Month: August 2012

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Only a Bronze

[*heh* I’m even late posting this. Completed–well, aside from a few minor lil tweaks ‘n’ touchups–last week.]

Well, the roof’s finished, for most values of “finished” given that I will probably be tweaking tiny little things for some time to come, but so slowly that I only got a bronze bagel*:

Some lessons learned or reinforced:

Could NOT have done it w/o some help. TYVM, “crew” (my Wonder Woman, Son&Heir and Lovely Daughter).

Always allow for screwups. I purchased extra lumber and steel panels and trim to allow for that, and that was a Very Good Thing. Very second panel: had to have a hole cut for a plumbing vent and… I cut it wrong. Notaproblem, as I had extra panels and the hole didn’t prevent cutting two end pieces that needed to be 1′ X 16′. I did purchase almost exactly 1/2 the screws I needed to install the purlins, but since a trip to Lowes isn’t a problem for me, no biggie there, either.

Safety, safety, safety. The safety anchors, harness (TYVM for the loan, Joshua and Lovely Daughter!), rope, caribiner and descender I used were sometimes cumbersome, but just one slip was enough for me to be glad I was using them. The two times I neglected to wear gloves when handling the steel panels, I cut my hands. Hot stoves and all that…

Not as young as I used to be. Yeh, well, that’s a lesson most folks eventually learn, eh? 🙂

Using the right tool, correctly, beats repairing work damaged by using the wrong tool. Just sayin’. Spend a little extra for the right tools. (Besides: MORE TOOLS! ;-))

Clean gutters more often. *sigh* Fortunately, we re-prioritized this roofing job and moved it ahead of other things for the house, because I located a 9″ X 14″ section of roof deck (out over the soffit) that was rotted. Yep. Downspout at that location had been plugged up and water had backed up and soaked under the drip edge. No problem to repair, since I had all the lumber I needed to do the job, but it could easily have been worse. Clean gutters more often. (Yes, the gutters had “leaf shields” but they’ve never really worked well.)

Continue reading “Only a Bronze”

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The Only Problem…

…with this pic

…is that at least some identifier of the “masked man (?)” behind what is apparently the TOTUS should be included. Like this:

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Tablets Are to Computers as…

mp3 players are to real musical instruments.

No, the analogy isn’t perfect–show me one that is–but it captures the essence of the primary difference. Computers can easily and effectively be used to make stuff; tablets are best used to consume stuff (as entertainment devices). Yes, computers can be used to entertain the user, just as tablets can be used to create content, but tablets aren’t generally well-suited to creating content, whereas desktop and notebook computers are very well-suited to creating content.

Type on a tablet–any tablet. So far, I’ve seen no one who can type an email, a word processing document, etc., as well on a tablet as on a physical computer keyboard. There may be one or two such freaks of nature, but, for the most part, folks who claim typing on a tablet’s as easy as on a physical keyboard are simply lying (perhaps to themselves as much as to others).

I’ve seen apps for music creation on tablets. None of them come anywhere near eve transcription programs like Finale or Encore for creating real music content. Ditto for video creation on tablets as compared to more traditional computing hardware.

Now, casual “computer” users may find that they can get along OK with 2-finger typing of emails, browsing the web (on a very cramped screen) and watching videos on tablets, but those are about the only “computing” activities that tablets can manage apart from… consumer apps, apps that are directed toward doing the kinds of things grownups already know how to do, like navigating from one place to another* and suchlike. *heh* ‘S’all right, kiddos. Tablets are perfectly OK for such things.

Note that I use my very blatantly consumer-oriented tablet (Kindle Fire–a marketing tool for other Amazon products, just as the iPhad is a thinly-disguised tool for marketing the Apple “cloudosphere” *heh*) almost exclusively for consuming media: books, movies and musical recordings. Sure, I went through a phase early on of exploring all the lil thing could do and discovered… that apart from books, movies and accessing my mp3 collection, my more traditional computers beat the heck out of it in almost everything else. OK, it makes a Good Enough emergency flashlight, and the lil app that turns it into a bubble level is marginally useful (except, of course, I have 5 or so perfectly good analog levels, one older than I am, that do as good a job *shrugs* don’t really need a battery-powered one :-)).

So, when I read, Forrester Report: Tablets Will Rule The Future Personal Computing Landscape, my response was, “Yep, as long as we define “computing” down to mean “using an appliance to facilitate consumer behavior” that’s certainly true.

Whatever. I can see a role for tablets, but without serious computing power (some do have–or will have), the ability to access serious programs, not just lil bitty limited “apps”, better data input capabilities (like, oh, the proposed Microsoft Surface Pro tablet) and suchlike, the limited uses tablets now serve well (instead of “serve poorly” or “just barely”) will rule tablet “computing” for some time to come.

One can hope for really useful voice command inputs coupled with powerful applications, but so far that’s just not materialized. Some nice “gee-whiz” proof of concept things have been prototyped, but aren’t seriously in the works for some time to come.

*Navigation: using tablets, phones, etc., to get from one place to another spurs me to ponder just what that means…

1. Unfamiliarity with one’s environment?
2. Going places one has never been before, with no referents for guideance? Probably new activity or new place to buy something/spend money, etc. Too much ADD-ish behavior there for me.
3. Visit friends/relatives: what? You’re so disconnected from them you don’t know where they live already? *heh* Can’t read a map? Don’t even know N-S-E-W? IMO, People who need their phones and GPS tracking to get to the corner store should be in Assisted Living Facilities.

Confession: I do need help finding things sometimes. That’s why I have a copy of my county’s 911 map, as well as a few other maps, in my car, as well as a compass for seriously overcast days, since the “piney woods” dirt roads can sometimes twist and turn a lot. I do get calls to go places I’ve never been before, places that just aren’t noted anywhere else than on that handy lil 911 map… and even it doesn’t match what’s on the ground from time to time. Besides, GPS systems get lost in America’s Third World County ALL the time. Seriously. But because I can read maps and do know N-S-E-W, I can count on the finger of one hand the times I’ve gotten lost since the first day I started walking to school… and even before. GPS? Don’t need no steenkeeng GPS.)

BTW, another area where tablets just don’t make the grade compared to traditional computers comes into play when I, as I enjoy doing so often, browse through our County Assessor’s map(s) of the county. More up-to-date than the county 911 map, shows property lines, topo, geographical and aerial views; searchable with many different parameters: it’s what I use to “travel the back roads” when I get too cantankerous to pay today’s gas prices (although I still like to get out and just play “discover the county” every now and then)

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The Zero Fears His Superpower

Or, at least The Zero would if he could count to five without taking his shoes off.

 

 

 

 

Check out The Zero’s face in this video. “WTF?!? What’s he talkin’ ’bout, Willis? Is that MATH?!?” If you’ve ever wondered what Odumbo’s face looks like when confronted with numbers, well, here ya go:

http://youtu.be/o1yTY2MciOk

Oh, and during all the demonizing of Ryan and his budgetary proposals, do remember that they guy who was THE ZERO’S PICK to head up his “deficit committee” and represent the administration’s policies, Erskine Bowles (Clinton SBA head, later WH chief of staff), über-Democrat, had a different view:

Just sayin’. Serious policy wonks don’t share the views of Mass MEdia Podpeople like Rachel Maddow and Michael Moore. *sigh* The only real negative I can see in having Ryan as a vice presidential candidate is that he’ll be wasted “debating” Cwazy Unka Joe (if The Zero’s campaign even lets that massacre happen). At the top of the ticket, he’d have a chance to obliterate The Zero, metaphorically nuking him from orbit.

Oh, fun. Jerry Pournelle suggests (in my words, not his) that with the Romney/Ryan strengths on  economic policy against The Zero’s (and zero-cubed, Cwazy Unka Joe) profound weaknesses, some Dhimmicraps might be tempted to play the “no foreign policy experience” card… and that that would be a real tarbaby for the Dhims, as

 

“…anyone including Elmer Fudd has more experience in foreign affairs than the current President had on taking office.”

Bazinga!

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It Takes All Kinds…

He does this frequently–butting his head up against some stationary object & dozing off. It’s the head-butt thing that strikes me.

*shrugs* Oh, well. He’s a cat, and cats rarely need any kind of reason for anything they do.

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Choices

OS and device choices…

Back in 1993, when I was having a very painful experience mousing and typing, I purchased and used a serial port touchpad to use with my desktop and WFW 3.11. It worked very well, and my pain was largely alleviated. Nevertheless, I went on to a “mouse pen”–a stylus with a tiny mechanical mouse ball–in 1994, and I stayed with that device, occasionally switching out to the touchpad, for several years.

During those times, I became very used to the desktop metaphor for a GUI and lost touch with many uses for the command line interface, although it has always remained useful for a few things.

This went on through several iterations of Windows and Linux (and even a GUI-ed BSD), and the desktop metaphor has become ingrained in my computer use. Even departures like Ubuntu Unity were too jarring and disruptive for me to maintain he kind of productivity I desire, and why use something different for just farting around on my desktops/notebooks?

Then… so-called “smartphones”. Don’t need one. I do NOT want to be “always connected” and only want a mobile phone to PLACE calls. That’s me. Tablet format? Look, I really, really, REALLY like my Kindle Fire, but manage email? *feh* Trying to type on the thing is painful–not physically, but painful nonetheless. And iPhads I’ve tried typing on? Just as bad. Mousing around while web browsing is OK–no worse than any of the mush pads I’ve used over the years, better than some. But te things I really love the device for are reading books, watching movies and streaming music from my Amazon account (where I can store just about all the mp3s I have *shrugs* Makes it really convenient). I’ve deleted 90% of the Android apps I’ve tried out. Don’t need ’em.

So, all this to say that most of my computer use–aside from watching movies, reading books and listening to music–will definitely stay on desktops and notebooks until someone can come up with a hardware/software combo that can do what desktops/notebooks do BEST now, without a keyboard/mouse(ing device) combo. A wearable computer with virtual display, WORKABLE voice and gesture commands/transcription, etc.? I’d go for that. But for writing something even as simple as a blogpost, tablets are just an inferior means… unless on were using something like one of these:

*shrugs* Even the Microsoft Surface (not yet available to ordinary mortals) has some if-yness. The RT version is a definite “NOPE!” for me. Won’t run “legacy” Windows apps? Then I don’t want it. Only runs “Windows 8” (formerly “Metro”) apps? Double don’t want it. And then there’s the asinine Metro Start Page. (UPDATED… to close the “strike” tag. *sigh*) *feh* An extra hurdle to get to a crippled desktop, where the underpinnings are almost as hidden, inaccessible and untweakable as on a Mac straitjacketed computer. Now, the more expensive x86 hardware M$ Surface tablet also comes with a built in keyboard/case and WILL run x86 apps, but $1,000 for what is essentially a netbook (with a touch screen)? They’re not as thin, but either of these would seem better for my use:

Hey! it even comes with Win7 Starter (and I have plenty of licenses to upgrade that). Touch screen, about the same size as the Surface, and a (I have no doubt) better keyboard. And… under $400. Or,

Keyboard-dock available to push the price to the range of the M$ Surface RT. Still, no Windows app use, of course. Android OS.

But, on my Windows computers, what are the compelling advantages for me–an avid, relatively advanced user of x86 apps (in various OSes)–in upgrading to something that willput me into a more Mac-like straitjacket and INSIST that I MUST be faced with a stupid, unnecessary (for me) Start Page in order to use a crippled DESKTOP APPLICATION to use the x86 Windows apps I want to use? Again, what exactly are those compelling reasons?

Well, I suppose I have found one nearly compelling reason to make one computer a dual-boot Win7-Win8 computer: people will be buying new computers (assuming The Zero and his co-conspirators and fellow travelers haven’t achieved complete success in their goal of completely trashing the economy) and some of those will be running Win8. Some of those folks won’t be calling me up to roll their computers back to a more usable OS but will call on me to solve issues they’re experiencing, so having a “reference system” (like I did with the execrable Windows XP) will probably be helpful, though actually USING the thing for my own use won’t probably be a daily experience.

Win8 seems to me, for users like me, to be a Very Good Reason to use a ‘nix OS more.

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Rubber

No, get your mind outa the gutter. LC Aggie Sith recommended Rubber as a movie that’s “so bad it’s good,” so… I watched it. Mini-spoilers, perhaps, follow:

Little things give it a “fail” in the supposed American ambiance the director was going for. Example: kid, when asked “Don’t you have some homework to do?” responded, “I’m on holiday”–not typical Americanism (which would’ve been “vacation” not “holiday”). It’s replete with other failures of detail (“Sheriff” morphing to “Lieutenant” etc.) that would probably pass with a European audience but any semi-conscious American viewer with more than two active brain cells would immediately recognize this as the product of a foreign mindset.

Still, as an attempt at absurdity, it’s almost successful. Enjoyed it somewhat. I loved the scene where the “sheriff” removed a tire from his vehicle and… the wheel was magically gone; only the tire remained. There are so very many of these minor little things that the primary disconnect from a rational world seems trivial by comparison.

If you’re in the mood for some senseless gore, it’ll do the trick for you. You’ll likely recognize at least one B Movie actor (there are a couple or three *heh*) in the whole flick, and no he doesn’t play “Robert”. *heh*

Continue reading “Rubber”

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About That Most Recent Set of Lies From the Obama Campaign

By now, anyone with more conscious brain activity than a bowl of coleslaw has heard about the scurrilous ad from an Obama-promoting PAC essentially accusing Mitt Romney of being a murderer.

It’s a pack of lies, built by selectively stating a few highly slanted facts… and omitting any truth. And those who presented the ad KNEW they were crafting a slander.

“[They] did enough research to find Mr. Joe Soptic. They did enough research to craft an ad from the man’s sad story. They did enough research to know that Mrs. Soptic died seven years after Romney left Bain, they know that Bain tried to save GST, and they know that an Obama [campaign finance] bundler was the person who ultimately shut GST down. They did the research, they brought the ad forward, and they know more than any of the fact-checkers know, that the ad is a lie.”

They AND the official Obama campaign that introduced Soptic to them also know now AND knew then that Soptic was offered a buy-out, got another job, didn’t put his wife on his insurance–even after she left her job in 2003–and that no insurance under the sun could have saved his wife’s life, since she was symptom-free, was diagnosed during an unrelated illness and passed away 22 days after diagnosis.

And the Obama campaign knew all this back in May, when Stephanie Cutter, deputy Obama campaign manager, hosted a conference call with reporters featuring Soptic and his now infamous story. And yet, of course, the Obama campaign–including Stephanie Cutter, from her own mouth–denied knowing Soptic’s story when the SHTF about the lies in the ad and denied as well any connection to Soptic or the story told in the ad.

Lying about their lies. Oh, well. I guess it’s common enough in this administration to be just another “dog bites man” ho-hummer of a story.

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THIS Is Why America Is Currently in Decline

Well, it’s part (a large part) of the reason we’re in trouble. The following is a partial response to a tech site article, written by a professional “reporter” of tech news, if you can believe it. No, I won’t link it. The parts I don’t point out are as badly-written (or worse) and would only serve to improperly influence anyone not as thoroughly inoculated against linguistic drivel as I seem to be.

    • “At the time there were many different OS’s [sic] on the market…”

    Good Godfrey! Is there no editorial staff? No proofreading? No literate person to put an end to atrocities like this? An apostrophe IS NOT USED TO FORM A PLURAL!

    Apparently, there are no literate gatekeepers between writers and publishing; witness, earlier:

    “Common users also were quite skeptical to [sic] this new fancy gadget called a ‘Mouse’.”

    Not “to” but “about”. Learn the meanings of words!

    And,

    “IBM they [sic] named it PC-DOS and it quickly became a popular and widespread system.”

    WTF?!?

    And, “While back in their ‘lab’ secretly developing their new battleship, that would grow to conquer the world.”

    sic-sic-sic-sic-sic-sic-SICK!

    Sentence, please! Make a sentence! And what’s with the quotation marks around “lab”? And the comma between “battleship” and “that”? It’s just plain stupid, quite apart from being completely, totally and absolutely uncalled for.

    And the hits just keep on (and keep on) coming:

    “Windows 1.0: changing computers for ever…”

    No! No! No! Not “for ever” but “forever”–ONE WORD.

    How about,

    “Windows 1, [sic] was not the first of its kind but it introduced several improvements, among others were [sic] multi-tasking.”

    Dude! Lose the extraneous, meaningless, WRONGLY PLACED commas! They only serve to make you look stupid. And it just makes me sick to read the rest of the sentence. I gag just contemplating that abortion.

    The whole thing continues with one egregiously stupid comma, subject-verb disagreement and word mis-usage after another. *gag* And the guy actually does this for his day job.

    Thief.

    And unwitting subliterate products of “public education” (AKA “prisons for kids” and “remedial failure academies for young adults”) will read this dreck and have their subliterate ignorance reinforced. It’s evil, I say, just evil.