prettiest, the only other requirement was that they have the capacity to fog a mirror. In the case of the Prom Queen it was often about being pretty and easy Although I think easy was the top requirement, pretty was secondary.

Then again the Prom King who was usually the top school jock, and often top bully, would make do with doggy style if the Prom Queen wasn’t to his taste.

“Uh, Carl… Just so you know I was there a month before you were, and also about a 1/2 hour before you on prom night. Yeah dude, she wasn’t wet because you were exciting. She said you were dumb as a post, a terrible lay, and had a little dick. (I know that last bit is true, I saw you in the gym showers.) Oh, BTW You’re welcome! I always did shoot big! ”

Probably TMI… I digress.

This company says they want to get to know me… Then why not call me or set up a video link with the hiring manager? The company says, the hiring manager will see my monologue, well if the hiring manager is making time to watch videos, then why not just cut to the chase?

They’ve also asked repeatedly about the salary level being acceptable. Uh I wouldn’t have applied it the salary wasn’t acceptable. In fact, the salary would be great especially if I don’t have to drive anywhere.

I find myself wondering if this is some new scam. Or if this is yet another immature harebrained substitute for actual physical contact.

On the other hand, the position is a remote position and that presumes that there might be some video conferencing, perhaps they’re wanting to get an idea of my set up and if video conferencing would be viable.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to do this. I have decided that if I do, I’ll be using a VPN.

I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons of this whole video thing while not exposing myself to another bullshit circle jerk where there’s no money shot.

I guess I’ll do some more digging around about the company and also about this video interview hosting site.

It really does feel a lot like some video dating site, and somehow slimy to boot. I just can’t put my finger on why it feels that way.

 I decided to give it a whirl then discovered I had used this service once previously in 2019, for a single interview. 

At the time I found that the service was incompatible with the Safari browser running on a Mac. This incompatibility is still extant today, four full Mac OS iterations further down the road.

I believe that I also tried using a VMWare Windows installation but in that case the service wanted to use Chrome, (a security nightmare,) but easily loaded in a disposable windows partition. However Chrome wouldn’t connect to either the internal or an external camera and to the service’s, servers. Since I wasn’t being paid to investigate the defect(s) I went to plan “C”.

Back in 2019 I loaded their IOS application on my iPad, completed the interview, then found that my iPad operating system was compromised by their client.

At the time it appeared their client also caused significant data loss upon its removal. A factory reset and restore of IOS was required to restore my iPad to full functionality.

I didn’t wish to repeat the experience, especially not for one video interview every 4 years.

I am troubled that the video interview from 2019 was still stored on the service and that apparently there is no way for me as a candidate to delete my account directly.

I have deleted the video but I’d like to delete the account too. If I were a citizen of the EU there does appear to be a process in place that requires multiple email exchanges between the candidate and the service’s support team. 

Again, overly complicated.

I just cancelled the interview…

I offered the following observation;

It seems that we’re adding layers of technology that complicate communications, rather than using technology to overcome communication hurdles. 

Then thanked the recruiting coordinator for the opportunity.