esrosedotblog

I had the equivalent of a full physical on my computer today.

Arduous.

Not for me but certainly for the guy who did it.

I had lots and lots of spam to get rid of. All kinds. Don't ask.

A lot of it has to do with visiting questionable web sites, mostly X rated.

I admit it.

It is a hard price to pay since most of the stops are not very enjoyable. Mostly because they are there.

No more now.

Also a lot of stuff that comes with making pics for the blog.

It is not unusual for an active computer lifer, he said.

It took two hours, me standing by and Adrian, the pro, asking questions.

I can say that it is running a lot faster now.

A lot of the slowness of the computer is from all the junk that got on here bootlegged to legitimate sites or downloads. You google something standard and it comes with an intermediate connection concocted by the spam guys.

I have wondered why people create spam. Is it malicious? Adrian says that a lot of it is to get you to see the unwanted site by this kind of masking.

So, I am making some resolutions.

Careful consideration before I start cruising the web again.

Part of it was that I have not had this done for quite awhile. He will come back in four or five months.

*rewritten

Labels: computer

So, I have a new setup on my desk for the computer.

I bought the Varidesk that I wrote about below. It is working pretty well. Like any new thing it is requiring a bit of adjustment.

I also got a new chair which uses a knew pad so I really kneel to do my work. Much better for my back.

So it will be a bit awkward for awhile but I am getting the feel of it pretty well.

One thing I like is that it brings the computer to eye level. About three inches above the eyes as recommended.

The other thing is that my nearsighted glasses don't quite make the stretch but the bifocals do. I may need a new prescription, well, it is not prescribed. A new set of nearsighted glasses at the store.

I won't make any rash moves.

I can feel it in the knees after about three hours but I do not have to kneel. I can move it around. I can stand up.

The varidesk, well, varies. It can go up and down. If I want to stand, it is easy enough to raise the computer up a bit.

Labels: computer, work

BIZZY WEEK

No movie today. I am going to an early supper for someone who is celebrating 20 years of sobriety. Unusual for me, but I like this young woman a lot and have learned a lot from her in Meetings and by being my grandsponsee for a period of time.

Tomorrow is calm. A movie day for sure.

Tuesday is the tough one. A no nap day, perhaps.

First thing a short meeting with a sponsee. Then, the Apple service guy is coming in the morning to transfer the new iMac from John to me. John is taking his old one back. The 18 incher. It turns out he is not impressed with the big new one with the newer operating system. When his machine poops out we will get it fixed and then, eventually, he can face the music of change. Or not. Deferral is always to our advantage in matters such as this. There will be more changes but, who knows, they might be better ones.

And I will have what I wanted in the first place. A 2011 iMac that still has the DVD player as the new one will not. And when will the new one be out anyway? Doesn't matter now.

After all this computer stuff, I have a haircut in the afternoon. Always a bit of stress there. Don't know why. Not my favorite thing.

Wednesday, we meet our new financial guy. Our long term manager from Smith Barney, now Morgan Stanley, moved on and we didn't move on with her.

The new guy is a bit like the guy we had long ago who you can hear wanting to sell an annuity program or a mutual fund. No dice.

It is too late. I have been with Smith Barney longer than he has. So long that it is still Smith Barney to me. I like my plan, a managed fund of 2/3 equities and 1/3 bonds and I am sticking with it. I am paying them well to manage it that way.

But, he means well and I will be kind.

We do need to meet him as he is John's link if anything happens to me. When something happens to me. And he should hear my "philosophy" from the horses mouth.

Face to face is better. We have already had a few small skirmishes. I do not want to alienate him but he is at our service, not the other way. Hard to let these guys know that I like the clang and clash of the market. To see that I own a piece of the Riverside California Water Authority. Things like that. I own about 200 stocks. Spread out in teeny pieces. P&G, Apple, the bigger ones. Some companies I don't even know what they do. But it works. This managed fund has stayed ahead of the market right along even in the crash.

Thursday, it gets quiet again. Perhaps a movie.

Meanwhile, the clang and the clash.

Who wouldn't want to be in the middle of the melee. In a second life, I am coming back as a commodities trader.

Labels: computer, films, finance, life

FOOTWORK

When I was a kid, my Dad went out before each election and knocked on doors.

We lived in a town of less than 2000 people and he knew who most of his supporters were. He knew the kids in school and who their parents were. He knew the people who would put a little money in the hat or go drum up some more votes or call their own neighbors.

He had a little machine going. Well, it was part of the local Democratic machine.

It was systematic.

When I ran for office, I mostly didn't know anyone. Plymouth, MA. In those days maybe 20,000 people. The elections that I ran for were non-partisan.

The first one, the school board, I was the sock puppet for the school administrators and existing school board. No one liked them. I became part of that gang. I lost.

The second time, I ran for Moderator of the Town Meeting and I had learned my lesson. I took non-partisan a step further and ran on my independence. I had been the Chair of the Finance Committee, the group that makes recommendations to the Town Meeting and I had a reputation.

While I often took the side of the establishment, I, or we, actually, frequently took the side of the "outs". Or the gad flies. Or the disenfranchised. Yes. There even those in a small town. Especially in a small town.

I had given equal fervor to all our positions which were most often fact based and thorough. Our job.

When I ran for Moderator all I had to do was have a few huge signs on the expressway saying MODERATOR ROSE.

I had already elected myself.

I also had a unique position. Every one of those signs were in the yards of the most notorious trouble makers in town meeting. People who were shit stirrers. And popular.

This was not lost on the general public.

I also had the support of the Selectmen, the shadow Democratic polls, the shadow Republican polls, the administrators or civil service in the Town and so on.

My opponent? Both times, a chairman of the Public Safety Commission with dirt on his hands. A bottom of the heap surgeon/doctor, a womanizer. A sleazy guy who was popular because he was also a shit stirrer but not as popular as mine. He was a friend of the police and firemen. Not that I was an enemy but they fell behind him. But that was good for me. Everyone has it in for the police. Not so much the fire.

Anyway, picture my fascination with this.

The Socially Networked Campaign

An app! I saw them. I got them in the mail.

The Obamas knew that I was in the sphere of the Cathedral City phone bank. I was available, if I wanted, to go to Las Vegas for a weekend or, for that matter, to Nevada for a month.

They knew how much money I had given so far and how much it would take to get to the max.

I did, incidentally.

They passed my name to the Raul Ruiz campaign which was the local Demo Congressman and has been elected. They had me targeted too.

If I ran for local office, of course, again non-partisan, it would still be like Plymouth. But the high tech stuff now available says to me that it is only a matter of time before everyone will have this level of stuff.

Of course, the main thing is to have supporters who are interested in doing anything. That is still the basic thing. People to knock on doors, drive car pools and the like. The army.

Romney's ORCA was supposed to do the same thing but failed in the middle of the election day. Buckled. There are a lot of reasons for that. One of them is that despite his rep, Romney is a shitty manager. In fact he is not a manager at all. Unskewed pollsters? Yes men? Too bad.

Here is another fun article on the tech campaigns and why Obama beat their ass.

When the Nerds Go Marching In

And finally, some door knocking basics from, I think, the other side of the pond. Same thing different place.

Labels: computer, elections, technology

WAITING

We have been waiting for a new shipment of iMacs to arrive at the local Apple store so that I can get a replacement for the one that blew a gasket.

I found out today that there won't be a replacement. We bought the last two and the store cannot get any more.

I will have to wait for the new model to arrive "soon", the rumor is December.

That is not great but it is better than hanging in suspense over the replacement.

A slim possibility exists that we could get one from another store or through a friend who is an officer at Apple.

But I am betting on the 2012 model.

In the meantime, I have been able to reproduce almost all my bookmarks on John's machine (in my own folder) and can use it on a regular basis.

It is mildly inconvenient but not a serious problem. The new iCloud connection that I now have allows me to work the live parts of the email and the calendar, all day long.

So it is better to know than not. For me. I am not a guy who likes doubt very much.

See? It is skinny. So I will have to go back to an outboard optical scanner (DVD).

Labels: computer, macintosh

ROUTINE

I am still without my own computer.

No one has called from the Apple Store to say that they have "my" new, old (2011) computer in stock.

I am beginning to believe that there may be none in stock and I will have to wait for the new 2012 iMac to appear in December.

But, he told me to call if I don't hear in a week. So, I am only on my third day. I am not a patient person.

I have pretty much gotten into a routine using John's computer and, as long as he doesn't mind, I can have pretty much the same experience.

The iCloud makes a big difference because I can see my calendar and my email as well as manage it. Very good.

Last night, as well as I could, I put all my bookmarks into a special ER file and can run down the list with ease.

The lack of my new machine has ceased being a problem for me. Disappointment, self pity and the like have gone away.

It helps that John is away this weekend on a speaking engagement in Sacramento. But even when he is here he has been more than accommodating for my computer lust.

Labels: computer

TROUBLE

My new iMac has had a burp.

I put it to sleep and it won't wake up.

I have talked through it with my consultant, run the possibilities on line and now will take it back to the store tonight.

You have to get an appointment. Mine is for 515.

I am not too happy about this but, at the same time, know that I am the one in a hundred who hits this kind of thing and so we will work through it.

In the meantime I can use Johns new machine and, so far, there isn't anything that I have thought of that I can't get out except my calendar but maybe people will call me when and if I do not show up.

Labels: computer, macintosh

MOSTLY DONE

We got the new iMacs up and running today.

The helper was very good.

It is pretty clear that we would not have been able to do this by ourselves.

He was a real pro, Mac Authorized and very well organized. A nice guy too.

There were a number of issues, none un resolved except for our new email address in i-Cloud. It is all ready to go. It just doesn't want to drop down.

We are all set on the old earthlink.net on the new machines so there is non problem.

Our guy is working through this.

We got a new Time Capsule which is a combination two channel router and a backup for the Time Machine. It is very fast. He tested our internet and we did very well on speeds.

We have both used our new machines and there is a learning curve but most of it has been worked through even before he left.

It is a very very big screen to navigate. It will be great for movies. I even tested that part.

A long day.

I had a new program guy to work with this morning and that had some startup anxiety but went very well.

I will sleep well tonight.

Labels: computer, macintosh

BACK IN BUSINESS

I guess you can tell that my new DVD player arrived and ran today's film flawlessly. Yay!!

Labels: computer, films

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

Well, that is a little dramatic. Only a short blackout.

For the last week or two my DVD drive in the computer has been turning down a much too high percentage of DVD's. This has actually been happening a long time. Maybe rejecting, continuously, 1 out of 20 discs. Sometimes it has been apparent that it had some reason to do this. A big scratch or a chafe mark on the disc.

But now, there is no way there can be damage and so I finally tested two rejects in John's computer and his machine swallowed each without a gulp.

Mine makes a small grinding noise.

So I have ordered an outboard DVD drive which will give my machine the equivalent of a transplant.

A Samsung USB 2.0 External Optical Drive SE-S084D/TSBS (Gloss Black)

It powers off the machine. Wow. I have three USB ports available plus one in a hub. All checks out.

It will arrive later in the week. I couldn't bring myself to pay the extra one or two day delivery. I will get by. In the meantime, a viewing vacation.

Labels: computer, films

WOZ ON STEVE

Labels: computer, heroes, macintosh

END OF AN ERA

I think that this is a little overblown but probably true.

The PC (As We Know It) Is Dead

It seems that PC sales have dropped 1 %. That is the overblown part. Jesus. One

The tablets are going to take over.

I suppose that this is inevitable but I am not getting rid of my iMac anytime soon.

I regard the tablet as a poor form of personal computer. It is hard to see (sorry guys, it is), it has a fake keyboard and any number of physical limitations.

Yeh. I held on to the manual typewriter too. Not.

It is just fucking annoying. I suppose that I could operate just as easily on a tablet but I don't want to HOLD it.

I would have to have it flat.

This seems all wrong.

Anyway, I think this will happen after I am dead. One more item on a long list of things that I am happy I won't have to deal with.

On the other hand, if I Iive to 90, that is 15 more years so I suppose I might have to do some of them. Not today.

Labels: computer

ALL THUMBS

It isn't just Twitter and Facebook and all those other fake commx sites.

It is the hardware itself that is doing us in.

I have a few friends who used to email big expansive letters about their lives and their interests and things that were happening.

No more.

Now I get little dribs and drabs and cut-to-the-chase summaries that are very unsatisfying. The death of relationships as we know them.

Well, as we know them recently. Email and the like managed to fuckup a lot of face to face and voice to voice time.

The hardware. All that thumb work. The Blackberry, the iPad.

If I had to type with my thumbs I would edit it way down too. Imagine. Everything with two nubs. What happened to the keyboard?

I know it is still alive and well on the big "readers". IPad and such.

Then there is just the weight of texting. The lightness of being.

Unbearable.

Even spelling is sacrificed.

So, all friendships are perishable and have a due date expiration.

But the thumbs are accelerating the half life.

The wreckage of America.

Labels: computer, life

KA-CHING!!

I mostly find David Pogue, the too cool tech man at the NYTimes, really annoying but today, he hits something right on the head.

The Fading Sounds of Analog Technology

Digital is silent.

Pogue lists a number of sounds we will never hear again. The cash register is one. Actually, I have lived with three kinds of registers. The "kachung or kaching" kind and the kind with a motorized/manual setup. Hit the keys and the motor runs the tape out. Or use a crank if there isn't any power.

Now the digital.

He doesn't mention some other sounds that are gone. The sound of a watch ticking (still used on 60 Minutes) or the sound of someone picking up the receiver on another line while you are talking on yours. Impossible to mask. I tried when I used to listen in on my cousin Charles' party line. Those were already fading then. 1948?

My husband has a ring tone on his phone that sounds like the old dial telephone. I mean the big ones before the "princess" type. A real bell.

My ring tone is the classic doorbell sound. Ding-Dong.

We still have one of those, an analog doorbell. But it buzzes. Still. It is analog. Not likely we will ever have a digital doorbell but you can get them in the wireless things (that don't really work all that well) you glue to your gate.

Nostalgia. It is good for what ails us.

Some day there will be systems that are different than digital. Nano? Maybe they will make a noise but don't bet on it.

Labels: computer, nostalgia

BUY THEM OUT

I thought this was pretty good.

Apple Buys Up Touchscreens, Limiting Supply for Rivals

They say 60% and climbing. That is quite a lot.

No one ever thinks about the manufacturing or the hard side of these businesses any more. But is as much about the ability to deliver as anything else. If you can't supply the innovation you don't have one.

The great fear in our business, management training, was that we would not have the capacity or the distribution to serve the clientele. There is no coming back from telling someone they cannot have you now.

Undoubtedly, there was some value in delay. The caché of being popular and just enough hard-to-get a-date-with. It was a stimulant and excitement to have us. But you can't go too far with that.

It is a limited spark and incentive to continued sales. After the first one, you become a commodity to the customer, the luster is gone. They move the business to the buying department. Now they want you to deliver and on time too.

This screen thing has to be killing the competition.

Just think. You have a cell phone or handheld of some kind and you can't get the screen or can't get enough of them when you need them. Things are so fast paced to day that your 15 minutes of fame can be gone in a minute.

Labels: computer, technology

MACMANIA

Labels: computer, macintosh

OUT AGAIN

The internet vendor crashed again today. Time Fucking Warner. This is three times in as many or less weeks.

It took three hours to get service back.

I am trying to decide whether to take an hour or two to catch up and scratch the gym tomorrow or not.

It is 7:39. I guess I am scratching the gym. I will catch hell from my friends. I never miss. But once, right? To catch up on all the news and shit? I don't know.

I have about half an hour to decide.

Labels: blogging, computer, internet

THE WRECKAGE OF AMERICA

I can't tell you how pathetic I think that this all is.

Ten Favorite iPhone Apps

Don't take this personally if you have as many "apps" or are as coy and insufferable as David Pogue. You can't help it. You have been seduced and reduced to bits.

I really do think that this is the funeral pyre of American, hence World, culture. I mean it!

What a harvest of time wasters. Fake calls. As if the real ones aren't bad enough.

I know. I carry on about this on a fairly regular basis but no one is listening. Probably because they are all blowing into their microphone and playing "an instrument" on four holes.

Get your fucking kid a real instrument. Get them out in the park to play. Rip the phone out of their hands and put it on the shelf for a few days.

I have given up on the adults.

Think of the waste of engineering and scientific talent on this kind of shit. How about if it were applied to some of the world's real problems.

OK. I give up. For this time.

Labels: computer, cults, culture, engineering, environment

LUDDITE

I just read this.

Top 10 Must-Have Apps for the iPhone, and Some Runners-Up

First, let me say that I do not have an iPhone.

It is the first Apple product that I have resisted. Well, no. I rejected the iPod too.

Notice, I said resisted the iPhone. Not yet rejected.

The ATT thing is a problem for me but that will soon be changed. Verizon rules here. Mountains and all. Soon they will be on the iPhone. I will have my major impediment removed.

Now come the Apps. The fucking Apps. How I hate that word. Why Apps. Can't we say "applications". What is with that. Phony hipness I think.

Anyway, I saw this article and thought that it would be a way to sell myself on the wonderfulness of the iPhone. Apps.

There is not one of these that I would be interested in except possibly the stars.

Maybe the Google where you say something and it shows you, oh forget it.

Everything, everything is too much trouble and complicates life.

The biggest problem is two work spaces. Doing shit on the iPhone and then getting it onto my computer.

It is extra work.

And so on.

This all seems like busy work to me. Doodling.

I feel myself cooling, cooler, cooled. No heat in the iPhone.

And don't even mention texting. I will never do it. Why? When you can simply call.

Well, I know the thing about how your kids won't answer the phone because their friends are around them. The shame of parents.

But my kids don't have any friends. Just kidding, kids.

Labels: computer

WHO GOES THERE?

I suppose that it is a little dangerous to talk about one's own password policy but this article hits the nail on the same head that I have been hitting for quite a while. Years. Decades, almost.

A Strong Password Isn’t the Strongest Security

I still have the same password that I started with. There are the variations of course. Some sites want 8 characters, my standard only has six.

One that I use wants one cap letter and to have letters precede numbers. Dumb. I mean, now we all know that part, eh?

The main thing that has puzzled me, and this article addresses it, is why the major commercial sites have always been happy with the security of my password and have never asked for more. And, as far as I know there are no breaches. I have never, ever had a problem.

I have had a problem the other way. Sudden interruptions of service for re-registration or, as Blogger did the other day, suddenly ask me to put the password in and it was an eight character one and I had to go look it up.

Another security breach, around here. All my passwords are written out on a bunch of slips of paper taped to my desk cabinet. And all the codes are in the computer in the email section marked "codes".

My bank only asks for the standard. If it is good enough for Wells Fargo it is good enough for me.

I know that there are viruses who can plant seeing eyes on my machine. Well, not mine. I have a Mac. Notice when this shit happens, it is always a PC.

I used to have an extra security measure but the Mac software, which is updated, automatically, regularly, has sufficient security. I have never had a virus except back in the very old days. It came in through a disk. It was a worm. It ate my copy as I sat there and watched it happen.

Amazing to see.

But, it never happened again. Ever.

Has anyone peeked into my accounts? I figure that it is happening all the time to see what I am buying, watching, and sexualizing to.

That is the larger issue. Big Brother.

But what is "he" going to do? Place more and different Google ads on the sites I search or visit? Big deal.

I do worry immeasurably about security breaches outside the net. I don't give anyone my SSN or any other detail that some person might see in a file or record. I figure that is a far greater threat.

I don't know.

We live in an age where someone is probably looking over my shoulder. Just as we do not have shades or blinds on the house, I don't care who peeks in.

Maybe this comes from having lived in a city. Maybe it is just having a blameless life. Or, more likely, maybe it just means that I have better things to worry about.

Labels: computer