It Just Works, Part 2.

The saga of the HomePod mini took an interesting turn yesterday. Even though the “Deliver-It” service said they had not received the product from Apple and that only the label had been printed, it was delivered by a person out of the trunk of a Toyota Celica. OK, fair enough. Several hours later I heard from Apple through iMessages, “enjoy your new HomePod mini!”

I looked at the order online and UPS planned on delivering the replacement HomePod mini today. And sure enough, it arrived via UPS this afternoon. Now I have two HomePod minis for the price of one. My credit card wasn’t charged again. This put me in a quandary. Do I return it to the store or arrange for a shipment back to headquarters? I actually wouldn’t mind having a second HomePod mini. I could probably just hang onto it and they’d never be the wiser.

My personal moral compass wouldn’t allow me to do that. I’ve seen too many people screw local businesses in a similar manner of the years and just because Apple is one of the largest corporations in the world doesn’t mean they should receive the same treatment. So I contacted them through the order portal. As suspected I could drop it off at the Apple Store here in Tucson or initiate a return through the online portal. I asked about buying it and the friendly bot on iMessages advised I could call Apple support and discuss it with them.

So I did. After explaining the situation the friendly Apple person on the line looked at the order and said, “Just keep it, you’re all set”.

So now I have two new HomePod minis. This is a welcomed addition to our home, as we’ve been fighting with Alexa a LOT over the past several months.

While I’m talking about Alexa, who thought it was a good idea to have her shoot an ad after every single request?

“Alexa, turn off the ceiling lights”. “Lights off, did you know I can organize your to do list?”

“Alexa, what’s the weather tonight.”. “Here’s the weather…. did you know I can read you a bedtime story?”

One of the reasons I stick with Apple products and pay the premium prices is to avoid ads. I don’t want ads. Ever.

Luckily, these new HomePod minis don’t belch ads at us every five minutes.

21 January 2022 by Apple. 1

Absolutely Anything.

I fell down a YouTube hole, looking at old clips from radio stations and stumbled across a brief video from June 1993 at WRCK Utica-Rome, New York. Of course, this is where I started my decade long radio career as a weekend DJ and then I filled in for folks during the week. I had started interning in late 1992 with nighttime DJ B.B. Good.

Here’s the video; I’m the one wearing the baseball hat in the first few seconds of the video. B.B. is. running the board and we are coming out of the :20 stop set (commercial break), I recognize the placement of the jingle. The jingle is part of a package from JAM Productions, if I remember correctly it’s called Z World, and was originally produced for Z-100 in New York. When a jingle package is produced for a big radio station like Z-100, it’s essentially syndicated and available for other similarly formatted stations, just with re-sings over the original instrumentals. When I first became Program Director at WOWB/WOWZ we purchased a few Z World jingles before moving to a company out of Seattle called Reelworld Productions.

Anyways, here’s the video from 1993. It’s amazing what one can find on the Internet.

20 January 2022 by Fun and Games Dept 0

It Just Works.

I probably complain about my recent Apple experiences too much. I have a higher expectation of an excellent retail experience when it comes to dealing with Apple; this is the primary reason we pay the premium for Apple products for our technology needs.

I ordered a HomePod mini last weekend. Apple sent it out right on time with a promise of a delivery date of yesterday. Unfortunately, in this part of the country they use this shipping service called “Deliver-It” which is really wonky. The tracking website looks like it was created using Microsoft FrontPage in 1999. The website is never updated with tracking information like FedEx or UPS; the listing usually shows “Label Created” until the order is delivered, if it’s ever delivered.

For the holidays I ordered new AirPods for my husband. They never arrived via Deliver-It. I ended up contacting Apple and explaining the situation to them and they ended up shipping another set of AirPods via UPS Overnight. I don’t know what happened to the original shipment as Deliver-It never updated their page.

So the HomePod mini didn’t arrive as scheduled yesterday. There was no update to the website (I expected this) and no one at Deliver-It answered the phone. I contacted Apple this morning and they sent out another HomePod mini via UPS Express. It’s expected on Friday. I mentioned Deliver-It being a constant failure and they agreed. “We get a lot of complaints about this service”. I wonder why they’re still using it.

The Apple ordering system is weird. They added another HomePod mini to the existing order for $0.00. I then received an email telling me my order was on hold because they couldn’t authorize my payment of $0.00 against my credit card. I called again and was told to ignore the email and the HomePod mini would arrive as promised.

Let’s see what happens.

19 January 2022 by Apple. 0

HAWK.

As an almost Traffic Engineer and full blown road geek, I’m a fan of videos by Road Guy Rob. This week Rob talks about HAWK signals. These are yellow/red signals at pedestrian crosswalks that are activated almost immediately when a pedestrian pushes the button. It flashes yellow as a warning to motorists, then solid yellow, then solid red. After a few seconds it switches to flashing red, so if the pedestrian is no longer on your side of the road, a motorist can continue through the flashing red, which is treated like a stop sign.

I’ve been a fan of HAWK installations since I first read about them a number of years ago. They’re pretty neat and they really help keep pedestrians safe. What I didn’t know is they were invented right here in Tucson.

Road Guy Rob explains it quite well.

18 January 2022 by Geek 1

100.

Betty White would have turned 100 today. We won this book in a hospital charity auction back in 1999. I read it back then and it just occurred to me that I need to read it again. We also made a donation to Pima Animal Care Center here in Tucson in Betty’s memory.

We need more people like Betty White in the world.

17 January 2022 by Spiritual Stuff. 0

Snow.

We had to drive Chris and Mike to Sky Harbor (airport in Phoenix) for their flight to the Midwest so my husband and I decided to make a day trip of it. After the stop at Terminal 3 we headed north out of Phoenix and meandered our way up to Prescott.

Prescott is home to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I know a few pilots that have gone to Embry-Riddle in both Prescott and down in Florida, and I wanted to see what the campus was like. We’d never been to Prescott before but it’s a seemingly nice city situated in the typical scenic surroudings of that part of Arizona. The campus of Embry-Riddle is very nice. It feels quite new. We then made our way over to Prescott Municipal Airport where there’s a bunch of Embry-Riddle airplanes as well as the typical things you’d find at a municipal airport. Everything felt quite new. There was the unmistakable sound of a Cessna 172 doing engine out landing practice. We watched the pilot do a very good landing.

On our way home we made our way up to Camp Verde and then down through the Coconino and Tonto National Forests. We stopped to see some snow in memory of our winters in the Midwest and back East.

16 January 2022 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Caturday.

We have a couple of storage closets accessible only from the roof. Truman supervised while we put the outside holiday directions away.

15 January 2022 by He's A Feline. 0

Vintage.

A business owner in Ohio stopped by my Vintage Point of Sale website and about gave me a heart attack with a photo he shared. He has kept every cash register he’s ever had at his store of many decades, and in the 1980s he ran his business on an electronic cash register made by Data Terminal Systems. The model in question was a Series 500 cash register.

This is no big deal to the vast majority of people walking amongst us these days but as a true blue geek I was excited to see some of this vintage technology enduring so many decades later. Alas, it is too far away to get my hands on it, but it helps me continue the belief that other businesses here in the desert southwest may have vintage technology in their storage areas.

I’ve placed an ad on craigslist in the business equipment “wanted” section to see if I jar any memories. Wish me luck.

14 January 2022 by Geek 0

Co-Pilot.

I’ve literally been having dreams about flying. I’ve always dreamed about flying, both in an airplane and just flying around like Captain Marvel, but lately I’ve been having flying related dreams. It’s probably because I’m working on my instrument rating with instructor Prabesh. Learning the intricacies of flying in the clouds can make an impression on the subconscious.

A few of my pilot dreams have involved my Dad. The other night I dreamed that I was my age and Dad was alive and his age and we were at the airport not too far from his house. There was a Cessna 150 and I said to Dad, do you want to go flying? You can ride right seat. And I remember smiling big at him.

I don’t believe in regrets; life is lived on purpose and we choose our path and we follow it. No regrets when looking at the past. However, I do wish I had earned my pilots certificate when Dad was still alive. That was always my plan. It was always something I wanted to do, but I wasn’t in the right place in my life (nor did we have the funds) to get it accomplished. I’m happy that I did. I do wish I had flown with Dad in the right seat at least once, though. That would have been very nice.

13 January 2022 by Pilot. 0

Have A Javelinas.

We have a family of Javelinas that enjoy our neighborhood. They move from one part of the neighborhood to another on a regular basis. Occasionally they stop by the rub their bodies on a cactus on our property or they check out the patio.

I usually just give them their space and let them do what they want to do. They’re not hurting anything and frankly they were here first.

We should live in harmony with our environment and neighbors.

12 January 2022 by Desert Life. 0

About J.P.

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!

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