Month: April 2013

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So, Who Really Cares That There’s Nothing Worth Watching on Any Channel?

Checked the listings for Thursday. Yep. The best the lineup has to offer is “Battle: Los Angeles”–aliens invade LA. It seems the only likely responses from the rest of the country should that actually recur (OK, the first alien invasion was obviously just from south of the border, I guess this one’s talking about “aliens from another planet) would be,

“How can one tell it’s been invaded by aliens from another planet?” or

“DGARA.”

Fortunately, even if I didn’t have some good books to read, there’s always Amazon Prime. 😉

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PC Sales: Doom and Gloom from Hivemind Tech Writers

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! It’s the end of the world!

Bloomberg noting a “causation” that. . . may be just in the “mind” of Bloomberg’s editorial staff:

Microsoft Windows Weak Demand Spurs Worst PC Slump on Record

Correlation does not equal causation, Bloomies. Try to keep that in mind.

How about some breathless hyperbole?

Microsoft has no fast Windows fixes as PC sales crater

Oh, *yawn* IMO, just as a casual observer with access to the same sets of facts as the authors of the two articles linked, this is just a blip. I fully expect PC sales to stabilize after a while at a very naturally lower level than in recent years as more and more causal “content consumer” users find that tablets and dumb phones work just fine for their casual web browsing, listening to mind-numbing mp3 crap, watching cute cat videos and sending/receiving one-line emails that might as well just be text messages, complete with iPho-nono typos.

Folks who need to do more will still buy and use PCs, and more and more users who were once destined for Assisted Computing Facilities (“Here, dearie, let me make that mouse click for you. . . “) discover that their meager “computing” needs can be met with meager computing devices.

Of course, that could put a dent in the livelihoods of folks who assisted those “meager needs” users in fixing problems they’d caused themselves, but in days of yore buggy whip makers had to find other ways to make a living, too.

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That Certain Glow. . .

This AM while I was trying to get a wee bit more sleep, I heard a shout of dismay from the next room. My Wonder Woman was prepping for her day with about an hour to go before she left for work and. . . the power had gone out (LOTSA storming last night and through the day).

Doing makeup by in the dark just doesn’t cut it, apparently.

I thought she looked lovely by “Kindle Light”. 😉

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Lil (Very Minor) Techie Pleasure

There are a (very) few TV shows I really enjoy that are sometimes just not all that easy to fit into a viewing schedule. Fewer still are shows that fit that category AND are enjoyed equally by my Wonder Woman. Sure, we could have purchased (or “rented” *gag* from our cable provider) some sort of DVR or found some other sort of specialty device to serve as a means of schedule-shifting, but why, since spare computers abound here at TWC Central?

So, yeh, the Windows Media Center box I’ve mentioned here before several times.

But still, it’s a source of pleasure to use the thing, connected to a nice enough external sound system (thanks, Josh!) and our TV to view what we want, when we want.

Right now? One of our mutual favs: Sherlock, via Amazon Prime Instant Videos. The series is a really good adaptation, The irritations experienced in plot changes in stories cited aside ;-), of Conan Doyle’s tales. Sometimes, the little surprises (like musical choices) are sweet additions, too.

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Friday Night Movies: No and Yes

Wht can I say? Amazon Prime Instant Video. Browser loaded on Windows Media Center computer. Two movies. One released last year, the other in 2010.

Last year’s Hollyweird attempt to make a Stephanie Plum movie, “One for the Money,” from the Janet Evanovich book of the same name, was. . . not good. The scriptwriters, producers and director worked very hard to get just about everything wrong. The book was (sometimes annoyingly) charming and enjoyable fluff with bits of spiciness strewn throughout. The movie was just mostly annoying and a bit dull. *sigh* Debbie Reynolds cast as Grandma Mazur is a prime example of the kinds of poor choices made in producing the thing.

So, both thumbs down.

Then, the 2010 French film (yeh, yeh, subtitled for those who really need it–and I did myself when the sound was really bad), “La fée” (The Fairy). It was surprisingly good. Actually, it was pretty darned wonderful. Exceedingly strange, but still very, very entertaining. The sparse dialog and spare acting from the leads was very effective given the plot. The dance sequences? Just about perfect for the absurd story. The rooftop choreography? Sooo good. Loved it. Three thumbs up. And SPOILER: Continue reading “Friday Night Movies: No and Yes”

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Kindle Fire Usability Fun

I’ve made no secret of the fact that my first gen Kindle Fire is just fine and dandy for the uses I have for it. One thing that did stand out, though, as a usability PITA from the beginning was the onscreen keyboard. For typing, not much fun. So, one of the first things I did was to locate some conductive foam in my stash of junk, urm, parts and equipment and make some styli. They worked and were a help, making “typing” on the Fire almost Good Enough, and easily OK for typing brief notes in books.

But actually buying a stylus? Fuggedaboutit. All of ’em I found on the web were too much money, once I’d made some from castoff junk, urm, parts and equipment for essentially nothing.

Page forward to today when I was standing at the checkout at our local “fell off the back of a truck” store and saw mini-styli (with handy lil 2.5mm/3.5mm plugin tethers) for a buck apiece. Since my home made styli have long since become well-worn, I picked up a couple. They work quite well, but “mini-styli” means using something about the size of a pencil nub, so. . .

At the same “fell off the back of a truck” I buy a particular ball point pen that has a Parker-compatible refill. A buck apiece. Cheap and useful, since I have more than a few Parker (and Parker compatible) ballpoint pens. While the barrels of these cheapies are fairly nice bamboo tubes, I junk the barrels and keep the refills handy. (Where “junk the barrels” means “put ’em in my stash of someday useful stuff” *heh*).

Do you see a convergence coming up here? Right. I just mated one of the mini-styli to one of those spare bamboo tubes (with a handy pocket clip already installed!) and have a pen-sized stylus that works a charm and even clips nicely to the leather case my Fire regularly occupies.

The smaller surface contact area of a stylus really makes a difference when using the onscreen keyboard, and the more normal pen size of the bamboo barreled (with the conductive part protruding for index finger contact) stylus is just right.

Rabbit trail: it’s also a wee tad easier using TeamViewer on the Fire with a stylus, well, for most things. Pinch-n-zoom isn’t all that improved. *heh* I do kinda enjoy accessing the Win8 Media Center compy with TeamViewer on my Fire. Comes in handy sometimes.

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Teaser Over-promised, Under-delivered

Yesterday, James O’Keefe twitted *heh* about “hidden camera” video of Piers Morgan on gun control. *meh* Yeh, yeh, a few non-committal seconds of Morgan and loads of other nobodies (from the Hivemind left, apparently, though) on the topic.

(*heh* You did catch that, right? “…and loads of other nobodies” :-))