10:18 – I finally got Barbara’s new Kindle Fire HDX working yesterday. The problem was, attempting to connect via Wi-Fi to our D-Link DIR-615 WAP/router reproducibly crashed the router. Not just the Wi-Fi, you understand, but the whole router. The only fix was to turn off the Kindle and power-reset the router. As it turned out, the fix was easy. The WAP had been set to support 802.11b/g/n. Simply turning off the support for 802.11n fixed the problem. So now we have an n-less WAP, but Barbara’s Kindle works.
Sunday, 26 January 2014
37 Comments and discussion on "Sunday, 26 January 2014"
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Latest version of Firefox (16) is frequently locking up both my Windows computer and son’s Ubuntu. On mine it sends the CPU to about 99% on the Task Manager and I have to kill it. Firefox just is not the program it was some years back when I could open an almost unlimited number of windows and tabs.
Meanwhile, I am noticing that news stories are increasingly making children out of grown people. It culminates in this Daily Mail story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2546110/Ariana-Grande-dresses-20-years-miniscule-sequinned-LBD-attends-pre-Grammys-brunch.html
Anybody who is 20 is an adult and can do whatever they want. The editors would rather see mature women wearing short skirts? Come on—those were made for teenagers, not adults. Ariane is getting almost too old for those styles.
When I was 18 many of my classmates were working fulltime, getting pregnant, and some getting married. Can’t have that nowadays—it’s child abuse.
And you wanna know why BMG/Universal is in such trouble? Scroll down to see how the Chairman/CEO dresses. Guy is nearly as old as me and cannot even dress himself; no wonder he runs BMG into the ground.
I must give the Daily Mail credit. Even though they are a cheezy tabloid (in the ugliest implied sense of “tabloid”), they finally figured out that the way to compete with television is to give people LOTS of pictures. Somebody should have gotten that message a few decades ago.
It actually is a very cute dress. Why they imply it is inappropriate for a 20-year-old woman, I cannot imagine. Perhaps with the drinking age having been raised to 21 (idiocy), some folk now think that 20 is still childhood?
Hideous platform shoes, though…
Bob,
Barbara’s post for today is missing the date header.
Thanks. I fixed Barbara’s post. As she mentioned, she gave me a haircut today, which is probably why I’m feeling so weak. In fact, I think I’m going to have to have Barbara peel apart some rolls of packing tape. They stick together and have to be twisted apart. Without my hair, I just can’t do it.
Yah, what Brad said. She looked good. I’d say the shoes were ridiculous, but she’s obviously very short, so they might be less ridiculous than coming up to most men’s armpits when the cameras are around.
Nothing unusual about the dress, dunno what the fuss is. But those platforms? Yuck.
I think stilettos look good, even though I wonder how women wearing them can walk and stay upright, but platforms should be deemed a fashion crime.
Not sure why women put up with those shoes. My wife tossed her high heels in her mid-20’s. In S. California, girls wore heels to high school when she attended and she was always in heels with me in college. But after we were married, I could not even get her to wear them for uh, ahem—‘special occasions’. Women working around lawyers (around here at least) must wear high heels. Looks nice, but the physical attraction for me has faded and they now make me wince at their pain.
Any woman wearing heels had better study Tina Turner’s technique. That woman really knew how to handle heels.
Site is very slow for me today. Although, it may be the cold weather slowing the electrons down.
If it falls to absolute zero, you’ll have no Internet service at all.
Chuck wrote:
“Any woman wearing heels had better study Tina Turner’s technique. That woman really knew how to handle heels.”
I worked with a woman who usually wore high heels (maybe because she was kinda short). She said she had less falls in her high heels than in flats. Geez, I fall over even in Cuban heel boots… 🙁
One of my roommates in college was Scott Calhoun, who was 6’10” (2.08 meters) in his bare feet. He had some platform shoes that took him to about 7’5″. He dated a girl who was about 5′ tall and wore flats. I’ll never forget one day following them down the sidewalk in the quad. They looked so cute holding hands, like a father walking with his little girl.
Latest version of Firefox (16) is frequently locking up both my Windows computer and son’s Ubuntu
Do you mean version 26? My Firefox is 26.0 and my Thunderbird is 24.0.2.
http://www.mozilla.org/
I am running Windows 7 x64 on both my office pc and my home pc. Neither lock up, ever. Both have 16 GB of ram. Firefox does crash every couple of days on my home pc but mozilla says that it is flash doing the crashing.
I am still threatening to jump to Windows 8.1 x64 on my office pc. I now have several customers running it.
Yes, sorry—typo. 26 not 16. Although maybe I would be better off with 16. Firefox performance has gotten progressively worse with every new iteration IMO.
I am not keen on Win8, having tried it for a month or so. The fact is that, over the last 10 years, nearly everything I need to accomplish is now done on computers. Back in the late ’80’s up to the mid-90’s, I look back as being a time of experimenting while desktop OS’es and software became more capable. There was plenty of time to experiment and try stuff out. There is ZERO time for that nowadays, as every minute I spend trying out something, is a minute I am not getting real work stuff done.
I COULD live only with Linux. I do not want to, but I have played around with it enough to know that I could get by. And if Win9 does not retreat to the plainly more navigable XP/Win7 model, then I WILL abandon M$ altogether. I am just not going to put myself through a thoughtlessly-created maze, because people at M$ have not got anything better to do.
Cannot say that my experiment with Amazon Prime is going well. I am trying it specifically to replace quick timely purchases that are vanishing, due to Tiny Town’s fast-track to become a real ghost town. I started the trial about 2 weeks ago, and have made quite a number of orders that I would have to drive at least 30 minutes one-way to get. I was expecting from the promotional hype, to get the items essentially the next day, which is close enough to driving for it when I want it.
First of all, a good 50% of the stuff I want is not available with Prime. I had thought (I don’t read fine print) that anything Amazon itself sold would be available for Prime; not so. Second, I am not getting next day delivery; it is more like second or third day delivery, although I do get items delivered early in the day, if it is Fed Ex doing the delivery. Always arrives after 5:00pm if sent via UPS. Now 2 days ago, I ordered a 6-pack of some food items that I have to drive 2 hours to get (to a specialty store down near where Dave B lives), and there was even the usual “only 6 left in stock” notice on it. Instead of informing me immediately that they were out, they waited 2 days until today to tell me that they no longer carry that item in inventory. It was one of those businesses that say “sold by XYZ; fulfilled by Amazon”, so it was available for Prime. The message I got came from the XYZ company, not Amazon, but the point is that they wasted 2 days to tell me I will not be getting it tomorrow—or ever from them.
The big disappointment comes from delivery being not a whole lot better than the 5 to 7 days I normally get stuff from Amazon, when using the free shipping choice. Two days would be acceptable, I suppose, but disappointing; however, 3 days is just not worth $80/yr. I’ll suffer and continuing making my once-a-week trips to the big towns. I am usually there anyway, and if work does not last too late, I can get to stores near to the job on the way home—just like everybody does almost every day in Berlin because hardly anyone has a refrigerator bigger than dorm size.
Lastly, this experiment has shown me that—surprisingly—Amazon does not have the cheapest price on the items I normally buy. That food item I am not going to get is 20% more from Amazon than at the specialty store (which I thought was expensive). In fact, of the stuff I normally buy, it appears that Amazon actually charges more in most cases; but when it charges less, it is way less. That is not often though.
I do not think Amazon can do anything to change my mind at this point, as I have definitely discovered that Prime is not a next-day service for the increased number of items I would order from them. I have 2 weeks of trial left, but it only took 2 weeks to find out that Prime really offers me no advantage at all.
There’s a specialty food store down near me? I thought all the specialty food stores were in Indy or Bloomington? If it’s that close to me, I could drop some off this summer when I’m in Tiny Town this summer for my dad’s family reunion.
I think Prime is supposed to be free second day shipping with a $3.99 upgrade to next day. The biggest advantage I found was if you needed something under the $25 threshold for free super saver shipping that you don’t have to wait to add something else to the order. Second day shipping isn’t really that much faster than super saver, although there were a few times I sprang for next day shipping for $3.99.
Well, it is in Bloomington, but I consider that near to you. Nearer than me, practically clear across the state. It’s Sahara Mart in Bloomington, which is almost like shopping in Europe without being in Europe. Nearly all the stuff we used to get in Europe at about twice the price of Europe. I will be down there in a couple weeks to visit my son. I’ll just pick of 6 of them at 20% less than Amazon. It is the Oregon Chai Tea Latte, which I have become totally addicted to. I use half the tea powder and half cocoa powder and I’m on another planet.
Chuck wrote:
“And if Win9 does not retreat to the plainly more navigable XP/Win7 model, then I WILL abandon M$ altogether. ”
Friends on Facebook who know what they’re talking about say that M$ have learned their lesson and Win9 will lose all the stuff that people hated in Win8.
Friends on Facebook who know what they’re talking about say that M$ have learned their lesson and Win9 will lose all the stuff that people hated in Win8.
I will believe that when I see it. MS is playing a long game and currently losing. If MS only ends up with the business market then they are toast and they know it.
Then again, even numbered versions of Windows suck. Odd versions are cool. Kind of sad.
Prime is second day delivery. I get stuff as late as 7:30 PM, but have also gotten stuff next day when I ordered in the AM.
The other big advantage is all the free streaming content. I use the Amazon app on our PS3 and get great picture quality.
Boy, I guess annoying this guy isn’t such a good idea.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-27/north-korea-executes-family-of-uncle-of-kim-jong-un-reports-say/5221194
“North Korea has reportedly put to death all direct relatives of the uncle of leader Kim Jong-Un, Jang Song-thaek, who was executed last month for “attempting to overthrow the state”. ”
That simply can’t be true, for if they did actually execute ALL direct relatives, I would think that Dear Nephew would be on that list? After all, I see other nephews getting killed.
I must say, the little twerp certainly knows how to play ruthless dictator! I’m actually surprised that China hasn’t given his leash a real hard jerk.
Just hope you are not even remotely related to this aspiring Pol Pot.
If this vicious little twerp gets much worse, the US may even consider discontinuing foreign aid to NK.
I remember reading the White Russian response to Stalin’s purges in the Thirties, something like:
“We thank thee Stalin (for killing all the old Bolsheviks), now add your own body at the top of the pyre.”
Never ceases to amaze me how nasty paranoid homicidal maniacs can be to their “friends”.
Never ceases to amaze me how nasty paranoid homicidal maniacs can be to their “friends”.
Why? When you are at the top of the heap, all you see is grubby fingers reaching for you as you stand on someones face.
The type of person who seeks power is exactly the type of person that should never have power.
When I worked up in DC with the Libertarian National Committee during the 1980 presidential campaign, we also fielded a large number of candidates at the state and local levels. It was an ongoing battle to get anyone to run. “I don’t want to do it! YOU do it…”
And it wasn’t because the potential candidates knew they weren’t going to get elected. The converse, in fact. They were afraid they might get elected. In races where Libertarians had a realistic shot at winning the election–primarily state and local offices and boards in Colorado and the rest of the Rockies, Alaska, and so on–it was almost impossible for us to convince anyone to run.
I came This Close (cue Maxwell Smart) to agreeing to run for Congress from North Carolina.
^This. I think people should be dragged kicking and screaming into office. Anyone who actively wants the office must be corrupt, or at the very least, corruptible. Or worse, a well meaning do-gooder.
What we need is a means of assigning people to the office, similar to jury duty, with a vetting process to eliminate weirdos, nutjobs and idiots. You are in office for x amount of time, no repeat terms, and your cash settlement is based on what’s left over after coming under budget.
Well, there is a movement among some states to convene a constitutional convention under terms of the Constitution that have never been used. They have already met at Mt. Vernon and will meet in Indy sometime during the summer. They have a list of things they want to accomplish outside of DC, including short term limits for everyone in public office at the Federal level. Shifting taxes to the states and away from the Feds is another. It is being spearheaded by an Indiana state legislator. From what I heard on the radio yesterday, it is getting growing support.
I have no fear of a constitutional convention. We don’t follow the damned thing now; why worry about what is changed? Besides, it will be interesting to see the battle between States and the Fed.
Oh, I forgot the biggest change this group wants: they want senators to be chosen by the state legislatures, and not elected. Talk about ensuring states’ rights.
Oh, I forgot the biggest change this group wants: they want senators to be chosen by the state legislatures, and not elected. Talk about ensuring states’ rights.
Yes, Mark Levin is promoting that. I do not think that it will change anything, in fact, it might make the Senate worse.
My favorites are a federal balanced budget amendment and term limits on the House and Senate. Probably 3 to 5 terms for the House and 2 terms for the Senate.
I figure that any Constitutional Convention will be shut down by the Feddies and all persons involved to be arrested for treason and subversion. There is no way that they will allow this to happen.
The Senate could not be worse. Anything would be an improvement. I don’t think Ted K. would ever have lasted as long as he did, were he appointed by Beacon Hill. Same with Dick Lugar out here in the hinterland. Everyone knew Lugar was finished, long before he, himself found out. He still thinks self-righteously of himself and claims it was circumstances, not issues that defeated him. I blame him solely for not stopping the useless personal Shrub-war in Iraq. And I am beginning to believe he probably knew as much as Snowden about the NSA. Some defender of liberty he turned out to be.
Yeah, I know Amazon says Prime is second day delivery, but in the hype that persuaded me to sign up for the trial, were LOTS of testimonials claiming items were received the next day after ordering. I placed an order on Friday morning, choosing the Prime option. No word on anything until Monday evening, telling me the items had been shipped, and would arrive Thursday. For some reason, I have often gotten deliveries the day after their projected date, so I don’t trust this estimate. Anyway, that estimate is 6 days after placing the order—which is the usual delivery I get when choosing the ‘free shipping’ option without prime (5 to 7 days).
When I first signed up, it started out fine, although within seconds of my signing up, I received an email telling me the clock was running on my trial (pretty much in those words). If I had any authority at Amazon, I would start the clock the day after sign-up—but then, what we have in the US is a “service economy” with the shittiest possible service that is even beyond unimaginably bad. For over a year, I have been trying to get Duke Energy to hit my mom’s trust account that maintains Tiny House for the monthly bill, and it cannot be done. There is not even a way to talk to anyone live there, anymore; it is all recordings. All other utilities (except AT&T) hit that account, but service at AT&T is so bad I don’t trust them one iota, and I am beginning to wonder about Duke. Half of Tiny Town was without power for over 4 hours on the coldest night of the year about 2 weeks ago. I was unaffected, but 4 hours would have taken my temp to below 50 pretty quickly.
So, my first several orders WERE delivered next day, but it has gotten progressively later and later, until this latest episode at 6 days. Nothing Amazon can do will get me to pay for Prime. The trial has been plenty to find out it does not live up to its promise, much less the implications in its hype.
Amazon Prime doesn’t promise 2-day *delivery*; it promises 2-day *shipping*. They often do ship the same day that the order is received, and in that case the package does generally arrive in two business days (although business days vary; for USPS shipping, Saturday is a business day, and Sunday may count as a business day. For UPS and FedEx, weekends are not considered business days, so it depends which service Amazon uses to ship.)
I’ve placed two Amazon Prime orders so far today. Both are listed as two-day shipping, but both have estimated delivery dates of next Monday rather than Friday or Saturday. That just means they can’t ship today or tomorrow, or that they plan to ship by UPS or FedEx, or both. Probably 90% of the orders I’ve made from Amazon Prime have shipped the same day or following day and taken two days in transit. Maybe 5% have arrived in one day (ordered one morning, arrived the following afternoon). The other 5% have taken more than two days in actual transit.
Plus the weather across the country is playing havoc with shipping. We did not get any USPS mail last Thursday or Friday. Then Saturday we got about 30 pieces of mail including the car stereo installation kit that Amazon guesstimated would be to me by Thursday. Got her new car stereo installed Sunday afternoon so she could listen to her books on cd / mp3.
Good to know. Like I said, I do not usually read fine print, but my take on the sales promotion material I went through to get to the trial acceptance screen, certainly led me to believe it was second day delivery of items, and with many people claiming they got next day delivery (next day after ordering).
In the past, my orders have almost always been filled and shipped the same day if I ordered in the morning, and next day if I ordered at night. If the Prime standard is shipped 2 days after ordering, then whoa! I would be forking out money for worse service than I have gotten without Prime.
Any way I look at it, Prime does not at all fulfill my hope that I could get items that I cannot buy in stores in this almost deserted city, within 2 days, if not the next day after ordering. Prime has no value to me. Big disappointment, but even more motivation to get Tiny House off my hands and move back to civilization.
Well, my most recent Amazon Prime order arrived one day in advance of their email advice—the doorbell just rang and it was UPS dropping off their never-before-5 delivery. That is still not a single day better than my experience with the free shipping option.
The order was the batch of 12 x 12″ fluorescent tubes for my under-cabinet kitchen lighting. The guy at the local ACE hardware told me that nobody installs those anymore; nearly everyone uses the 18″ tubes, which is why ACE does not carry the 12″ anymore. I am not going to change anything, because the 12″ fixtures are able to be recessed under the cabinets; 18″ would require them to be mounted on the outer edges of the cabinet carcass framing, which would not look as nice and I would likely bang it, as clumsy as I am.
The new tubes were noticeably brighter than the 2 old ones still working, so I just replaced all 5 of them. Had to replace 2 of the ballast/starters. Fortunately I got 12 bulbs and 4 starters. The starters were one of those really good deals: 34¢ for a pair, so I got 2 pairs. A single one is over $3 at my local ACE. Hopefully I have enough spares now to last out my tenancy here at Tiny House.