Land of Oz

Mighty Mouse

No, not the muscular little rodent with the operatic voice, but Apple's hand-operated pointing device. To me, the mouse has always been one of Apple's weak points. I can remember trying to operate the round mouse. I couldn't get used to not have something to reference with a direction.

So we get this new iMac and it comes with something called Mighty Mouse - which is named after the cartoon dude. To me, there's two big disadvantages to it. One is the teeny scrolling ball on the top - which conversely is also one of the best points. The problem is that it seems very easy to get dirty and not so easy to get clean. This weekend the mouse scroll ball started to work erratically if at all. This after only six weeks or so of use. Now, I'm not the neatest guy around, in fact, I'm pretty messy, but clean, but I don't expect a mouse to get gummed up after only six months of use. To clean it, you have to press hard and rub it upside down on a moistened (I used some lens cleaner) paper towel. I'm wondering if this is going to be a monthly occurrence?

The other problem is that the side buttons are too sensitive and don't seem to give any feedback. All to often, Exposé pops up when I use the mouse. While Exposé is pretty cool, I don't need it that often. I don't seem to be pushing the side keys, but I'm obviously doing it. I wish they'd be buttons that actually clicked or seem to move instead of just working.

And while I'm on this subject, I'd like to be able to reprogram the home and end key to beginning and end of line - I'm sure there's a way, I just haven't found it yet. And once again, I'd like to say how much I miss my right-click sendto option.

Labels: apple, computers, tech

Legacies

You want to know what kind of legacies we're leaving behind? There was a news story in The Saginaw News today about university tuitions. Back in 1995 after I retired from the USAF, I came here to go back to college and picked Saginaw Valley State University. I picked SVSU based primarily on class size - I didn't want to take classes with hundreds of students being taught mostly by graduate assistants. Also it was my state's school so the price was a lot cheaper. At the time, 1995, it was around $108.5 an hour.

Today I read in the local paper that the tuition is now $208.60 an hour. And the school is a lot bigger. I don't know what the classes are like now, but I'm assuming the small classes I enjoyed aren't as common. The sad thing is that SVSU is still the cheapest state university in Michigan.

Of course the minimum wage has gone up a whopping $0.85 this month to $5.85 from $5.15. That will sure make sure the kids at school will be able to afford their doubled tuition. This is one of the things that pisses me off about most everyone and taxes. People can't wait to cut taxes, but they never think about what will end up costing more. Sure you save a few bucks in taxes, but you're going to pay that money eventually. Think about it here in Michigan. Look at this tuition stuff. Sure you save a couple hundred bucks a year in state taxes but you're going to spend five times that much at the school that doesn't get tax support anymore. Think that over next time you vote on taxes.

Labels: government, gripes

Disappointment

Did you hear the latest from NASA - drunk astronauts in space. Some more heroes take a dive. Dog fighting quarterbacks, drug injecting bike riders and baseball players and game fixing basketball refs.

You know when I first read and thought about this I was pretty disappointed. Then as I started to type, I came to the realization that nothing has really changed except the media reporting of this stuff. First I thought how disappointed I was that an astronaut would be drunk before flying - and then thought about Chuck Yeager who almost missed his Mach 1 test flight because he hurt himself the night before while drinking.

The Babe, who Bonds is usually negatively compared to, wasn't exactly a church mouse either. From what I understand, he wouldn't pass up a bourbon or a babe if offered. And does anyone really think that ref was the first to fix, or try to fix, a game? Back around 200 a.d. or so, Dikon, the son of Kallibrotos, was bribed to change his nationality. And let's face it, most stock car racers - in fact just plain automobile racers - probably wouldn't know how to race according to the book.

So, actually nothing has really changed, just our perception of it. We seem to think everyone needs to be perfect now. Back in the Civil War and World Wars we had generals who womanized and drank. Soldiers fought and cussed and carried on and the world continued. How many bomber crews in England do you think might have had a wee nip or two before taking off - after all, their chances of making through their tour was about zilch.

Labels: celebs, gripes, oldies

Suspicions

TORONTO (Reuters) A Canadian contractor is looking for donations to fund a funeral after finding a mummified baby in the wall of a Toronto home. ... Newspaper wrapped around the baby was dated September 15, 1925, ... "This is being treated as suspicious death at this time," said police spokeswoman Wendy Drummond.

Suspicious?? You think? Thank goodness for the highly trained Toronto police. If it had been me, I would've just figured the kid grabbed a newspaper for a blanket and wandered into the wall and got lost.

Labels: crime, oldies

Ads

Here's something that's pretty weird. And I'm guilty of it myself. Think about the t-shirt or shoes you wore last - or maybe are wearing now. One of those probably has a logo on it. The logo identifies the company who sold it. Now think about logos for awhile.

Tiger Wood gets paid millions to wear a logo in the hopes that you or I will figure that wearing that logo will make us a better golfer. Michael Jordan would get paid millions so that a company could use his name and face to sell basketball shoes. The idea being that if you bought those shoes (you being 5 foot 8 and 220 pounds) you could approach the easy grace in playing basketball that Jordan did. Sure it does.

However knowing that doesn't seem to make much difference. Why do people pay companies who pay stars to wear their clothes to wear their clothes. (oddly that sentence seems correctly, if awkwardly written). Why after paying $15,000 for a VW Beetle do I pay an additional $15 for a VW Beetle t-shirt and not $6 for a no-brand JCPenny t-shirt (which of course has a JCPenny logo on it someplace).

I guess in some cases, like the Beetle t-shirt, we buy stuff to show support for the stuff we buy, or maybe in more logical cases for stuff we can't buy. I once looked high and low for a Caterpillar hat (back in the days when logoed accessories weren't quite so common). I knew I'd never buy a Caterpillar bulldozer or front-end loader, but I really liked the idea of Caterpillar. Who knows why. I don't really think they're any better or worse than dozens of other brands of heavy equipment. Why not an International Harvester cap - since I drove those as well.

What it boils down to is that somehow the gnomes at Caterpillar's marketing agency did good. They managed to make me believe that Caterpillar is cooler than Komatsu (not that I'd ever heard of Komatsu in the 70s). The same kind of folks using the same kind of psychology have also managed to convince many of us that wearing a Michael Jordan branded shoe is so much better (by $100s) than a generic New Balance sneaker. Kind of scary isn't it?

Labels: celebs, gripes, scams

Lethal

From the Detroit Free Press:

Margaret Ruth “Maggie” Hilbrands was injured during practice Monday evening with the Lowell Xtreme traveling softball team. She died Tuesday at DeVos Children’s Hospital.

“She missed the ball. It appears it hit her in the wrong spot. She never regained consciousness,” her mother, Jan Hilbrands, told the Grand Rapids Press.

The incident came just a day after another person was killed after being struck in the
head by a ball. Mike Coolbaugh, a 35-year-old coach for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers, died Sunday after being struck by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach’s box during a game in Arkansas.

Obviously baseball is a threat to society. This is two people that we know of in the last couple of weeks. Now, I know some people will call them accidents and that baseball had nothing to do with it, but that's wrong. People don't kill people, baseballs kill people.

We need to make some stringent controls over the distribution and use of baseballs and their related hardware. I think registration is a must along with a two-week waiting period. This would give pitchers and others a time to cool off before using their baseballs in anger. And obviously we shouldn't stop at baseballs. Bats are just, if not more, dangerous. If a baseball is near to a bullet, a bat surely is just a step or two away from a sword. Ban baseball, keep our people safe!

Labels: crime, gripes

Orwell Lives On

In the Chicago Tribune: "In the last five years, fewer than 100 people have been detained in the CIA's black prisons and less than half of those detainees "have ever required any sort of enhanced interrogation measures," CIA Director Gen. Michael V. Hayden said in a statement to employees yesterday."

Now is that scary or what? Take all the politically correct modifiers out of that statement and you get that; just the CIA alone, in the past five years only, and only in their "black prisons," has openly admitted to torturing nearly 50 people.

That leaves out the military, the justice department, contractors, federal and local law enforcement and just about anyone else. It also leaves out white prisons (and what pray-tell is the official definition of "black prison" anyway), regular prisons, farmer's fields, military bases, ships at sea and aircraft in the air.

I know I'm going to sleep a lot sounder tonight knowing my government is keeping me safe.

Labels: freedom, government

Good Guy - Bad Guy

Have you noticed what people tend to say about another person after they're dead? How many times have you heard, "he was such a good boy, never did nothin' wrong" (usually after getting shot at 3a.m. near a bar).

The other side of the story is when the deceased wasn't the victim. A "nice, quiet boy who bothered no one" turns into a "withdrawn individual with no friends." A "vivacious girl who liked to live" turns into a "loud, annoying drunk."

But when the deceased is a victim, the "big bully" turns into "a bear of a man who always stuck up for himself... and others" and the "reckless street racer" becomes "a mechanically-minded kid who really liked cars."

I wonder if I'll eventually be known as "that quiet guy who liked to read" or "that withdrawn loner who wasn't very friendly?"

Labels: crime, gripes

Vick

I don't really have too much to say about this guy. His is a problem that is more society than one overpaid athelete. The problem is that we feel no guilt in paying some kid millions to play a game. And supporting that kid from grade school until he's dumped after an injury or old age tosses him out on his keester.

You got to know that a kid like Vick was treated with kid gloves from the time it was noticed he could throw farther and run faster than any other kid on the block. What do you guess his high school and college days were much different than you or me - assuming you were lucky enough to be able to afford college.

I have no idea whether Vick was involved with dog fighting or not. I really don't care one way or the other. He's more guilty of success than of anything else. He may really have not known what was going on at his house - but it doesn't matter since it was his home. I'm guessing that the "friends" of his who were renting that house were hangers on interested in more what they could leech from Vick rather than help him out.

He's paid big bucks to play in a sport where violence and brutality are not only encouraged by rewarded. How many librarian majors do you know who are pulling in millions a year because they managed to teach some kid? Do you figure that cop you just sneered at when she drove past will get a signing bonus after keeping some punk from sticking his knife into you? Naw. Some rich, spoiled kid is going to get those big bucks because he can hit harder, throw farther or jump higher than you do.

Labels: celebs, gripes

America's Got Talent

Not this year it doesn't. I really enjoyed AGT last season. They had some super acts - acts that went beyond simple singing. There's more than enough programs dedicated to singers, but few that have general talent on it. And make no mistake, I have no talent as an entertainer, so I'm talking from a strictly no-talent viewpoint (which is still more talent than some of last night's acts).

I do realize that just finding talent isn't what this show is all about - not matter what the "Hoff" says. It's just about about generating controversy to get people (like me) to bitch about it and get more people to watch and see what the bitching is about. Be that as it may, there were some real odd choices of "talent" for this season's final twenty. I thought they picked the wrong magician to send to the finals - and last night proved me correct. The semi-final magic act was something I could have done and I can't do magic. The flash and pizazz of the other magic act was greatly missed.

They put two "dancers" through to the semi-finals who are worse that no-talent. One is a Bollywood wannabe who has as much rhythm and talent for dancing as I do. And I don't. The other so-called dancer out-weighs me (no easy task) and dances worse than the Bollywood boy does. I don't want to watch a show where the talent has less talent than I do. I have better ways to waste an hour or two.

There were some martial artists who could make the moves, but it often seemed they were doing them independently of each other rather than as a group of four. There often seemed to be one guy just enough out of time to be noticeable. That may be good for that individual, but not good for a group of four. Most of the other singers were good, but then singers aren't all that rare. They can't seem to put enough shows on TV to fit all the singers. One singer did things a little different, so I hope she makes it through and there was a cowboy roper who, while limited (you can only twirl a rope so many ways), at least did something different.

I hope the second half is going to be better because this first group was really poor. I was so disappointed I didn't even both to vote - while last year, I couldn't wait for the voting to start. There are a couple of performers in the next group I have some hope for, but overall, what a waste.

Labels: celebs, gripes

Libraries

Ah, home away from home. This article about the Vatican's Library reminded me again about how comfortable I feel in libraries.I have been a user - indeed almost an addict - of libraries for almost as long as I can remember. I'd go the New Buffalo Public Library back home when I was a kid and wander the shelves looking for a new adventure. I still occasionally have dreams that seem to take place in a landscape reminiscent of that place (now long since moved).

Throughout my 22 years in the USAF the base library was always a familiar place to spend time. At a few places I volunteered to work in them - notably Shemya AFS, Alaska and Osan AB, Korea. Even Khobar Towers in Saudi had a small loaning library where I went through a lot of paperbacks.

I even have a room in my house now that's dedicated to my own library.Most volumes have been bought used, some have been bought new and some just kind of showed up. There's only a couple that have never been read,and there are many that have been re-read - some numerous times. I guess in some ways I am addicted to books. There are books and magazines in literally every room of the house in just about every nook and cranny -thankfully I have a wife who doesn't get too upset about them.

There was one paragraph in the Vatican library story that really caught my eye:

I asked him why stacks of old card indexes still fill one of the reading rooms when the library catalogue has been transferred to a digital database.

"We shall never destroy them because scholars often prefer to use the old library cards, and they are a permanent record which we can always use to check possible mistakes in the database," he explained.

This is the part that really bugs me about libraries modernizing. Wandering through card catalogs let me discover many books I'd never have found otherwise. You riffled through the cards looking for swords and then find yourself getting sidetracked by sugar and swing bands and syndicates and if you were off by one drawer or another maybe ribs and rifles. The online stuff is so much more streamlined and clean and loses a lot of the chances for random discoveries.

Labels: military, oldies

Weekend Annoyances

Nothing has really stuck with me for awhile, so I thought I'd just add some thoughts about little stuff that bugged me so far this weekend. A lot of this is repeats from olden days, but a little might be new.

Squalling Kids
I went to an Indian restaurant last night for dinner and sat way in the back in my out of the way spot. A few minutes later a mom comes in with her two little boys - two loud little boys. Naturally they sit down at the table next to me. A pretty nice dinner just came to a halt. Luckily this place isn't all that busy and my food hadn't been delivered yet, so I got up, grabbed by beer and moved to another table. Hey mom and dad, your yelling kids aren't cute - no matter what you might think. Teach them some manners.

Open Freezers
Today I did some grocery shopping and watched a couple in the frozen food section looking over the selections with the door open. If you hadn't noticed, those doors are made of a material called GLASS. You can look through while making your choice hence keeping all the cold air inside.

Stopped Shoppers
Let's face it, it's not just shoppers. Why do you (and you know who you are) stop dead in the middle of an aisle intersection blocking not just one aisle, but usually four? I think you must be related to the same idiots who stop at the top of escalators and in front of revolving doors. Please move over to one side.

Right Turning Drivers
I know you not aware of this, but your vehicle has this strange device called a turn signal. It's there to let others know what you might be planning on doing. Look through your owner's manual to find it. It will really help others. While we're on the subject, if you are going to turn left how about using the center or turning lane - not the right side one.

Menu Perusers
First, if you've never been in a Macdonalds (or Wendys or Burger King, etc.) before how about taking the time while you waiting in line to figure out what you want? Why do you wait until you get to the cashier then act like you have no idea what you want? It's not that hard to order a #1 with a Coke.

Weather
First, I really don't like hot weather - and for me hot is anything over 70. But this is about change. Last Sunday (6 days ago) it was 100F and humid and just plain nasty. This morning it was 60F at 11am. It was almost cold in the house!

Wireless & Updates

This weekend my DSL (in fact my entire landline phone line) went down. It turned out the exterior wires were "weather worn" according to ATT and needed to be replaced. My phone was out from around noon on Sunday until noon on Monday.

At first I didn't know the phone line was down, literally down. I had no online access, so after recycling modems and hubs and computer trying to get DSL back up, I finally checked the phones and discovered that problem and made my call to ATT repair. Anyway, when I turned on my computer I noticed a wireless network called linksys that wasn't password protected. It seems someone in the neighborhood has a wireless network set up and used the default settings and no password. That got me wondering about my own wireless network and how to make sure I really did set encryption like I thought I did once I got back online.

There is a program called Airport Utility that sets up the Airport Extreme base station I have. I found it, launched it and it said it was too old to use. I went to apple.com and looked for 5.1 and couldn't find it. I did find an airport extreme update package and downloaded it and tried to install it, but it also said the utility was too old to update. I finally thought of the disk that came with the base station and sure enough, that had the 5.1 version on it. I installed it, then ran the update package again and it all seemed to be running - did I mention these were the kind of updates where you have to reboot after loading? This time the airport utility I downloaded (2007-001) was something for graphite and didn't work, so I needed to go back and download and install a different one. So after a couple of reboots and reloads, etc. I start the Airport Utility and it tells me my base station needs a firmware update - sigh. So finally after downloading and installing a bunch of stuff - not all of it the right stuff - I can finally check my base station - and yes, it was password protected.

Labels: apple, computers, tech

Catholics

I like this story. It seems the pope has reasserted that the Roman Catholic church is the only true church. As near as I can tell the main reason for this is that the Romain Catholic church is the only church that recognizes the pope as being the main man. And as a pope he's infallible, so he'd know right? So basically either you admit the pope is the greatest or you're going to hell - with or without a handbasket. The other reason is other churches can't trace thier bishops and such back to the original apostles. Considering how all priests are supposed to be celibate, I'm wondering how they manage that.

And they're going back to latin masses. I can remember latin masses - never understood them, but can remember them. I had to memorize a bunch of latin mumbo-jumbo when I became an altar boy. Right after I joined up, they switched to english. The good thing about having a mass in latin is that most people won't understand what the priest's are saying. So the priest can say anything, and as basis in faith, you just know he's saying the right thing. And we all know how trustworthy priests can be don't we. I know most are OK folks, but there seems to be way too many who have been stretching the boundaries of their vows, especially where celibacy comes to mind. It turns out one of the priests from my home town parish was up close and personal with some young guys, so it's not all that rare. But, it's nice to know the pope is infallible.

And people wonder why I'm a lapsed catholic.

Labels: gripes, religion

Mac vrs. ?

I drove back down to Troy on July 4th to pickup my iMac with its new hard drive. Everything was ready when I arrived and I packed it back up and brought it home. Then started the reloading of everything. Luckily (I guess) after only five weeks I didn't have a lot to lose. Most software I'm using on the iMac so far is open source stuff. Things like Text Wrangler, NeoOffice, Cyberduck and more so it was a matter of downloading and installing it all over again.

I did find out that the Graphire tablet software now seems to be working. Maybe there was something in the initial load of OS X that wasn't quite right - perhaps the hard drive problem was interconnected with that - I'm not sure.

Another good thing about starting all over again relatively quickly from start up is that you get a chance to do things like they should have been done. A few weeks is enough to learn where things should go and how things should be set up. In the initial excitement I had put things rather helter-skelter and now have tried to be a bit more logical the second time around.

However, while trying to rearrange things a bit more logically I moved/copied (still haven't quite got the difference down) a folder named after me. Yep, all my settings disappeared which wasn't too bad, but my mail also went away. I finally figured out I moved/deleted my user prefs file which made some stuff work quite oddly. I ended up deleting and resetting my user account which fixed things. And I did find my lost mail - it had somehow ended up in the applications folder so I was able to recover the mail.

So most stuff is back in place and most things are working as they were before the hard drive dying. We'll see how long it lasts.

Labels: apple, computers

History

One of my favorite shows on TV is back for its summer season, History Detectives. Its about some researchers who meet someone with an artifact (has ranged from cannons to belt buckles to 3D projection screens) and they try to find out the real history of that artifact. It's really interesting.

This week they talked with some lady with a story (and medallion) about her great grandfather who supposedly had received a medal made of metal from the Liberty Bell. It turns out that it was probably true, but that wasn't what struck me. What struck me was when the lady showed the researcher a photo of her ancestor. It got me to thinking that I'll be lucky to be able to look at photos I took a few years ago.

I've ranted about this before, but the digital age is really going to hurt history. I still use my original digital camera, a Toshiba PDR-M1. It takes nice photos but the storage it uses is just about obsolete. It uses a SmartCard with a 3.5" floppy adapter. I've started the change over to a Mac and the Mac has neither a 3.5" floppy, nor is there any software available to support the adapter if I added a drive.

In this case, I can still access the old photos since I kept them backed up on CDs - but for how long? First, the CDs will degrade to the point where I can't read them. Second, eventually there won't be CD readers to be had, and if you doubt that, try to find an 8-track player, a reel-to-reel recorder or a 5.25" floppy drive these days. All of which I've used for archival storage in the past. (OK, in my case it was an Exatron Stringy Floppy instead of the 8-track, but you get my drift.)

I was also thinking about when my cubicle neighbor brought in photos - digitally taken and ink jet printed - of his new kid. Those prints may last a few years and hopefully, he'll keep his digital storage updated. But where his folks can pull a photo out of an old shoe box and look it and remember, in 40 years he'll be lucky to have an old computer still around that will read those photos he took.

How well are your digital mementos stored?

Labels: oldies, tech

Liars in High Places

As if Detroit doesn't have enough problems lately, it seems the zoo's director is a liar. The director said he had a doctorate on his resume, but in fact only had a Bachelor and Master's degree. He's keeping his job with one month's pay being forfeited. One of the council directors says: "I'm delighted he's going to stay on the job. The zoo needs him and the community needs him. And it's not like he made up his doctoral thesis. He did the work. It's a paperwork issue."

I've got an Associates, Bachelors and Masters degree - nope, I'm not claiming a doctorate just yet - and they are all paperwork issues. That's what a degree is, it's a piece of paperwork. That's how you get it, you fill out paperwork, submit paperwork, and get a piece of paper back. I do think that a doctorate also requires some verbal defense stuff, but I'm not sure. But basically a degree is paperwork.

"He [the zoo director] said he began work on it at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the mid-1980s and thought he had finished." How does one not realize they didn't finish a doctorate's requirements? For my Masters I made damn well sure I filled in all the blocks, crossed all the i's and dotted all the t's in my paperwork - and my paperwork was a multi-media CD. Even my Bachelors with Honors degree required a thesis (a 100-plus page software manual) and I made sure all those blocks were filled - even having to argue with the university administration over some courses I took.

So how does someone who should be even smarter not realize they didn't get their paperwork in order. Sorry, but I don't buy that. This type of thing just seems to be a reflection on today's values. Basically whatever one can do to lie, cheat and steal their way to the top is cool as long as they aren't caught. I can expect that from some cheap hood holding up a 7/11, but I shouldn't have to expect it from our society's leaders.

Lowes Again

I hope this isn't a harbinger of things to come, but once again the staff at Lowes couldn't quite seem to get it together. They've been running a $69 garage door opener installation special for a month or so and I decided to get one today. Luckily, since I wasn't aware of it, they're having a %10 discount sale for active and retired military this week. Which is way cool - especially since they include retired military folks in it.

I go to the back and let them know I'm interested in the garage door opener. I picked out a Chamberlain model and ask if the %10 applies to the installation as well - not surprisingly it didn't. So next the guy spends almost 30 minutes filling out the form for the order. The only thing the form has is a block for my address and one for the store address and another for the cost of the project. He spends half an hour filling that out and entering info into his computer and finally hands me the form. With the full price of the opener on it. I tell him I can't sign that and he says the installation doesn't come under the discount and I said I know, but the opener does - and that amounts to $20. So he says he has to fill it out all over again and get a manager to override the sale, blah, blah, blah. And I say, fine and sit down to wait.

It's finally filled out with the correct price and the manager comes around and does whatever she had to do to correct things and I then get my contract to take to the checkout counter - where they can't find the order. She finally finds it, but it has an incorrect phone number for me on it. So she calls (and waits) for another manager to help out. Finally the order appears and she enters it and doesn't put in the discount when I slide my card through the reader. Thankfully she doesn't need to get yet another manager to correct that error. I finally get everything straightened out after 45 minutes. Which doesn't sound like much, but all I needed to do was grab an opener and fill out about 10 lines on a contract.

So, do you think I'm feeling all comfy over the upcoming installation? I'll keep you folks informed. They're supposed to get to it sometime next week.

Where'd it Go?

The other day I stopped into the Home Depot to pick up some screws. I didn't need many and was a little short of time so didn't do much looking. Anyway, I ended up buying one little bag of screws and checked out using the self service line.

In Michigan we have a 6% sales tax. The little bag of screws (4 ea.) I bought cost $0.98. It rang up as $1.04. Here's the question: the 6 cents that was added as tax isn't 6 percent of $0.98 - it should actually be $0.0588. Now granted I'm not going to be able to pay, or Home Depot collect that fraction of a penny and actually will hardly notice it. But where does it go? Since more than one person buys stuff in Home Depot (or any other store for that matter) during a day, that fraction of a cent is going to soon add up.