What's Firefox? says website

I cannot stand websites that are so out of date that they still don't know what a browser is.  I have another blog on a well known sports site. Or rather on a subsite devoted to personal blogs. It allows you to post your blog on Facebook. Well, actually only if you use Internet Explorer. I found this out today.

I wrote a post about Michael Vick, posted it to the site, & clicked the link that would post it to my Facebook page. Wouldn't do it. Something about the fonts & other stuff. Don't quite remember. This is not the first time I have tried. So I tried copy & paste. No can do. So finally it occurred to me to switch to IE. Yup. Posted with no problem.

I have a problem with this. IE has been losing market share for at least 2 years. It has gone from 90% to under 50%. That is a big drop. At the same time Firefox has gone from 15% to 24-25%. The rest have gone to Chrome, which has gone from not existing to around 12%. Not to mention that Apple's share of the computer market has gone up, meaning Safari's share has gone up.

So why do web developers not understand this? Because businesses mostly use IE, & sadly use IE6. So they don't understand that the regular person, plus the geeks, & those like me, who want a better experience, won't use the bug riddled, security hole that is Internet Explorer. I have also found video sites that do the same thing. We lose in the long run because the business community is stuck in 1995, & is afraid to move forward.

A lot of people simply think the blue E is the internet. I often wonder what they do when forced to use a non-Microsoft machine. Do they think a mac doesn't have internet access? We are falling behind the rest of the world. There are many countries where Firefox is the #1 browser. Do companies not realize this?


I

Illegal movie sites

So I was online looking for a movie to watch. I only have 2 hrs of online on my Netflix subscription, & Hulu & YouTube have horrible selections. So I started searching. Boy! Was I amazed to come across so many sites that had downloads & streaming of movies that just came out & just got in theaters.

I couldn't believe how many of these sites had True Grit, Little Fockers & who knows what else. Are these foreign sites or what? Not to mention how do they get the downloads on there, since these aren't on DVD yet.

Now this is the piracy the MPAA is talking about, & I understand where their coming from. If everyone watches this way, the studio makes no money. The RIAA issue is different since most CD's are on iTunes & Amazon, & a few CD's can be bought at Target & Walmart. Plus it's harder to find a particular song or Cd on pirate sites, but every movie site had brand new movies on the top of the page.

Now if the studios want to stop this, they have to stop this nonsense of not allowing recent films to be streamed on Netflix. I've had the service for over 2 years & have probably only watched 4 or 5 films online. Because they're all old films. Silly. Yeah, you can rent from iTunes, but it costs more than a Netflix subscription, plus the amount of time it would take to download. I'll stick with DVD's thank you.

Facebook may cause break-ins say UK police

According to the BBC, a woman claims her house was broken into twice because of Facebook status updates that said they would be out of town. I have a problem with this. Are you dumb enough to put your home address on a social site? Then it's your fault.

I have no info on my page, other than my hometown (how else are people going to know who I am?). Not my address, not my phone number, not the name of the company I work for. That's my business. But then again, the people I'm "friends" with already know all this.

Facebook, of course, says that the risk is the same as sharing info in person or in an e-mail. Well, that's not quite true. In person you're sharing with one person. Sure, he can tell others, but I assume you only tell someone you know, not random strangers. But again, why have all this info online? I'm sure people go on Facebook & discuss an upcoming trip. But if your home address is not on the site, how is someone going to rob you? Think people.

Heck, some co-workers know what complex I live in, but not my specific unit. Some people just don't understand security.

Uploading photos

On Christmas my cousin decided that my Facebook photo was a bad one. Well, yeah, it's a photo I took of myself with my cheap prepaid cell phone. I held it a foot from my face & clicked. It's the same photo on here. Not great, but it's not like a really care that much.

But my cousin does. So he took out his much better digital camera & took a bunch of pictures, against a white wall, & in front of the Christmas Tree. Then I watched while he & his computer friend ( I think, by the way they talk, that he does IT work for a hospital) went about getting the photos on my page.

I sort of knew what you did, but I watched & learned. Namely, put the photos on my cousin's harddrive, then have me log on to Facebook, go on my page to change the picture. For other photos, so I could change to a non-Christmas photo, e-mail the photos to me. Those photos are still on my e-mail, but I can, of course, send them to "documents" or "pictures" anytime as long as I don't delete the e-mail.

Of course what I really need to do is get a digital camera. My cousin's friend also gave us a vacation slideshow last night by hooking up his laptop to the TV so we could look at his pictures from his family's trip to Egypt. It took them a while to figure out how to set up the slideshow, but once they did it worked fine. Of course another way to do this would be a CD or DVD, but since they traveled here from Southern California I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to carry photo CD's AND a laptop.

Eventually I will get the camera, but cost is a consideration. Isaw one in the paper for around $40 today, but it was a Vivitar, not a Sony or Canon, so I'm guessing it's a lower quality camera. We will see.

Reading e-books online

Yes, Google launched it's e-bookstore some time ago. Yesterday I found out about Project Gutenberg. What is that? It is a site devoted to public domain books. These can be downloaded to your computer or put on an e-reader like a Kindle.

But what kind of books? How about classic fiction like Dickens, Shakespeare, Tolstoy & DeFoe. Not exactly what a current reader wants to put on a digital device. Yes it's free, but so what? This is always going to be the problem with something like this. Do  I really want to waste space on my computer for Robinson Crusoe or Huckleberry Finn? Or would I like the chance to get newer material?

And, not being a geek, I want to know, can I even use a Kindle? See, my computer is a desktop, not a laptop. Therefore I don't have wireless in my house. A Kindle, or an iPad use WiFi on the cheaper models, & WiFi & 3G on the more expensive versions. But this is never explained in all the stories I see on these devices.

If this is the case, if I had one of these, I could only use them at the public library or the local mall, which has complete WiFi access. In other words it's totally useless to me or someone else who doesn't have a laptop at home. Yes, I can read an e-book online, but then you have the issue of LCD lighting. This is not the way to read a book. It's too tiring on the eyes.

I wish these companies would come clean on this. Borders is 5 minutes from my house, Barnes & Noble 10 minutes. Both are selling various e-readers, none of which are cheap. $150-$300 mostly, & probably not usable by me, unless I don't understand the technology, which I readily admit. But hey, I'm not the main target audience anyway. I'm too old.

Sports website rips off fans

I am a winter sports fan. I love the Winter Olympics, especially skiing. When the Olympics are not on, I still will watch World Cup races. Or at least, I used to. Last year & the year before I was able to follow the season on a certain website that carried all the events. You clicked on & watched an event from beginning to end.

Here's the problem. This is the website for a channel that isn't carried on cable or satellite. Only as a digital subchannel. Why? I have no idea. This is the channel's owners decision, which IMHO is a really stupid one. It means that only people watching TV over the air have access to the channel, meaning a much smaller viewership base. Why would you do that? BTW- it's owned by the network that has rights to the Olympics. Figure it out.

Now to the website. You can no longer watch the video streams or the replays unless you pay . That's $4 for a single event (like today), $9 for the World Championships in February, or $30 for all 71 events. Who is going to watch all 71 events? I consider this to be pure unmitigated greed. It was free the last two years, what changed?

For the record, I can watch any college football game, any college basketball game & various soccer, rugby, & other events in their entirety on ESPN 3 without charge. I can watch every program CBS shows, primetime, daytime, late night, without charge. Just in the last two days I have watched on CBS' website a full episode of Letterman, a full episode of Craig Ferguson, & the most recent episode of Hawaii 5-0. I watched Manchester United vs Arsenal (1st place vs 3rd) on ESPN 3. What is this scummy, greedy networks problem?

This is what destroys the web. You want to have commercials, go right ahead. CBS shows commercials on the web. ESPN 3 doesn't interestingly enough. You just get the logo saying the broadcast will be back soon. Hmmm. I mean if this network wants to make money, here's an idea. Have your channel on cable & satellite. Duh!

Online store fails Christmas

I had three ways to shop for presents from one of my favorite retailers today.

1. Drive 20 miles to their closest store
2. Call on the phone to their very busy 800#
3. Go on their website & order that way

Well I tried the latter. Bad idea. Here's what happened. The company's catalog (I have different ones) says that I had until December 18 to order for Christmas. This is December 15. Therefore no problem, right? Not so fast. No matter what I tried to order this is what came on my screen:"not available for this date". This wasted an hour.

So finally I gave up & called on the phone. Person answering had no idea why it was doing that, but took my order. In fact it would be done today. Why was this a problem? Isn't online shopping supposed to be convenient? I wasted almost 90 minutes because of this nonsense. This was the first time I used this company's website & it will be the last. I've been buying stuff from this outfit for 25 years, but I am ready to take my business elsewhere. Seriously folks, if you want to do business in the internet age you need to get someone to write a website that works properly, & doesn't tell customers :"I don't want your business".

Free games on Windows

Once in a while I try to play a game on my computer. I will install free games only to find that they don't play very well. Why is this? I have installed racing games., Awful. Using your mouse doesn't work because you can't steer properly. Golf games? Stupid. I just installed one, only to find that they make impossible shots that you can't make, no matter how many strokes you take. One idiot course had you shooting up a ramp to get to the other side of a hill where the hole was. problem was the ball had to twist around once it got over the ramp. Is it a magic ball? So stay away from these nonsense games.

Gawker sites hacked

Over the weekend a hacker group called Gnosis compromised Gawker & all it's sites. It collected all the usernames of the registered commenters on all the sites Gawker owns. This would include Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Deadspin & others. Now I read the first two, but have never registered or left a comment, so I'm OK.

The problem is, of course, the hackers got hold of e-mail addresses & passwords. Now if it's only comments that's one thing. But if you use the same password at shopping sites, now it's a big problem. Check your credit card bills if that's the case.

Seriously, if you use the same password everywhere, well that's just dumb. Of course, the only site I have ever bought anything at is Apple. And I have a different password there than anywhere else. I blog here (obviously), but also on a sports site. Different username, different password. My cell phone providers website? Different username, different password. Three different e-mail accounts, different providers, different usernames, different passwords. That's what you're supposed to do. But heck, ther head of Gawker was using the same password everywhere. Duh!

Be very careful. The term "identity theft" didn't exist before the creation of the internet. There's a reason for that.

Metrodome's inflatable roof deflates-again

Minneapolis because of it's rough cold winters wisely decided to build a domed stadium in the late 1970's. Because of the success of the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit, it was decided to make it an inflatable cloth dome, instead of a solid concrete dome like the Superdome in New Orleans. Most of the time that's OK, sometimes not so much.

This morning at around 5AM, it collapsed. There had been 17 inches of snow the previous day. There were 3 tears in the roof. The NFL game between the Vikings & the NY Giants had already been postponed because the airport had been closed, meaning the Giants couldn't get into town. The game has now been moved to Detroit.

This is not the first time this has happened. In fact there have been four other deflations. November 19, 1981 (also because of over a foot of snow in Minneapolis), December 30, 1982 because of a tear caused by heavy snow (what a surprise), on April 14, 1983 (heavy snow again-don't you just want to live there?), & on April 26, 1986 a tear was caused by high winds. The last two happened when the Minnesota Twins were to play the California Angels. Hmmm. (Source: Wikipedia)

Even though this roof may be impressive, it clearly isn't the best idea for this part of the country. According to Wikipedia, it's the largest application of Teflon on Earth. But the midwest is home to some of the worst weather around, & it's just luck that none of the collapses happened during a football game. can you imagine the injuries had all that snow & the collapsing roof happened while there were 50,000 people in the building?

Google opens e bookstore

Yesterday it was announced that Google would be opening an e bookstore to compete with Amazon & Apple & all other e book sellers. Google let's you download to Android, the iPhone or iPod Touch or to a Sony or Nook. Notice I didn't mention the Kindle. Not sure why it's not supported. You can also download to your computer to read online. This is what I did.

I'm not ready to spend $150 on any e reader, & I'm not even sure e books are that good an idea. One thing I did notice is that the free selection is limited to old books, not all of which I would call "classics". I downloaded "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli  originally published in 1532. The free selection is full of stuff like this, also Shakespeare, Dickens, the Wizard of Oz books, & all the Sherlock Holmes stories. Maybe if I had one of the supported e readers I would look at the books to buy.

I'm not sure about this. Barnes & Noble & Borders both have books downloadable to your computer, but you have to install a e reader program on your computer. Google's seems to be built in to it's website, since all I did was click on the book title & it immediately opened. That's an improvement, but I still wonder who is going to use it. Again especially since the biggest selling reader is not supported.

Making computer screens eye friendly

I use my computer a lot when I'm home. And a lot of people use computers as part of their work. Some are on them all day. So why is so hard to come up with a screen that doesn't hurt the eyes? I've been on my computer less than an hour & I feel like getting off.

This was the argument against the iPad. That an LED screen hurts the eyes, but an e-ink screen doesn't, which is why e readers are so popular. The problem there is of course those tend to be black & white, not full color, like computer monitors, laptops & iPads. Still the iPad is a massive success, so someone doesn't have a problem. And I'm sure different people may have eyes not as sensitive as mine.

So is there a need to improve the way visuals are done? Of course there is. Everything can be improved upon. I can't see watching video on a smartphone (too small), but lots of young people do it. Of course their eyes are stronger. Although my eyes have always been somewhat weak. I've worn glasses since junior high. Some kids need them before they're 10.

But I can read a book for long stretches. I've read as many as 100 pages in a day. Try doing that online. Your eyes can't handle it. Again it's the lighting. I don't know about Kindle's or Nooks because I don't own one, & I'm not planning on getting one. I just think with all the technology out there, there must be a way to make computer monitors more eye friendly.

PGE fails with smart meter website

One of the things PGE supposedly delivers when you get a smart meter installed is that you can follow your energy usage online. Well, this was the case until this weekend. Suddenly, there are no results going back two days. Nice. Does this mean that the usage will mysteriously increase dramatically? If so, I will let them know that it is not acceptable.

These utilities are known for dishonesty. PGE is already in trouble for sponsoring a ballot initiative in June that would have made it hard for an outside company to come in. The voters saw through the stunt & voted it down, so i have no misconceptions about this company. Especially since a lot of people have been complaining about the smart meters for months.

So my message is "show the results & don't screw with them. I am watching".

Google Chrome jumps over 9%

The hot new browser from Google continues to grow, while the one most people think is the internet continues to fall. I guess this is good news, although I still don't understand why anyone would prefer Chrome over Firefox. Supposedly it's faster, but that has never been my experience.

It's clear to me that casual users will continue to use Internet Explorer, & if they want another browser, well...everyone's heard of Google. It also appears that Firefox will remain stuck at around 22-23% as it has for the last year at least. FF 4 comes out in a few months with increased performance, but is it too late? Interestingly, IE8 has over 3X the usage of IE7 while the much hated IE6 has almost the market share of Chrome & Safari combined. This because businesses still use it despite Microsoft themselves saying get rid of it. Heck my high tech company uses IE6.

It seems that IE users are switching to Chrome rather than Firefox, which would have been the case in the past. I don't like the idea of every tab being a different process because that uses more RAM. Plus I just don't care for the bare bones nature of the UI. But unfortunately, FF 4 will look somewhat like Chrome. Plus it isn't as bare bones as it would appear. On my old XP machine Firefox 3.6 was around 30mb, but Chrome was 75mb. Huh?

I think it's the new kid in town, & that's why it's gaining. Let's see if that continues.

Internet coupons

While it sounds nice being able to print coupons from your computer, there is a downside. Most businesses that do this want an e-mail address. Why/ So they can fill up your inbox with spam. I have one e-mail address that is full of this stuff, & it isn't even because of coupons. I went to some store, gave them my e address & low & behold, lots of offers I have no interest in.

This happens because businesses feel that for every 10 customers who feel like me, there will be one who will do it. That adds up. But then again, there is one mail order fruit company (you know who I mean) that sends me a catalog at least once a week from October thru Christmas, because i have ordered fruit through the mail for several years.

I wanted to print a coupon from a sandwich chain. They wanted an e-mail address. Well, I do like this chain, but sometimes I get coupons in the mail as a promotion, & even when I go there even. So why bottle up my e-mail more?

The other issue is, of course, the possibility of malware. I want my computer to stay clean. I only download from reputable sites, but other people may not know not to click links that they think are from a company they may know. This is why I don't shop online. The term "identity theft" didn't exist before the creation of the World Wide Web. There's a reason for that. So beware.

Keeping up with fans during game

As a 49er fan, I like to not only watch the games, but also see what the fans are saying during the game. So I keep open fan site 49ers Webzone so i can see what they are saying. Does this distract me from the game? Yeah, sometimes it does. it would be nice if i had a laptop or an iPad, so i could watch the game & keep track of what the fans were saying while watching, but I have a desktop computer so I have to walk over to where it's located to read the responses.

this is not the best system, but hey whatever works, right? Probably every team has a site that does this. it's also fun to see that some fans are far away & watching in various ways. One fan wrote in tonight that when the game was over it was almost 5AM, & he was going to work in 2 hours. obviously he's in Europe. Nice to know we have fans over there, even with this awful season.

I assume that eventually there will be some kind of app for the iPad. And remember that Lion, the new version of Mac OSX will have an app store, since Steve Jobs wants to get rid of non-apple software (you know like Flash & Firefox). Of course one can keep up with Facebook, but really, does everything have to relate to that? Or Twitter, which I have never used.

Using technology to keep warm

Even though I live in California, it still gets cold in the winter. No, not as cold as in the midwest or the northeast or in northern Europe, but still you're not going to walk around in shorts. So how do you stay warm? I like layered clothing.

The base or inner layer takes away sweat to the other layers. I have always used thin polyester based long sleeved products that are actually designed for outdoor activity. But I don't ski. I use the shirt as simply a device to keep me warm. I have a short sleeved undershirt, followed by the long sleeved base layer. I follow this with a fleece sweatshirt. According to Wikipedia, the traditional mid layer is wool, with fleece as an alternative.

Fleece is made from synthetic fibers. It's soft & mimics wool, but it doesn't weigh as much, & it's cheaper. And frankly, it's easier to find fleece shirts. One problem with fleece is if you have a garment a long time, the more it gets washed, the fleece basically disappears.

I usually follow this with a sweater, but not always, depends on the temperature. What is important is how you use the layers. Different companies have created different systems, like underarm vents. None of my clothes have that, mainly because those tend to cost too much for how i am going to use them. If I was doing activities like skiing or hiking then maybe.

More and more companies are bringing out multi-layered clothing because of the winter activity market. Skiing is very big out west despite the high cost, thus all kinds of companies are testing ways to create comfortable cold weather clothing. but as I have said, it also helps us stay at homes who simply want to keep warm without having to blow our home energy bills through the roof.

Tech fail-Where's instant heat for home?

With all the advances in technology over the recent past, one thing hasn't been done. A way to heat up the house in a short time. Now you living in the snow are welcome to curse me, but it took me an hour to get my house from 58° to 66°. That would be a major problem in a colder part of the country than Northern California. Still it's uncomfortable. I wonder about the possibility of instant on heat. Maybe it's a power issue. How much energy would be needed to heat up that fast?

This probably could be accomplished with microwaves. After all, cooking a meal in a Microwave oven takes much less time than a traditional one. Check the cooking times listed. A frozen fried chicken dinner takes 3-5 minutes in the microwave, but 45 minutes at 350° in a regular one.

The question would of course be, is it safe. This has always been a question with microwaves. But running my furnace for over an hour just so I don't freeze in my home doesn't seem like the best plan, plus causing my energy bill to skyrocket, especially at a time of year that has so many other bills (Christmas presents, entertaining, property tax).

I will be spending Thanksgiving in a house where the fireplace has a gas insert. Theses are expensive, but since I've been visiting my family at this house for over 30 years, I can tell you that the house is at least 10° warmer than when they were burning wood. So the technology should be out there to warm up homes faster & warmer than I am able to do.

Netflix to start streaming only service

Netflix wants to move to a streaming only system because of the cost of sending out DVD's. This would be fine if the selection was the same. I just spent a half an hour trying to find something to watch on my computer. The problem was 90% of the videos were unavailable.

So I'm supposed to spend over $100 for a Roku or Wii so I can stream from my computer to my TV, but the selection is only 10% of Netflix's DVD list. Uh not quite. Sorry, try again. Why would I do that. Most of the films available are either old, made for TV or 2nd rate re-makes. Yes there are some classics, but those are usually on TCM.

There is a claim that Netflix is making deals with the studios to get more on streaming video, but since I was on their site today I can tell you that is just not the case. The studios are fighting this tooth & nail. That's fine for now. I would much rather watch a movie on my TV anyway. And I don't see why I should put out an additional $100-200 for another device to transfer movies from my computer to my TV anyway.

Yes it costs them to ship out DVD's through the mail, especially since they pay for the shipping. But they are making a ton of money. Blockbuster declared bankruptcy because they couldn't compete with the convenience of DVD's coming in the mail. Not everyone has a computer that meets the requirements. For instance, I don't have the requirements to watch in HD. Most people don't. I suspect this won't change for a long time, & while high income people may be able to avail themselves of this deal, the rest of us will just have to wait...for our DVD's to come in the mail that is.

Satellite TV weather issues overblown

When I had Comcast I used to me amused by their commercials that made fun of people with satellite dishes. The one I remember had someone complaining that not only did the dish go out when it rained, but also (ha ha) when the dog sneezed! Of course they were being facectious.

Most of the time, there are no problems. In fact, in 5 years I remember my dish going out maybe twice, & neither were weather related. For instance, I had the TV on Saturday night for  maybe 3 hours after I got off work. Not until I turned it off to go to bed did i realize that not only was it raining, but it was raining really really hard. I have also watch it when the wind was really strong (another one of Comcast's supposed dish bugaboos).

I can't complain too much about my signal. As long as I can watch my shows I'm happy. Although I wish it had gone out yesterday afternoon so I wouldn't have had to endure the sickening display my Niners put on. Oh well.

The curse of the printer

So I have this HP printer that I've had for months, & this morning it didn't feel like doing it's job. Why? I have no idea. I have a little template that I use to print my shopping list. I do this every week. Never had a problem before. This morning I hit print apparently 6 times because it said I had 6 documents waiting but the printer was offline.

Offline? Why? I didn't launch Firefox this morning because I wasn't planning on using it. Why do i need to be on the web to print a document I'm writing? So I loaded it. Same thing. HP help. Worthless. Nothing about what to do when it won't print. Finally I rebooted the computer. Didn't launch Firefox or anything, but guess what? It started printing all those copies. WTF?

What is it with technology, that it can't "just work"? (Go away Linux fanboys) And why is so hard for Microsoft to have in it's help center some info for when something like this happens. I'm no genius, I need help when this happens.

Stumbling around the web

There is a website called Stumble Upon. It puts a toolbar on your browser & everytime you hit stumble it takes you to another random site. You make a list of things you are interested in, & that's how it edits itself.

I find that this site, while entertaining, probably comes across something interesting once every ten sites. Boy there's a lot of boring sites out there. Also a lot of photo sites that don't work that well (photos don't show up, or tracking doesn't). I have found some that were good, but the majority have nothing to offer. but that's the web in general. And it depends where you are. I'm sure people in other countries get to stumble other stuff than I do.

Technology causes two goal switch in NHL game

Hockey is a sport that relies on technology more than other sports. The reason is because scoring is more difficult to see than in any other sport. That's why the goal judge & the red light to announce a goal. But last night was a special case.

During the San Jose Sharks/Los Angeles Kings game, Ryan Smyth scored a goal, but the ref didn't see it so play continued. Torrey Mitchell had a breakaway that resulted in another goal. At this point the video goal judge looked at the previous play, realized Smyth had scored, rewarded him with a goal, & turned back the clock to the time when he scored. This meant Mitchell had technically not scored.

Mitchell admits that he thought Smyth had scored, but he doesn't get too many breakaway chances so he took it. The reversal meant that the score went from 4-1 Sharks to 3-2. The team could have reacted badly to this weird turn of events, but they didn't. Apparently most thought the first goal happened, so they kept playing & ended up winning 6-3.

Again, this is technology at work. It is harder to see a goal in that sport than any other because the puck might just squirt under the goalies pads, & no one will see it. this is a perfect example of that. In football it's using video to see if a receiver has both feet inbounds after a catch, or if a lost ball is a fumble or the QB was throwing an incomplete pass, or who recovered a fumble. During the World Cup, they shaded the goal area to show if a player was offsides.

So I am not against technology in sports. I do however object to refs who take forever to make a decision when it's clear what the result will be. That's just delaying the inevitable.

Rumor-Beatles on iTunes Tuesday

This has been a question for years. Why aren't the Beatles on iTunes, especially since Steve jobs is known to be a big fan? Has it been money, the lawsuits over Apple's name, the remaining Beatles not wanting their music downloadable? That's what I have always thought, but couldn't figure out why. "We're so important & special, why degrade our image by putting it on a site that sells Britney & Bieber". Well that's just silly.

Every other big group is available. The Stones, Zep & Elvis. So the point is moot. On the other hand, I have most of their recordings on CD, so it's no problem for me to put it on my iPod. But the fact is that iTunes is the biggest music retailer in this country, so having their music there would help sales of their catalog, especially since Beatle CD's still sell well.

I suspect that if this is announced tomorrow you will see large sales of albums & individual songs. I have every album from Rubber Soul on, except for Yellow Submarine because there were only four new songs. I would definitely download Hey Bulldog, a very good, lightly played song.

Server fails football fans

Technology is great for sports fans when it works. When it doesn't, it's frustrating. As a football fan, I like to go on a fan site for my team on game day to read the the fans are saying. that worked today for a half. then the server went down.

Not only did it go down, it never came back up. This is an issue. If your technology can't handle heavy traffic, then why bother having the site at all? After all, it shouldn't take a genius to figure out that you're going to have a lot of visitors during a game. There's an auto racing site I'm registered at where the fans complain about the same thing.

Come on people, don't be cheap with the equipment. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to have a certain level of service. A small local site doesn't have the traffic of say, ESPN. So no, it doesn't need the servers they have. but it still should be able to handle a large number of fans who want to discuss the game & the team. Otherwise we will go elsewhere.

My local paper had an article today about Google planning to build a new headquarters complex of 42 acres. Right now they have 17,000 workers in 65 buildings in Mountain View. The new complex will be at NASA & will be 1.2 M square feet. I don't think they will have server issues.

The website I'm talking about probably is one room in an office or someones house. With moderators all over the place. Some of the regulars live overseas. I think a certain degree of service should be expected.

Beautiful animated theme for Firefox

I have just installed a great theme on my browser. Oskar is a dark animated theme that I had at one time on Ubuntu, but never put on Windows. It's a wacky dark theme with flashing lights, multi colored panels & other assorted goodies.

This is why people like Firefox, because you can change it's look & feel. As I look at my browser right now, here's what I see. On the "awesome bar" because I have FF on the add-on page, on the left Mozilla Corporation (US) is in green, with it flashing. The tab for the page is in red, & the new tab plus sign has blue dots circling around the sign. The icon for the bookmarks toolbar on the sidebar is flashing.

I'm using Scribe Fire to post. On the right of the editor where it lists your blog, there's a green square surrounded by a bigger green square. It is, of course, flashing. If I click "posts", it becomes a dark blue page with the posts listed in white. If I go to the top of the page & click bookmarks they are listed with flashing blue arrows to send you to the next directory. In fact all the drop down menus on the menu toolbar do that. This is just a beautiful, georgeous theme. The developer is russian & it's the 2nd most downloaded theme for Firefox. You think?

science, technology

Online video fails for no reason

The new thing is to claim that people will stop subscribing to cable & watch everything online. This only works if the format works. I tried today to watch two different college games on ESPN 3. Both froze up for no reason.

Now I am a regular viewer of ESPN 3. I have never had this happen before. The reason I do this is that I work on Saturdays, so this is the only way I have to watch college ball. I watch a game every week. Today it failed. First i tried to watch Nebraska-Iowa State. I saw about two minutes before it started freezing up. So I switched to Oregon-Washington, a rivalry game with the #1 team in the nation. Made it until the end of the first half, then it froze twice within two minutes.

News flash to Disney: I am not going to watch your video if this becomes a regular issue. I have a brand new computer with plenty of memory (4GB) & plenty of speed (3.07 MHZ), so it's not the computer, especially since my previous computer with only 768 MB & a 2GHZ processor didn't have this issue. It just had a blurry picture.

And BTW Microsoft, why did you make it so hard to find the defragger in Windows 7? It was on the quick launch bar in XP. I had to go in the explorer search box & type it in to find it. Why do that? I like 7, & especially like that Windows Explorer can be launched from the task bar, but don't hide important programs.

Tech around the house

I don't have a Plasma or LCD tv. And I have no interest in a 3D tv (not much being made). I don't have a digital camera either, although I would like one. But this is what i do have, & why.

I have a computer obviously. With cheap $10 speakers that don't always work. This means, thanks to the internet, I can watch David Letterman & Craig Ferguson at a reasonable time. It means I can watch college football games on Mondays, since I work on Saturdays. And catch some shows that were on at the same time as something else that I was watching. And I can inform myself by reading websites like Huffington Post, Lifehacker & others.

I have an ipod nano. Yeah, I only have 300+ songs on it. But it's still easier than loading & unloading my cd player, just to listen to songs by multiple artists on several different cd's. I also listen to podcasts, either on my ipod or directly from the website.

I have a microwave. Since I get home from work so late, this is a godsend. TV dinners are obvious. But on my days off, I will cook a meal, & place it in plastic containers so when I get home I can just heat up the meal. I have two different soups in the fridge right now. I'm good till Friday with those. After i get off the computer I'm going to make some chicken, then place it it in the fridge, again for this week (I don't go back to work until tomorrow).

Hooked up to my tv (a 25", yeah I know) is a cheap home theater-$50 at Walmart several years ago. This gives me stereo sound for regular tv, & also sound for my stereo. I also can hook my ipod to it. I would like a DVD player that can play DVD-R discs. Right now I don't burn DVD's on my computer because nothing can play them. Boo, hiss. I would love to burn games off of ESPN 3 or itunes downloads of the podcast I listen to every week (it would be cool to see TWIT on my tv, & CFB on my 18" monitor is ok, but just barely).

I have an answering machine that I use to monitor calls. Most calls I get are sales pitches, or the last month annoying election pitches. Great way to avoid nonsense. I use to answer all my calls, but have you ever tried to get a telemarketer off the phone? They don't understand the words "I"m not interested".

As you can see, I'm not a geek. Not that much stuff, & not planning to. No smartphone. What would I use it for? Would I like a big tv? Yup. But it ain't gonna happen. Just like winning the lottery won't either.

Antivirus issues

Sometimes my anti-virus software doesn't want to work. This is a problem since this is the most important thing on there to protect it. But since updating to the current version it seems like it doesn't like to do the automatic updates.

What is it with software? This is hardly the only program out there with issues. Example number one is, of course, itunes. A program known to corrupt your library & actually lose all your files. I'm sure there are others. This is not just an Apple problem. My anti-virus is a freebie from Germany. But I'm sure the pay programs from here have similar issues as do Microsoft programs, & since I have experience, I know that Linux has it's own set of issues.

I don't like to complain & I'm sure no one else does. But why are there so many problems associated with software? I just used Microsoft Excel starter (a free version that came with my new computer) to balance my checkbook. I even printed it out. Works just fine. Why can't everything be like that?

South Korea to have 1Gb broadband

The average right now in South Korea is 12Mbps. My connection speed is 1.5 which is the main speed my provider sells. A 100Mbps subscription costs $19 a month in South Korea, which includes internet tv. I pay $40 a month for my slow speed. But hey, that's the market in the USA. And the Republicans want to kill net neutrality because it doesn't enrich them.

I am not surprised that we are behind the rest of the world in something. But the internet? Now I don't need massively fast speeds, because I rarely download anything. But it probably affects the way my computer works. This is a new computer with a processor 50% faster than my previous, & I can't tell that it's much faster. Except that video is smooth rather than choppy, & it doesn't freeze up like the old computer did. But websites don't appear to be any faster.

The only time I have super fast speed is when I run Ubuntu off a USB stick. Because of course, I'm using flash memory, not the hard drive, which has to spin & whirr, while running all the programs Windows has. Thus, the processor speed isn't that important. So I don't think my processor is that important for that, & I don't think 1Gbps would improve on that. And frankly the ISP's in this country wouldn't be charging $19/month like South Korea, try $100 minimum. If that fact doesn't change we will remain behind the world.

Windows Snipping tool-Another way to copy

With my new computer I'm trying to find ways to use the programs that come with Windows 7. Last night I used something I hadn't even thought about. I wanted to copy a song list off itunes music store, but couldn't figure out how. So I went to my Windows 7 book, which mention the Windows Snipping Tool.

This is a little program that allows you to copy a page or part of a page, & then do one of a number of things. You can e-mail it, or paste it in another program. Or in my case, I sent the page to documents, after which I was able to print the page.

This worked great, because when i tried to print directly from itunes, it was way too large & cut off part of the page. How it works is you use your cursor to draw a line around what content you want to copy. then you print it. Actually that didn't work so well. But there are multiple options. The rectangular snip didn't work for me, but the window snip was perfect. It captured the full page at the right size, was readable, & I will probably use it again. I would be interested in how an e-mail would work, or how i would use this tool to paste it into, say a Word document.

For all the talk about Mac, I think this is a nice little helper, & I am already thinking of something else I could use it for. There are other programs I should use, but maybe I don't know about them yet. It's just nice to know there is something that helps we non-geeks in using our computers to a greater degree.

The problem with streaming video

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The new way to watch video is supposed to be online. Not DVD rentals. While it sounds good, it really doesn't work that well depending on your hardware & the streaming service you use.

I use Netflix. While streaming seems to be the way the site does it in Canada, in the USA the amount of movies is very limited. I'm not really interested in 10 year old movies I barely remember, or straight to video productions. This seems to be what they offer to us. Or you watch 30 year old or more films. Some which are classics (Bonnie & Clyde, Lawrence of Arabia), but still. Those will show up on TCM or somewhere else.

And yet this is supposed to be the wave of the future. Again: What if you don't have good enough hardware? Am I supposed to spend extra money on a Roku box just to watch movies? Ain't gonna happen. I have watched some on my computer. Fine. But why watch on a small monitor instead of a full size tv?

In some cases technology seems to be going backwards while appearing to go forward. I just want to watch something. I shouldn't have to go through hoops.

When a website sells smaller qty's than store

You want to think that it's convenient to go in a store & see the item you want to buy rather than buy online without seeing it. Not always the case. I went in a store that just opened up in my local mall that sells specialty teas. Get this: loose leaf in large quantities. They, of course, try to sell you special containers & fancy tea kettles & services.


Now I go on their website & low & behold, I can buy the tea in reasonable quantities. You know, like 20 cups. Different types are at different prices like white tea costing more than black tea & herbals costing yet a different price (gotta love that). But I can handle say $6 for some type of tea as opposed to the physical store selling a pound for $20-30.


This is because people will buy on the spur of the moment when in the store. Especially now that we're getting close to the holidays (fancy Christmas gift). Who is going to think "I wonder what their website has"? Me, I say, "no I ain't paying that for tea when i can go to Target & pay $3 for 20 bags of Bigelow or Tazo", which I did.

Sony Walkman discontinued on ipod's birthday

I was shocked, shocked I tell you to read that Sony is killing off the Walkman! They still make it? And they're doing it on the 9th anniversary of the ipod's birth. How ironic. And get this. I just went in my bedroom & I still have it. It's sitting on a shelf on a tv cart, & hasn't been turned on in years. I just pushed some dust aside, found the on switch, clicked it & the radio still works!! How long have the batteries been in that thing?

So say what you will about not progressing. I mean it's a cassette player with a radio in a mp3 world. But after years it still works. That's amazing. Of course it was going to go under eventually. How many cassettes would get eaten up, plus the pain of rewinding just so you could take the tape out, flip it over to listen to the other side. Not to mention how do you find a specific song.

So yeah, it's surprising that it lasted this long. But then again, I still have a VCR. Yes I have a DVD player, but not a DVR. At least not yet. The Walkman changed the way people listened to music, but it was never perfect. You could only listen to one tape (an album's worth) at a time. My ipod is an 8GB nano, & I have probably 10 full cd's on it. And some time in the future it will be replaced by something that hasn't been created yet.

Will high tech ever come to household chores?

Today I did two things that everyone has to do sometimes. I vacuumed my house & did the laundry. And while I sit here at my computer I have a thought. It's 2010. Why am I still cleaning the carpets & my clothes the same way my mother & grandmother did? Yes, I could splurge & buy a Roomba & maybe a super speed washer/dryer, but the technology is basically the same.

Yeah, the Roomba is a fun idea. Program it, & get out of the way. Let it run around the house picking up dirt. Of course, I don't know how good this thing actually is. Do I have to use a regular vacuum to pick up what it didn't? How about the washer/dryer. Why hasn't that been redesigned. Like something that can wash with little water (maybe steam or a non-water based detergent product), & then a fast drying application. Why the same system as 50 years ago?

Cooking has changed (microwaves anyone?), cars (hybrids, electrics), mail (e-mail), but these two everyday or , at least once a week, haven't & I wonder if they ever will. Where is the genius who will really change our lives for the better?

Are $200 headphones that much better than $30 ones?

When I got my ipod it came with the standard cheap Apple earbuds. the sound wasn't that great (although I'm no audiophile), plus I have one ear with a bigger opening than the other meaning flat earbuds like Apple's don't like to stay in.

So I spent months looking online for better buds. I looked at a lot of sites at a lot of reviews of a lot of earbuds. On ear, in ear, headphones (sorry, but those just look dumb). I checked out all the different brands & all different price points from $10 to $100. I really didn't want to spend more than $50, but I looked.

I wanted ones with legitimate bass, & realistic sound. I ended up getting some $30 Sony in-ear buds. I've had them for several months, & was using them this afternoon to listen to some classical music. These are nice. Are they as good as really expensive ones? I have no idea. but then again, I said I wasn't an audiophile. Heck, I have a $50 home theater from Walmart, so what do I know?

The point is, you can charge anything & claim your product is superior because of this or that. Most people can't tell the difference, because it's not their job to look for tiny little flaws. I can't go into Target or Best Buy & tell the difference between the $800 & $2000 big screen either. But because of the money involved, I will study & investigate through Cnet, Consumer Reports, & any other media that reviews products.  It was months of looking before I bought my new computer.

The biggest problem imho is there is just too many choices, even within the same brand. I don't like having to spend months just deciding what earphones, speakers, or tv to buy. but that's the reality so I deal with it. As does everybody else. But how much money is wasted by companies making so many different models that all do the same thing?

Why touchscreen voting failed

Sometime this week I will vote in the general election. What's that you say?  The election isn't until November 2. Yes, but like a majority of Californians, I am a permanent vote-by-mail voter.

The June primary saw 57% vote by mail. Over 6 million are registered as permanent voters this way. Why has this happened? Because of all the nonsense that has gone on since the 2000 election. Touchscreens were thrown out of California & other states because of problems. Like clicking on one candidates name, & it picking the one next to it. The ability to hack the machines. Glitches like one in Ohio this year, where the machines simply stopped working.

And, of course, the CEO of Diebold, which has since changed it's name, saying he wanted to deliver states to George Bush. Ooops. So in this case, technology failed badly. So back to paper ballots. Although many foreign countries are using these discredited machines. Internet voting will never happen for the same reason. They use it in Switzerland, where they get passwords through the mail. Estonia uses a half-assed system. A national identity card with a chip that gets you to the online ballot. but you can only use it on the official advanced voting day. Otherwise you have to go to a polling station on election day. That's kind of odd.

I would like to see a more modern system, but obviously we tried, but it didn't work. Computers can have glitches. the makers of these devices clearly didn't watch closely enough to make sure they were totally secure, & hackers are always out there, along with dishonest people.

Smart Meters & the internet

Several months ago PG&E installed a smart meter at my place. This has been a big controversy in California with customers complaining of their bills skyrocketing after the meters were installed. It appears that in some cases, the meters were inaccurately counting heavy usage where there wasn't any. Also they seem to interfere with things like radios & baby monitors.

I'm happy to say that mine hasn't done any of that. my bill hasn't changed at all. Plus I get to log on to my account & see what my usage is. This is good. Of course they say see when you use the most & change your ways. Well, what I see is what I would expect.

What I mean is that the two times that my usage escalates quite a lot is exactly when I already knew it would. Sunday afternoons & Wednesday afternoons. Why? Because those are the two times during the week that I do laundry. That's right. When I run the washing machine & the dryer. And yes. The chart online shows heavier usage on Sunday. That's because I have more to dry. Meaning on Sunday I run the dryer 2 times to dry everything while on Wednesday I have less, therefore I only run the dryer once.

And the other time it's high is after 6PM. Hmmm. Dinner anyone? But only at the beginning of the week, because that's when I use the oven. Since I get home after 7 on work days, I only use the microwave, & that shows.

Now other people can use this chart to actually change the way they do things, so that's good. It doesn't effect me too much. Now when winter comes & I start using my furnace, then maybe I can try something different. But for now I have to say that i am glad the smart meter hasn't killed me with jacked up prices.

Music & the Internet

I have lately been thinking about putting some classical music on my ipod. I want to have a alrge selection of different types of music. Yes, i am a rock fan first, but unlike the youth of today, I have no problem listening to other types of music. There are actually classical pieces I like.

The problem is finding stuff online. Yes, i could just go to itunes. But here's the problem. Huge number of albums, with an excessive playlist. Do I really need a download with 50 or 100 different pieces, most which I have never heard of? Remember, we are talking about probably 3-4 hours worth of music. Yes, the price of some of these collections is small ($7 in the case of "50 greatest classical", or whatever it's called).

So I go online. There are many websites devoted to classical downloads. But the selection is limited & you get the same problem as with itunes. Another way is to go to YouTube, & listen to some pieces. Then you get to decide what you like. Then you can go to itunes & buy the pieces. Of course, this costs more than buying one of the albums for sale there. but again, do I need 4 hours of music, maybe by lesser performers. I want the music being performed by the best artists, because they interpret the classical music the best.

I guess I can go to a used cd store (there are 2 big ones 20 minutes from my home), & see what they have, but the internet should do a better job.

Digital confusion

I was in a big box store today looking at, well, a number of things. I originally went there to look at cd's (you remember those don't you?), but they have cut their selection in half. So I started looking at stereos with ipod docks. What I do is plug mine into my sound system. But it's a hassle, because I have to take out the ear buds & plug in the cable for the speakers. I don't like having to do this. This is because my stereo is old enough that it doesn't have a dock. But spending $150 is not something I want to do just now.

So the person is telling me , yeah you can do this, but don't keep the ipod in or it will continually charge, eventually wearing out the battery. Which is not only a bad idea, but Apple makes it worse by not letting you change the battery yourself. (Why do they insist on locking the case? Every other battery using device lets you replace the battery. Sigh).

Then I start looking at digital cameras. This is because the holidays are coming up, & all though my family takes lots of photos, I never get any. I am not going to bring my 20 year old Nikon SLR to a family gathering. Yes, it's a nice camera, but it's also a pain to carry around.

But digital cameras are a problem. So many choices & varieties. 10 mp, 12 mp. Some use AA batteries, some use rechargeable batteries. Some have 3X zoom, some 4X. Some have HD capability, some don't. And they don't come with any memory, so you have to buy a memory card for them, & of course, you have to find out just what kind fits in that particular camera. Why is this necessary? It's like printers not coming with the cable needed to connect to the computer. Just common sense.

The digital world is great, but some of the devices are a problem because different manufacturers are responsible for different things that make the device work. I guess people are getting used to this, but they shouldn't have to.

New anti-virus initiative

A british firm wants to start a new way to fight computer viruses. The head of the company used to work for McAfee. The problem is, of course, that anti-virus software reacts after finding a virus on your machine, rather than stopping all from attaching to begin with. The reason is that new viruses & malware are created every day (60,000 a day according to a BBC article).

The idea is to install a program that logs when something is put on your computer, & tell you when the virus was fixed. I'm confused. Isn't this what they do anyway? Well, other than the fact that you have to run the program yourself. I guess because anti-virus software will go after a known virus, rather than finding a new one , & creating a fix for it. I guess that's an improvement, but it still isn't as fast as I would like.

What I actually think should happen is what I said earlier: block viruses from ever getting on the machine. I used to have a spyware blocker on my old computer, but never put it on my new machine, because it only blocked spyware on IE. I use Firefox, so what's the point? Now I use Malwarebytes & have no issues. But again, what will it take to create something like that for viruses, & shouldn't it be built in on every computer?

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years because this problem is getting bigger, & the bad guys are not getting caught.

What is a download?

There are a lot of websites that offer free downloads of media. What is amazing is the the number of sites that misuse the term. I have found several sites, including Twittv (which should know better), that seemed confused by the term.

Download implies that you are copying a file to your hard drive. This means that you can access the content without needing to be online at the time. But TWIT & other sites I have been on mean something different. Namely click download & the file starts playing. It doesn't go on your computer. it is simply streaming audio, usually with Quicktime as the media player. Again, this means to play it you have to be online, using a browser. That is not a download. I don't need to be online to play music that's in my itunes library.

So I'm confused. Are these sites deliberately misusing the term to get listeners, or are they unaware of the proper terminology? Maybe the thought is that non-techies don't understand the meaning of streaming, but if that's the case, a short description belongs on the site, & TWIT shouldn't at all, since it is a tech site.

With the number of people using computers & smartphones today to access media, correct terminology is neccessary so as not to turn people off. I don't want to have to go to multiple sites to find something just because the wrong word is being used to describe what the site does or offers.

The terror of captcha's

I was trying to submit this blog to Bing, but came across that internet terror known as a captcha. This is that silly little box with a word in an almost unrecognizable form that you have to put in a box & submit before the site will accept your site or whatever. The problem is, of course what I said. Sometimes you can't figure out what the word is.

Yes, I understand that they are trying to keep bots from submitting stuff, but if you make the captcha unreadable, then you have thrown out legitimate sites. I had to submit this blog 3 times before Bing allowed it. Why? Because I couldn't figure out all the letters. That's a problem. Because I want this blog searchable on all engines, not just Google. That increases the chances of someone coming across it.

Right now this is only being read by a few people. None more than once. I want that to change.

Internet Explorer use below 50%

According to StatCounter, IE's market share fell in September to 49.87%, almost a 10% drop from last year. This despite the fact that most businesses insist on using it. My company not only uses IE, they use IE6, which now has only 5% share. But then again, my company uses a combination of XP & Windows 2000!

Unfortunately, if you have a Windows machine, you will have IE on it because it is built in. I actually have IE8 & when IE9 comes out I will update, because it will be more secure, & you need it for Windows Update. But I do use Firefox 99% of the time. And it's share has finally gone up to 31.5%, with Google Chrome up to 11.54%.

Chrome's figures are remarkable. It's only been out what? Two years, maybe? I'm guessing it will eventually compete with Firefox for 2nd place, although I am not that big a fan of it. Yeah, it's faster, but not as configurable as Firefox, & I'm not sure it works as well, or shows sites as well, which is also Opera's main problem. That's why that browser, which created most of the stuff that Firefox has as add-ons, has a tiny share (2%).

Yet there are still websites written for IE, that cause me to use it because the site doesn't load properly in FF. Hopefully that will change. FF4 will be coming soon, with a Chrome like UI, & apparently a lot faster. Then the real browser war will begin when IE9 releases.

Why I don't listen to the radio

I used to listen to the radio a lot. But after many decades I just got tired of all the commercials. Plus, why is every station in a commercial at the same time? That's silly. Plus, even in an area as big as the bay area, seemingly the 50 or so stations are playing only probably 3 or 4 different formats. So the only time I listen to any station is on my days off. And then it's before I get up, & I listen to Stephanie Miller's syndicated liberal political/comedy show.

Right now, while I'm writing this, I'm listening to internet radio on itunes. Big R Radio's the Wave. Yes, an 80's new wave station. Yeah, I'm 57, but I love that stuff. Try finding it on over the air radio. Or Jazz or Classical. Or anything that isn't the same 20 songs played endlessly. And unlike satellite radio, where you have to spend lots of money for the equipment to listen to it, all you need for internet radio is a connection & a computer or a portable device with internet access & sound. Much preferable.

Now most of the time I don't even do that. Usually I just listen to my ipod. Then I know I will like everything. But then you just here the same songs. (OK-they're playing My Sharona now. Heck I hear that at work, but you get my point). I do need more songs on my ipod.

Where are computers going?

I ask this because nobody talks about computers anymore. At least not in the traditional sense. Reading tech blogs & listening to podcasts like This Week in Tech & Tech News Today. It's all about smartphones & tv devices like the Roku & Boxee & Apple TV & the upcoming Google TV, which BTW, has no deals with any network. Yeah, I'll rush out to get that.

I feel like I'm behind the times because my high tech buy this year was a new desktop. Apparently I'm the only one who has bought one. Can't understand why every computer maker hasn't gone out of business. But, of course, this is just how the tech media treats it. They only want to talk about these small portable devices.

Yes a lot of people bought ipads, & every other company is going to bring out their version before Christmas. But if you actually want to use it for work, you need a computer, not a tablet. Not an iphone or Android device. Too small. Try writing & reading something that small for several hours. Ain't gonna happen.

Heck, I want a DVR, but because of the economy, & more to the point, my personal economy, it's not gonna happen. So I watch my shows on a 25" tube tv, & watch Letterman online a week after the fact (Dear CBS-Why?). A digital camera? Maybe. The little prepaid cell phone I have has a camera, but it doesn't have a zoom, so picture taking is limited. And my Nikon SLR that I haven't used in years is just too big to carry around. Funny how digitals look like the old snap photo cameras of decades ago. New tech that looks like tech from 50 years ago. Isn't that funny?

My ipod? Haven't downloaded any music in quite a while. Just putting my own cd's on it. Pay for the junk produced now? No thanks.

Facebook? I went on there to promote this blog. Yeah, a few people are reading it, but I'm not gonna brag about one guy in South Africa or whoever in Canada read it last week. So I just keep looking at what's going on, & doing what I can.

Old tech fail or Why is my Mcdonald's backwards?

I'm not sure this was a mistake or someone thought this was a good idea. They tore down the McDonald's 2 blocks from my house so they could build a new "better" one. First of all, it doesn't look any bigger, but here's the thing. Did the contractor look at the blueprints upside down?

What do I mean? It's on a major crosstown boulevard, but the entrance is in the back. Huh? The drive-thru is in the front, parallel to Blossom Hill Road. The outside patio is on the right, with a small one door entrance. In the back is a parking lot with the main entrance.

Mind you, there's a high school 2-3 blocks away. Think they might walk there? Plus, it didn't need a separate parking lot because it's in a shopping center with a very large lot supporting a CVS, & several restaurants.

So what's the tech? Why they designed it this way. Again, it's no bigger than the one they tore down. The old one had a kid's playground, this one doesn't. The old one didn't have a drive-thru, this one does, so I guess that's an improvement. But why spend the money if you are not improving? Yeah, people had jobs for a while to build it, but they're gone now.

Any time you do something, it needs to be moving forward. The Jack in the Box a block away is small (remodeled but that's all), but it has a kiosk inside, so you can place an order without having to wait for the next order taker to get to you. That's actually kind of cool. But most fast food restaurants don't do anything to move things along. Or most restaurants period. The most high tech thing is the little buzzers some places give you to tell you when your order is ready.

I don't think it's a backlash against technology. I just don't think the designers think about it. There needs to be a new system to create more convenience for people, but someone will always be against it, or not even think of it.

Online grocery lists

So I decided "instead of just jotting down what i need, why don't I find a site that makes more professional looking lists?" So that's what i did. There were several on the first page of results alone. I looked at several different ones, didn't like how some of them looked. A couple had pre-set templates, which were way too small, with too many items, & others would let you check items.


That's what I eventually went with. Scroll down the list of items until you found what you needed, & make a checkmark. OK. Items separated by type (breakfast,frozen,meat,etc.). Looks fine so far. But when you print it up, it's in really small type, hard to read. So I (thinking logically) zoomed in a couple of times to make it larger, then printed again. Guess what? Same size!

The internet can be good for some things, but apparently printing grocery lists isn't one of them. I don't understand the concept of not making it readable. I guess i could just create my own list using Word, where i could control the font size, but shouldn't these websites be doing this? I guess most people just write it down. I just wanted something that looked better, & where I wouldn't overlook something (which happened last week causing me to have to go back to the same store the next day).

Maybe Steve will create the ilist for the ipad to use at the all new igrocery (LOL), but that doesn't help me. 

Dish loses channels like Directv last year

This is nothing new. Last year I had to suffer the loss of Versus, meaning I missed the end of the IndyCar season, & the entire NHL season. It was the same nonsense as Dish is getting now. And for the same reason. In this case Fox is trying to get a 50% increase in fees from Dish to carry their channels, which include NatGeo, FX, & 19 regional sports channels.

This will continue to happen. Every year this happens. Last year it was Directv, before that it was Cablevision or was it Time Warner? Remember New Yorkers getting ABC part way into the Oscars? Meanwhile Fox is telling subscribers to switch to Directv or cable. Remember, the NFL is on the over the air network & that will be next. They will go after Directv next, when that contract is up. Switching providers is not the answer. Fox is the problem.

HBO doesn't understand technology

So I tried to look at the "inside the episode" videos for Boardwalk Empire on HBO.com. Not good. You would think that a network that spends $20M on the 1st episode of a new series could spend 5¢ on their website. None of the videos would play. They would start, then just freeze up & move to the next video without my choosing it. Oh, BTW, it's not my computer because I watched a movie on Netflix this afternoon. Worked just fine. Never froze or anything.


I find that certain websites have issues with video. Slideshows seem to work fine, but the people designing the sites don't seem to understand how to put video up. Maybe they should talk to the You Tube people. I don't understand it, but I'm not a tech geek. Just a guy who likes to view video online. Heck today I watched River of No Return w/Marilyn Monroe (Hey Netflix, want to get some newer films on your streaming platform), & then Jon Stewart interviewing loudmouth Bill O'Reilly on Comedy Central's website. And later I'll probably watch Letterman on CBS' website.  But I'm not an expert on video, I expect the webmasters to be.

Is Putin reading this?

One of the things I like to do is keep track of where the readers of this blog are. Blogger Stats will list the countries where readers are from, & StatCounter will actually list the ISP. So today it has two listings from Investelektrosviaz Ltd in Moscow. How very interesting!  One view at 6:55 AM, & another at 8:19 AM.

So almost an hour and a half apart, someone in Moscow was on this blog. The funny thing is one of my counters had a direct link, but when I went on it, it was simply a Russian search engine. And my blog wasn't there. Maybe it was on another page, but I didn't feel like going through multiple pages looking for it. Strange. Possibly a robot search that somehow came up with this site. FeedBurner always has bots listed as hits on this blog. Hmmm.


OK, I would like to think that people in other countries are reading this, but Russia also has a reputation of being the Wild Wild West of internet crime. And both searches were of my post on not being able to download podcasts on my ipod. I wonder if this is an issue in Russia? Does Steve Jobs know about this? Will the government be bugging me? Gawd, I hope not!

I guess I will have to keep track of this. Besides I want as many readers as possible. Ego you know. That's why I registered with FaceBook, so those people would see it to. Everyone else, check where you're readers are coming from. Could be quite enlightening.


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Ubuntu fails again.

This morning while watching the Niners game, or at least as much as I could stomach, I was on 49ers Webzone, the top fansite. I was using Ubuntu rather than Windows. What a bad decision. I find myself using Ubuntu much less than before because it just doesn't do the job. Case in point, the horribly slow inability to surf through pages of a website that Windows 7 doesn't seem to have issues with.

I find it curious that the fanboys are still out there praising their great and almighty competitor. While an open source operating system is a good idea in theory, the reality is Linux will never be mainstream until it can handle the little things. I've used it to surf before, & it was ok, but as time goes by, you realize that Linux & especially Ubuntu is just not capable enough to do the job.

I would like to be able to choose what OS I use for certain projects or applications, but the reality is that, when you just want to get something done quickly without thinking, you have to use Windows.

Blockbuster files Chapter 11

Last week Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. This is big news, but hardly a shock. Netflix is king of DVD rentals now, & Redbox is moving up. I haven't been in a Blockbuster store in a year at least, & there's one a block from my house. It's just so much easier to go online, look through the lists, pick a movie or two & just wait for it to come in the mail.

There is also streaming. But that still isn't as good, mainly because Netflix still has only a small number of films available that way. Mostly older films, & by older, I mean 10 years at least. As for Redbox, again a small selection. Also, not much different than Blockbuster, in that you have to return the DVD to the kiosk the next day. So even though it's cheaper than Blockbuster, & depending on which Netflix subscription you have, cheaper than them, you still have to physically go to a location to return the DVD, unlike Netflix, where you just drop it in the mail, or watch on your computer, or on a special box.

I may not use Blockbuster any more, but I will be sad to see them go, which will eventually happen. It was convenient & somewhat fun to walk through a store looking at all the movies they have. One little complaint about Netflix is you don't get the DVD box. And not the special features if they're on a separate disc.

One interesting item is that Blockbuster is not facing the same difficulties in Australia. I'm guessing DVD's by mail is not available there. Not sure why, but even in Canada Netflix streams but doesn't mail discs. Could be a legal issue that will eventually be solved.



 

Late night tv's robot sidekick

There have been a lot of sidekicks on late night tv. Ed McMahon, Paul Schaffer, Kevin Eubanks, Andy Richter. But Craig Ferguson has the strangest. An actual mechanical talking robot.

Maybe you haven't seen this. After all, Ferguson's show comes on after David Letterman, at 12:30 AM. But thanks to the glories of the internet, I have been able to watch his show online. The first time I saw it, my first thought was "this has to be a guy dressed up". So I looked it up on Wikipedia. Nope, it's a real robot. And it was designed by Grant Imahara of my favorite informational show, Discovery Channel's Mythbusters.

This thing is incredible. It's a plastic skeleton with batteries & control boards. The skeleton head moves left & right, & one arm moves up & down. And because the show comes on after midnight, it does questionable things, like , well, masturbating. The eyes light up & it plays mp3 files. Those are the various pre-recorded phrases it says.

The robot's name is "Geoff Peterson", & he is funnier than Daves sidekick. Sorry, never thought Paul Schaffer was all that funny. According to Wikipedia & Popular Mechanics it originally had 7 phrases. That has changed, & now it has a lot of different statements. The Popular Mechanics article says Craig pushes a button on his desk to get "Geoff" to speak. It's hilarious. I was dying watching the show on my computer last night. Just hysterical. Amazing what technology can do, or what it will be used for.

Technology in the media

When was the last time you watched a tv show or movie that didn't have someone using a cell phone or a computer? I can't remember. It's everywhere. Some of it is just exposition, some of it is just a way to get lines for an actor. Some of it is just strange.

I just watched Angels & Demons. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm behind. Anyway a movie about "the illuminati" for some reason opens at the great hadron collider. Really Mr Brown? Steal anti-matter to blow up the Vatican? This should be in Star Trek. Last night I watched the new version of Hawaii 5-0. (Was this necessary?) Cell phones & explosions. Not a part of the original. Well at least Boardwalk Empire can't do that since the 20's wasn't exactly full of that stuff.

Then there's sports. My team, the San Jose Sharks, several years ago started having it's assistant coach carry a laptop on the bench. This way he could look at plays after the fact, to see what happened, & I suppose to draw up new plays. Ah, Silicon Valley.

Movies have been using computer animation for years. The reason Lord of the Rings wasn't filmed until 2000 was because there was no way to film it & not have it look ridiculous. CGI changed that. The problem is there is too much of it. It's laziness, & that's why there aren't many serious films anymore. Even films we don't think of as special effects films actually are.

The newspaper & book industries are changing, & I don't think for the better. I like having a newspaper in my hand. I'm not going to spend $500-$800 for an ipad, so I can read the paper through an app. Books are e-books now. One problem. If something happens to the device, I lose the book. If it's an actual book, it will always exist, maybe fade, but it will be there. Young people don't understand this. Makes me an "old fogey". Not really. Obviously I have a computer, & obviously I'm blogging. I just like having physical copies of stuff.

I wonder what will happen in the future. Books & magazines can't get viruses. Watching tv on my computer? Yeah I do it a little. Dave Letterman & Craig Ferguson because they come on so late. College football because I work on Saturdays. But that's it. Wikipedia because there's a lot of good articles on there, & podcasts because commercial radio is the pits. Wonder what will be next?

What's wrong with this picture?

So I go into Target today looking to buy some coffee filters for my 5 cup maker. A machine that, mind you, I bought at Target. Couldn't find any. So I ask one of the guys who's doing some kind of inventory, & he uses his scanner because the filters have a listing on the shelf. He looks it up and discovers, low & behold, the 4-6 cup filters have been discontinued!

So let me get this straight. You sell the small coffee maker, but not the filters for it. Uh, OK. Whatever. We have the technology to sell these, but we're not going to. Makes sense to me. LOL. This is like when I bought my printer. It is supposed to connect to my computer, but doesn't come with a cable to do that. Could we get these companies to get their act together?

This would be like selling a car that requires a tire size that nobody sells. Or a tv without a coaxial cable or the ability to connect to cable or satellite. Decisions are made that harm the public or even the company making the decision. Like I am now going to have to find the filters at the grocery store or a competitor like Wal Mart. Nice job.

The secret scanner

Since this is a new computer, I like to make sure it is secure. That is why I run Firefox with No Script, Ad Block Plus & Cookie Monster. To make sure bad stuff doesn't get on my system. That's also why I have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on my computer.

My computer also comes with, already built in Windows defender, a Microsoft program. But for some reason, this is a under-the-hood program that doesn't show up on my desktop, & supposedly runs a daily scan at 2AM. Just one problem with that. It is of course assuming that I never turn off my computer. That is incorrect. I know that a lot of people do that, but i don't like that idea.

I don't want programs running at night while I'm asleep, or while I'm out of the house. Maybe a truck drives by, or there's an earthquake that causes the machine to go completely on. That's electricity wasted. Plus, that makes it easier for someone to gain access to my system. Plus by shutting down, the RAM gets to reboot. Right now, I'm down 500 MB because I've had the machine on for 4 hours (I've been watching a college football game on ESPN's website). Once I shut down, the next time I turn it on, I'll be back up to 3GB.

So why does Microsoft do it this way. You used to have to manually start Defender, which I think is a better system. I just ran a quick scan. It was the first scan done in two months because of it's 2AM system. I don't have any issues, I just wonder why they do it this way.

The technology of shaving

We've had hundreds of years to come up with a solution, but have failed to. What exactly is the problem? Simple. Why the heck can't I buy a can of shaving creme that's good till the bottom? Instead, half way through the can it becomes shaving milk. Now I'm sure there is some reasonable explanation involving air pressure or gas or some other thing, but i can't figure out what it is.

Or maybe I can. Could it be that it isn't a problem after all. that maybe the companies purposely make the cans do this so you will have to buy another can? Kind of like how razor blades have a short life, so you have to buy more. And have you noticed how blades are a lot more expensive than they used to be?

This isn't actually technology at work, but rather marketing. The same as Apple changing the look, size & function of ipods every year. Or tv going from tubes to flat screens to 3D. I mean, does anyone really need a 3D tv? Especially when they need those stupid glasses. And why after 60 years do you still need those glasses?

Playing with the iwatch

Yeah, I said the iwatch. I saw this at the Apple store near my house. The 6th generation ipod nano is the size of a wristwatch. Why? Who knows. It's now almost as small as a shuffle, although it holds the same amount of music as before. The price has, of course, gone up. This, despite the fact that the new nano does less than mine, which is 2 generations old. No click wheel, no video, meaning no games. Can you use it as a hard drive? Not sure. How about a stop watch. Not sure.

I was playing with it, or rather trying to. I couldn't figure out how to use it. The one thing it has that I wish mine had was an actual on-off button. Until now you had to hold down the pause button, then lock the hold button. Stupid. The problem is, once I figured that out, I still couldn't figure out how you scroll through the menus. It seemed to be very limited it what you could do, as opposed to the previous ones which have a multitude of menus.

Here's my thought. Last year, before the unveiling of the 2010 line, rumors were that the classic would be dumped, & the nano would become the main line. Didn't happen. Now it seems clear that Jobs & company want the ipod Touch to be the standard. So why not make the nano less attractive. Eventually the line goes away, & you're left with the classic & the touch. More money anyway, unless you decide to lower the price on the touch, & I'm not sure they're going to do that.

Me, I like my refurbished nano. I don't have a lot a songs, & it's very easy to use. I don't need internet access, thats what my HP desktop is for. Plus it's size makes it easy to read. The new nano is just too small, especially for someone whose eyesight isn't what it once was. And it never was good to begin with.

Using my cell phone camera

A lot of people use their phones to take pictures now. Some of it is convenience. People today always have a cell phone with them. Nobody carries around a camera under normal circumstances. Even a small digital one takes up space, so people use the built in cameras on the cells.

Now generally we are talking about smart phones. But seemingly all phones have cameras now. That doesn't mean they're any good, just that they have them. I have a small Samsung Smooth. This is a prepaid phone. This means instead of having a monthly contract for, say $50-70/month, I instead buy a $30 card every three months to keep the phone active. The money rolls over if I add before the expiration date. Last time I got it up to almost $90. Right now it's at $80. I don't use it that much.

So I have tried to use the camera a few times. Once at the Chabot Space Museum in Oakland, & Saturday at the SF Zoo. The issue is getting close enough to the subject, since there is no zoom, & having good lighting to take a decent picture. Unfortunately, you don't know until you can view them in the Verizon online album if it is a good picture. The screen on the phone makes the picture look a million miles away, & thus, worthless. Some are actually good. I'm going to let you see what I mean, & you can decide.

Obviously having an actual camera would be better, & I do have an old Nikon SLR, but who wants to carry that monster around? And as few pictures as I take, I can't justify spending $100-200 on a new digital camera.
(JPEG Image, 640x480 pixels) - Scaled (42%)

(JPEG Image, 351x265 pixels) - Scaled (76%)

Addicted to Bejeweled

One of the things that came with my new computer were some pc games. What I didn't know at the time was that these were "trial" versions. That meant you could only play them a couple of times, then you would be told you had to buy the game. The system HP used included buying "wild coins", meaning instead of paying $20 to own it outright, you could pay $7/month for 50 coins to play with. now why you would want to do that is beyond me.

For a while i said nah, no thank you. but finally I gave in & bought Bejeweled 2, which I really liked because it was  a puzzle game, simple but complex at the same time. There are 4 different ways of playing it. Classic, where you just accumulate points, then go to the next level, although I've never gotten beyond level 2. Action, which is fast paced, & Puzzle, which I really don't like.

Then there's the Endless mode. You have a timer, but you keep going to the next level. Today i went up two levels, & now I am on level 22. Who knows how many there are. Bejeweled is, according to Wikipedia, one of the 5 biggest selling pc games ever. I can understand why. I'm not a big gamer, but I do like this game.

Football season started today, so I am playing a free pick'em game on ESPN.com. You pick every game, with or without spreads, (I'm not playing the spread). I've played this way at jobs. Just pick the winner of every Sunday game, & pick points on Monday for the tie-breaker. Not sure how much I can win, there are prizes, but I just want to see how it goes. It's fun, even if my Niners stunk up the joint today!

Will I play other games. Well, I've played both the Chess & Checkers games that are built into Windows 7, but wasn't too good, but maybe I'll play again. Not sure how good I would be in a trivia game, although I may look for one.

Why are my view stats so messed up?

I use 3 different sources to determine if anyone is reading this blog. Statcounter, Feedburner & Blogger stats. They all say something different & their stats don't even agree within the same program. StatCounter says nobody has read my blog since Tuesday, but Blogger says I've had views today & yesterday, & one was in China! Feedburner says 2 feedreaders & 4 bots have opened my blog. So which is it?


I hope someone is reading this, but I'm not so sure. I always ping google after posting, but so what? Blogger has a thing on each blog at the top that says next blog. Meaning you can just surf till you find something interesting. You mean no one has ever come across my blog. I check my settings. That is enabled. So whats going on? One stat says more views from Canada than here. But that was one day when somebody in New Brunswick loaded every post seperately. Hmmm.


I hope someone reads this. I have another blog on Fannation, a Sports Illustrated site. Because of where it's located, I get more views on one post there than I've gotten here on all my posts put together.

Google's low priority

So Google has come out with Priority inbox. I know I'm a week late, but anyway. What is the reason for this? The fact is i don't even use Gmail that much. Oh, it's my main e-mail account, but i usually look at my mail through Thunderbird, because I have multiple accounts on different platforms, namely one Gmail account & one att/yahoo one.

Plus I can't imagine that there are that many people getting that many e-mails that they have to star that much. I mean Google's new system is two different star accounts. So the most important e-mails go in starred inbox one, & the second most important in starred inbox two, & then there is everything else. Who has that many e-mails except a business?

And mind you. I don't think there are that many businesses using Gmail. Maybe a startup, or a very small operation, but most are using Outlook. Sorry to point that out to all the Microsoft haters, but that's just a fact.

Using my printer

Now as much as I like to play around with the stuff I have, I also like to get things done with as little hassle as possible. My new printer is part of that. Trying to figure out how to turn it off for instance. it comes on fine, but shutting it off is a chore. Thanks guys. And Oh, BTW- why is so hard to include a manual. The readme documentation does nothing. It's not a manual. it doesn't tell you how to do things, like setting up the printer, or problems you may have.

Now mind you. I haven't really had any problems. But why is it that nothing you buy has a manual anymore? Are we all supposed to learn by osmosis or by screwing things up (oh yeah, I guess I shouldn't do that)? This is everything. I had to go to the bookstore to buy a book for my new computer. Or rather, to understand Windows 7, not my computer. ipod? No manual. I mean my George Foreman Grill has a manual. That cost $20. My printer cost $30, my computer $600. A little common sense should be at play here.

Watching CBS video in Ubuntu

One of the reasons I will never use Ubuntu or any Linux fulltime are the continuing video issues. 20 years later & Linux still can't do something like video properly. Last night I attempted to watch an episode of The Late Show with David Letterman. Once again the same issue cropped up. When you go full screen, it works for a little bit. Then for what ever reason, it will go to the small screen, & then go black. You can still hear audio, but the picture has gone away, & the monitor starts to fade. I click it, & eventually the picture comes back

I don't know if it does this on other sites, because i haven't tried. I know that Letterman videos work fine on Windows. Whether it's XP or 7, they work. Flash seems to work, although I don't usually full screen something thats only a few minutes long. But again. Why is this even an issue? When does Linux get on the ball & have this stuff work all the time? This is one reason a free operating system has only 1% of the market. Yes, part of it is non support by the websites, but there are work arounds. And this isn't non-support by the website anyway, because if it was, you wouldn't be able to watch at all.

So again. If Linux wants to become mainstream, stuff has to work. I don't care about using different programs. I've used Open Office. I've used Evolution. I've used Rythymbox (BTW-it sucks). But a lot of Linux programs are garbage. A lot of the code is probably badly done. That needs to change. I shouldn't have to go back to Windows just to do one thing.
 

E-readers & the future.

So first it was a newspaper in Seattle shutting down the print edition & only having an online edition. Then it was USA Today. It was the London Times charging to look at their online edition. And it's Barnes & Noble looking for a buyer, & Borders having sales problems. It's also every bookstore selling e-readers because no one wants a physical book anymore.

Obviously I'm not against technology, after all this is a blog I'm writing on a computer. But do we really want to get rid of books & newspapers. I like having something that actually exists. I won't always have access to a computer or an ipad or a kindle. And you need to charge those.

Here's a story. A couple of years ago, when I was unemployed, I read a lot of books. Most I got from the public library. But others I had in a closet. They had been there for at least ten years. I simply picked one up, opened it & started reading. If a kindle sits there for a while it won't work. has to be re-charged. And if it's been sitting for a long time, maybe it won't work at all. Don't know. Don't have one, don't need one.

At breakfast I read the sports section. I'm not sitting in front of my computer. I'm holding something physical, a newspaper. At work, on my breaks, I read various sections of the paper. I don't own a laptop or an ipad. So this is the only way to do it.

This may come as a shock to all you techies who do everything online, but the majority of people on this planet can't afford computers or ipads. Or live in an area where internet access doesn't exist. Are they supposed to do without info because those that have, can't be bothered with "old media".

Every generation wants the next new thing, & throw away what they consider old. These people think any movie or song made before 1990 is ancient & worthless. Books? Who needs them? Well society does. Shakespeare is still read 500 years later. It's old, but does mean we eliminate it? I don't want to spend $200 on some device to read an e-book. I want a real book I can read, stop when I want & not worry about "did I save it?".

Who's reading this blog?

I am always interested in finding out if anyone is actually reading my thoughts. The problem is how blogger does things. They just set up a stats program that supposedly tracks the views. The problem is that it also counts any visits I make. Like yesterday I made several visits while changing the template color & overall look. I decided the dark look was probably offputting for some people. But of course when i looked at blogger's stats, it listed all those visits.

Here's the problem. Blogger places a tracking cookie that is supposed to block my own visits. The problem is that it doesn't work. I click on "don't track my visits". Click save & exit, & when I come back the cookie isn't there. And I'm not the only one. There are a lot of posts in the blogger forums about this issue. This was a new thing, & it just doesn't work.

Now Stat Counter is a website that does the same thing. the difference is that their tracking/blocking cookie actually seems to work. Except when I use CCleaner, which dumps everything. But this is an issue with that software. Because whenever i use it, i try to get it to not clean out all cookies, but , needless to say, everytime i use CCleaner, I have to re-log into Google. Frustrating. Still, I won't stop using it, because it is the best way to keep your system clean.

As for who is actually reading this. The stats say that most of my visitors (and there are not that many), most are from the U.S., but there are some from Canada, & apparently one from the UK. Most use Firefox, only 4 use IE, & the rest use strange things, or at least Stat Counter lists things like Java? Thats a language, not a browser, so I don't know what they're talking about.

Anyway I will continue to write, hoping someone reads this. Since I work 12 hr days, I only write on my days off. That means today thru wednesday this week. I was going to go to the zoo today, but after I tried to print a map, I realized it was too late. 11:00 AM means I wouldn't have gotten there until maybe 12:15, so I said "eh, wasn't that excited anyway". Maybe I'll go the Monterey Bay Aquarium one of these days, even though it's $30!