What Should Be Easy...
Thursday, March 28, 2013
... is never easy.
Take my trip to Midas yesterday, for example. I needed to have my snow tires swapped for my all-seasons and a wheel noise diagnosed/repaired. Three hours later all the work was done, except for a wheel alignment... which took another three hours and included replacing a tie rod.
Or take loading photos into a blog post... with all the advances Blogger has made, that should be cake... except many of those advances are designed to automate layouts as much as possible, and with my somewhat antiquated template many of those end up looking lousy. I know, I could move to a newer template - but I have yet to find one I like as much as the original! So loading photos involves more steps than it might otherwise - and sometimes repeated attempts to get the automated stuff to do what I want it to, or something close. I think I edited my post about our flight to Hilo twenty or thirty times... before I finally gave up, deleted the photos, and reloaded them from scratch using the HTML view, then cut and paste the HTML codes to put them where I wanted them.
Then again, if these are the worst problems I have, I should probably be thankful instead of griping...
JMH
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Monday, July 30, 2012
Technology, Technology...
Monday, July 30, 2012
I think I've finally fixed the conflicts on my new PC that were causing BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) crashes... at least, it's been stable for the last two days, and I've reinstalled the software that seemed to be triggering the crashes.
Unfortunately, my old scanner is now useless. There are no Windows 7 drivers for it, and I have no way to connect to it from the Windows XP virtual PC, where I can load drivers and software for it. So I'm going to end up buying another scanner... thank you, Microsoft and Visioneer, for forcing me to retire a perfectly good piece of hardware.
A few years ago I went to the store to replace the battery for my portable phone, and discovered that the battery cost almost as much as a new phone. So I purchased a new phone instead, and it's driven me crazy ever since, because it has no headset jack and the shape of the handset makes it almost impossible to tuck it between your shoulder and ear to free up both hands while talking. This afternoon I tried using it and discovered that one of the buttons is toast. So today I shelled out the money for a new portable - this time from a pricier brand, so hopefully it will work better and last longer than the crap one I bought last time.
JMH
Monday, July 30, 2012
I think I've finally fixed the conflicts on my new PC that were causing BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) crashes... at least, it's been stable for the last two days, and I've reinstalled the software that seemed to be triggering the crashes.
Unfortunately, my old scanner is now useless. There are no Windows 7 drivers for it, and I have no way to connect to it from the Windows XP virtual PC, where I can load drivers and software for it. So I'm going to end up buying another scanner... thank you, Microsoft and Visioneer, for forcing me to retire a perfectly good piece of hardware.
A few years ago I went to the store to replace the battery for my portable phone, and discovered that the battery cost almost as much as a new phone. So I purchased a new phone instead, and it's driven me crazy ever since, because it has no headset jack and the shape of the handset makes it almost impossible to tuck it between your shoulder and ear to free up both hands while talking. This afternoon I tried using it and discovered that one of the buttons is toast. So today I shelled out the money for a new portable - this time from a pricier brand, so hopefully it will work better and last longer than the crap one I bought last time.
JMH
Saturday, July 28, 2012
WHY I HATE DRIVING THE NJ HIGHWAYS... AND ONE HECK OF A DOWNPOUR!
Saturday, July 28, 2012
My TomTom XL340 (sadly updated and then discontinued by TomTom... hopefully map updates will continue to be available for a good long time!) is usually spot-on in its travel time predictions, even adjusting them on the fly when I drive a bit faster than it expects for a particular area. So when I left Camp Ockanickon after the races today, I was looking forward to 3 hr 45 min of driving (plus probably an extra 15-20 minutes of stops along the way.) Ordinarily I'd stop at some parks to see the sights, but not today, since (1) I was pretty fried from 3-4 hours of sleep followed by a tough course under hot, humid conditions, (2) driving down directly from Rochester meant my trail guides were all still in Albany, and (3) it was raining on and off. I have to admit, after being away for 9 days, I was also looking forward to being home again, even if it means having to put up with my noisy neighbors (who have two volume settings - LOUD and LOUD!)
Of course, I foolishly forgot to account for the NJ Turnpike/Garden State Parkway effect... I don't know why, but for some reason it is a fairly common occurence for traffic to go from full speed ahead to a dead stop on those two highways, followed by periods of crawling along at 5-10 mph. Last year I remember recalling this as I sat on the road, not moving... and today reminded me again. Fortunately most of the other drivers had their windows up, so it's unlikely many folks heard my occcasional outbursts of "I hate this %*&@#*!! road!" By the time I'd reached northern NJ, the GPS had extended the travel time by 30-40 minutes. Gah.
And then the real storm kicked in... first with some lightning and light rain, and then with a downpour that turned the highway into a river and dropped visibility down to a hundred feet or so. Fortunately everyone saw the writing on the wall and traffic slowed to about half speed. When I stopped for gas at the last service area on the GSP, I bailed on stopping to use the bathroom and grab a drink or snack - even with my rain jacket my shorts would have been drenched in moments. Happily I drove out of the worst of it as I exited onto the NYS Thruway, and the rest of the drive was by-the-numbers... but altogether it was 90 minutes later than the GPS originally predicted before I pulled up in front of the house and yes, was greeted by the sound of my neighbors blasting music on their van stereo while they sat on the porch enjoying the evening.
Regardless of the complaining, it's good to be home again.
JMH
Saturday, July 28, 2012
My TomTom XL340 (sadly updated and then discontinued by TomTom... hopefully map updates will continue to be available for a good long time!) is usually spot-on in its travel time predictions, even adjusting them on the fly when I drive a bit faster than it expects for a particular area. So when I left Camp Ockanickon after the races today, I was looking forward to 3 hr 45 min of driving (plus probably an extra 15-20 minutes of stops along the way.) Ordinarily I'd stop at some parks to see the sights, but not today, since (1) I was pretty fried from 3-4 hours of sleep followed by a tough course under hot, humid conditions, (2) driving down directly from Rochester meant my trail guides were all still in Albany, and (3) it was raining on and off. I have to admit, after being away for 9 days, I was also looking forward to being home again, even if it means having to put up with my noisy neighbors (who have two volume settings - LOUD and LOUD!)
Of course, I foolishly forgot to account for the NJ Turnpike/Garden State Parkway effect... I don't know why, but for some reason it is a fairly common occurence for traffic to go from full speed ahead to a dead stop on those two highways, followed by periods of crawling along at 5-10 mph. Last year I remember recalling this as I sat on the road, not moving... and today reminded me again. Fortunately most of the other drivers had their windows up, so it's unlikely many folks heard my occcasional outbursts of "I hate this %*&@#*!! road!" By the time I'd reached northern NJ, the GPS had extended the travel time by 30-40 minutes. Gah.
And then the real storm kicked in... first with some lightning and light rain, and then with a downpour that turned the highway into a river and dropped visibility down to a hundred feet or so. Fortunately everyone saw the writing on the wall and traffic slowed to about half speed. When I stopped for gas at the last service area on the GSP, I bailed on stopping to use the bathroom and grab a drink or snack - even with my rain jacket my shorts would have been drenched in moments. Happily I drove out of the worst of it as I exited onto the NYS Thruway, and the rest of the drive was by-the-numbers... but altogether it was 90 minutes later than the GPS originally predicted before I pulled up in front of the house and yes, was greeted by the sound of my neighbors blasting music on their van stereo while they sat on the porch enjoying the evening.
Regardless of the complaining, it's good to be home again.
JMH
Monday, July 09, 2012
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL...
Monday, July 9, 2012
My office, after being about 2/3 cleaned up... there's a chair, a table, and a 10 yr old PC somewhere under those piles of stuff...
A couple of hours of work and - the chair, table, and old PC make an appearance...
And another hour or two of work - things are looking better and better!
It's a small victory - but it's kind of nice to be able to sit at the table and work on my new PC instead of sitting on a folding chair in the corner of the bedroom.
I'm beginning to think I may manage to finish this cleaning and reorganizing stuff by the end of the month after all...
JMH
Monday, July 9, 2012
My office, after being about 2/3 cleaned up... there's a chair, a table, and a 10 yr old PC somewhere under those piles of stuff...
A couple of hours of work and - the chair, table, and old PC make an appearance...
And another hour or two of work - things are looking better and better!
It's a small victory - but it's kind of nice to be able to sit at the table and work on my new PC instead of sitting on a folding chair in the corner of the bedroom.
I'm beginning to think I may manage to finish this cleaning and reorganizing stuff by the end of the month after all...
JMH
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
SETTING UP A NEW COMPUTER -
Let the "Fun" Begin...
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
I would say that I hate buying new computers as much as I hate buying new cars, but my old Subaru lasted 13 years before I gave up and replaced it, and it's only been 10 years for my Dell PC... of course during that 10 years I've installed and upgraded multiple hard drives, every bit of RAM the thing would take, and oodles of other odds-and-ends. In fact, if Dell wasn't so fixated on proprietary hardware I would probably have upgraded just about everything inside the case by now instead of spending increasing amounts of time swearing at it as it seemingly gets slower and slower... Instead, when I recently found myself with a bit of inherited money, I shelled out for a shiny new HP PC which has been sitting in its box in my living room for the last week, waiting for me to have the time and space to get it set up.
And really, that's the part of the new computer I hate - setting the blasted thing up so that it will do all the stuff my old one does, but faster and hopefully better.
Didn't do much with it tonight, but I've already run into two programs that I use a lot that don't get along with Windows 7. Checked into upgrading them, don't like the reasonably-priced options (or the expensive options, for that matter!) I also found out that this version of Win 7 only supports 16 GB of RAM, meaning one of the DIMMs I dropped in as an upgrade is currently doing zip. But researching that convinced me to shell out some additional money for an upgrade to the next level of Win 7, which not only supports a lot more RAM but also has the option of a Windows XP "virtual machine" which might allow me to run programs I use that don't play nicey nice with Win 7. (Apparently, the next level of Win 7 is already on my new computer - what I paid for tonight is a box containing an access code to turn it on. A fairly clever bit of cost-saving work on the part of Microsoft...)
Sadly, I still have a lot of work to do before the new PC can take the place of the Dell dinosaur in my office (which may find itself retiring to run a bunch of the old games I have - not that I ever really play the things any more - and the wireless router) - there's still a lot of software to load, a TB or so worth of files to transfer (guess I better get the 2nd hard drive up and running in the new PC) and the office itself needs to be cleaned up and reorganized. Gah!
JMH
Let the "Fun" Begin...
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
I would say that I hate buying new computers as much as I hate buying new cars, but my old Subaru lasted 13 years before I gave up and replaced it, and it's only been 10 years for my Dell PC... of course during that 10 years I've installed and upgraded multiple hard drives, every bit of RAM the thing would take, and oodles of other odds-and-ends. In fact, if Dell wasn't so fixated on proprietary hardware I would probably have upgraded just about everything inside the case by now instead of spending increasing amounts of time swearing at it as it seemingly gets slower and slower... Instead, when I recently found myself with a bit of inherited money, I shelled out for a shiny new HP PC which has been sitting in its box in my living room for the last week, waiting for me to have the time and space to get it set up.
And really, that's the part of the new computer I hate - setting the blasted thing up so that it will do all the stuff my old one does, but faster and hopefully better.
Didn't do much with it tonight, but I've already run into two programs that I use a lot that don't get along with Windows 7. Checked into upgrading them, don't like the reasonably-priced options (or the expensive options, for that matter!) I also found out that this version of Win 7 only supports 16 GB of RAM, meaning one of the DIMMs I dropped in as an upgrade is currently doing zip. But researching that convinced me to shell out some additional money for an upgrade to the next level of Win 7, which not only supports a lot more RAM but also has the option of a Windows XP "virtual machine" which might allow me to run programs I use that don't play nicey nice with Win 7. (Apparently, the next level of Win 7 is already on my new computer - what I paid for tonight is a box containing an access code to turn it on. A fairly clever bit of cost-saving work on the part of Microsoft...)
Sadly, I still have a lot of work to do before the new PC can take the place of the Dell dinosaur in my office (which may find itself retiring to run a bunch of the old games I have - not that I ever really play the things any more - and the wireless router) - there's still a lot of software to load, a TB or so worth of files to transfer (guess I better get the 2nd hard drive up and running in the new PC) and the office itself needs to be cleaned up and reorganized. Gah!
JMH
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Distracted... Excreting?
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Be warned... this topic is more than a bit different from the things I usually write about... though I do tie it in to one of my most common complaints/concerns at the end...
On my way back to Albany this evening I walked into a Thruway Service Area restroom, as I often do (it is a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive, after all.) Tonight, though was a first, when I was greeted by the sight of a guy at one of the urinals, presumably doing what guys do at a urinal - with his phone out texting.
I know I'm a luddite when it comes to cell phones and texting, but I'd like to think this would seem like too much even to the texting-savvy folks I know. I'd ask... but then I might find out that this is more common than I realize... oodle of people all over the world texting "Peeing now..." to each other, ack!
Of course, afterwards I had plenty of time to think of other possible explanations... maybe he was a congressman sending a photo (yuck... and another reason why I believe cell phones should be put away while in restrooms.) Or maybe this was his first time using a urinal and he was googling instructions (which caused me to flash on a 2nd season episode of the superb science fiction program Farscape, "Out of Their Minds", where one of the alien characters has switched minds with the human lead and needs directions on how to urinate: "Unzip. Pull it out. Point it like a gun... and shoot.") Maybe his urine was an unusual color and he was looking up possible medical explanations to see if he had any hope of surviving to reach his eventual destination.
Or maybe he was just the latest example of a multitude of people who apparently can't survive without being distracted every second of every day...
Sigh.
JMH
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Be warned... this topic is more than a bit different from the things I usually write about... though I do tie it in to one of my most common complaints/concerns at the end...
On my way back to Albany this evening I walked into a Thruway Service Area restroom, as I often do (it is a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive, after all.) Tonight, though was a first, when I was greeted by the sight of a guy at one of the urinals, presumably doing what guys do at a urinal - with his phone out texting.
I know I'm a luddite when it comes to cell phones and texting, but I'd like to think this would seem like too much even to the texting-savvy folks I know. I'd ask... but then I might find out that this is more common than I realize... oodle of people all over the world texting "Peeing now..." to each other, ack!
Of course, afterwards I had plenty of time to think of other possible explanations... maybe he was a congressman sending a photo (yuck... and another reason why I believe cell phones should be put away while in restrooms.) Or maybe this was his first time using a urinal and he was googling instructions (which caused me to flash on a 2nd season episode of the superb science fiction program Farscape, "Out of Their Minds", where one of the alien characters has switched minds with the human lead and needs directions on how to urinate: "Unzip. Pull it out. Point it like a gun... and shoot.") Maybe his urine was an unusual color and he was looking up possible medical explanations to see if he had any hope of surviving to reach his eventual destination.
Or maybe he was just the latest example of a multitude of people who apparently can't survive without being distracted every second of every day...
Sigh.
JMH
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