Tag: Modern Problems

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Okay I’m really over this!

California retailers are responding to the insanity of legal thieving ($900).

Stealing is okay according to the morons in California’s legislature, as long as you don’t steal too much. (They should heed their own advice!)

California retailers are locking the damn doors, even though they’re open. So someone like me. You know, a decent law abiding person for whom stealing is the furthest thing from their mind, can’t just shop.

No, I have to ask permission to walk into some stores. I have to be buzzed in, or I have to be escorted while I’m in the store.

People don’t understand that when I’m shopping I’m moving. I’m not lingering over something unless it catches my eye. My mode of shopping annoys retailers who’ve had to open locked doors and give the super secret hand shake.

I’ll zip through a store in 5 minutes or less, if I don’t see something I like, I’m gone!

If we’ve gotten to the point that lawlessness is the rule, not the exception, we’ve got serious problems. Problems that might only be solved by gunfire.

Unfortunately if retailers are resorting to these tactics in my area (60 miles away from Los Angeles, 500 miles from Oakland and San Francisco, 100 miles north of San Diego), then in California at least, crime has apparently become the norm.

I remember being told in school that one major difference between America and Russia was that, in Russia there were lots of criminals and high crime. In America we had law and order, we could safely walk the streets.

40 some odd years later and i find myself asking is that still true?

I found myself enjoying that the Russians had found four of the assholes who shot up a music hall within 2 days. They didn’t give a shit about those pieces of filth. The Russians went ‘old school ‘to get information out of the criminals. One dude had his private parts wired up to some electrical device. Another had an eyeball fall out, (oops), a Third had an ear removed, the fourth was beat senseless and appeared for his arraignment unconscious.

Apparently, these criminals started singing like birds. So the Russians knew who to hunt down next.

The Russian people walk the streets of Moscow tonight safe. They get onto and off of subway trains that are clean. They walk through stations that are brightly lit, clean and beautiful.

We used to be the same.

If you’ve ever been to San Francisco, you may have seen BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Stations. There was a time 30 years or so ago when me going to the Bay Area meant riding BART. I loved it. The stations were all clean, the trains were clean, it was safe and I think many, if not all of the stations were unique works of art. it was a pleasure to use the system, and I looked forward to my visits.

San Francisco was a beautiful jewel of a city. It was safe. It was a walking town, and if you got tired there were always the Streetcars, MUNI busses, or BART. On a sunny day, walking the streets of the city was a joy. The color and vibrancy, the oddball businesses tucked into old buildings made every block a new discovery.

I wanted to live in San Francisco. I wanted to get rid of my car, use mass transit, live in a quirky old building, work in the city, and watch the sun set over the bay every night. Of every place I’d been, San Francisco was the first and only city I’ve ever fallen in love with.

The last time I was there was about 10 years ago. I felt unsafe from the moment I walked into the BART station from the airport. At every station, there were people who were obviously ill. Either from drug addiction or psychological impairment, they appeared to be homeless, living in the stations. It was necessary to run a gauntlet of mentally ill or “high” people just to get to a train.

The trains formerly, sparkling clean and comfortable, were filthy as were the stations. When the train I was riding entered the tunnel going under San Francisco Bay, I hoped that at least the tunnel maintenance had been done properly. That had never been a concern for me before.

That was the last time I was in San Francisco. Now in the post COVID era I have no desire to go back since it’s gotten so much worse. It’s heart breaking what has happened to what was a model of efficient transportation, and a spectacularly beautiful city itself.

Permissiveness, has destroyed or is destroying California. It has been eroding all aspects of the state for a very long time.

I’d really like to see police allowed to do whatever it takes to put a stop to crime. If that means nightsticks liberally applied, or saving the taxpayers money by putting down criminals with a bullet I’m good with it.

I suppose I’m saying, I no longer see criminals as humans. They rip through stores like locusts and I’m all for them being exterminated like locusts.

Probably a little harsh… I’m just really tired of accommodating criminal behavior.

Update: 3/29/2024

Well, I’m going to be looking for a new barber. The owner of the shop has decided that they need to charge 1/2 upfront for an appointment.

This was slightly annoying when I booked my every 4 week appointment. Then I thought about it.

My Barber said the upfront charge was because of excessive cancellations, without the individuals having the courtesy to call.

Okay, but… I’ve never missed an appointment, and the 1 time in a year that I needed to reschedule. I called to reschedule 2.5 weeks ahead of the appointment. In contrast, due to health issues my barber has rescheduled on me 2 or 3 times.

I really like my barber, but I really don’t like being punished for the “crimes” of other people. I understand that the shop has a problem with the appearance of preferential treatment so they have to treat everyone equally.

I on the other hand, can express my displeasure with this new policy by not making appointments in the future. This will likely mean I will take my trade elsewhere. Being able to walk in for a haircut isn’t something that works because as the only barber shop in town they’re pretty busy.

OR maybe they were busy. I honestly wonder what this new policy is going to do to the business.

I can say, they’re pricy. I’ve stuck with them for two reasons. 1) I like my barber. 2) I like to support local businesses.

I’ll not be making another appointment. Especially since perhaps Sports Clips will work out better for me. I can combine a less expensive hair cut with shopping for groceries, and puppy supplies.

This is just another example of how the breakdown of civil behavior, courtesy and professionalism, negatively affects us all.

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Happy, we don’t know what time it is Day

Ugh! Time Changes

I hate ‘em when I’m traveling! 

I especially hate ‘em when I haven’t had the fun of traveling. Who doesn’t enjoy the TSA manhandling your carry on, tits and / or balls? 

Honestly I don’t mind the time changes too much if I’m on a road trip. 

DST for some reason makes me really cranky. I’ve never figured out why. I suspect that it’s something to do with feeling late to everything, at least for the first week or so after setting the clocks forward in spring.

The feeling that I’m being rushed tends to make me growly. There is always one clock in the house that I forget to change and inevitably, that clock is the one that I’ll be looking at getting ready to go somewhere, only to discover that I’m an hour off.

So I’m going go try to enjoy my Sunday, and not be too growly.

I hope you all have a good day!

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Experimenting with Apple Watch Ultra

Over the past few weeks I’ve been having a lot of annoying issues with my Apple Watch.

Primarily the problem is around exercise and workouts. 

I’ll start a workout, then get into my activity, usually I’ll check my watch to see how I’m doing. It’s at this point that I find the watch has missed as much as 1/2 of my exercise time. 

I’ll turn off the workout, then restart the workout and often the subsequent exercise credit will be correctly shown. But because of the weird variances I’m not concentrating on my hiking or enjoying my walk because I’m constantly checking the technology to see if it’s working properly.

I’ve called Apple, their phone people have no clue what’s going on or why something that was working just fine is suddenly not working properly.

The Apple exercise ring is tied to heart rate. So, from a hardware perspective that means that the optical sensors on the Apple Watch have to be clean and unobstructed.

(As an aside, this is why people with darker skin tones have more difficulty getting Apple Watch to properly record their exercise activity. Their natural defense against UV damage to their skin also reduces visible light transmission through their skin. Honestly, If I had to make a trade off, I’d take a darker skin tone than my glow in the dark, skin cancer prone, ghostly white.)

When the Watch first started giving me trouble, I cleaned the back of the watch containing the sensors and also looked at the wrist I wear the watch on, to determine if there was irritation that might be altering or obstructing the light from the sensors.

That made little to no difference.

I did notice that if I was shoveling snow, the exercise and movement values updated normally. During snow shoveling I start the HIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout because the work I’m doing shoveling snow sort of matches the workout.

I also noticed that walking and hiking during snowy times generally worked well.

But if I was hiking or walking on a sunny but coolish day, it wasn’t uncommon for me to lose 1/3 to 1/2 of the exercise time even though I was walking the same route, with the same watch, same band, and same dog dragging me along so he can sniff the next pile of poop.

Why the different behavior? Was Apple updating the sensor Algorithm behind the scenes? Is there some kind of stepped change to the Algorithm that happens after a certain number of workout hours, does it get adjusted based on fitness telemetry gathered during your workouts? I could see this as a form of motivation to get more fit.

If you ask an apple rep these questions, they aren’t able to answer. 

I got so pissed off that I stopped wearing my Apple Watch for a week or so. I admit, I do like the simplicity of a good old fashioned automatic watch. I like the ticking sound at night, and that I don’t have to fiddle with it. Simple Time & Date and I’m pretty happy.

The Apple Watch for me came about because too many shady people were taking way too much interest in my old fashioned watch. Better I’m mugged for a $500 watch than a $15,000 watch.

Plus I could have the joy of locking the Apple Watch from a web site, and listing it as stolen. Fuck you scumbags!! (I’d be fine with having the Apple Watch blow up when I listed it stolen. Let’s go Arabic shall we? You stole, you lost your hand…) Can you tell I’ve got a very dim view of criminals???

Anyway, I heard that there was a Watch OS update coming. So I slapped my Apple Watch on its charger for a while then put it back on. I started experimenting and have begun to wonder if the issue isn’t the watch sensors or the Algorithm, but is instead physiology.

The watch always misses the beginning of the walk. There’s an initial heart rate entry, then as I’m walking the data just stops. At some point in the walk or hike, the data comes back of its own volition, usually when I’m really pushing hard to move up a mountain or the dog and I are moving fast.

But it’s always lost at the beginning of the walk.

I looked back into records of the summer months and there wasn’t any missed data. Then I went back years. I’ve had an Apple Watch 3, 5, and now the Ultra. There was a consistent pattern from late 2019 forward. Lost heart rate data starting in mid to late November and persisting until April. This pattern persisted across the Apple Watch Series 5 and Ultra.

Why is it seasonal?

More confusing, why is the data loss intermittent during those times?

To be fair I was going to write a blog post about how the Apple Watch itself and the monthly challenges create a disincentive to work out or indeed keep fit at all. If a goal is constantly being moved such that an individual cannot ever achieve it, the individual will eventually say, “Fuck It!” 

However, I may have stumbled upon new data that would dissuade me from writing such a piece. 

Yesterday It was overcast, the humidity was high and it was a bit windy. As I was getting ready for the walk with the dog I put on my usual jacket and on a whim put on my gloves so my hands didn’t get numb from the wind chill. I sighed and started the outdoor walk workout then out the door I went. 

I knew at least half the data would be missing for the workout, but hey, why not? A little exercise data even if it’s inaccurate is better than none.

On the walk, I got the usual notification about the miles and pace. And I also got a notification that my exercise ring closed. I didn’t look at it or compare the exercise ring closing with the elapsed time of the workout.

When I got home, I pulled off my gloves, stopped the workout because the screen doesn’t react if I’m wearing gloves. Then I found that the entirety of my workout counted toward the exercise ring. “Typical, I thought, intermittent as hell. Works one day then not for the next 2.”

I picked up the gloves to put them away, and stopped…

Could it be that my hands being cold affects the sensors? What happens when the extremities get cold? The human body will shunt blood flow away from the extremities and toward the core as a protective mechanism against hypothermia. It’s a way of limiting heat loss. 

Hmm. If my hands are cold, but I’m wearing a jacket do just my hands turn on the vasoconstriction and would that reduce blood flow to the point that the optical sensors on my wrist wouldn’t accurately detect blood flow? 

When I’m shoveling snow, I’m wearing gloves, typically more for protection against blisters and dry skin than for warmth. If it’s windy in fall or winter I may put on gloves for a walk, especially if it’s humid or there’s some kind of misty rain.

When the body has excess heat to bleed off, vasodilation occurs allowing blood to move freely toward the surface of the skin to cool. That’s even before sweating begins. It’s simply thermodynamic heat exchange. That would explain why the end of a walk or hike is almost always accurate, and the beginning isn’t. 

I usually walk not wearing gloves in fall and winter.  I’m actually a little cold in the beginning of a walk because I don’t want to be too hot and uncomfortable or having to carry my jacket when I’m working my way back up the hill.

I wondered, “Have the times when the watch captured data flawlessly in the cooler months been on those days when I was wearing gloves and / or the temperature was above a certain point?” 

I was going to experiment more with this theory today. Unfortunately, I neglected to turn off auto update on the watch and discovered this morning that overnight the OS had updated to 10.4

I suppose I can still experiment even with the OS update. It’s 35°F outside, sunny and calm. Under these circumstances I wouldn’t wear gloves but I’d wear my hat and jacket. I’m thinking I’ll walk the dog without gloves and see if the data loss is present. Then tomorrow I’ll wear gloves and see if the data loss goes away or is minimized.

If it turns out that my theory is correct should I send it to Apple? I guess the real question is Would Apple listen and make the findings available to their phone staff to save other people the frustration and annoyance I’ve experienced? Would Apple even incorporate my theoretical findings into their testing to prove or disprove me. It would be nice if they did, and provided a real technical explanation. 

But somehow I don’t think they would, even if I provided them with the data. 

Apple has become exceedingly arrogant. Couple that with their notorious secrecy and minimalist instruction manuals, and I doubt seriously they’re interested in making information available.

I’ll think about it while attempting to confirm my theory. 

Once again, this is why companies should have real humans testing software and products instead of just doing automated stuff.