It's Update Week!

 Yup. It really is. Earlier this week I updated my desktop from Linux Mint 18.3 to the new version 20. Today it was time to update my phone. No, I didn't get a new phone, but I updated it from ios 13.7 to ios 14.1. Looks similar except for some stuff in settings. Oh, and the icon for music has gone back to a solid red from that kinda rainbow color scheme they had before. I still won't really use it because my music is on a 15 year old ipod nano, that still works great. I'm still trying to find out if there's a way to remove the old Mint distro, but if not, no biggie. Plus trying to figure out how to get the photos I took on an old Samsung phone into Apple Photos. Right now their on Google Photos, which is also on my phone.

Deleting old Linux Distro

 I have been using Linux Mint for about three years now. I put it on my HP machine because Windows 7 became corrupted. That  happened because I stupidly did the free upgrade to Windows 10 that  screwed everything up.  So I went back to 7. That worked for a year, then things stopped working, like Windows Update that hasn't worked in three years. So at that point I decided to compensate by adding a Linux distro in a dual boot. I chose Mint because it's very user friendly.

So I have been using Linux Mint 18.3 for about 3 years. Now it's time to upgrade to the newest version-Linux Mint 20. Did that yesterday. Here's my issue. I thought the new version would override the previous version. Makes sense right? Well that didn't happen. Oh 20 is on my computer fine. I'm on it right now as I write this. But 18.3 is still there also. Why do I need two different versions of the same distro? Well I don't.

Grub(the Linux bootloader) is weird anyway. It's supposed to be a dual boot with Windows, but instead I have 7 options. Linux Mint 20, 2 versions of Linux Mint 18(?), memory test and 2 bootloaders of Windows 7, plus Windows Recovery Mode. How silly.

But can I get rid of the 2 18.3 distros? I don't know. I can't find out. I put a question on the Linux Mint forums. No help. 50 people have read my question, but no one has answered. Wow. Sorry I asked. I guess my question wasn't geeky enough. Any answers would be appreciated. Probably won't get any. This is my first post in five years.

Windows 10 slow & unusable

After waiting a year for the overly hyped next generation Windows, I finally did the upgrade two weeks ago. Last night, I downgraded back to Windows 7. Why? Because despite what Microsoft & it's PR says, it is a complete disaster.

My machine is a HP Pavilion desktop, probably 5 years old. 640 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM. Have never had a problem with it. Until I installed this virus ( that's what 10 is, because it wrecks performance).

Hows this for an improved OS: Turn on your computer, wait 5 minutes for the OS to load, except that it still hasn't. The little blue circle is still spinning, your desktop icons are still not on the status bar & you can't even click on settings or the power button. Therefore you have to hard shut the computer (which is NEVER recommended), & reboot. Sometimes I did this three times before it finally loaded. It also, when it was actually working, wouldn't close properly. Meaning you would click shut down, the monitor would go blank but power was still on for several minutes. Wow, what a POS.

Now why did this happen? Because Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, released this pile of junk before it was ready. It was never supposed to come out in the middle of summer. Maybe the fall. But they were in a hurry to get publicity & get new computers on the market with 10 for the fall school sales.

So I am back on Windows 7, the last good OS. It took a while to boot this morning because last night it had to load 17 updates that I missed the 2 weeks I was on Windows Snail. Take my advice; stay away from this joke. Heck Chrome OS is probably better & that's just a browser. Linux? Well I hate that & MacOS is quite pricey. Maybe all I need is an iPad, except that I like my 18" monitor.

Apple Users Complain About Free Music

Last week when Apple announced the new iPhone & the Apple Watch, there was a controversy. Not over the extremely large size of the iPhone 6 Plus (won't fit in a pocket), or the uselessness of the watch (doesn't work unless you have an iPhone nearby, so what's the point?).

No, the controversy was because U2 (one of the most popular bands of all time) released their new album for free. OMG! "It's in my library! I didn't ask for it! That's a violation of my privacy!" Of course  everyone is on Facebook, the biggest violators of privacy ever, but we'll ignore that. LOL.

How exactly does this violate your privacy? It's a freaking music album. And it's not in your library anyway. You have to sign in to your account, click on "purchased", and download it.

My theory: Apple users are opposed to getting something for cheap or free. It's unseemly. "Why this is Apple, therefore it must be crap if it doesn't cost three times what every other CD would cost". So if U2 had offered the new album for $50, no one would care, but because it's free, that's a problem. (BTW- Apple supposedly paid the band $100 million). Ah, Apple fanboys, you really are entertaining.

Goodbye Firefox

Last night I removed Firefox from my computer. It was my one and only browser for years and years. I loved the personalization you could do. Most of the add-ons I had were security related. Things like No Script, Ad Block Plus & Cookie Monster. Not to mention WOT.

But since version 29, the browser has become unusable. I have no idea what the people writing the code have done, but they have ruined it. How am I supposed to use a browser that crashes within a minute of opening? This never happened before. I go all the way back to Firefox 2. At the time I was using a slow XP machine with only 64 GB of storage & 128 MB of RAM. My current machine runs Windows 7 SP 1, has 640 GB of storage & 4 GB of RAM. I also have double the speed of my previous machine & get double the speed from my ISP. So that's not the problem.

So a few months ago I was forced to install Chrome. If I could, I would continue to use Firefox because it's just a better experience, & I like that Firefox has a sidebar. But I can't use it because of its crashing problems. Again yesterday was one of the few times I had opened it in the last month, & within a minute it crashed. Meanwhile I still use Thunderbird, which has no issues. Want to know why? Mozilla stopped developing it a while back, so they weren't able to ruin it. Just amazing.

Maybe some outside group can create a usable fork that works. I suspect Mozilla wouldn't like that because everyone would move over to that. You know, like how everone moved from Open Office to Libre Office.

John Oliver on Net Neutrality

For those of you who have heard about Net Neutrality but are not actually sure what it means or why it's a big deal, I would suggest you watch HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

This was a 13 minute description of what the cable companies are trying to do. Yes, it's a comedy show, & there were plenty of laughs in the segment, but Oliver, a former Daily Show "correspondent" gives the best and most complete explanation out there. Shame on CNN & all the other networks for ceding the job of providing information to a comedy show on a premium channel.

Here's the good news- the entire segment is on YouTube. All you have to do is go on YouTube & type in Last Week Tonight & all videos will show up. I highly recommend it.

Why Netflix Can't Stream Some Shows

The technology term of the year is "cord cutting". This is a referral to getting rid of cable & watching everything online, as if the system is easier than  using Comcast or Directv.

It's not a perfect system because of the contracts studios & networks will make with various online partners. For instance: Hulu puts up shows 7 days after broadcast per the wishes of the networks. This isn't for all shows, but does apply to some. You also can't go back more than a few episodes. CBS puts up everything the next day, but the player is horrid & freezes up to the point that it's unwatchable.

Some websites ask for proof that you are a paying customer of a cable or satellite subscription. This defeats the purpose of watching online & the only reason for the existence is if you were out when the show was broadcast & this is the only way of seeing the episode. HBOGo does this, but in that case it is a premium channel afterall. However it is pretty well acknowledged that lots of subscribers are giving their passwords to non subscriber friends & relatives. That would explain Game of Thrones having the viewership of NCIS. HBO doesn't appear to mind, because it gives the show a buzz it wouldn't have otherwise.

The other problem is exclusive agreements. Take for instance the FX series Justified. Netflix doesn't stream this show. Not back episodes, nothing. You have to rent the season DVD's. So for people who aren't renting DVD's, you're out of luck. Now Netflix does stream Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Dexter & other shows of that type. But Justified is only available for streaming on Amazon Prime. So you would have to not only pay $8 a month to Netflix but another $99 a year to Amazon for the privilege.

This is where the supposed future of viewing gives way to the reality of the present. The networks & the studios will always do what is in their supposed best interest. Regardless what you or I think, or podcast hosts like Brian Brushwood, this isn't going to change anytime soon.

Windows Explorer Has Stopped Responding

Sometimes Windows likes to play tricks. Today was one of those times. After about a half an hour of entertaining myself on Reddit, I decided to close my browser. I was doing something else at the time, namely some laundry. Heard the dryer go off, so I decided I would delete all the history, then put the computer to sleep.

Well, it appeared Chrome had other ideas. Namely it sort of froze while deleting. Somehow I managed to close it, then tried to re-open it, & it kept closing. So I said "the heck with this", & tried to open Firefox. Same thing.

So I decided to restart the computer. I couldn't even do that because apparently Explorer wouldn't shut down. I was forced to do a hard boot, something not recommended, but at least that worked. I guess things are alright now.

I had already run my anti-virus scan this morning, so that's not the problem. I just think that all computers have these glitches once in a while. I do not use this machine like some people. I'm not a power user.

I watch Netflix on this computer because I'm a poor soul. I have no Wi-Fi & my TV isn't a flat screen HD set. It's a 25" tube TV, no HD & obviously no HDMI port. So no streaming through a blu-ray player or a Roku. (Funny thing is I work for a company that makes hard drives for Roku boxes)

I know what some of you will say "get a mac". What is the difference? I seriously don't believe a mac is any better than my HP. I like to say Apple sells $500 computers for 2G. Am I wrong? There was just an article yesterday in the SJ Merc about the highly touted "Genius bar", & how much they're used. If macs were so great there would be no need for these. just my 2 cents.

Anyway, I had to vent. I was thinking of returning to blogging. I just didn't think it would be about this. 

iTunes Update Messes Up iPod Synching

I tend to ignore the constant updates Apple does to iTunes. The reason is the reputation of major problems following updates. This could be solved if there was a different system in place. This is the only software I know that makes you install the entire 200 MB package all over again.

So here's what happened to me. After several months of ignoring the update, I finally installed it a couple of weeks ago. Then yesterday I bought the iTunes LP "The Resistance" by Muse. (Amazingly the extra stuff like photos, videos & lyrics took longer to download than the entire album) Fine. Then I burned a CD like I always do. The reason is to make sure I have a backup. Plus it's an audio CD I can play, so I know the download actually worked, & I can re-install it if something happens to the computer.

Again this worked fine. Then I plugged my 4th generation nano into my computer. Not so fine. It never showed up in the sidebar. So I unplugged the nano, plugged the USB cable into a different port. Still nothing. Went online, looked for info. Lots of convoluted explanations of what to do. Finally shut down iTunes & restarted it. Then it worked. Whoopee!

All I can guess is that I haven't syncronized my iPod in quite a while, & certainly not with this version. This also is not the first time this has happened. It seems to be a problem with new downloads. If I add a Cd in my collection it doesn't seem to do this. Meaning that strangely, iTunes sometimes has issues with it's own files, which doesn't seem to make sense. It should have more problems with outside devices like CD's,especially since you don't have to be logged in to upload a CD.

I still contend, although Apple would disagree, that the music store should be separate from the manager/player. Put the store online, meaning make it a website like Amazon. After all, you can download from Amazon & have the file sent directly to iTunes, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Once you do that, iTunes becomes a smaller program, with probably less need of absurdly large update files. The use of Quicktime appears to be an issue to some people. Not sure if thats my issue or not. Not popups saying it is, but I notice in the support forums that it is for a lot of people. Remove it, either use the hated Flash (I've never had an issue- all video works fine on my computer), or HTML5. Size diminishes, meaning less problems.    

Why We Can't Vote Online

Today is election day. Like a large number of people on the west coast, I voted weeks ago by mail. In my state (California-largest in population), over 50% will vote by mail. The two neighboring states of Oregon & Washington are 100% vote by mail. Voter participation is high for this reason.

Could it be even higher? Why can't we log on to a voting website & do it that way? Because of fraud. It is well known how certain groups are good at hacking. Touch screen voting was a disaster here & other places because of software issues. Issues that included counting all votes for one candidate than who the person actually selected. Paper receipts were eventually required, but that didn't help.

The Republican Party & it's mouthpieces talk about voter fraud, but in-person voting has very little. They just don't want people to vote, especially minorities because they know they will vote Democratic. So they send out "watchdog groups" to intimidate voters. This is not democracy.

So how can we get voting to join the 21st Century? There has to be a concerted effort to make online voting possible. Mail voting still means hand counting. Meaning someone with an agenda can cook the results. Software needs to be created that can't be hacked, or at least is very hard to, so one can vote through a smartphone app, or by going to a secure website. Once that's done, we can take care of a bigger problem. The fact that only 60% of eligible voters cast a ballot.  

Mickey Mouse Meets Darth Vader

I was very surprised when I read that George Lucas had sold Lucasfilm to Disney. Then I saw the video where he said he had been planning to retire for the last four years. This is a big deal.

Then Bob Iger says there will be 3 new films. Remember, at one time it was claimed that there were supposed to be nine films. The original 3, 3 that took place before (that would be trilogy #2), & 3 that took place after the events of SWIV (Return of the Jedi). 

The only question is the actors. Do you set it enough in the future (30+ years) that you can have Harrison Ford & Mark Hamill play their characters at real age? If they even want to do it. Or a different time frame.

And does Disney release new DVD's using that annoying business of "last chance before it goes in the vault for 10 years"?

Or is this deal just an excuse for Disney to get hold of a real special effects company, namely ILM? And will Lee Corso now have to dress as Yoda?  

ESPN Latest To Require Verification Of Cable Subscription

The shift in the last few months towards a verification model to watch streaming media is a last ditch effort by old media to keep their audience. While young people are talking about "cutting the cord", the service providers are fighting tooth & nail to prevent it.

First it was Comcast & the ugly My TV Everywhere nonsense. Two years ago you could watch streaming Olympic video just by clicking on a link on NBC's special website. This summer you had to sign in through your cable or satellite provider's website to watch. 

Two years ago you could watch World Cup Skiing simply by going on Universal Sports website & clicking on the video. Last year you had to pay $60 for the season to watch. This year you have to verify that you subscribe to the network through your provider.

HBO does this through HBO GO. But that makes sense because it's a premium channel. Now it's ESPN. I've always been able to watch pre-recorded games. I work on Saturdays, so I would watch college football on my days off, Mon or Tues. Never really watch live stuff. Last night on a whim, I tried to stream the MNF game. Now ESPN requires verification! And even worse, doesn't support Directv. Meaning even though I subscribe to Directv, I can't watch live because there's no deal between the two.

So what does one do? Here's something that may or may not be legal. A  European website called First Row Sports streams through ESPN America, the European cable partner. In fact they stream all Sunday games from Fox, CBS & NBC. No American TV commercials, all ESPN America ads for other games. Now do the cable operators know this? Do they care, or do they figure no one knows? I'm guessing a little of both.

Eventually this will be settled. The verification model will not last. Those in the know can get around it. Otherwise we will end up having to pay a subscription to watch online or by the event. I assume this is what the providers would like. But that model will eventually die.     

$329 For An iPad Mini?

This may be the silliest pricing ever for a tech device. Why exactly would anyone pay $329 for an entry level iPad mini when $499 gets you a full sized one? I realize that Apple fanboys are not the brightest shoppers out there & will spend any amount of money just because it's Apple, but really, cmon.

Since the Nexus 7 & the Kindle Fire are $199 I fail to understand the pricing for this. Except that since the days of Steve Jobs, Apple has been about massive profits upfront. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon has made it clear from the beginning that the Fire breaks even, & Amazon makes it's money from Kindle owners shopping in the store.

Google will do the same thing with the Nexus 7. Apple doesn't seem to care about convincing people to shop in the iTunes store. They know apps aren't that expensive, & most buy e-books from Amazon, so that justifies the pricing for the iPad. I'm not sure that's true. But the iPad does outsell the Kindle Fire, so maybe people really are hypnotized by the Apple name. I'm not & won't be buying one. But then again, I won't be buying ANY tablet. I have a full sized desktop. Works for me. 

The Dissapearing Mailbox

I live in a condo complex with central mailboxes. The one near me has a broken door, meaning instead of the door being locked until the mailman opens it to collect outgoing mail, it's wide open. Needless to say, this concerns me. So instead of dropping my bills in there, I went out on the street looking for another box.

I couldn't find a box on the street, so I had to turn around, go back in my complex & find another box. Here's my issue & question. There used to be a box on every corner. Now there aren't any. Is this because no one mails letters anymore or is the post office just using that as an excuse to cut back on pick up & delivery?

I think it's the latter. Yes people are e-mailing & texting, but bills still come via the mail, as do magazines. Yes you can pay bills online, but what does that really mean? It means combining all your bills under a single account, usually a credit card. but how is that paid? Surprise, a bill that comes in the mail. I'm not sure companies want to set up accounts to withdraw funds from bank accounts, & I sure don't want them to know my bank account number.

So this means the old way of doing things is still the best way. You may not like mailing money but until a better system comes along, this is the way to go. 

Music & Lyrics Online

I don't know why it is, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to combine digital downloads with song lyrics. Why this is I don't know. iTunes policy is that you can paste or type in lyrics on your iPod, but that's not really a perfect system.

A better system would be to have the lyrics embedded in the file. I'm guessing that the reason this hasn't been done is another example of copyright nonsense.

When I'm on my desktop this is what I can do, & in fact did this morning. Open two tabs on my browser. One on You Tube or iTunes for a particular song, the other tab or window on songlyrics.com, a site that allows you to find the lyrics to thousands of songs. So find the lyrics to the song, return to the other tab with the song, hit play then switch your browser to the lyrics. It works, but it's not perfect & again, you can't transfer the printed lyrics to your iPod, iPhone or whatever device.

At some point there is going to have to be a better way. Mind you, the music industry is against anything that is in the best interest of the consumer. If it doesn't enrich them, they are not interested.  

The Funniest Tech Podcast

I love to watch tech podcasts. I watch several of the TWIT podcasts. They have changed over time. I started out watching TWIT(This Week in Tech) & TNT(Tech News Today). The problem is that both specialize in spending lots of time on phones & tablets, two things I don't own & have no interest in owning.

Then I found Frame Rate, which is mostly about TV & video & the devices you use to watch. This works for me because I am interested in this. A lot of time is spent on streaming video & outside things like Roku & Boxee. You know, set top boxes for streaming internet content to your TV. It also helps that hosts Tom Merritt(TNT) & Brian Brushwood are quite entertaining & have a good rapport.

Today I tried a new one I hadn't seen before. It's called The Giz Wiz, & features Leo LaPorte(TWIT), the guy who owns the TWIT network & Dick DeBartolo of Mad Magazine. Essentially it reviews gadgets. Not cell phones, silly stuff. I mean one segment is "crap we found on SkyMall". For the uninitiated, SkyMall is that magazine you find on every airplane. Hundreds of pages of ridiculous stuff to waste your time while you sit in you seat while flying.

So what were the gadgets today? How about a touchless toilet? Thats right, it was supposed to raise when you approach it & lower when you're done. Of course it didn't work very well. It took forever to raise & then didn't go all the way up, & of course, didn't lower at all. Highly entertaining. Lots of laughs from everyone involved.

But wait! There's more! Mechanical birds. That's right. The silly video was showing how this was a perfect pet. Don't have to feed it, & it doesn't poop. LOL. Of course the video shows people watching this idiotic thing, including little kids. Tell me, what kid wants a fake pet? Best part was one of Leo's employees actually has a real bird, & had it come over to look at the two fakes. It was chirping at the robots that move apparently based on movement. This was hysterical. Most sitcoms aren't this funny. I will be watching Modern Family in about an hour, I wonder if I will laugh as much as I did at this.

So be sure to check this out. There are a lot of good shows on the TWIT network. One caution: The site seems to have a problem with video this week, so download from iTunes or look on You Tube.    

Will Hulu Be Dismantled?

Thanks to Frame Rate (TWIT's show about movies, TV & devices used to watch), I read an article on Fast Company about Hulu. It's mostly about the CEO & his fight's with Hulu's owners.

This maybe the first time I have read about owners of something hating the fact that it's successful. The 3 owners of Hulu are News Corp (Fox), Disney (ABC) & Comcast (NBC). The original heads of the content department that created Hulu are gone. They have been replaced by corporate shills who hate their own site because they believe it canibalizes viewership. In other words, people watch shows on Hulu, rather than on the networks, & they make more money from ads on TV than on the internet.

So they keep making things difficult, & complain about free content. This is why Hulu Plus was created: to shut up the complaining, which was mostly from News Corp. Gee what a surprise that someone working for Rupert Murdoch wouldn't want content available. After all, Murdoch has stated in public that he thinks everyone should pay to watch online.

Will Hulu survive? This is the question. Some shows that were on Hulu are now on, or being offered to Netflix. Some content is actually being offered to You Tube, which is ironic, since according to the Fast Company article, Hulu was created to keep network content off of You Tube. 

Video Fails On Tech Site

You would think that a technology site wouldn't have issues with video but you would be wrong. For the second time recently, the TWIT network has an issue on it's site.

A few months ago it was doing this, along with Google warning that malware was on the site. I guess the bad guys don't like being outed. But this is different.

When you go to the site & try to watch any of the dozens of podcasts, nothing happens. There is a black screen with nothing to click. Since Firefox updates a ridiculously number of times, I decided to try out (horrors) IE9. Sorry, no difference. I am not sure what the issue is. My Adobe Flash is completely updated, & works on every other site. Whether it's You Tube or video links on the Huffington Post or others, they work. And anyway, if I download the podcast from iTunes it works, so hopefully the issue will soon be resolved.

And speaking of iTunes, why when updating do I have to reinstall the entire program? I did this today & it took a half an hour. No other software program does this. Heck Firefox updated this morning from 15 to 16. It took a couple of minutes.
Seriously, why such a silly way of updating a program that is way too bloated. If it didn't insist on using Quick Time & the store was online rather than part of the program,  it would be a lot smaller.

Window Update Problem

After being informed that an important update needed to be downloaded, I tried to do it manually. This was a waste of an hour this morning. No matter how many times I tried to download the update, it would fail.

So I went on the Microsoft forums, only to find that this is a apparently corrupted update. Some people have been able to get it to install, but others haven't. I must have tried 10 times. If I go in the update file, there are a lot of listings for this failed update.

The listings in the forums go back a month. I wonder when Microsoft intends to do something about this? I had a problem with my anti virus not updating a week ago. Avast! fixed it within a day.  For Microsoft not to fix this after a month is unacceptable. I believe this is a security update for IE9. Too bad 10 isn't out yet, because that might just override the problem.

Avast! Flops & NBC Fails Political Stream

There is something about anti-virus software. It doesn't like me. I used to use Avira until it started misreading Microsoft updates. Namely it started listing nonexistent problems under the name "hidden objects". Not just a couple, but rather 70 or so. This is when I switched to Avast!

Today Avast! decided it didn't want to update anymore. It had, up until now, been more reliable at updates. Sometimes Avira would go days without updating. Avast! would do it as soon as I started up my system. Until today. And I couldn't do it manually either. And when I went on Avast! forums, there were a ton of people with the same issue.

This is the problem with software. I usually ignore iTunes updates because of their reputation for screwing things up & now my anti-virus is doing it. I will keep my eyes open to see what happens.

Then there's NBC. Tonight there was a presidential debate. There is no question that this should have been streamed on all stations broadcasting the event. But NBC & MSNBC weren't, or at least I couldn't find a way to do it on either website, using multiple browsers. Why is this even an issue? I finally found it being streamed by CNN. Makes sense they would have it, but what was NBC's problem? Old media sometimes has problems with new technologies, but this is just silly. There is no excuse for this. If it's a way to force you to have to watch it the traditional way, sorry, that doesn't cut it. Huffington Post was streaming it. How I don't know. I assume they had a deal with one of the cable channels.

This should not happen & these broadcasters have to realize that they have to serve all possible viewers in as many ways as possible. Hopefully by the election, they will have it figured out.