So sad to hear about the passing of Whitney Houston this evening. She was an incredible vocalist with an amazing talent. It’s such a shame that she fell off her path and didn’t find her way back on it.
She will be missed. RIP Whitney.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
A while back I talked about a new iPhone app called Path. It’s actually version 2 of Path, called, appropriately, Path 2, (wow that’s a lot of commas; I apologize to anyone that’s allergic) and it is a pretty nifty app in that it creates something like a hybrid twitter or Facebook stream/Foursquare check-in notification/Instagram photo sharing space for your closest friends. The idea behind Path2 is that you only connect with your closest friends and family so you can be a little more intimate with the details of your life. After all, there are some things in life that you shouldn’t share on Twitter. For example, I’ve seen people share the time, place and method of their latest sexual escapade on an unlocked Twitter stream and to me that’s just freaky. I know that I live my life pretty openly on the Internet but there is no way that I would ever proclaim to a random group of millions of people the specifics of how, when or where I just had sex. There a couple of reasons that might lead to that sort of proclamation, for example, if you want to share the boundaries of your creativity or if you want to advertise your abilities so you can get a higher rate.
I think I digressed.
Anyway, Path2’s design through it’s gorgeous app was to urge you to be a little more personable with a select group of people with your internet life. I used it and liked it for that reason; I only followed a half dozen or so people on there and it was kind of nifty. If I want to go for the full-on broadcast of details, I could by just telling the app to push my details to Twitter or whatever.
Now, the Path2 app and service is free. This always leads me to taking pause, because you can hardly ever get something for nothing so there has to be some sort of catch. Well, I haven’t figured out the mechanics to figure out how the folks at Path2 were making money. Actually, I didn’t invest enough time to figure out how, but when there’s little to no money involved there’s usually data-mining so that it can be sold to an advertiser. It’s kind of like my feelings about Google; as a Google user you’re not the customer, you are the product and the applications are the factory that build the product base. I figure I was just another Path2 product.
Now here’s where it gets wonky and it makes me angry. I read on Daring Fireball this morning that Path2 has been uploading the ENTIRE ADDRESSBOOK on your Android or iPhone to it’s servers, WITHOUT your consent. That’s right, data that can be linked back to you is being stored on Path2’s servers and nowhere did you agree to that sort of thing.
That’s bad.
Now, I know that Google and Facebook and a ton of other services and applications do the same thing, but they let you know that in the very, very small print of their Terms of Service. I completely abide by the “don’t put it on the network if you wouldn’t want it on the front page of the New York Times” rule I learned back in 1988 when I worked for DEC. When I put my address book on iCloud, I know that I am doing it and I know where my address book is being stored and I know the possible ramifications from doing so.
It is not cool when a company does it without my permission. Not only does that damage the reputation of the company in eyes, but it damages trust in Cloud computing in general. And that’s not good. Because we wouldn’t be able to do the millions of nifty things we do with our smartwhatevers if we didn’t have the power of cloud computing behind them.
Path2 was deleted off of my iDevices this morning at approximately 5:40 a.m. They’ve lost my trust. And getting back my trust would be damned near impossible unless they completely opened up the source code for their app so that the world can see what they’re doing.
In a world where honor and integrity seem to be less important, it’s unfortunate when elements of today’s technological niceties seem to reinforce that fact.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Nothing demonstrates the progress of modern technology like the appliances found in today’s modern home. Where once sat a stainless steel dishwasher capable of removing even the deepest of grime from your grandmother’s china, now sits a molded piece of plastic that gently caresses the small, bite-sized piece of spaghetti that has survived not one, not two but three trips through the dishwasher. To improve the quality of the cleaning cycle, one must upgraded the firmware and then reboot the dishwasher, a task once reserved for the machines that launched nuclear missiles towards our enemies.
Ah, progress.
My mother and father had the same washing machine for nearly 20 years. Made by Westinghouse, this washing machine ran as many as six loads in one day and, aside from the Great Flooding Incident of 1976, ran flawlessly up until it finally gave out and spit grease all over a load of clothes. It’s successor was made by General Electric and served for in it’s place for over a decade.
We are on our second washing machine in our home. The first piece of plastic lasted seven years, but should have been replaced two years ago when the bearings in the spinning mechanism went out. I looked into getting the bearings replaced but the fine folks at Fridgidaire advised me that the project would be costly and in the long run it would be cheaper to just replace the washing machine. I decided to just wait until the dang thing spit grease; when the washer was on spin you could hear it clear out to the road on a hot, summer day. I’m sure the neighbors were amused.
Our current washing machine, a General Electric, stands tall with the dryer on it’s shoulders in the laundry room. The length of a cycle can vary from 30 minutes (on speed wash) to two hours and 45 minutes on the “anti-bacterial cycle”, unless the load becomes unbalanced before the final spin. Then the washer will tumble and churn and think about spinning until it feels everything is just right. The current record for determining the precise environment required for a spin cycle is nearly four hours. It counts down to 7 minutes, then up to 9 minutes then down to 7 minutes then up to 10 minutes. When one notices this is happening, you must press “pause”, wait for permission to open the door, rearrange things and add or subtract an item from the drum to make it happy, stick your head in the damp environment to look around and see that all parts of the drum are covered evenly with soggy underwear, slam the door shut and then press “pause” again. The door will lock, unlock, lock, unlock, lock, unlock and then finally lock again. Water will spurt for just a moment until the washer gets it’s wits about itself and realizes it should be emptying and not filling the tub, then it’ll juggle the hard work you did making sure the underwear is in the right place before starting the whole add and subtract minutes from the time as it’s trying to spin trick.
The old washing machines would just make a banging noise and you’d reach in and get everything in the right place and then send it off on it’s merry way again.
This is progress?
Perhaps our washer needs a firmware upgrade and reboot.
I am going to preface this blog entry by stating that I think talking on your cell phone is not the smartest thing to do while you’re driving and that sending a text message (or doing updates, etc) while driving is just downright stupid.
The NTSB announced yesterday that nearly a year after a multi-car pileup in Missouri as the result of a 19-year old sending 11 text messages in the 11 minutes prior to the crash, they are recommending that all states immediately institute laws banning the use of electronic devices by drivers of motor vehicles. Electronic devices would include everything except GPS units or the use of a cell phone in an emergency.
Here is a prime example of what is wrong with our government. I think the NTSB’s recommendation is a bunch of grandstanding hysterics. The NTSB is going down the path of trying to legislate common sense. It’s never a good path to take.
Let’s consider this:
1. Entering an address into a GPS unit is no different than sending a text message, yet one is perfectly fine and the other would be against the law. In fact, entering an address into a GPS unit is usually more difficult to accomplish than sending a text message.
2. GPS units are usually mounted to the windshield. This is unfortunate, because they often obstruct the view of the motorist, creating an unnecessary blind spot. Yet, this is okay.
3. Some folks (including me) use the GPS functionality of their iPhone for navigation purposes. I am not about to go purchase another electronic device to keep in my car when I don’t have to, yet using the iPhone would be illegal because it’s not a dedicated GPS unit.
Let’s go into this a little bit further:
1. A man can no longer shave with an electric razor because it could probably be considered an electronic device, yet a woman could still put on makeup while driving because that’s manual all the way. I’ve mentioned my dislike of men using electric razors before so you know that I’m not defending either activity in this case. Another broad piece of recommended legislation that doesn’t make any sense.
2. Wanda Wigout can still get a hot cup of coffee from McDonalds, ignore the warnings printed all over the cup and proceed to dump the hot contents of the cup all over her va-jay-jay as she tries to balance said cup of coffee on her knee. Since the coffee cup is not electronic, there’s nothing wrong with that, other than a burned va-jay-jay. And quite frankly I don’t care about her va-jay-jay, but I bet she would be distracted and could easily smack into another vehicle while screaming about the pain she is feeling in her nether regions.
3. The recommendation includes the banning of MP3 and CD players but allows the use of radios, which is a hoot to me because apparently you have to listen to one station at one volume because adjusting anything would be against the law. You are not to be distracted by changing the track or anything like that.
3a. Does that mean that we will get a payment from the government to have the CD and/or MP3 player removed from the dash of our car? What do I do when SiriusXM flashes the artist and title of the song I would like to dance to but dare not do, do I ignore it? Do I risk hitting the nob to blank the display? Do I shake both hands in the air and silently say “help me, help me?”
4. As a roadgeek I can apparently still take photos and movies of road signs and highways as long as I am using a film based camera, but I can’t do it if it’s a digital device.
5. If I were a smoker, I could still smoke and drive with one hand and not be in trouble in anyway for doing so.
6. We’ve already covered Ms. Wigout’s va-jay-jay, but consider that eating a Whopper and smacking kids in the back seat of the car would still be okay, because no one is electronic unless I adopted a robot.
7. It is apparently perfectly fine to drive by looking around the flailing ass of a random Irish Setter.
8. What happens to On*Star? Do I risk pushing the button built into my review mirror or do I drive the car into a guide rail to get their attention?
35 states already have legislation banning both hands on cell phone conversational and text messaging use by a driver. These laws are ignored by a good majority of the driving public and attempts to enforce these laws are feeble at best. Why does the NTSB think that making a national legislative recommendation such as this going to get any sort of special consideration?
Look it, as I’ve said before, I think that when you’re behind the wheel you should be concentrating on your driving and doing little else. I’m not afraid to risk scratching my nuts once in a while and quite frankly I can handle having brief conversations while using my headset. In fact, if you’ve talked to me on the phone while I’m driving recently, you’ll note that I precede the conversation with “I’m talking on my headset!” I am so tired of our government trying to legislate anything and everything down to the lowest common denominator of intelligence. And quite frankly, this is none of the federal government’s business, it is a matter that belongs to the states. If I don’t like the laws in one state, I always have the option to move.
The NTSB will probably get their way by conning someone to withhold federal highway funds unless a state complies, just like they did when some states didn’t feel the need to raise the drinking age to 21 in the mid 1980s (which, by the way, has done little to reduce alcohol-based road fatalities yet ended up with an increase in under-age drinking).
Our government is too big, too intrusive and apparently has too much time on their hands. Education, not legislation, is the key to solving the problem of distracted driving. I would much rather see a significant increase in the standards of obtaining a driver’s license (and the need to retest in specified intervals to maintain your license) before just adopting more repetitive, unenforceable legislation.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I just finished making a purchase at Lowe’s. While there, I bought a reusable Lowe’s bag so that I could carry the items I had purchase home and help the environment by using one less plastic bag, now and in the future.
The cashier kindly folded up the reusable bag and put it in a plastic bag to bring home. She seemed shocked when I suggested otherwise.
Oy.
Earl and I decided that as a married couple we were going to take advantage of the medical benefits offered by his company. His health care plan is better and as we get on in age, that’s always a good thing. Once we confirmed that I was on his health care plan, I would cancel the policy I currently have at my job.
Earl went to add me to his health care plan at work this morning when he was presented with a lovely message on the web-based portal form.
I’m sorry, your married spouse must be of the opposite sex.
The general manager of three of the most profitable facilities in the entire corporation is not allowed to sign his spouse up for medical benefits on the company plan simply because he is married to a man. It seems Earl’s company will not recognize same-sex marriages (which of course, are completely legal in New York State) until the Federal Government recognizes same sex unions under the federal tax code.
Well, now there’s something to think about as you make your selections at the elections coming up over the next couple of years.
The extremist in me wants both despises the facts that we work for large corporations. I don’t enjoy the politics of working at a corporation and I certainly don’t like the “one size fits all” mentality that is handed out on a whim. The realist in me realizes that we have a really good life because we work for large corporations.
But is not being recognized equally really a good life?
Ultimately, it’s up to Earl and me to be more vocal about how we feel on these issues and to educate people. Earl has made a difference in his HR department by getting them to admit that there are gay men and lesbians working for them in the first place. I have been vocal with mine.
It looks like that Earl and I will be on my company’s insurance plan instead. It’s a decent plan but not as robust as what we would have had on Earl’s plan. All because someone, somewhere decided that love is only valid between a man and a woman.
Equality. Ain’t it grand in America.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Right on schedule last night, since it was Sunday night and all, I had a wonderful case of insomnia around 2:30 a.m. Sunday nights have always been rough for me. I don’t know if it’s the pressures of returning to work or what the deal is, but I couldn’t get my head to slow down soon enough so that I could fall back asleep. I was still looking at the clock at 4:15.
There are few things more frustrating than staring at the ceiling, knowing that you need to fall asleep but you can’t and then getting more panicked about sleepwalking through the workday when you know you’re not going to have enough sleep under your belt. I tried counting sheep but that didn’t work. I tried the trick of walking through my old elementary school and remembering the teacher that occupied the room, the color of the room and the like, but that didn’t work. I counted backwards from 100 in French. And in English. I tried saying “Om” to myself. None of it worked, but then I guess I fell asleep around 4:35 or so, just in time for the alarm to go off at 5:30.
One of the things that bothers me about insomnia is that I usually get a song stuck in my head and it plays really loud and I can’t turn it down. One time it was “The Lord’s Prayer” by Sister Janet Mead and I couldn’t get it to stop until I looked the dang thing up on the internet and listened to the entire thing. It’s kind of catchy when you’re exhausted. Last night it was “Silly Love Songs” by Paul McCartney and Wings, but then just before I fell asleep I found myself trying to find a way to mix Jenn Cuneta’s “Come Rain, Come Shine” into “Silly Love Songs” (because Jenn’s song samples the older track) and then apparently this is what made me fall asleep.
I think another contributing factor to the bout of insomnia is the brightness of my alarm clock. A couple of years ago I bought a beautiful HD radio alarm clock, complete with iPod dock, surround sound and all sorts of goodies. Aside from the fact that we don’t have many HD radio stations in the area, it’s a sweet sounding setup, even though I had to install modern rabbit ears to get it to work properly. The problem with this little technological wonder is that it uses a backlit LCD display and even on it’s very lowest setting, the damn thing lights up the room like Times Square. When modern digital clocks started rolling around in the 1970s they used the dim, red LED displays and it was good – they barely lit up the room but you could still see the numbers without an issue. I think the backlit LCDs are cheaper and that’s why they are in use today. I usually put a picture of the husbear in front of the alarm clock, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a clock on your nightstand since I could easily rely on my phone to do the waking duties in the morning. Perhaps that’s what I’m going to do: sell the high tech alarm clock and just use my phone. I always squint at Earl’s clock on the other nightstand anyway because it uses the aforementioned red LED display.
Anyone want to buy an HD radio? You’ll be helping cure insomnia and I will have one less thing to bitch about here on this bloggy thing.
Here we are bordering on 3/4 of the way through October which can only mean one thing. It’s just a little over two months until Christmas. How do I know this? The natural way of course, by the ample display of Christmas trees, wreaths and hearty ho-ho-hos coming from the various big box stores that have been puked up all over this otherwise beautiful part of the state.
I think I might sound a little bit bitter.
Recently there was a photograph of a sign that was hanging at a Nordstroms Department Store. I’m too lazy to find the sign, but the gist of the sign was that Nordstroms would be ‘decking the halls’ for the holiday season on Friday, November 27, after Thanksgiving. They believe that we should celebrate each holiday for what it is instead of cashing in on the holiday ‘frivolity’ early.
If we had a Nordstroms nearby, I’d kiss the nearest cashier, male or female doesn’t matter and give them a hearty “thank you”. Since I don’t know where the nearest Nordstroms is, I’m going to instead browse their online shopping site and see what I can do about buying my holiday gifts from them.
The irony of my desire to hold off decking the halls until a more appropriate time is that I’m actually in the mood to do a little bit of holiday shopping. I know that every year I crow about how much Earl and I enjoy going to a distant mall in a faraway land and getting all the shopping done in one swoop, but the reality is that I would be much happier if I could point and click my way to a few token trinkets to let me loved one knows how much I care. I’m not really in the mood to make someone breathless with the scope, weight and hefty dent in the bank account from picking out some crazy gift, rather, I’m trying to find things that actually mean something and this might take a little bit of practice.
I really should be thinking about the upcoming Halloween holiday and how I might have the opportunity to eat my weight in Peppermint Patties or something.
I love this time of year, especially as the autumn chill grows a little more pronounced, the winds sing a little louder as they blow through the leaves that are heading to the ground and the air feels a bit more crisp with each passing night. It’s that magic that I want to box up and put a new bow on so I can share it with my family and friends as a holiday gift. I sometimes fear that a gift will be opened and there’ll be a wide-eyed look of excitement replaced by a look of inquisitiveness and the comment, “Oh look… wind!”, as they start fiddling with the bow.
So I am avoiding the retail establishments that are urging us to deck the halls early and start thinking about slinging holiday lights all over the house. I want to savor this season, these holidays, right now and figure out how to share my love for them in a gift later down the road.
Call me when Nordstroms puts up their decorations. Until then, enjoy the moment.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Am I the only one appalled that there were “boos” at the Republican debates last night when a soldier, who happens to be gay, asked a question via YouTube? Really? People that scream about being patriotic and the constitution and all of that were booing a soldier simply because he’s gay?
Wow.
I’m sorry, but the way I see it, you can’t get more patriotic than to put your life on the line defending your country and it’s constitution. I don’t care if he or she is white, black, pink, purple or beige. I don’t care if they sleep with women or men or get their pleasures riding a washing machine. They’re doing their patriotic duty and anyone that boos them for upholding the honor of being a soldier is a shithead.
I am starting to become embarrassed by my fellow citizens. Worse yet, I can’t even identify with half of them anymore.
I am sitting in the Jeep at lunchtime, like I do most everyday. The one thing that I don’t do everyday while sitting in my Jeep a lunchtime is shed a few tears. But that is what I am doing right now.
Jamey Rodemeyer was a 14-year old teen living in Buffalo. As a gay teen, Jamey was bullied for his sexual orientation. He was called the usual onslaught of names and received the horrific threats and the like from the ignorant. So much ignorance in the “greatest country on the planet”. As much as we claim things are progressing in these fine United States of America, we have barely taken only one small step forward. I truly believe that historians will call these times the second Dark Ages. Ignorance is at an all time high.
Earlier this year, Jamey shared an “It Gets Better” video on YouTube. Like many of his generation, he maintained a blog. And on Sunday, his last blog entry was a mention that he was looking forward to seeing his grandmother that passed on. He then committed suicide.
Holy. Fucking. Shit. The thought that a young man, hell, a _child_ killed himself, ended his life, because of the bullying he got as a result of his sexual orientation is mind boggling to me. The taunts and threats and name calling because he is different got to him. What has our society become? So the folks that wrote these comments on his blog …
JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!
And
I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it 🙂 It would make everyone WAY more happier!
… I hope they feel better now that they got their wish. Because your words ended a life and destroyed a family. I hope his family is strong.
When I see people going out of their way to prevent gay marriage, saying that it’s wrong or people picking on another simply because they’re different, I wonder if these folks realise what impact they are having on their targeted individual. We may smile on the outside or shrug it off as the “usual banter” but it can go much deeper than that. Folks start believing what they’re told. A young person that is still formulating who and what he is could very well take these comments as guidance. So while Michelle Bachmann makes jokes on Leno about thinking that the gay “rehabilitative” program that she’s concocted with her husband was to target those that were GRAY (Google the video and you’ll see very few people chuckled at the chestnut of humor), innocent gay youth see these things and determine that they are defective in some way and would be better off dead. They begin to buy into the hype and decide to do something drastic.
I could do “It Gets Better” videos all day long but if the right person doesn’t see it, it’s one person that could make a drastic, fatal decision. (Don’t get me wrong, the “It Gets Better” campaign is brilliant and very much worthwhile and very important, but we need to make it LOUDER.)
Jamey’s mom works for one of Earl’s customers in Buffalo. Our paths will probably never cross hers, but if it did I would give her a big hug. And I would tell her that I’m sorry, I’m sorry that the world is the way it is.
He was only 14 years old. And now he’s dead. Simply because he was different. Rest in peace, Jamey.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!