Land of Oz

Apple vrs. Atari

Yes, Atari. Today I called Apple tech support about my hard drive problem and after many minutes of following directions, we came to the conclusion that the hard drive was indeed busted. By the way, today I learned what "recycle the power management system" means. After I asked for clarification, I found out it meant to unplug the computer!

So I make an appointment online (using my Windows computer by the way) with the Apple Genius bar in Troy, Michigan. Eighty-six point two miles later I'm at the Somerset Mall looking for a parking place. They plugged in the computer and guess what - the hard drive is toast. So, in 7 - 10 days (and another 172.4 round trip) I should have my iMac back.

And where does Atari come in? Back around 1987 I bought my first hard drive. A Supra 20 MB drive for around $300 (I looked at a 500GB Lacie designer external drive at the Apple store for about the same price). After about 8-9 years it took several minutes to warm up and start but still run. That's the worse problem I've ever had with a hard drive since 1989 until my 5 week old Apple iMac.

Labels: apple, computers, oldies, tech

Wired Cool

My geekness comes out again. I've been reading Wired magazine for years and years and while I think it's become a bit too business orientated and has gotten away from its "wired" roots, it's still good. And of course this month's cover was the best. A couple of months ago Wired had a deal were the first 5000 respondees would get a personalized issue sent to them - ta da!

Labels: tech

Apple vrs. Windows

This isn't a Mac vrs. PC rant this time, this time it's Apple alone. We ordered a Macbook to go along with our iMac earlier this month. It was originally supposed to be shipped June 20 or so, but no later than June 26. June 26 I finally call Apple and they say, yes, it's going to be shipped June 26. The next morning, June 27, I get an email saying it won't be delivered until July 19 or so - some kind of unmentionable problem. A little later I get a survey from Apple asking about how the call the night before to the liars at Apple went - you can guess what my response was.

So, today I get another email saying the Macbook was shipped today and should be here around July 6. Go figure. I come home around 8pm and lo and behold, my iMac is froze. Nothing works - the desktop can be seen but no cursor, no keyboard, no nothing. I turn it off - having to shut off the power to do so and turn it back on. Nothing except a flashing folder with a question mark in it. And of course nothing in the teeny-tiny manual Apple includes mentions that error.

I turn it back off, disconnect everything, try to turn it on a few times with the same result. I get the OS X reload disk and insert it and nothing happens. I dig through some manuals and find out the hold the C down while restarting will start from CD. It does and a little more reading tells me about a disk utility on the start up disk. I try that and the only disk it shows is the DVD - no hard drive listed. Time to turn it off again. Do you know how hard it is to get a DVD out of an ailing Mac?!

I'm figuring I have a dead hard drive, on a computer less than 6 weeks old. I call the 800 Apple number and find they are only in business from 6 - 6 PT. I'll have to try tomorrow which is Saturday and I can't find any listing for their days of operation. Needless to say, I'm not a real happy camper right now. If there's no phone guy tomorrow, I'll try scheduling an appointment at the nearest Apple store, which is about 2 hours away. To top things off, it's iPhone weekend, so I'm sure the stores will be packed with iPhone wannabees. Rats!! Curses Apple!

Oh, by the way, I'm doing this post on my old Windows machine.

Labels: apple, computers, gripes, tech

"Talent" Shows

This summer, like last summer, I've been watching the 21st century's latest answer to the Gong Show - America's Got Talent. If you don't know what it is, it's basically a show where people with and without a shred of talent perform in the hopes of eventually winning one million bucks.

Folks without a shred of self-awareness perform in front of an audience and three judges. The three judges can quickly X a no talent performer - when all three put up Xs, the person is done, they can also vote after allowing someone to perform and two yes votes pass them on. I've found there's others, like American Idle and The Next Great Imitator or some such. All of who allow really no-talent individuals to embarrass themselves and us by attempting to perform.

Why they do it is beyond me. I can't sing and have been told that by others (notably a nun who was my sixth grade teacher). I can't carry a tune with or without a bucket and have no hopes of ever doing so. Yet, my caterwauling is heads and shoulders above some of these so-called talents. And what is even more amazing is that they act hurt when one of the judges tells them they are no talent bums who shouldn't be wasting their or our time. Thank goodness there's at least one judge (oh by the way, each show has to have one 'evil' judge) who isn't afraid to hurt their feelings and tell them they are really bad and to go away and not come back - ever.

The Cost That Keeps on Costing

They [ATT/Apple offerings] start at $60 a month, though, and climb to $100 for 1,350 monthly minutes of calling. That means that if you get the $600 model and choose the top minutes package, you're going to shell out more than $3000 over the course of the required two-year contract. I'm guessing that there'll be a bunch of extra "features" that you can buy, like ring tones, wallpaper, games, etc. Oh, and you'll still have to pay $36 for activation.

I've mentioned before how the stuff of today wants you to keep paying instead of buying something. Here's a perfect example. And what is really irritating, is that after all the fees and heads up costs, you still get squeezed for an additional $36 to turn the damn thing on. And I can't begin to imagine just how many extra taxes, fees and other nickel and dime items will be listed on the bill.

Land of the Free?

According to the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College in London, the United States has long had the world's largest prison population, followed by China at 1.5 million and Russia at 885,670.

What on earth are we doing wrong? This weekend there were 3 or 4 shootings and a couple of murders in my town. Just south of here last week there was a shooting that involved something like a dozen people. Last week near Detroit some guy stole a woman's necklace and sank her in a nearby lake. Some cop (hopefully ex-cop) in Ohio is accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, and a pro-wrestler seems to have killed his wife, his kid and belatedly himself.

And that is with more people in prison than any other country in the world. I don't get it. Who the hell do we have locked up? Do we put some guy in the slammer for smoking some crack while the murderers and rapists wander the streets? Something has gone or is going seriously wrong in the good ol' USofA and it worries me. We have 2,193,798 people (that's about 1 per 137 people) behind bars and it doesn't seem to be helping a whole lot. There is a problem here and I'm absolutely clueless of what can be done about it.

Labels: crime, freedom, government

Crime Thoughts

Here's just some random stuff about crimes that have been happening lately. Some of this stuff is my same rant, but stuff just keeps happening:

A couple more kids were shot and killed this past weekend. They were minors and of course according to all who knew them, "just 'nice boys' who never did nothin' wrong." These were 15-17 year-olds who were shot on the streets between 2am and 4am. Why are nice minors on the street at 3am - five hours past curfew - and by the way, they weren't working the night shift at 7/11.

On the way to and from work I pass by a house with a sheet of OSB (plywood type stuff) nailed across the front of the house. There was a guy asleep on the couch when his girlfriend drove through the wall and killed him. I don't know if she's been charged or not, but I've seen the house and you have work at it to drive through the wall.

Check out the picture. I've read a lot of hateful commentary about this guy shooting a cop and what should be done with him. I can't get up a hate for him. Obviously this guy is really-really messed up inside his head. I don't know if it's nature or nurture, but he really needs some medical care and either kept locked away where he can't hurt anyone else or put away like the mad dog he seems to be.

Why do so many people walk in the middle of the streets in our neighborhood? They give you a dirty look if you beep your horn at them to get out of the way. These folks range from kids to adults. They don't even make an effort to get out of your way. Yet, who's going to be blamed when they get hit? As far as I'm concerned, if you don't have the sense to get out of busy street, society doesn't really need you taking up space.

Thank god that idiot lawyer lost his $54 million law suit against a dry cleaners over a pair of lost pants. What do you want to bet he's going to appeal?

Labels: crime

// posted by Jim-of-oz @ 6/26/2007 01:04:00 PM

NASCAR

Let me start off by saying I am a fan of NASCAR. Not a big one, but I'm interested. But let me also say, the I have a lot of problems with NASCAR. First, it's called stock car racing. What part of the car is "stock?" I'd honestly be surprised if there's any part on a stock car that can be found on a stock car. Take Jeff Gordon, who supposedly drives a Chevy. What part on that car is the same as the part on the Chevy that my neighbor parks in his driveway?

Now they have some new type of NASCAR car, that seems to be the same for all drivers. I'm guessing they don't even want to make believe that what's running on Darlington might be similar to what Fred is driving on I-94 outside of Detroit. I think they should really drop the nomenclature of "stock" from NASCAR racing. I mean, Jeff Gordon's stock car is about as similar to my old Chevy as Ralf Schumacher's Toyota is to my wife's Camry. At least Formula doesn't try to pass their equipment off as something you might be able to purchase at the local GM dealer.

The other thing that bugs me about NASCAR is how they try to make it seem like a NASCAR car/driver is something you'd probably run into at your local 7/11, as opposed to the sophistication and unreachable manner of a Formula One driver/car. Honestly, about the only difference between Gordon and Schumacher is that they are driving differently named cars and one spends most of his time turning left (and why left not right?) and the other doesn't have a roof over his head. Besides that, they are both professional drivers with driving skills and automobiles far beyond that of someone who buys a pack of Marlboro in 7/11.

But I guess they're not completely alone. I recently went to a tractor pull. They have John Deeres and Internationals and Minneapolis Molines that bear absolutely no resemblance to what you might find in some farmer's field. At one time they had to have at least the axle of the tractor they were called, but I kinda doubt that applies any more. The one thing, is that they don't call them stock tractors if they aren't really stock tractors. One other thing, is that a lot of these guys are still tractor driving farmers for real.

Labels: driving, gripes

Zone of Stupidity

There's an intersection near where I work that seems to bring out the stupid in drivers - even more so that usual. It's a fairly busy 5 lane secondary road, Tittabawassee, that crosses an interstate highway bypass, I-675. Most of the problems come from eastbound Tittabawassee drivers who are trying to get on I-675. You'd think it was pretty straight-forward. Get in the right lane, put your turn signal on and turn.

For some reason a lot of drivers seem to favor making the right turn from the left lane. They wait until they're right near the turnoff then, jump over to the right - some occasionally use a turn signal, but I think their kids probably reach over and flick the level. The one complication (and having driven in New York, London and Los Angeles among others I'd hardly call it a complication), is that there's a gas station on the south side of Tittabawassee just before you get to the southbound turn off. You can look at the picture and see how congested it is - yeah right.

What you end up with is westbound drivers (from all three of their lanes) trying to turn into the gas station, and eastbound drivers (from all three of their lanes) trying to turn off Tittabawassee and get on I-675. And ever hour or so, it seems like there's some quack who will straddle the middle turning lane, not having left themselves enough time to fully cross, poking into the traffic flow of east and westbound cars.

By the way, the traffic level of the picture is a little low, but not much. Saginaw rush hour traffic levels are similar to 3 a.m. traffic levels in a lot of real cities. In fact, along Bay Road, one of our busiest, about 3/4 of the traffic signals become flashing yellows after 10 p.m. And heaven forbid you sneak some snow on the roads. What self respecting Michigander would recognize that snow is slippery?

Labels: crime, driving, gripes

B-People

I love some of the stuff brought up in this BBC article:

"If you find it hard to get up in the morning, don't despair - you're not lazy, you're just genetically programmed that way, says the B-Society in Denmark."

Cool, I finally found a group I can identify with. Actually, there's several, but this one seems kind of unique. They've addressed a problem I have (and my wife has) that doesn't seem to go over too well with most. My dad still doesn't understand why I work from 1000 to 1900 each day instead of a normal, grownup time of 0800 to 1700 like he and thousands of others have since history began. There's some pretty cool ideas passed on like that of Stephen Alstrup, who runs a company and gets in late, "People used to get up early because they had to feed the animals. But I haven't got any cows or chickens, so I can sleep late."

Surprisingly, I can really identify with the guy who works/lives to a 25 hour schedule, "More confusing for me [Chris Morris] is the guy who works to a 25 hour clock. If he is in at 10 today, it will be 11 tomorrow, then 12 - you can get the general idea." I actually did this for awhile when I was younger. Every few days, I'd have to skip a night's sleep to catch up with society's 24 hour schedule and then I'd go back to shifting an hour each day. I still have a tendency to follow this time schedule when I have extended time alone. After a week or so, my "go-to-bed" time gradually gets later and later until I have to force myself back into a 24 hour schedule.

This also fits in with another bit of stuff that drives me crazy, like Daylight Saving Time. I've been working in our company's latest building for several years and have yet to see the lights off. Our business is 24/7/365 so there are always people working here - and they always have lights on. How does changing the clock save me/them/us any anything? When I'm at home, I have the shades pulled and a small light on where I work and all the rest of the lights off. So it doesn't matter when the sun shines, I'm still using lights - like Stephen said, no cows or chickens to feed.

Labels: gripes

Why We Have Problems

There's a reason why we are having so many problems in this state, and in other parts of this country. I was looking at the Detroit Free Press. Buried under "More stories…" can be found the article, " Only a quarter of Detroit high school students graduate in 4 years." Which basically means that: "The numbers, based on data from the 2003-04 school year, have Detroit -- for the second year in a row -- having the lowest graduation rate among the 50 largest urban districts in the country."

You know what kind of stories are listed above that? Restaurant smoking bans, carjackings, the Sopranos, baseball and hockey, among others. What the hell kind of city is it that is more worried about how some TV show finished the season or if some pitcher will throw a baseball than the fact that 75% of its kids won't be graduating high school in four years? Of course the officials say the report is untrue, and it is probably slanted to make things look worse - but how much better can things actually be? I'm sure it's going to be refreshing to find out the percentage is only 50% instead of 25%.

This just goes way beyond sad and pathetic.

Labels: crime, gripes

North Korea

Now I'm not saying that lights are everything, but look at this fairly recent image of a section of Asia. The whole NASA image is here by the way. Look at the border between North and South Korea. I always find looking at that amazing. Other than the glow coming from Kim Jong Il's widescreen TV, the country north of the DMZ (arrowed) is dark - as in lights out. Look at what is south of the DMZ. The greatest percentage of broadband users are sitting there with their lights on. Cranking out Samsung phones and DVD players. The poor folks in the north don't even have enough light to see that they don't have any food to eat. Also check out Taiwan and Japan and see what vibrant and flourishing countries can look like.

Labels: freedom, government, tech

Mac vrs. Windows

Here's a few more observations about the Mac/Windows tales. Updates - one of these days this weekend when I logged on, I had a notice about updates. One for iTunes and one for part of OS X. Something like 50MB or so. And about the stability of the platform. I'm using 10.4.9 and as I understand it, the dot numerals aren't all that compatible with each other. For example, when Apple goes from 10.4.9 to 10.5, there's going to be some major changes. Like from Win 95 to Win 98 or XP to Vista. I guess there's also some pretty in 10.3.9 from previous versions as well. Even to things as simple as keyboard shortcuts.

Right-clicking. I really miss the Windows right-click and what you could do with it. I'm sure there's some esoteric keyboard combination in OS X that replicates it, but I haven't found it yet. Close, but not the same. With the Win right-click I can send the file to other programs - text to NoteTab, gifs to irfanview etc. One thing I was unable to do yesterday was to right-click on a fake URL link in a phishing email and then copy the underlying actual URL to the clipboard. I tried ctrl-click to get the menu, but when I copied the shortcut, it was the fake one and not the link it actually connected to. For instance, copy this link http://apple.com/ and see where it really goes before trying it.

I finally discovered the magnetic remote holder on the right side of the screen. I'm not too crazy about having magnetic fields near my computer table - yes, a lot of that is 5.25/3.5" disk paranoia, but I'm still not too crazy about it. That's probably why the magnet is also so weak - doesn't seem to keep a very secure grip on the remote.

We did fix the jumping cursor problem. I found it mentioned in some forum online. It seems that the "mighty mouse" isn't too happy creeping about on strongly contrasting mousepads. I replaced the black and white pad (ironically Dell - Apple didn't supply one) with a piece of neutral gray-blue matt paper and the cursor has settled down nicely. Which makes me wonder about the market for decorated mousepads and iMacs.

And speaking of "mighty mouse," I'm not too happy with the side buttons. They don't seem to have any kind of tactile feedback when used. I can't seem to get the hang of pressing one without pressing both.

Labels: apple, computers, tech

Paris Hilton

Last entry on this $ubject. I'm actually feeling a little ashamed of climbing on the PH bandwagon. I officially don't care anymore what happens to this little, er, whatever...

Labels: celebs, gripes

A Load of Crap

Gee -- who would have guessed. After three days of a 45 day jail sentence that was shortened to 23 days a rich spoiled brat gets to go home. Her punishment? Staying at home for 20 days. I haven't been there, but I doubt that staying in her home is going to be any hardship.

Her dirtbag lawyer says, "[Hiltion is] really being punished because of her celebrity". No, you dingbat, she's being punished because she repeatedly drove with a suspended license. Flaunting the law has nothing to do (although is often associated with) being a celebrity.

It's beginning to look like California is a celebrities' "get out of jail free" state. Whether it's drugs, drunk driving, molesting kids, driving with a suspended license or murder, if a celebrity does it in California, they've got a good chance of getting off.

I hope it doesn't happen, but the next time Hilton has an accident I'm hoping she hits and hurts another celebrity instead of some poor shmuck who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time driving a cheap Chevy or Ford. This is the kind of stuff that just really pisses me off. If there was really justice, maybe Blake would shoot Hilton behind the wheel of her car causing her to lose control and runs into OJ forcing his Bronco off the road down a cliff running over Jackson just before he gets his creepy white hands on another 10 year old while Macauley looks on.

Update: I didn't see this until just now: Actress Michelle Rodriguez was released from jail early, after serving less than a day of a 60-day jail sentence, authorities said Tuesday.

Labels: celebs, crime, driving, gripes

Retro

I just ran across a pretty cool (and expensive) web site the other day. Retro Thing. It's a web site about old and cool stuff. What really caught my eye was something called the Radiomann Tube Radio Kit. For those of you who don't know, a tube is a hot glass thing that burns your fingers and amplifies signals. It's similar to a very retro transistor or one little part of a retro integrated circuit.

I can remember taking a handful of tubes out of our black and white television and hauling them down to the drugstore where a very cool tube tester console sat. We'd put the tubes in the appropriate socket and set a knob or two and watch the tube glow. I think there was a meter that would then show whether the tube was bad, poor or good. You'd replace the bad ones with a new one - they had them in the bottom of the console and take them back home and replace it. Surprisingly enough this often did fix the TV problem.

Anyway, I saw this radio kit and Hammacher Schlemmer had them on sale for $60. Half price. Oh well, out came the credit card and soon I had an order acknowledgement back in email. That was Monday night and this afternoon, the package was on my porch floor!

I'm a little surprised as to the quality of this thing. The case is maybe 1/2" nicely finished cherry with neatly mounted components on the top. It's not so much a kit as it is an experiment platform. The only parts you need to assemble is to plug one of two coils and the tube. Everything is already put together. It does need 8 AA batteries - after all, you need to heat that tube up - but other than that it's ready to go. The manual is thin, but high quality glossy color. It's written in Germany, translated in America and printed in China. I'm still trying to find the country of origin for the radio kit itself.

Very cool and I'm looking forward to plugging it in, adding an antenna and listen into Fibber McGee and Molly or maybe the Green Hornet.

Labels: oldies, tech

Jargon 2

Remember that long distance customer service fiasco I talked about last week? It's still ongoing. The last email I received said that they had to disconnect the long distance service - that the long distance service I no longer have by the way - and it would take a month. A month to flick a switch! Anyway, this week I get another email saying the case was closed. Cool - they found the switch in less than a month.

I answered saying that after all that I still didn't know how to get my refund. I got a somewhat snippy email back saying I was told it would take them a month to turn off the long distance and until them to leave them alone. Not in so many words mind you, but that was the message I got.

I just don't understand why they couldn't have said, "We need to cancel our record of your long distance service with us which will take 30 days to clear the system. After which we will issue a check for your refund." Isn't that amazing? No jargon, no BS, just let me know what's going on in words I can understand.

Labels: gripes, tech

Freedom of Speech

One of the recent news articles talked about a marine who is being disciplined because of his activities in protesting. I hope that everyone reading that article gets the whole story and not just part of the story. If you've read this blog before you've probably seen that I'm big on personal freedoms. However, I'm also big on personal responsibilities. In this case, the marine is wrong. Naturally, the antiwar side is making a big deal about a military protester being busted for protesting.

There is no problem with a military member taking part in political activities. Whether it's a war protest or burning books protest, the military member can take part. What they can't do is wear her uniform while doing so. This is what the marine is being busted for. As far as I'm concerned, whether he's active duty or Ready Reserve, he's still in the military, and as such shouldn't be wearing the uniform during a protest.

He's wrong not about protesting; I'm fine with that, but about protesting in uniform. And one other item that doesn't seem to be getting too much air time is that after an officer reminded him about that, the marine's response was, "He [the marine] replied to the e-mail and expressed his opinion that the military should have more important things to worry about and signed off with an expletive."

My guess is that with that email, that marine is pretty much "expletived" himself.

Labels: freedom, government, military

Door Locks

This has come up before - a lot. A big question came up when I was watching Desperate Housewives a couple weeks ago. On that show people are constantly knocking on doors, getting no answer, then entering the house to find one nasty incident or another. Cop shows are also good for that. A knock, and the door swings open, and the cop goes in and sees whatever.

Today on the news I heard there's some guy wandering around near here entering into homes and ripping stuff off. There was no mention of breaking in by the way. One guy they interviewed said people were starting to think about - starting, mind you, to lock their doors.

Our office building is locked and each employee has a key card to open the door. I'm one of the strange ones who won't let in people I don't know who "left" their card home. It's not much of an inconvenience to them, since they probably won't have to wait more than a couple of minutes before someone will let them in. Regardless of that, they never fail to give me a dirty look - as if I'm the reason they forgot their key card. Oh, did I forget to mention the guy a few months ago they had to call a police escort for after he was fired? He was being quite vocal and profane in making his displeasure known. And since he was built like a Green Bay Packer linebacker, I made it a point to stay far away from him.

I think those oft yearned for days of not having to lock your doors are in most cases a fantasy. I grew up on a farm almost 50 years ago far away from major cities and more than once we had to call the police because of intruders. Today, I'm sorry to say, there's no excuse for leaving doors unlocked. People are just plain more ornery now and care about as much for others as they do an ant on the sidewalk.

(p.s. this is an old post that was saved and never posted)

Labels: crime, gripes

Stupid Stuff

One of the latest stories about meth is that 'Strawberry meth' is latest drug scare. You know what this means to us common folk don't you? Now we're going to have buy our strawberry Koolaid and Jello mix behind the counter.

You may have missed my earlier rants, but a couple of weeks ago we tried to buy old-fashioned lye to make some old-fashioned soap. You can't do that anymore. Because meth-heads use lye to make their stuff, it can no longer be sold normally. This has also happened with a lot of decongestants, like Claritan-D. Since the meth-heads use this, you have to find a pharmacy and then sign all kinds of releases before you can buy it. Or you can the less effective version that is still on the shelf.

I think we should just give the meth-heads access to some super-duper high strength stuff and let them blow their brains out with it. Instead of inconveniencing the many because of the actions of the few - just get rid of the few.

Labels: crime, government, gripes

One Selfish Bastard

Andrew Speaker - Here's one idiot who thinks ONLY of himself. He admits he was advised not to travel, but he wasn't forbidden. Now he's complaining that the CDC has "abandoned" him. What a crock. This guy really pisses me off and gets absolutely no sympathy from me.

He accused the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of abandoning him by asking him to check into a health facility in Rome instead of returning to the United States via commercial airliner for treatment. Speaker and his wife said the government refused to help arrange alternate transportation home.

"Why are you abandoning me like this and asking me to turn myself over for an indefinite time?" Speaker said. "It's very real that I could have died there ... I felt very abandoned."

Maybe you could have died. If you felt that way, why the hell did you jump on a plane and threaten the lives of hundreds if not thousands more? This is the kind of crap one expects from a self-centered, globe-trotting, lawyer who obviously looks out only for himself and like most lawyers is looking for someone else to take the blame for his screwups.

Grow up Andy and take some responsibilities for your own actions. I am sorry you caught the disease, but I'm not at all sorry for the way anyone has treated you since. You decided to put your own selfish interests in front of society, so now suck it up and pay the consequences.

Labels: freedom, gripes