Why I Don't Mind Watching TV On My PC

The reason is, of course, fewer commercials. Like, last night I watched the Oscars, so i couldn't watch Amazing Race because it was on at the same time. It starts at 8PM & the Oscars ended at 8:45, which must be a record. I don't remember the last time it only lasted a little over 3 hrs!

Anyway, I had to wait until this afternoon to see the 2nd episode of TAR. On CBS's website. Only a few commercials, most lasting 30 seconds. Episode was over in 45 minutes. This is good & bad. good, because it takes less time to see it, bad because it means the networks are butchering their shows. Used to be 5 minutes of ads in a 30 minute show, 10  in a 60. Now it's 10 minutes for a half hour show, 15 for an hour. Now you know why the plots are weak, & the shows seem rushed in the 2nd half.

Maybe this also kinda explains all the dramas with continuing storylines, & why they are more successful. Used to be you couldn't do that kind of show, because it was hard to follow in case you missed an episode. HBO has always done serials, but now the networks do too.

The only issue I see is releasing episodes. CBS puts them up the next day. Hulu which has NBC, Fox & ABC content waits. Some shows 8 days (Modern Family, 30 Rock), others overnight(Jon Stewart). No I don't have a DVR so that doesn't help me.

Indiana Deputy AG Tweets Himself Out of Job

When leftist site Mother Jones tweeted about riot police sweeping demonstrators out of the Wisconsin capitol, a Twitter user said "use live ammunition". A Mother Jones staffer tweeted this fool who replied that demonstrators were "thugs & political enemies". Turns out he was the Deputy Attorney General for Indiana. Now he's the former ADA.

Conservatives don't understand technology. That's why they hate it. That's why they oppose science. And now that attitude has cost someone their job. Of course he will have an on-air job at Fox by the end of the week.

The Conservative movement uses the Internet but doesn't seem to understand that anything you say will be found out. Like the "birther queen" putting out a supposed Obama birth certificate from Kenya that was proven to be a fraud within hours if not minutes.

Experiences With Software Glitches

When you have a fair amount of tech/computer stuff, things are going to happen. My printer which worked great when I first got it, has some issues. I'm not sure what causes it, but sometimes it doesn't want to print.

Yesterday, for instance, it did what it does sometimes. I write a list for my weekly trip to Target on Word & print it out. But my printer doesn't print it. Instead I get a pop up saying no paper. Well, there's plenty of paper loaded. So I keep hitting print. Finally I shut it off & restarted it. Ran a diagnostic, finally it printed. seems like I have to do look through all the print menus before it will work. What's that about?

Then there's my iPod. I wanted to sync it yesterday since I had downloaded the new episode of TWIT. Computer wouldn't recognize it. First time that had happened. Plugged it in & out twice. Then I noticed the screen wouldn't go off. Couldn't shut it off. So I had to reset it. This means holding the middle button & menu button down at once. Even that took a while, but finally the Apple logo came on & I waited for it to reboot. Then I was able to sync it.

Why did this happen? Don't know. It appeared to freeze when I hit pause Sunday just as a song was starting. I mean it went off Sunday, but when I started it yesterday, that's when it froze. Weird huh? I guess it works now because I did listen to my podcast, so cross my fingers.

Tech can be picky, except on TV. I mean last night's Hawaii 5-0 had a guy using remote control to explode things (maybe the bad guy watched Mythbusters LOL). Not to mention that big touch screen table that Daniel Dae Kim uses to project on the wall of headquarters. NCIS simply has Sean Murray(McGee) type on his keyboard & it it projects on the wall. Gee, think we will ever have those for real?

USA Still Behind World in Internet Speed

I test my speed once in a while using Speedtest. Today I found it also gives world results. not that I was surprised, since I knew we were behind, but it was still disturbing seeing where we rank.

This is obviously average & it looks really bad. South Korea is #1 with an average download speed for the entire country of 37.13Mb/s. Second is Lithuania at 29.17. Lithuania? Lithuania? Then the Aland islands. I never even heard of them. I had to go on Wikipedia to find out they are off the east coast of Sweden, speak Swedish, but are part of Finland. Latvia is 4th, Sweden 5th. Where is the US? Try 35th place. At an average speed of 10.76Mb/s.

I wish I got that, but my average is 1.26. My ISP's average is 3.68. Lovely. California's average is 10.39. Looking at a list of the top ten ISP's in this country& top 10 in the Bay Area, I never heard of any of these ISP's. No AT&T(mine), no Comcast. All appear to be business ISP's. The top one has an average of 82.06. I don't need that but it would be nice if it was available.

Oh, & the top 4 cities in Cali are #1 La Jolla(not sure why), Stanford(of course), Moss Landing(marine lab for Monterey Bay Aquarium & UC), & in 4th place Cupertino(Apple-nuff said?). How about the rest of us?

Electric Blanket Lacking Juice

Tomorrow I am going to buy a new Blanket. I don't know how long I've had this one, but it doesn't seem to do the job anymore. I leave it on all night & in the morning I'm only comfortable if the house temp isn't too low. Like this morning it was 58° & so I actually put the furnace on at 7AM.

Usually I don't have to do this. On work days I get up at 5:30AM & leave the house at 6:30, so why bother? But when I'm home I don't get up until 8:30. I rarely turn the heat on, but as I said, the blanket isn't delivering any more. The light goes on, but that's it. If I tough the wires embedded in the blanket I don't feel anything. I used to feel heat when I did that.

So hopefully I can find one that doesn't cost me an arm & a leg. Otherwise I'll have to apply for "Survivor" (Just kidding-but really, do we need Russell again, & what's up with Mr "I'm a former federal agent"?).

TV rerun shows tech changes

It's Monday afternoon (my day off) & I'm watching an ancient rerun of Law & Order. It's so old that Benjamin Bratt is on it. Anyway he & Jerry Orhbach are investigating a murder, checking out all the "merchandise" this "fence" has. It includes a Walkman! Remember those? Man, I thought those were really convenient for listening to music. Uh, except when you had to take out the cassette to turn it over or the tape unravelled inside. Or if you played a tape too many times it would start to sound like it was recorded underwater. LOL.

Now of course we have iPods. Mine now has 378 songs on it. It can hold up to 2000 (supposedly). And I can listen to everything on it, one after another, regardless of album. Of course, in 10 years it will be replaced by something else. Heck, the VCR was replaced by the DVD & now we have DVR's. Not to mention streaming video.

And of course, the "Grammy controversy" today is an independent band from Montreal winning Album of the Year. I don't have "The Suburbs", but I have "Neon Bible", Arcade Fire's previous CD. Glad they won. Especially after the "music writer" in the SJ Mercury News basically shilled for Eminem. Sorry, but rap isn't music. It's rythymic chanting. Hate it.

I love the fact that instead of another technology laden album, we have actual music artists. Not Gaga or somebody else who hides weak singing behind computerized voices & instruments. I like 80's techno pop, but realized that it wasn't musicianship as much as tech ability.

But technology changes everything. I'm going to listen to a tech podcast now. Podcast? When were those created? 10 years ago? Probably less. It's the future. For now.

Is Facebook only for the young?

The reason I ask this question is because of my experience. We know that facebook was used by the protesters in Egypt & other countries. It's how they communicated with each other. But when I leave a message for my relatives, I get nothing. I have a feeling that people in that age group (70+) just have no experience in using that kind of media.

They like to use e-mail or the phone. It's how I keep in contact. Usually a phone call on the weekend. E-mail is used mostly to send me photos or funny stories. If I leave a message on Facebook there usually is no contact. not because they don't want to, but because they probably don't open Facebook more than once a month if that.

20 somethings are probably on the site several times a day. I'm not. I go on there to see if I have any messages, if not, then I log out. I am seriously thinking of deactivating the account because it really isn't used.

 

CNN fails with podcasts

Here's an idea. If you are supposed to be a leader in world news & offer podcasts of such, they need to work! First time I tried to watch Fareed Zakaria & the freaking podcast wouldn't load. Maybe this is why CNN is now in 3rd place behind MSNBC. Try joining the 21st century.

What was happening? The podcast  wouldn't load. Quicktime would open, the progress bar would move slowly till it was almost complete & then would just stop there. This happened on two different browsers-Firefox 3.6.13 & IE 8. Pathetic. Yeah, I could download it in iTunes, but you know how long it would take to download a video file? A half an hour. No thanks. So again CNN-Get your act together!

Upgrading my Microwave

I've had my Microwave for several years. recently it started acting up, by which I mean it would make banging noises. Nothing ever happened, but I was nervous. It also would burn styrofoam cups. Uh, it's not supposed to do that. Also, some stuff wouldn't cook in the right amount of time. I mean a frozen dinner that's supposed to cook in 5 minutes would take 8.

So I decided to buy a new one. It's interesting to note that new Microwaves tend to be more powerful, & have more automatic settings. Mine for instance has a setting called "My Pyramid". This is based on the govt chart for food requirements. Actually in this case it means if I want to cook oatmeal, I click My Pyramid then 2 (the setting for oatmeal) & then 1 (number of servings). Not sure this is any faster than just clicking the time.

The difference is that on my old MW I just punched in the time & start. This one you click Time Cook, then the time. So maybe it's faster I just don't know. There's an Add 30 Seconds button & a Reheat button. I guess if something sits there for awhile you can use that one.

I'd be interested in the Potato button. None here, but you can use My Pyramid. My old one had a Baked Potato button that was 6 minutes but I found that you had to turn it over & do another 6 to get it right. Of course the old MW was 900 W & this one is 1100 W. That might make a difference. I've had trouble with Healthy Choice Steamers not cooking in the allotted time. Today, with the new machine, the time listed was perfect. I'm a chicken & always check the temperature with a thermometer so I don't get sick.

So this is what I got today. Now I have to go & make chicken in the oven(the real one) for dinner , so I don't have to cook when I get home.

Firefox to have 4 major releases this year?

This may be the silliest thing I've ever read in regards to tech. We've been waiting for the release of Firefox 4 for a year, maybe. Now we have the Mozilla Wiki talking about Firefox 5, 6 & 7 coming out this year.

I suppose this is because Google has been doing this with Chrome, which is on version 9. Really? It's been out only since September 2008 & it's on it's 9th version? More likely Chrome 2.6 or 2.7 but calling it 9 sounds more current & major.

The reality is maybe Firefox 3.5 should have been called 4, since it did have some major stuff done to it. Then this could be 5, since there will be major changes (new Mozilla version, new UI). What is showing up on the wiki for 5,6,&7 doesn't look that major.

Yeah, 5 will have an "account manager", but what does that mean? Firefox 6 will have "Web Applications" OK. Aps for a browser. Does everything have to copy Apple? Mike Beltzner is talking about faster releases, but I would rather they do everything proper instead. Firefox has been out for 6 years, & IE since 1995 (only 8 versions in 15 years & still behind) So why rush?

Lefties go nuts over HuffPost sale

One of the most popular news blogs The Huffington Post has been sold to AOL for $315M. This has created a firestorm on the internet, with people vowing to never read the site again. I am always embarrassed by people who have this view that if you try to make money you are a "sellout". Like fans of a band that becomes successful, & is able to sign with a major label, meaning better recording equipment, & the ability to get more people listening to them.

Now in the case of the Huffington Post, it was already very popular. But why should an infusion of cash destroy it? Mind you, AOL has issues. the Time Warner deal is considered a major disaster. Making fun of people using AOL for internet access has always been good for a laugh. But why should this deal anger HuffPost readers so much?

Because like those "indie rock" fans, some people want to believe that HuffPost is theirs, & if an "outsider" buys in, it will become just another news site. Actually some of the responses stupidly suggested it would become Fox. Really? The Comcast/NBC deal could go that way, but that's because MSNBC was never a cable power. HuffPost IS an internet sensation, & why mess with it?

Fixing computer speed

I don't know why this happened, but I noticed that my internet speed was horribly slow today. Trying to surf was painful. Now it was Sunday, but I use it every Sunday & it was never this slow. Finally I got fed up tonight & decided to do some tests.

There are websites that test your download speed. The one I tried was Speedtest. I think I've used it before. I must have run the test 5 or 6 times. Every time I did my download speed was 31-32kbps! What? I'm paying for 1.5mbps. After several of these tests, I tried something.

I unplugged my modem for 2 minutes, then plugged it back in, restarted my computer & immediately went on Speedtest. This time it was 1.2mbps. Still not what I'm paying for but a lot better. What happened? I have no idea, but I'm glad I was able to fix the problem. It was fine last night so something must of happened overnight. My computer is only 7 months old, & has no viruses or malware ( just used Malwarebytes). So if you ever have a similar problem I would suggest doing what i just did. Then if that doesn't help, contact your ISP.