Tag: Geeky Stuff

Posted on

Ughhh! It figures! Crappy Nights sleep and I really need to be on the ball…

I’ve got an appointment with the accountant today to hopefully finish up the tax crap dealing with the other half and my filing.

I took advantage of the automatic extension afforded us by the disaster declaration caused by the blizzard this year. It’s a darn good thing, because the other half’s filing system and document storage leaves a lot to be desired!

But I spent the night tossing and turning and feel like absolute crap. My brain isn’t working worth a darn but this is one of those things that must get done.

IRS Logo

I had a lot of weird abstract dreams all night. But my computer is fully charged and hopefully the parts of my brain that aren’t working will be augmented by the device. Thankfully the machine fits nicely in my briefcase.

Later this week I’m going to have to pick up the snow blower, it’s in for repair and a tune up after 15 winters of hard use and being put up wet. The repair guy said it had the wrong size belt on it. I told him that was the factory original belt and he was surprised. He said that explained it, the belt was so worn and stretched that’s why the machine was smoking when you tried to use it. 

I didn’t explain any further, the snow blower was the domain of the other half and as has been established the other half was not particularly kind to machines. I’m pleased that the repair didn’t cost too much.

Apple event 1

Today is the annual Apple reveal of new iPhones and other hot desirable items to populate the Christmas wish lists of millions. I usually watch just out of habit these days.

I’ll be watching the event today because I want to see what my options are for a new iPhone. My current phone is getting long in the tooth, It’s to the point of replacing the battery or replacing the phone. My phone is 3 generations old. I’d like an improved camera, and I’d like to have USB-C connections across all my devices. I’d like the satellite SOS ability and crash detection.

All the above features are available on last years model (except the USB-C). I’m curious to see what this year’s model brings. Tim Cook will once again be Captain Obvious with his proclamation, “This is the best most advanced iPhone we’ve ever produced,” uh yeah Tim, that’s the nature of technology… Moving on!

The USB-C connection is a pretty sure bet. Other hardware & software features may be announced that have not been leaked. All of this will influence my decision, “New Phone vs. New Battery”.

I’m also hoping that Craig Federighi does most of the presentation this year. I really don’t enjoy all the “Diversity” players because they’re just not exciting.

Federighi is electric and his playfulness and enthusiasm come through, even if he’s presenting dry specs and figures. He’s a fun presenter and somehow he always makes you hold your breath when he starts a live demo.

I guess I see it because I’ve done my fair share of live demos where it was entirely possible for the thing you’re demonstrating to fail right then and there. He apparently has done his fair share of demos where everything went wrong. He telegraphs that tension and makes it fun, it’s a “We’re gonna have an adventure…” feeling.

I’ve always gotten the impression that if a live demo went to absolute shit… Craig Federighi would somehow find a way to laugh, reset, and try again without missing too many beats. Federighi could almost convince me to upgrade my phone every year. 

That being said, there have been some comments associating his rise to SVP of Apple Engineering to the decade long slip in software quality across IOS, & MacOS. I don’t know if there’s a cause / effect connection or that the level of complexity in the software has caused the problem.

Personally, I believe that the issues have been, if not injected, then exacerbated by the rise of too much automated testing and not enough human eyes on the software until after it’s released. In the back of my mind, there’s a thread that questions if some of the problems aren’t based in diversity quotas.

When you hire someone based on anything other than their ability to build a product, you’re inherently degrading the final product. That’s not racist or sexist… That is simply a mater of fact.

Another of the dirty little secrets the diversity crowd would like to keep hidden and that no body is supposed to think about.

I’m not super thrilled with the expense of a new phone, but if there are sufficient improvements from my model to this one I could be moved to spend the money. Having USB-C is almost enough for me to plunk down the cash, on its own merit.

I’d like having only ONE cable and one charger for all my devices. So long as all my devices are smart enough to limit the charge current so that they don’t damage themselves. There aren’t many things I agree with the Europeans about, but de-cluttering my wall outlets, power strips, and the knot of cabling in my briefcase is one thing I heartily agree with.

Anyway, we’ll see how all this goes. I may be ordering a new phone soon. 

Posted on

Microsoft, you’re not the only game in town…

I had not meant to get into this today. Unfortunately there was this huge rabbit hole and I couldn’t resist.

It all started out with me making phone calls. I contacted the mortgage folks, which led to them helping me get things set up on their website. Hopefully this will make my interactions a touch easier.

This started because I was looking at my bank account and noticed over the last 2 months the mortgage payment had risen by about 100 bucks.

It turns out this rise is due to two events. One was a change in the way that tax escrow account is handled. The second is our crack feds raising the interest rates. The mortgage folks were very nice and efficient in explaining what’s going on. This is seriously different from the way they treated me when they purchased the mortgage from JP Morgan Chase.

When it came to setting up the web access, that too was efficient and gave me access to a ton of unread documents.

Then I continued the search for someone to inspect the fire suppression systems Backflow valves. This is one of those things that has always annoyed me. The Country and the Water company demand this be done, but offer no help in terms of who to call.

I’ve been striking out on this one for a week.

Anyway I logged onto the Microsoft website to downgrade my Office 365 subscription from a family plan to a personal plan.

Unfortunately, there is no way to do that from their web page. I put a call in to them. The lady who tried to help had some difficulty, (caused by me,) I still had a credit card on the account that I’d actually closed. I didn’t realize it because the number was familiar and the account closure is pretty recent.

When I realized the problem I told the lady.

She told me to enter the new card information on the Microsoft website (Which I did,) then I made the new card the primary and deleted the incorrect card.

When the lady tried to downgrade the subscription, Microsoft’s Systems started rejecting the change. This meant that I’d have to go to a higher level support person who would have to call me back.

“Okay,” I said.

A few minutes later my email chimes, and now Microsoft wants me to type my name, the last 4 digits of the card to be used, the case number and something else into a blank document which is then to be screenshotted and the screen shot is to be uploaded to Microsoft on some weird link.

WHY?

The lady calls me back but has no explanation about why we’re doing this screenshot thing. I point out that they already have the data, but apparently this is the process to speak to a higher level person.

It’s at this point that I tell the lady that I’m considering cancelling the service entirely. I point out that none of this is her fault, but it is the fault of Microsoft who if I recall correctly is a software company and should therefore be bound by rules of logic.

Further I point out that none of this would be necessary if Microsoft provided a mechanism for me (the customer,) to be able to select one each, of the two plans offered for the service I’m attempting to purchase. Instead Microsoft only allows the customer to select the plan they’ve already got.

I tell her that this shouldn’t be such a pain and that the alternative is to simply cancel the subscription, especially since I have applications that are smaller in terms of storage, which work as well or better than the Microsoft versions.

This stuns her. Poor Indian lady, (dot not feather) that she was, this must have blown her mind. The poor dear was probably in Bangalore or Delhi.

I tell her that I’m going to think about proceeding with this renewal process. I hang up the phone.

I did think about it…

I’ve canceled the subscription.

Then I thought about it further, and have deleted my Microsoft account in it’s entirety. Apparently this doesn’t include deleting LinkedIn. Hmm maybe that is next! I could do without another social media service.

During the process, Microsoft went to great lengths on their website to tell me just what all I’d be losing. Including some of the Xbox games that I may have purchased. Hmm, there’s a reason to buy a PlayStation for myself at Christmas! The upshot is I lose access to all sorts of stuff that a) I never used, and b) represent additional access points for hackers to potentially do nasty stuff.

Over the past few months I’ve been getting intermittent notifications from Microsoft saying that my Outlook account was being accessed from Moscow. Well that’s not a problem anymore! There is no Outlook account.

I’m sure that I forgot to update contact email addresses at a couple of companies but lets see if I miss whatever notifications they were sending me. I had no problem flushing ZipRecruiter though. They couldn’t handle me changing the login email address and also uploading an updated resume. Honestly, I’ve found ZipRecruiter to be completely useless.

There are a couple other businesses that I traded with who can’t handle changing the login email address. I’m weighing very carefully if I need to continue to trade with them.

Microsoft assured me that my account would be recoverable for 60 days, but they’ve already screwed around with the subscription to Office 365. The outlook mail account is throwing errors about passwords and such.

I’ve just deleted the Outlook account from my iPad and phone. I’ll check the access on the computer and if it’s screwed up too, I’ll delete it there as well. I’m kinda happy right at the moment. I can delete ALL the Microsoft related passwords from my systems without concern.

All they had to do was let me save $30 a year… But Nooooo! They had to make things annoying and difficult. So now I’ll go on without them, OR just to piss them off I’ll download the same applications from the Apple App Store, use the in app purchase model, and force Microsoft to Pay Apple!

Ain’t I a fucker?

Jeez, Microsoft, (and Apple) have gotten too big for their britches. Both of them are forgetting, or have forgotten, that they’re dependent on customer good will to survive.

Eventually, there will be enough people like me who are tired of being screwed with.

Posted on

Something I never thought I’d say…

I suppose there are a lot of those things.

In this particular case, it’s I’m happy with how long my computer battery lasts. I’m also somewhat impressed with the iPad battery too.

The computer is insane. I’ll use the thing for days. I’ll be surprised when I get a low battery warning and then think, “Oh Yeah, it’s been a while!” This is very different from the older machines I’ve had. I lived by their power monitors and always carried spare batteries or adapters.

I’m still working on settings on the iPad to minimize its power consumption. My Computer and iPad both use the M2 chip but the iPad is more in line with a day or day and a half of use. I think that’s because there are background applications that wake up or are running on the iPad that aren’t as “busy” on the computer.

I believe I can probably trim more of the iPad background applications out of the background and realize more power savings.

The point is, when I started using laptop computers years ago, a 2 hour battery life was considered good. Now I’m talking about 2 day battery life between charges. I’m using the machine as I normally would, I’m typing blogs, surfing the net, working on stories, (although not fast enough there,) attending video conferences or watching lectures. Through it all, the computer doesn’t seem to care or get winded. I don’t think I’ve heard the fans come on, ever.

For the first time I’ll leave the house with my machines in my brief case and leave the chargers behind.

I suppose this is on my mind because today the computer asked for a bit of power. I plugged it in, and it said okay I’m charging to 80% quickly. (That would have actually gotten me through my typical day with ease.) The computer then switched over to a holding pattern at 80% and will finish charging by about 1:30PM.

This means that the machine has figured out my general habits and is using the charging feature Apple designed to extend battery life. It’s cool. I can override it if I want, or need to, but why? I’d rather have a battery that’s healthy in two or three years (like my iPhone 12 Pro) than force the issue. Besides, I’m using the big monitor in the office. I like this monitor a lot but I like working with the computer on the back deck more.

For the past 24 hours the wind has been kicking up to crazy gusty levels. I don’t feel like sitting out on the deck in all the blowing dust and pollen. Even though the sun is shining and the temps are nice.

It’s been all I could do to keep my sinuses open and the poor dog literally snorted a patch of pollen he thought was a food wrapper (I think). He’s been sneezing 5 or 6 times at a go for the past two days. I laugh at him… Then he saunters down the hall trying to look dignified, until another sneezing fit hits and he sneezes himself into a wall or something. My continuing to laugh gets me a dirty look and he retires to his “Room” where he can be alerted about food but doesn’t have to look at me.

All of which is to say that the amount of pollen in the air is so high that getting it into a keyboard would not be such a good thing. So I don’t need to be sitting outside for my sake, the keyboard’s sake, or the dog’s sake. All of us are quite comfortable inside.

I’ve got the leeward side of the house open for the fresh air but every once in a while the wind will shift just for a minute or two and blow a new batch of yellow joy into the house.

I was originally going to use a photo of my hand but when I looked at the photo I realized that you could easily see all of my fingerprints. Probably not a great idea to broadcast that kind of biometric information across the internet! With a little work I could convert the image into usable prints, so you get the swiffer. If the FBI ever needed non carbon fingerprint dust, I can recommend pine pollen.

I hope you all have a nice Monday. I’m hitting the sinus spray again!