Since When MSNBC

Since when is what a reporter or journalist thinks news? Really? I know some are very experienced and knowledgeable on their topics and issues they report on, but what happened to news being actual news of something real?

I just got through listening to MSNBC reporting New Year's Eve on the negotiations between the White House and Congress, namely Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell, respectively, for nearly 40 minutes and outside of the few minutes of commercials there was about 2-3 minutes of actual news and the rest was Chuck Todd and Kristen Welker just talking about what if's.

What if's aren't news! That's reporters bullshit story to make themselves sound smart and important. When MSNBC reports the "news"on the fiscal cliff negotiations, I expect news not reporters wasting time about what may or may not happen tomorrow, this week or even in 2 months.

Anyway, after the 40 minutes I hit the mute button on the TV until they switched out of that dumb reporting, and wrote this rant against it, like it's new or news either, but it sure made me feel better, venting a little anger at stupid pseudo-news shows.

Change I Want to See

Mr. President,

Here are some of the issues I want to see change during your second term in office. I doubt my views will be read, let alone considered, as they are just the views of an average, ordindary American trying to live on a retirement annuity and get a new career and business going.

Just like many Americans I'm trying to survive the economy on an income that's decreasing in value and buying power as everything rises faster and the income is barely rising if at all, when two of the last three years you froze my annuity for political gain.

Gee, thanks there Mr. President, nice to know how little you care about retired federal employees. Anyway, outside of actually helping us do more than tread economic water for the next few years, here's some things you should do.

First, get significant gun reform through Congress. You know what needs to be done to provide for the safety and security of Americans in public places.

Second, shut down the war in Afghanistan this year, not next year or later. We can't win and it's draining our economy where the money could do more for Americans and jobs at home.

Third, restore personal liberties and rights over intelligence gathering, surveillence and eavesdropping. The American people aren't the enemy so don't treat like we are suspects and terrorists.

Fourth, cut the Defense Department budget by at 5-10% per year for the next 4 years. Make them do with less like 98% of Americans do. We don't need all the things the DOD wants.

Fifth, increase the Veterans Administration budets and veterans benefits. Enforce the law to get them the jobs they lost when they served or get new jobs.

Sixth, raise taxes on the top 2% with respect to income tax, estate tax, capital gains tax, dividend tax and so on. Make them pay back the 10 years of the Bush tax cuts, all of it over the next 10 years.

Seventh, solve immigration problem. If we can get the 10+ million people here illegally into citizenship with rights, they can add to paying taxes and Social Security.

Eightth, increase the ceiling and tax on the wealthy for Social Security to make it solvent for 40-50 years. It's easier done than said, some tweaks and it's solvent.

Ninth, improve the Affordable Care Act by going after the cost of healthcare which is the problem, not the people.

Tenth, everything else the American people want you to do. Yeah, lots, but that's why you're the President. We support and trust you to get it done. And oh, did I forget the highest priority?

Help Americans to create jobs and the improve the economy!

Take care.

Gun Addiction

I wonder if the American Psychiatrist Association should add a new mental disorder to the Diagnostic Statistics Manual (DSM) for gun addiction and obsession for people, mostly young to middle aged white males, who have an abnormal affection with guns and gun violence.

Maybe? And then maybe demand anyone showing signs be required to undergo counseling before they  can own more than a few guns and want to buy more guns just for the thrills? After all there's no difference in the symptoms and signs over guns than other expressions already in the DSM.

And then maybe require them to pass a test to ensure they understand they have a mental problem which needs to be treated. No? Really? Think about it.

If they called the people who killed all those people in Newton, CT, Aurora, CO, Tucson, AZ, Littleton, CO and Blacksburg, VA mentally ill because they acted out their anger and hate with guns, what's not to consider the potential mass shooters who are obsessed with guns and act out their anger and hate with guns which don't kill people?

Aren't they mentally ill too? I'm not talking hunters, sport shooters, etc. who understand guns and are responsible gun owners. I'm talking mostly the young white men in our country who obsess about guns to a degree it's abnormal.

Do they really have normal lives when everything is about guns? Ok, add semi-nude to nude women, porn and other fantasies along with video games, moves and TV shows about guns, sex and violence. Isn't this what Mr. LaPierre of the NRA was saying is the cause of mass shooters?

So why not identify these people beforehand and get them into counseling? Isn't that what Mr. LaPierre is suggesting we do, find and counsel these young, white, angry men? After all, we know the signs, he told us. So what's the problem finding them?

Why not call them mentally abnormal, even sick, and then restrict their access to own, buy and use guns? That's the NRA's position about the mass shooters. Let's say he's right and do what he wants, take away their guns because they're menally sick.

Solves two problems, stopping mass shooters and pleasing the NRA, with one shot. Figuratively, of course.

Really Mr LaPierre

Putting guns in schools, meaning more guns is the answer to the excessive gun problem is like saying more cars helps traffic and commuting problems, like more people helps over population, like more energy consumption helps energy conservation, like more pollution helps clean air and water. And so on.

You get the picture, but to answer you seriously. The resources aren't there to put trained cops in every school in the US. And while folks say there already are "cops" in schools, no, they're security people of varying knowledge, training and experience, not cops.

And you can also bet a shooter going to a school will either know or look for the security people to shoot them first. Shooters aren't going to walk up to the front door obviously looking like a shooter. They're not stupid, so don't presume it.

The problem isn't schools, so don't put the blame on them to solve the gun problem. The problem isn't mental health issues when shootings committed by people with mental health problems is very small and overwhelmed by the many everyday killings by both criminals and legal, lawful gun owners.

And creating a national mental health registry is a violation of the right of people to privacy with the medical professionals. Yes, a doctor has to report some situations and conditions with people, but not openly to every law enforcement and justice departments.

You're also then pushing people out of mental health counseling and therapy if they know they could be in a national database for just talking with a medical professional knowing who they are and what they say will be shared, a violation of the hypocratic oath and legal rights of patients and medical professionals.

What don't you want to agree to is that it's a complex problem with complex solutions, not the least of which are guns of all types but really banning assault weapons, regulating guns sales, mandating background checks, banning large capacity ammution clips and certain ammunition, and improving inter/intragovernment cooperation and communications.

Everything has to be on the table to solve this national problem with comprehensive solutions, otherwise, the next shooting will blame the failures of the partial measures taken to show they didn't work when we know the measures were inadequate and insufficient.

But we know the problem is reallly one thing, the 300+ million guns in the US today, knowing only a modest percentage are used in crime, violence and shootings. That's the truth and reality and there are no measures which prevents all everyday killings and mass shootings.

And that's what we need to address, not adding to the problem with more guns. This isn't the wild west. We need to grow up about guns and address the problem with wisdom and foresight or the people in 50  years will look back to see what folks told us 50 years ago.

Nothing has changed except more guns and more violence with guns. When does that end Mr. LaPierre? What does it take for you to see the obvious? Besides, of course, the obvious.

Tumblr

Well, I decided to have some fun and have a Tumblr account. I wander through a number of Tumblr accounts for fun, it's better than TV, and after seeing some possibilities, I decided to try one for a different aspect of my work, projects, life and myself.

If you have a Tumblr account, please let me know yours and you're welcome to comment on mine. It's nothing much but random ideas and thoughts, some repeated on my blogs where (see my profile for a list of them on different subjects - keeps me organized) and some not.

Anyway, that's it as we head for the Christmas holiday weekend where everyone goes nuts trying to figure out what's up and who's who. Take care. Good luck travelling. And most of all, share, with family, friends, colleagues, and even strangers you meet. You never know what you'll learn.

Norquist & NRA

The NRA is on guns for Republican members of Congress as Grover Norquist is on taxes. Both strike fear in Republicans with just words. Maybe they should fear Americans and voters instead? All we have to do is stand up and speak, loudly and clearly so there is no mistaking what we want them to do for us.

We know they won't listen. They don't care. They're in the pocket of Grover Norquist and the NRA along with the wealthy and corporations. So, do you think in November 2014 we can teach them who they should have listened to all along?

Can we do that? Will we remember? If we don't, then who can we blame beside the person in the mirror? If we want a House of Representatives to actually do the work of the American people we had better remember. And not be mislead by the Republicans' political rhetoric.

Assault Weapons

There seems to be a lot of confusion and disagreement about the definition of an assualt weapon, either a rifle or handgun. While states have used the cosmetics of the weapon, some have a better definition which would be by the action of the weapon, namely how it fires the rounds.

To me, I agree with this definition, to include the capabilities of a basic gun, meaning the trigger action, the types of ammution and the speed of the round; options for the weapons, meaning flash suppression, scopes, and types of stocks, etc.; the options for the ammunition, meaning high capacity magazines/clips; and the ability to adapt or modify the weapon for greater capacity.

In short, the more the inclusion of weaspons, the better. This includes a lot of civilian style versions of military and law enforcement weapons, a lot of civilian style military and law enforcement handgun. All of these weapons aren't designed for personal safety, hunting, sport shooting, etc., but to kill people, which is the criteria of the reason for the weapon in the first place.

Yes, I'm extreme but it's time the pendulum swung to the opposite side for awhile and we exercise common sense than denying the reality of what weapons do to our country, our people, and now our children. What more reason do you need?

Really Apple & iTunes

Why does Apple not consider the option to give users of iTunes the option to keep the album art work in active memory so it always displays when scrolling? I really hate that it after a few minutes iTunes moves the non-display album artwork to inactive memory so scrolling has to recover it, which means you have to scroll slowly so it displays.

This sucks. I can understand why they do this but there is no reason they can't have a setting or preference to always display the album artwork no matter which are displayed. This was the case with iTunes 10, so they made a management decison than a technical one, which sucks even more.

I won't argue keeping the album artwork takes memory, about 500 MB in my collection of about 1100 albums, but I have a Mac Pro with 16 GB of memory and only infrequently gets over 12 GB at any time and mostly is around 8 GB for most of my work.

Yes, I've maxed it out, either working on a project with lots of applications open, with some music or image files, or with some application which runs amuck and can't manage its memory. But none of those cases would interfer with keeping the album artwork in active memory.

So, please Apple, fix this like it was, at least with a preference or setting. You had it once, so give it back to the user. Or are you a application grinch?

Interesting Thoughts

I read an interesting post here on Tumblr about the Connecticut shooter, which you can read here, and while his first point is valid and really hasn't been emphasized enough that the most recent mass shootings were all done by young white men without criminal records and wasn't connected or described as terrorism but something else, I think he misses on his second point.

While making a distinction between mental illness and mental disturbance is an interesting point to illustrate the fine line in mental conditions between normal and clinically abnormal with the Diagnositic Statistics Manual (DSM) used to evaluate mental illnesses, I can't agree a person show signs long before they act on any violence.

Some do but many don't. And it's difficult for any therapist of any profession to determine the severity of anyone violent tendencies unless they are clearly and obviously demonstrated by the person's past behavoir. This isn't the case in the recent mass shootings and in the Connecticut shooting for them to make that determination.

I personally think that pushing the mental illness idea for gun control isn't the answer and is the proverbial slippery slope into people either being catagorized as mental unfit to buy, own or carry a gun or simply avoiding therapy altogether for the greater fear of being catagorized. And putting therapist in to being the one to decide who may or may not be qualified or fit to own a gun is beyond their job when it's the role of law enforcement and justice department people.

Pushing the problem of guns onto the schools, therapist, private security, etc. by politicians, pundits, etal is adbicating the difficult issue of meaningful gun laws for the protection of people in public places. It's changing the subject of the 300 million guns in a population of 330 million people where only ~110 million own guns and 25 million own 2/3rds of the guns.

What about the 220 million people who don't own guns? Don't they have rights too? Don't they, as the majority, get the right to say enough guns, enough killings, enough crime and violence with guns? Don't they get to demand our politicians stand up and speak for us, and then act on our behalf?

I have no doubt there will be a lot of words spoken by politicians, much of it repeated or rehashed from the aftermath of previous mass shootings; I have no doubt a lot of Congressional hearings will be held to allow all sides, or the sides the Republicans want in the House and the Democrats want in the Senate; and I have no doubt some type of compromise bill will be passed by each house, negotiated and presented to the President to pronounce victory on the war on guns.

But I have no doubt the bill won't be fully effective or productive to implement because there needs to be fundamental changes in our culture and society about guns any compromise can't fix and there needs to be a fundamental way the ATF and FBI document gun manufacturers, gun dealers, gun purchases, gun owners and guns and ammunition.

And it's the second point the Republicans have stood with the NRA to prohibit this from happening. Background checks on all guns sales are just one issue which needs implementing, but computerizing all the records of guns on a national level in a way for all law enforcement agencies to trace guns and ammuntion quickly is the real solution.

It is this last point which the NRA and Republicans have long opposed which needs to be fought against and won to get all guns traceable through a national system to help law enforcement agencies fight crime and justice department prosecute criminals. This has to be near the top of the list of things to do. Not in the future, but now. It's overdue.

It's time for Congress to act for the people of this country, for all Americans and others living here. No politics, no rhetoric, no small measures anymore. We want meaningful laws to protect all of us and meaningful laws to ensure law enforcement agencies and justice departments can trace guns and ammunition in background checks and criminal investigations.

We the people demand it and now.

A People & Gun Thought

People with mental conditions without guns are just people with mental conditions, treatable with proper professional care. People with mental conditions with guns, are just plain fucking dangerous. But let's not mistake where the problem is with this scenarios. To put is simply.

It's not people with mental conditions, it's guns stupid!

Yeah, no guns, no 20 dead children and no dead 6 adults, all shot with a civilian version of a military assault rifle which is solely made to do what this young person did with it, kill people.

We should be treating people with mental conditions, but we should also be ensuring the public can be safe in public places from people with guns, all people with guns because anyone with a gun can become a someone angry enough to shoot and kill people.

We've seen what legal, lawful gun owners have done in the last 3 years. As many people have asked, if we don't discuss it and pass some measure of control on guns now, when? How many more people will die at the hands of legal, lawful gun owners?

SafariCacheExplorer

Update II (update I removed as incorrect).-- I finally got Safari to create the necessary Cache.db file this application reads. I discovered I had another application which also reads but then deletes the Cache.db file in the com.Apple.Safari folder, which left this application without a file to read. I could recreate the file but it was always deleted later by the other application.

Well, I bought the SafariCacheExplorer application which was advertised to separate all the individual parts and files of Web pages and to download them to your computer, especially if you want to retrieve images, videos, etc. embedded in Web pages and don't want to search through the HTML code, which is what I do.

I bought this application since Web(cache)Browser stopped working with Mountain Lion and Safari 6.0.x, but I didn't fully read the Web page for SafariCacheExplorer as it doesn't say it's compatible with Mountain Lion and especially Safari 6.0.x.

Update II.--The company sent me an e-mail confirming it is Mountain Lion and Safari 6.0.x compatible which I've proven to myself is and works. They need to update their Web page about this application, if they haven't already.

That's because it isn't compatible with Mountain Lion and Safair 6.0.x, so don't pay the $10 for it if you have Mountain Lion which uses Safari 6.0.x as part of the OS-X, no Safari 5.x available with Mountain Lion.

In short, save your money, at least until they release a new version for Mountain Lion. I'll test it then and report if it works or not. It's a cool idea as the other application was a great tool with Safari, and this one would be if it worked.

Can We Now

Eighteen children and six adults killed at an elemetary school in Connecticut today, two children died at the hospital, and an adult was found dead at a home of the person suspected of the mass shooting, who also is dead.

Can we now have that discussion about guns? How many more people will be killed with guns today in America? How many more mass shootings does it take? How many more people needlessly need to die by guns?

Can we now have that discussion about guns? Can we now have reasonable laws which allows communities to govern access to guns and ammuntion in the name of public safety and security? In the name of our children? For the future of our children?

And when we have this discussion, there is one rule, only one rule to start.

To the NRA, sit down and shut up, or there's the exit.

You're not part of the discussion anymore. You've done the damage we've experienced all these years of threatening politicians if we even talk about guns. It's time for the majority to discuss, decide and act, and you're not invited to join us.

It's time for the majority to rule about guns.

Ambassador to the UN

The Republicans hate Susan Rice because she's is strongly outspoken about her views on issues. They criticize her because they just don't like a black woman being strong, intelligent, smart and perceptive, in other words, she is the exact opposite in terms of gender, race and views of someone they praised as the US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, for the same characteristics.

It's not her they're after, it's the President. It's not her they want out of the job, it's the President. It's not her they were against being the next Secretary of State, it's the right of the President to chose who he wants. It's not her, it's their blatant racism shown toward this president.

The Republicans just don't like this President not just because he's intelligent, smart and the President, but mostly because he's part black, and to them he's just black, and that's reason enough to them. The Republicans can couch their words however they choose, under it all, it's still the same, pure hate and racism.

All the fancy suits, polished shoes, and the smiles with the politically correct words doesn't change the truth of it, which is nothing else but contempt for his President for being black.

Gotta Love This

Tumbr is down this afternoon and the response from Tumblr on Twitter:

"We’re experiencing slow loading or intermittent errors on certain pages and are working quickly to restore performance.

Dude, your whole Website is down. You can't get worse than that and "working quickly to restore performance" is simply being up and working. It doesn't pay to spin the truth on the Internet with your followers.

They kinda' know being up from being down. Ya' know, they're not stupid.

Shopping WTFs

What I hate about stores which have on-line catalogs and ordering are those who falsely adverstise brands they don't carry, not just in stock but at all. That really sucks in my book and only ensures they will never get my business every again.

I went to several on-line stores for either brick and mortar or on-line only shores which "advertised" the brand I was looking for (only sold in European countries) and all of them just inserted all the top name brands in their ads which they paid Google to put on the Web pages for search results for this brand.

None of them sold that brand I was looking for but they still had the brand in the Google ads. Only goes to show you Google will take your money, honesty in adverstising isn't in the rules for companies who write the checks. So much for Google paid ads.

Yeah, I know it's the reality of shopping on-line, they over advertise their stock to get you to their Website and hopefully you'll stay, browse and maybe buy there. My answer to them is simple, "Fuck you!" and I leave.

If I want to browse, I'll go to the on-lines stores for the name brand brick and mortar stores I know, and  they too are not always honest and upfront, often advertising brands and models they don't stock in stores, but wait, they'll deliver it to the store nearest you or to your home.

This is common these days throughout the retail industry. My former always go to store, REI (been a member since 1982), is just like the rest of them, only the flagship stores carries most, but not all, of the stock they advertise on their Website.

And they don't always carry the range to fit all people. They stopped carrying my shoe size (men's 7 1/2) because as told to me "there wasn't enough customers" to stock the size, not even in their on-line store. I started buying direct from the companies or smaller local outdoor stores who does carry my size.

Anyway, I hate finding a really cool product to find you can't buy it. Not just in the US but on-line. Kinda' makes me wonder about the company's business model when this happens. Apparently an on-line and a worldwide market isn't their interest.

But it does raise the question, how many companies these days don't sell on-line and only sell in brick and mortar stores in one continent, who in turn don't have a on-line store to order products?

Are We Becoming

Are we becoming a nation where anyone can express their anger, hate, personal views without words, without engagement in a discussion or debate, without even saying anything, but simply arming yourself and then targeting random people in public places before killing yourself in full public view?

With over 310 million guns for a population of 310+ million people, 40-45% of the homes having a gun and about a third of the adults with some type of gun, half of which are handguns, it's hard not to see people using them as we've seen last year and this year.

So, while we've had members of Congress shot and thousands of women and children shot every year in domestic violence disputes, and now public mass shootings seems the norm anymore. We yawn at the facts and accept the reality that guns rule this country.

Guns, gun owners, the NRA and people who like to shoot people for the whole host of reasons not related to crime. Bullets have replaced words. Guns have replaced discussion. That's America now.

But it is what we want? And why have we let the minority threaten the majority for reasonable gun control in the public interest and for public safety and security. When will we win for our children and their freedom and safety from guns in public places?

How to Die Happy

The Bleeker St. double burger with tomato and lettuce. Add an order of large, crispy fries and a shake, and you can die happy.

Did You Hear the One

"Hey voter, did you hear the joke about Congress."

"Oh wait, they are the joke, but no one is laughing."

We have Congress

Calvin and Hobbs, December 11,1993

But oh, we have Congress with their verbal special effect and political rhetorical dance numbers. And yes, it's hard to tell if Congress is a tragedy or a farce, but they never lack for trying.

Thank You Apple

Ok, a bit enthusiatic, but at least now the iTunes Store shows the most recent J-pop and K-pop albums in the link of quick links. I doubt they heard me, but I've complained they make finding new music from any individual country next to impossible unless you know the artist.

Now at least I can see something of the latest music they offer from Japan and Korea, which is just a thimbleful of what's released in those countries. That said, it's about the old adage, "It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."

Tumblr

Want great entertainment for an evening, or more evenings? Wander around Tumblr for a few hours and watch it dissolve into an evening. Don't pay attention to where you are, reblogging will always get back to a Tumblr site you've already visited somewhere or sometime in your journey.

That's the beauty of it, but more so for seeing the diversity of Tumblr sites, the owners' interests and the many different views and ideas about life. You get to see what a generation, you know the current youth and young adults generation, is thinking, looking at, and yes blogging and rebloggin.

Just wander. It will make you cry, laugh, be angry, be happy, and the whole gamut of emotions and feelings with the whole range of people. You will see a lot, some good and much not so good, but you can always just scroll on down or wander to another page.

Follow the links too, they'll take you to more places and people. You read a lot of opinions, ideas - many from books or famous people, creativity, animation, whatever, and you'll see the youth isn't what you read in the media.

The youth are diverse and interesting. And take heart, they're not evil or bad, just young people exploring life and the world. You'll even like it more than you think. Really. If only all this stuff was there when I was young. I can't imagine what we would have done or said with Tumblr.

Mountain Lion Bugs

Ever since updating my Mac Pro to Mountain Lion OS-X 10.8.2, I've had several reoccurring problems which seems to defy explanation or a solution, or at least to find someone who knows what causes them and how to resolve them.

I've asked folks on the Apple forum and got a few suggestions but nothing which works because I can't test one of the suggestions which I can't get an answer from Apple, yet anyway. And the problems are as follows.

First, it won't boot in safe mode. This is where you start the Mac, after shutting down for at least 10 seconds, and press the shift key when you hear the start tone from the Mac, and hold it down until you see the Apple logo and spinning gear.

A progress bar displays below the gear to show the progress of the safe mode boot, but in my case the bar gets about 30% of the way across and stops, and then stays there for hours. The normal safe mode boot is 3-5 minutes.

When someone suggested three sources which causes the safe mode boot to stop, none applied to my Mac. In short, I have to boot in normal mode which generates the error messages in the console log, from frequently, every 2-3 minutes to continuously.

The first of these are shortly after booting I get this:

com.apple.launchd, peruser.502: (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn.

This goes for 2-3 lines per second for 10 seconds then repeats again, continuously until I issue the command in a terminal window.

launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist

This is the Spotlight file which indexes the folders and files and changes to those folders and files for searching and the Time Macine backup.

The second and third errors also starts shortly after rebooting or starting.

PM kernel: Sandbox(1254) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
PM mdworker: Unable to talk to lsboxd
PM mdworker: Unable to talk to lsboxd
PM mdworker: Unable to talk to lsboxd
PM Sandboxd: ([1250]) mdworker(1250) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
PM Sandboxd: ([1251]) mdworker(1251) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
PM Sandboxd: ([1252]) mdworker(1252) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd

Over and over every 2-2 minutes, more often sometimes.

All I've heard to resolve the second and third messages is to reboot in safe mode, which I can't do. So, if anyone has suggestions or ideas to research and maybe resolve these, besided the obvious which has been suggested, boot in safe mode, which I can't do, then I'm open.

Dear Congress

Let me put a simple idea to you, something I think you can easily understand, and having understood it can easily act accordingly. So, try this on for size.

You work for the American People.

We elected you to work for us. Not the lobbyist who pay for your vacations. Not the corporations and wealthy who line your campaign war chest. Not the specialist interests who frequent your office. Not your political friends and allies who sway your vote.

You work for us. Now do that.

Or consider that reality we can pull a Donald Trump on you in Novemver 2014. After all the ways you've become wealthy at our expense and all the ways you've voted for all those people who has made you wealthy (above), we don't have to vote for you.

We own you because we pay your salary, your benefits, your official travel, your per-diem, your office and transportation, your staff, your office budget. We paid for you to do our work, so we're your boss. Is that clear enough?

So, now go do the work we want done. The work we need to create real jobs with real benefits, with real health insurance, with real retirement plans. The work to help our economy get better and grow with good jobs.

The work to improve and strengthen our education, to provide affordable college for all, to provide clean air and water, to provide safe working conditions, to ensure employee rights and benefits, to provide unemployment for those without a job, to provide what's needed to those less fortunate.

That's what government does, work for the people. And you, member of Congress are our government, not anyone else's government, ours. And as such:

We demand you do your damn job for us.

Now do that!

Political Fodder

Why don't the politicians in Washington D.C. get the idea the American people are tired of being political fodder in their political fights, both sides arrogantly holding to their agenda and perspective, and are tired of being blamed for the failures of the politicians for solving problems our country and government faces?

What don't they understand we don't care about their political fights? We don't want to hear their rhetoric.

What don't they understand we know they're so rich and isolated from the reality of the work and lives of the American people and the real cost of living we faced every day?

Do they really think we listen with any interest? Do they really think we live on their words? Do they really think we agree with them for not solving anything?

Do they really even understand or even care to understand? Yeah, the rhetorical question as is ours when we ask them, do you think we even care about you (politicans) anymore?

With a 10% approval rate, the answer is obvious, so what don't the politicians understand and why aren't they doing anything different than what they've already done and will continue to do, which is why we don't care.

More iTunes 11

I've been playing with iTunes 11 and discovered how it handles the memory for the image files for the cover art, or so it seems which running iTunes in window, mini-player and hidden modes. When I open it iTunes set the active memory for the app and the visible cover art in the window you choose.

If you scroll down to display the cover art, it loads it into active memory where it stays for awhile, after which it moves the nonvisible cover art into inactive memory, reducing the size of the active memory.

If you scroll again, it reloads the cover art back into active memory, increasing the size of that memory for the new visible cover art. After which it will transfer the nonvisible cover art back into inactive memory, but I haven't found the length of time for that or if it uses the same or creates new inactive memory.

Another thing I found is that the iTunes window seems made for Macbooks, meaning displaying it at full screen on a small monitor with laptop computers, and not larger monitors with iMacs or Mac Pros. The window is also larger than iTunes 10 to accommodate the same visible space.

The cover art is larger compared to iTunes 10 using the same window size. The Apps section is different displaying large images and organization of the apps, which is something I don't particularly like which requires scolling left-right and up-down.

In addition the iTunes store uses a wider window to show the whole screen, and again, something I don't really like, making everything bigger. I keep windows as small as they need to be so I can work in multiple open windows with all of them partially visible to click on a corner or edge to bring the window to the front.

The iTunes windows with the larger window, something Adobe's new Acrobat XI does too, hides the smaller windows where I have to use the display all windows button and select the window I want to the front. In short, not appreciated.

What I ended up doing is using a slightly wider and longer window, but still requiring scolling left-right to see the whole display. The size not to scroll is simply too wide for my use where users should be able to set the size of the images (small, medium/normal, and large mode).

Anyway, that's iTunes 11 so far. Maybe more to come if I find something or just want to vent some irritation or frustration with it.

Dreamweaver CS6

Does anyone know how to set the opening work space window size in Adobe Dreamweaver CS6? It always defaults to full screen and with a 27" monitor, that's really, really large, like overkill. Really Adobe?

You set Dreamweaver CS4 and CS5 along with GoLive 9 to remember you last window size and files to alway reopen those files with the same window size and location on the screen. But you took this feature away in Dreamweaver CS6?

Why? Because, as I've read, you want users to have the full-screen performance of Dreamweaver? Really on a 27" monitor? Are they kidding anyone?

First, I work in source mode in about an 80 column width so all the files are scounched over to the left in the first 80 columns of the full-screen mode. I have to automatically resize the window to get the lines in front of me instead of the far left side.

Second, I restrict the size of the presentation of my Web pages to a 600 pixel width in a 800-900 wide browser window, so opening in design mode only puts a lot of empty space to the left and right of the Web in the middle of a very wide window.

This is dumb and clunky, so I always resize the window to 900x1024, like the browser window. And, as I've said, Dreamweaver CS4 and CS5 always remembers that. So why can't Dreamweaver CS6?

So, if anyone has any shortcuts or answer to resolve it, I'm open to trying them. Until then, that's the only part of Dreamweaver CS6 that sucks.

Emotions

Why is it that men say women are the emotional gender because they express their emotions more openly, and more often, honestly, while men just bury their emotions inside them, except for one, the one emotion which is more damaging, hurtful and dangerous than all of women's emotions combined?

That emotion is anger.

Why is it that this emotion is not considered by men to be an emotion but just their expression of themselves, who they are? Why do they treat anger differently, if not to discount it as emotion, except of course when women get angry, then it's an emotion?

Anger is the expression of all domestic violence and abuse. Anger is the expression of all rapes. Anger is the expression of all verbal, mental and emotional abuse inflicted on children and teenagers, when they're most vulnerable and both needing and wanting love from their parents and family.

Anger is the emotion men blame everyone else for their feelings, their thoughts, and more so their actions in anger. Anger is what they say isn't them, but caused by everyone else, and they're simply defending themselves.

Anger isn't that. It's an emotion, just as any emotion, but the most harmful and dangerous. It's the most insidious because it builds in men over time until is explodes inside them and they explode on everyone else and the world.

Anger is what it is, and try and they always do, men can't deny it is them, their emotion, expressed as a force to inflict the most harm on others. Women express their emotions in words, and while those words hurt, there often is a chance to heal from them with understanding and compassion.

Men express themselves in one emotion, anger, and then in action. Anger drives a lot of men's decisions and actions, always to the detriment of others, including loved one, family, friends, co-workers, and other people.

Men can't excuse it but always seem to deny it. When will men realize and admit their one emotion, anger, is their worst enemy?

Mountain Lion & iTunes 11

Well, I reinstalled OS-X 10.8.2 this morning and it seems to have solved one problem with lsboxd error message, but didn't solve the worst problem, the endless error messages with com.apple.FolderAction.folders which can be killed with a command (terminal window).

I haven't checked the last problem, booting in safe mode, which hung at about 30% after an hour (tried several times between normal reboots. I was only using it to solve the problem which is now solved with the reinstall.

Anyway, in the end, I'm back to where I began with OS-X 10.8.2, so I'll see what happens, but after only about a month or so, this is not good for Apple. I never had these problems with all the versions of  OS-X 10.4 through 10.7 having to reinstall the operating system to solve problems.

I can only guess Apple is trying to make the big computers look like iDevices (iPods, iPads, iPhones) which is both dumb and stupid. We don't own big Mac Pro's, or even iMac's to be like iDevices, we own them to be computers, really big, user-friendly, robust, never fail computers.

As for iTunes 11, yes, I still hate it, maybe a little less so as time goes by. I only open it now when I need to use it. I don't keep it hidden anymore until they issue an update to see if my complaints are fixed. But that said, Apple forgot the basic rule of making candy, ie. software.

The product has to be both good and fancy,
iTunes 11 is just fancy.

I'm only angry I can't go back to iTunes 10 until iTunes 11 is better, as Apple doesn't allow restoring old versions of applications embedded with or a part of OS-X, and old versions aren't not forward compatible once upgraded (hmmm.... maybe?).

What We Know

We know one thing about the fight over the "fiscal cliff", if Representative Nancy Pelosi was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, all the argument would be said and done. It would be history. It would be to the benefit of the 98% of Americans. It would be good for America.

That is what we know. So when you hear all the arguments from the Republicans about why it can't be done, remember them in November 2014, because we know one other thing, the Republican are only for the top 2% and screw the 98% of Americans. Us.

What we know is the truth, the simple truth between the Democrats and the Republicans.

iTunes 11 Bugs

I've found two bugs in iTunes 11 since loading it when it was available from Apple, and it is turning into a big mistake since I hate the new user function and style. But I've already vented or ranted on it already.

What I found today are bugs, real bugs which should have been caught by the Apple testers, unless they expect users to be testers now, which means we deserve to be paid.

Anyway, the bugs are as follows.

1. If you open iTunes, like I do, in album view, it only loads the cover art for the albums visible in the window. You have to scroll to load all the cover art, which I do everytime I open iTunes so I don't have to wait for the cover art to load when I do scroll later.

When I did this iTunes 10 or earlier it always kept the cover art visible when you scolled no matter how long you keep it open one set of albums or when you hid or unhid iTunes. But not iTunes 11. It will remove any cover art not in the display window if it sits in one place or your hide it.

You have to scroll again to reload the cover art for the albums, which leads to the second bug.

2. When you reload the cover art, it adds it to the active memory for iTunes on top of the previous active memory for the cover art. It doesn't use the existing memory for cover art. It reloads it for display and to active memory, increasing the memory that much again.

To say this is really stupid is an understatement, especially from Apple who should have tested and fixed it before it was released. I can't begin to wonder where their heads were at when they tested this.

3. Which is a suggestion. Can Apple please load all the album art when you open it? How hard is it to just load all the cover art so users don't have to scroll to load it. We want to see the album covers, not some stupid "no art" cover and have to wait while it loads.

So what I do now with iTunes 11 is open it, use it and close it. And yes, I scroll from top to bottom to load all the album cover art because I find albums by the cover.  I do that while it's open. I don't hide it, at least I won't until they fix it. When I'm done, I close it.

Apple, I'm seriously disappointed with you and iTunes 11. Fortunately I have other music players on my Mac which reads iTunes folders and files. And they play the music better too.

Really Republicans

First there was the Ryan Plan. Then there was the Romney Plan, the Ryan Plan redux, and now we have the Boehner Plan, the Romney Plan redux, all in a span of the last two years or less. The same plan with a different title.

Really Republicans? What don't you understand that come January 1st, if you don't agree to the President's proposal and Democrat's plan, you will lose. You know the old bet you make with some when you hold the coin?

Tails I win, Heads you lose.

Except the President and Democrats are holding the coin. That's your reality. Your plan won't fly. You tried twice and the third time only strikes out. We've heard, we know it, and we hate it. We voted for the President.

What don't you understand? Your pledge is to all of the American people, not the top 2%. And certainly not to Grover Norquist. If you don't believe it, we'll remind you in November 2014. That something we know and can do, vote your ass out of office.

Apple OS-X 10.8.2

I ran an interesting test just to see how much resource OS-X 10.8.2 eats over times. Eating meaning using resources it's using above what it used shortly after rebooting (using the purge command to clear unused active and inactive resources).

I ran the test right after rebooting with only three apps running, Activity Monitor, Console and Terminal windows. Then I ran it again after bringing up all my basic apps, iTunes, Adobe Bridge CS6, Safari and Mail along with 22 menu bar apps.

Right after rebooting, the Mac (Pro dual 2 x 2.4 GHz with 8 cards of 2 GB memory ECC for 16 GB of memory) uses the following:

Wired    - 900 MB
Active   - 914 MB
Inactive - 24.6 MB
Used     - 1.80 GB

With all the apps opened but not used yet:


Wired    - 1.02 GB
Active   - 2.24 GB
Inactive - 53.2 MB
Used     - 3.26 GB

After a week of running with just the same apps opened:


Wired    - 1.32 GB
Active   - 3.14 GB
Inactive -  110 Mb
Used     - 4.46 GB

In all of these cases, the numbers were taken after the purge command. There was a gain of 900 MB for the active memory and 57 MB of inactive memory over the week. The wired memory seems to stablize quickly in a day or so with the kernal process taking most of the new memory.

Much of the additional active memory was taken by iTunes and especially Adobe Bridge, which is why I suggested in another post to close all Adobe apps you don't plan to use for awhile, they eat memory just  sitting there open and hidden, especially the adobe crash daemon, often the latter taken most memory than the app itself.

Anyway, it's just an observation. About once a week or so close all the apps and reboot, especially after doing a lot of work with a few apps or having had a lot of apps opened for awhile. This isn't critical or really even important, but just to reset all the resources.

A note about rebooting. Close all apps before rebooting. It saves on the reboot. I only keep one app open when I reboot to open when I reboot, the Terminal window. This is because there is a bug which writes a lot of messages to the Console which I have to quickly stop after rebooting.

There's a bug somewhere in the com.apple.launchd.peruser file:
com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist file
which won't stop writing messages about throttling. I've posted it on the Apple Mountain Lion forum but no one has replied with any word, let alone a solution. It's a known bug too.

That's the observation. And yes, I love my Mac Pro.

Mac Pros

With the latest upgrade to iTunes 11, why do I get the impression that Apple seems to be thinking Mac Pro's are merely larger iPhones or iPads? And exactly why does iTunes need a constant connection to iCloud when I don't put anything in iTunes in iCloud?

[Update.-- I found the setting to remove this in the window. In the user settings, under "Store", turn off sync with iTunes purchase in the iCloud. This stops iTunes from routinely checking iCloud for purchases and removes the iCloud icon.]

The more I tinker with the new iTunes, the more it's becoming a bigger nuisance to learn and remember all the stuff (I'd say shit but it's a public blog) to do simple things, like play the album. I like the old iTunes simplicity compared to the new iTunes.

And after playing some albums and playing with the user interface,

I really fucking hate the new style!

Why can't iTunes load all the albums covers when it opens? Why do I have to scroll the whole length of the album view to get all the cover images to load and display? Yes, I know, it saves cpu and memory resources, but hey, how much really would it take? Not a lot. At least have a user setting to load all images at opening.

I also noticed iTunes has more functions and features similar to third-party applications, such as CoverSutra. If I wanted CoverSutra in my iTunes I'd ask for it. Yes I have CoverSutra, but now it's useless as a separate application except I prefer it there than in iTunes.

When they upgraded Safari to 6, they changed some features more suited for iPhones and iPads than Mac's, especially Mac Pro's with large monitor (I have the 27" one), and they have added the function to change or disable those dumb things.

There are several things I dislike about Safari 6. The first is the lack of the old separate activity window which was great for users and Web designers/developers to see the components for each tab or window in one window outside of the browser.

The second is the tab width, really dumb change. They used to be fixed width and now they're variable width depending on the browser window size and the number of tabs open. This is easily controlled with user settings (enable/disable variable/fixed width tabs).

So Apple why can't you listen to users and restore some features Apple designers arbitarily removed when it wasn't necessary to remove them? You have the code to give users more control, but you seem to be acting more like Microsoft than Apple anymore.

Anyway, it's just a short rant against Apple's intentional neglect for Mac Pro's and their big brother attitude toward users. I still like them over PC and especially Microsoft, but they're beginning to try my patience at their corporate decisions about their computer and applications.

Really Century Link

At 4:40 this afternoon Century Link brought the Internet down for about 5 minutes. Really, in the late afternoon on a Saturday when there are how many users on-line at the time? Then when they tried to bring it back, it didn't come back (DSL modem lights) for another 5 minutes.

That's 10 minutes in the middle of the afternoon into evening when a lot of people are on-line doing a variety of things, and suddenly find their work interrupted and all their communications and connections to the world not working.

I know sometimes there are good reasons to do this, but it really is not just frustrating or irritating, especially if you're in the middle of buying something on-line (think about that and the confustion it brings), it's a WTF moment aimed at you.

Think about all the applications which now require an internet connection to work, like those cloud services, cloud applications, cloud file transfers, etc., all suddenly trying to reconnect and recover. Think about all the people watching videos, watching TV, listening to radio stations, calling or texing family or friends, etc.

But in the end it still is, "Really Century Link?"

House 2013 Calendar

Remember this in 2014 when the members of the House of representatives are up for re-election, which is the 2013 schedule for the days (and some times) of the first sessioin of the 113th congress of the House of Representatives will be "in session", meaning conducting business of committees, office, debate and voting on legislation.

Remember it, they will be "working" 126 days and all the rest, all 259 days, including weekends, are days the members can do anything they want, such as travel, vacation, meet with constituents, etc., anything that fits their interests.

Remember it, as you can see here. Yes, your elected officials in the House of Representatives. We pay their salary, benefits, travel, per-diem, offices, staff (w/ the salary, benefits, travel, per-diem, etc.) and associated costs of being a representatives.

Remember it. The highlighted days. Wouldn't you like to have their work schedule? Wouldn't you like to have all those (non-highlighted) days off? Remember it. This is who you elected.

Republicans

Republicans in Congress,

If you're bitching and whining now about the issue on tax cuts for the middle class (< $250,000) now, what do you plan to say January 2nd when all the Bush tax cuts expire and you're standing there holding the blame, all of it?

What exactly will you tell the American people why you didn't agree to the President's proposal? What exactly don't you understand we get to say about your job in 2014 about what you think of the American people?

I'm listening, we're listening, but you should keep in mind we, the people, are tired of your stupid political rhetoric, it's old and irrelevant. We heard it in 2010 when the fight over the Bush tax cuts were extended to now.

We heard it last over the raising the debt ceiling. We heard it in 2012 throughout the election campaign, from the primaries through the election and debates. It's the Romney tax plan redux, and long proven to be a lie.

What don't you understand everyone sees it, everyone knows it, and we all see you as the idiots in the room on this issue. Stop the political dance for power over the public relations and start negotiating in good faith.

If you can actually do that since you've never done it. We've watched and heard what you've done through this session (2011-12) of Congress. We know it's all political cow pasture material. Americans know it and they're tired of it.

So, you'll do what you think is right, which it isn't, but remember we'll do what we think is right in November 2014. That you understand, being re-elected, or not. That's our decision then.

Cutting

I read this post about cutting and I have to say he's wrong. I don't like pictures of people who cut, not because of the cutting or the person, but because I always have a vasovagal_response to the sight of blood, surgeries, body parts, etc, and seeing cutting initiates the response, even in photos.

But that's not my point, which is I won't say anything until I've read the purpose of the pictures, especially if they're pictures of the person posting the cutting on their body. Anyone who just automatically criticizes these picture, like this guy, needs to understand first.

Openly criticizing what people do when you don't have any knowledge or experience on the subject, like cutting, aneroxia, bulimia, obseity, transgenderism, etc., only shows your arrogance and ignorance of people with their experiences.

People like this guy should stop before posting such words and take a breath to think about the consequences and the effects of your words. He's entitled to his opinion on his blog, but then we're entitled to call him out on it.

He tries to qualify it, but then who is he to decide which pictures are "fashionable and trendy", and what people deserve, "seriously fuck you", as a reply. Did he learn about the pictures, learn about the people in the pictures, learn about the life situation or conditions of those people?

He tried again when someone pointed he was souding "morally superior", and he said if he knows the person posting doesn't cut, then it's wrong. No, it's not. It could be a friend, someone who cares, or someone who knows from past personal experiences themselves or friends.

I won't argue some post because it's "cool" which it isn't, but to make a blanket statement without qualifying it or phrasing it better is wrong, even if it is his opinion. An opinion can be wrong and a wrong opinion has to be called out.

Does he know anything about cutting? If he does, he sure doesn't show it, because if he did, then he wouldn't have said what he did. It's called compassion and understanding. What's not to learn first and then help if it's appropriate.

Stupid criticism isn't help. It's as noted, moral superiority, and nothing more disguised as opinion.

Grover Norquist

Dear Republicans,

What don't you understand that when you took your oath of office as a Representative in the US House of Representatives, it was to the United States of America, to the American people?

You didn't take an oath to Grover Norquist! You took it to this country and us! What don't you get?

Grow up and be an adult and a member of the US House of Representatives. That's why it's an oath to America and Americans, not political allegiance to Grover Norquist.

Remember we pay your salary. We pay your benefits. We pay for your office and staff. We pay for your travel costs. We pay for your perdiem on trips. We pay for you. Grover Norquist doesn't.

So, to put it simply, get your political head out of your political ass and stand up for America and the American people. Or else face our right to vote you ass out of office in 2014. You do want to stay in office don't you?

That Word

Apologies for the folks who don't like frank words. It's my blog, just ignore the rest of this post if you want.

To women,

When a man uses the word, "fuck" when talking to you, it's not about what they say, it's about what they want to do to you, figuratively, meaning your life, job, friends, etc., or more often, literally, meaning they want to fuck you and your choice in the matter isn't an issue.

So when they talk to use and use that word, walk away, because at some time, they will act on their thoughts, and the longer you stay and listen to them or the more often they talk to you, the more they want to act on it. And while you will get trash talk from men if you walk away, it will be less than if you stayed and listen.

But it's really in the end, do you respect a man who uses that word with you? So why do you listen to them?

Tumblr Users

Update.-- see new suggestions in blue (this color) below.

To the folks who have Tumblr Websites, I have a few suggestions when you set the preferences for your display and presentation of your post, blogs and reblogs. I've mentioned this before somewhere else but I want to emphasize it here.

First, a simple thing, enable horizontal scroll so people don't have to resize their browser window to get the full view of your Tumblr site and use the links often on the left or right edges. There's a reason for this suggestion.

Many folks like me use a fixed size browser window, often useful for Web page designers and developers, yeah like me. I use a 900x1024 (width x height) pixel window to design my Web pages for a 800x1024 browser size and a 600x900 content size.

This is a more traditional size for reading documents, newspapers, etc., and still often used by newspaper and magazine Websites. It's a carryover from the print tradition based on the normal reader's vision. It works.

So without horizontal scrolling I have to readjust to a wider Web page(s) display. I keep a white 900x1024 image file on my Website to adjust back, but it's an annoyance which is easily fixed when the person with the Tumblr Website enables the horizontal scroll.

Second, some like the endless vertical display, which his handy if you want everything in one page and the visitor can simply scroll up and down. I'm ok with it, except it slows loading sometimes when there is a lot of content and the visior has reached the bottom and has to wait while the next page(s) to load.

But my point isn't that, it's when you click on one entry which often goes to a new page, and once you've seen or read it you click back to the main Web page. Can you please set the preference to remember where the visitor left the main page.

This is important if the visitor has scrolled down a lot of pages and clicking back put them at the top or beginning agan, and they have to rescroll again to the place they were. This doesn't last long as the visitor often just says, "Screw it", and leaves.

The visitor can help sometimes on Mac's by using the Command Key and click the link which should open the link in a new tab, saving their place on the main Web page, but only if the Tumblr user sets the links to open in a new tab or Web page and not the same page.

If you don't set it, then they go to the page to return, and yes, back to the top of the main Web page again if it wasn't set to remember where the visitor left the main page.

If you don't know what this is Tumblr users, it's called user-friendly navigation. It's designed to help the user through your Website. It's old stuff to Website developers. If you don't get it, try using your own Tumblr Website which always has been a Website developer's rule, always test drive your own work.

Third is not about design but about content. Why reblog something if you don't add to the post? Reblogging doesn't do anything but expand your own readership, and even if you like it, why not add something so the visitor actually knows why you reblogged it.

In other words, express some intelligence about the post than simply posting it leaving the visitor to wonder why or what you think about it. It's like putting it in front of you and saying, "So what do you think?", and you don't saying anything.

It's like, "What, you don't have an opinon on why you saved (reblogged) something for us to see, hear or read? You just put it there for no reason?" Come on, put some thought into it, tell us why, what, anything than nothing.

At least some post a notice in their "About Me" section they post things they see and like, but even that is a cop out to avoid saying anything specific, or more than just an assumption you like it, even if sometimes I wonder if that's your taste, wow, have you seen a therapist about your problem?

Ok, kidding. Tumblr is for thinking out loud and put whatever strikes one's fancy for the moment. But why not at least say what the thought was behind posting it. Is that too much to ask from visitors, like are you real to tell us why you liked it and reblogged it?

Fourth, don't hide your images. First of all they are not your images, you reblogged them, or most of them since few Tumblr pages have original images or photos, but you can't really hide them by disabling the right click mouse control.

All images or photos are single file format with unique names, it's easy to find them in the HTML code any browser can display and search for the .png or .jpg file of the image. Also there are third party apps which identify the URL for each component in a Web page, including images where you can cut and past the URL into browser and get the image to save.

Trying to hide downloading an image isn't doing anything about copyrights or ownership, you likely stole it to reblog it, so why hide it on your Tumblr blog?

Fifth, please when you post some fashion clothes, can you include the source, or at least links where you found it so people can actually research who makes the item, who sells it and if it's availble? If you thinks it's so cool to reblog, why not share where we can find it?

That's it for now. I'll add more frustrations, er. suggestions, when I run into them.

Removing App Store Apps

Update.--Well, I got a response from Apple which didn't exactly please me for the choices they give, meaning either download the update, and risk the files with your current (latest) version or remove the old one from the Applications folder and it should revert to "Download" instead of "Update", but this last choice didn't work.

I found another solution on a Website which suggested holding the Option key while hitting the "Update" button and it will either change to "Download" or "Installed", and in this case the latter, and since it's the last update the company sent to the App store (the latest version doesn't comply with Apple's rules for applications), it shouldn't show an update anymore.

So it's solved for now, but it doesn't change my suggestion to Apple to allow users to remove apps from their account. If Apple can do it, then customers should equally be able to do it since it's their account.

I've been in a "conversation" with folks at the Apple App store about removing some applications I bought but have transferred from the App Store to the particular software company and their Website. I want to remove the apps from my account for a variety of reasons.

In some cases the software company decided to promote and sell their applications through their Website with the latest version and either being to slow to update or not updating the App Store with newer versions.

In some cases the software company decided just to freeze, meaning no longer update, the app in the App store because their newer version don't comply with Apple's new sandbox or other rules for applications.

In some cases the software company offers subscriptions, enchancements or additional parts to applications which isn't allowed through the App store, so they offer those versions through their Website while offering the "lite" version on the App store.

In any event I've transferred three apps in the App store, but my account shows only two, which is my beef with Apple about users and applications in their accounts. If Apple can remove apps from users' account because the company left the App store altogether, then why can't users do the same themselves?

I want to remove the two apps I've hidden. One keeps telling me there's an update but the App store version is two versions behind, one is an update to that version and one is an upgrade to a new generation of the software, both only offered through the company's Website.

Both of these versions don't comply with Apple's rules for OS-X 10.8, hence just leaving the last version there for OS-X 10.7 users. I updated to the 10.8 version and then upgraded to the new generation of the software.

And that's my complaint and question. Why can't I simply remove them since I no longer want them in my account? Why can't Apple let users remove applications from their account or at least provide a service to request it be removed by Apple?

If Apple can remove apps from users' account, why can't we?

Comcast Update

Well, last night I got a call from one of the audio technician or engineers, I don't know which and it really doesn't matter since the guy was smart about the audio signals and the RNG150N cable box with the digital coaxial and optical outputs.

Anyway, the jest of the conversation was that I had tested everything correctly to determine something between the cable box audio outputs and the Rotel digital-to-analog converter wasn't working and since the Rotel has worked with two DAT decks and two CD-R/RW players and currently works with a DVD-RW on either input/output using the same cable I used with cable box, the problem is with the box.

He gave me something to look at in the menu settings, one of those which isn't in the main user setup and you need the secret handshake to get into it, but he doubted there is anything to which is the source of the problem, since the box autodetects its digital or optical outputs to other inputs.

While there are differences in audio digital, which has more to do with the signal frequency all stereo equipment auto detects, and none in optical output, the box should still produce a standard audio signal for other audio equipment. There's nothing unique about the audio output.

But he did confirm something I found doing some research and something I knew from previous cable box audio output. The first issue is that there are a number of companies making the RNG150N cable box, all different, which is the second issue, the software.

Comcast uses a standard software. The earlier versions were developed by Microsoft (MS), which was the source of the previous problem with the audio signal, that an other bugs, but then it's MS software and who expect good software from them ;).

The problem may be the current version of the software may not work the same on all the different RNG150N boxes. This may be why it doesn't recognize formatting the channel display (info button), schedule guide and the user menu in HD on HD channels the old box did display.

So the plan is to run the tests again looking at the hidden menu, and if nothing works, to schedule a technician with the test equipment to check the audio digital and optical of the box, and replace it if necessary.

And I have to note it is a good thing Comcast called. I will give them kudos for their service on this problem. They clearly went out of their way since past exchanges with them over similar and the same problem went nowhere fast.

This is a real change, thanks.

Really Comcast III

Well, after the long sorting out of the problems with the digital coaxial and optical audio outputs from the Comcast cable box, a Dolby Digital Labs RNG150N model (made by a number of companies for Xfinity), I wrote the e-mail address suggested in their comment to my post, see Really Comcast II.

I got an automated response to the e-mail but I got a call on my voice mail at home (sorry I was at the dentist). They said the two digital coaxial and optical outputs auto detect connections to open the signal to the output from the cable box.

Well, the outputs are going into a Rotel Digital-to-Analog (D-A) converter. I tested the cables using my DVD-RW's digital coaxial and optical outputs to the D-A converter to the Rotel pre-amplifier, and they work perfectly.

The goal is to use the analog output from the cable box to the DVD-RW for recording since the TV has the audio signal with the HDMI signal using the HDMI-to-DVI cable (it's a 6-year old plasma TV), and use the digital signal from the cable box to the D-A converter to the pre-amp.

I did something similar with the DAT decks and CD-R/RW's to a Hafler pre-amp I had which had fewer analog inputs. The Rotel pre-amp has 10 analog inputs, 9 used with the 10th for a signal processor which I don't have, so it handles all the analog inputs.

But when I wanted to add the cable box and DVD-RW I had one to many for the pre-amp, hence using the D-A converter for its single analog output to the one input on the pre-amp. The old cable box didn't have the digital output to work. The new one does, or so goes the plan.

But the cable box produces 2-3 seconds of buzzing and then silence and the optical output produces nothing but silence. So, as the phone message suggests, it's likely the cable box and to schedule a service techician who has the test equipment for the digital coaxial and optical output from the box, and replace it if it doesn't work.

Gee, a brand new cable box and it doesn't work? I'm impressed. The technician tested the line into the cable box, which I thought may have been part of the problems with connections, and that checked out fine, but didn't check the audio outputs except with the TV signal.

As for the software to the TV through the new box, I'm not impressed. With the old cable box the On-Demand was in non-HD format on the TV but the guide and user's menu were in HD format on a HD channel. The new box doesn't distinguish between channels and displays the guide and user's menu in non-HD format, which on a HD channel is big.

So the plan is to play with it again over the weekend or next week after the holiday and then call for a service technician to check out the problem with the box. I can have everything ready to prove my case the outputs don't work properly.

Anyway, that's it from here. I feel better about Comcast's service, but maybe the technician should thoroughly check boxes before leaving? Or ask if the digital outputs will be used to ensure they work? I'll keep you posted when things are finally working.

LF Lenses for Sale

I'm still on my break for health reasons, and I'm still working on photos of the lenses, cameras and peripheal equipment with my Minolta manual focus system, but I've decided to sell three large format lenses, used with 4x5 and larger cameras.

These lenses are as follows:

Schneider Super Angulon 90mm f5.6
Schneider APO-Symmar 180mm f5.6
Schneider Symmar-S 300mm f5.6

I'll be posting photos and descriptions soon but the lenses are in like new condition. They haven't been used since I bought because the 4x5 camera I had planned to use them won't happen and they don't fit the 4x5 camera I have now.

I currently use a Horseman HD camera which is an excellent basic field camera but has limitations on the focal length and size of the lenses which fit it, namely 120mm to about 240mm and only Copal 0 and 1 shutters, not a 3 shutter.

You can google these lenses for more information. As for their value and initial sale price, it's fair to say all three will start at $600 for the 90mm, $800 for the 180mm, and $1,000 for the 300mm lens, shipping within the US included.

You can e-mail me if you have any questions or have interest to buy any of them. I'm open to fair offers. You will find more information and photos on my photography gear blog when they are available.

Really Comcast II

Update II.-- Doing some homework this afternon it appears there is a setting I can't find. It has to do with switching the audio output from the HDMI to the SPDIF outputs. I'm open to suggestion until I call Comcast service center.

Update.--Well, this morning I decided to see if I could get either the optical or coaxial digital audio output to work with my Rotel digital-to-analog converter. It's a standard audiophile converter I've used on an array of audio gear without any problems.

I got the Sony DVD-RW (yeah, I'm an oldie with this because it predates Blue-Ray players and cable DVR's) to work on both the optical and coaxial outputs to the converter input, which in turn is connected through analog outputs to the pre-amp.

But the Comcast cable box doesn't work. This was a problem years ago with the old cable box their engineers admitted it was the software developed for Comcast by Microsoft. It appears the problems still persists or some setting isn't right.

The coaxial output produces about 2-3 seconds of noise then silence and the optical is just silence. This is the same results I had then which I showed the tecnicians who then told me what the engineers said, it was the software.

So, it's back to Comcast again with the problem. Any bets on the answer?

Original Post.--Well, I got a new cable box, the newest model. It's less than a quarter of the size of the old one and even has some additional outputs. They apparently don't really troubleshoot cable boxes, especially old ones, they just replace them.

Well, all the new cable boxes now only come with HDMI connectors for HD TV, and my TV has a DVI connector (it's a late 2006 plasma TV). I had already bought a HDMI->DVI cable because I had the box replaced about 3 years ago but they used a newer old model with a DVI connector.

I also planned to buy a new TV, still do but it's in the budget buried under other things, and all new TV's come with HDMI connections, no DVI. So in the end it was just a straight replacement of the old one for the new one.

Well, the new one, being smaller, doesn't have a front panel or a front display out side of 3 lights and the on/off button/light. This means it communicates through the remote. Good luck if the remote doesn't work or you forget to replace the batteries and you can't get the box to do anything.

I noticed the new box doesn't display the menu and channel guide in the HD format when on a HD channel. The old box did change the display to match the channel, HD or regular, but the new one doesn't. Not sure if it's the software or something else.

I also still have to check out the audio channels. There's only one analog output and I need three analog inputs, so I'll look at using my digital-to-analog converter with the digital audio outputs on the cable box. I'll keep you posted.

To Old White Men

To the old white men who are the Republican party, you must remember one thing.

We are a nation of immigrants from our founding to today.

This country was founded on immigrants from Native Amercians 10, 000 years ago, with the Pilgrims 400 years ago and to today where white will be a minority within a generation.

There is no one who can call themselves native to North America and the United States when and where their ancesters were a part of the history of man. Even Native Americans crossed the land bridge from Asia and arrived from South America who originated in the Pacific Islands.

No one can claim ownership because of their ancestors. We all own this country because of our ancestors. We all are immigrants because of our ancestors. We all are our ancestors. We are all Americans as was our ancestors who immigrated here.

If you refuse to understand that, I'm sure there's a country somewhere you can sell your bigotry, but not here. You are equal to all of us. It's why it's America and why we're all Americans. Equally.

What a Croc

Sorry, I watched this video by John Green, and I have to say it's a bunch of cow pasture material, the verbal stuff you avoid when hearing someone talk ad naseum about what to do with your life. A bit much maybe?

Well, maybe so in some respects but at about the 3:00 mark he said, "In the end, what you do isn't going to be as interesting or important as who you do it with."

That is the worst bullshit statement in the whole video. What he is saying to all those people who dedicate their life to work they love which involves endless hours working alone, like artists, poets, photographrs, writers, musicians, scientists, philosophers, clergy, etal, is that you are less important than those who just socialize their life away thinking it's important, thinking it's interesting, and thinking it's the true meaning of life.

What he is saying is that socializing with friends is more important than the endless hours JK Rowling spent writing the Harry Potter series. Really? He is saying Albert Einstein, who spent endless hours pondering the universe to write his famous theories, wasted his time when he should have been doing what? And all the symphonies were written by teams or brillant individuals, like Beethoven?

What he is saying is that anyone, myself included, who are comfortable being and working alone to imagine the universe of ideas, to wander and see whatever we want or like, to follow any small thing to the whole array of possibilities, aren't as important or interesting as people who just party because they're doing something with others?

What he is saying is to waste your life socializing than doing what you love when it require endless hours alone with just your own thoughts and your own work.  And that's the fundamental flaw in his advice, it's about wasting time with people than making time for doing something good.

I won't argue there are times and places where working together is the best way to accomplish something, but history has shown many of the best works, best ideas, best science, etc. came from individual endeavors, with only the mininal collaboration.

I won't argue there are times and places individual's achievements needs to be shared and worked together with other people to improve them and make them useful to the world. Aloneness only goes so far with some endeavors, but almost all the arts are produced through individual effort working alone.

I won't argue having worked in teams, even as a team leader, groups can achieve a lot, but in the end, you have to divide the work and everyone go do their part, to collaborate when you need help, want to think out loud, or want to share a thought.

But in the end, I've learned it's always one or a few who do the work for the whole team, many are just there to discuss and decide. Wasted time and space almost all the time. As a team leader I rarely convened the group but let it follow its own direction and worked with all the members to give them the time and space to do their best work.

Because in the end, the best innovation, the best creativity and the best results are almost always by individuals. I restricted the team to the least amount of interference of those people and only when we all needed to be on the same page, reading the same stuff and focus in the same direction to the same goal.

My advice, is simply ignore him and this advice, and if the rest of his shit is similar, then ignore him altogether. Folks like that often just like to spout advice to hear themselves talk and thinking their smart and important. They're not.

My advice is the age old advice, follow your heart and do what you love, and if it means endless hours alone pursuing a dream, an idea, a goal, or wherever it leads you, then do that. And if it means not socializing with friends or just hanging out somewhere, so be it.

Remember life is what you make of it and yourself, not what others tell you, including me.

Tumblr & Others

Please people, when you create your Website on Tumblr, Blogspot, Wordpress, etc., whichever you choose, do the visitors some courtesy with one thing.

Please enable horizontal scroll

It's really easy to do in the settings with the presentation. This is important because quite a few people set their browser(s) to a specific size and have to resize the window to see the whole Web page(s) and then resize it back when they leave.

For what it's worth, I use 900x1024* (width x height) browser window, and using a wider presentation without scrolling requires I readjust my browser window and unless it's interesting enough to stay, which isn't often, I leave and don't come back.

You can simply solve this if you enable the horizontal scroll with the design settings which will make all visitors happy and want to stay longer and maybe return if your content is worth it. So, please do this for yourself and your Website.

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* - I use this size for a specific reason, which I learned from a former newspaper jounrnalist. It has to do with the normal non-peripheral vision where a person's eyes read something without having to change left or right, which is about 600 pixels wide.

So I keep the content within a 600 pixel widith within a 900 pixel width window for margins and borders. It doesn't pay to use a larger browser window with my Website because it will always display in the center within the 900x1024 size.

In addition, a 600 pixel width prints on a 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper without scaling or resizing. Just click print and go, and the Web pages look on paper as they do in the browser window.

Really Comcast?

Last Update.--Alas an answer. This morning the remote and cable box were working normally. What changed? The weather. Overnight the near freezing temperature warmed into the 40's with rain. The problem is that there is a connnection somewhere between the cable going outside and the junction box where condensation or water inside freezes caused intermittent or complete breaks in the communications beween the cable box and the server.

Anyway, for now all is right with the world but if during the next cold weather the problem reappears, I'll call the service representative to let them know to send a technician to check the line for bad connectors.

Update III.-- After rebooting the cable box, it worked for awhile and then didn't, but doing some testing I discovered the front panel controls now work (didn't before) but remote to box doesn't, so either the remote is broken (doubtful) or the box doesn't recognize it, which is likely since the "received" light doesn't blink. So, it's call tomorrow to schedule a service technician.

Update II.-- I finally got a service representative on the telephone, and she did one thing we as customers can't do, which is send the signal for the box to do a complete reboot. This completely clears the schedule and the user interface software, ie, the menu and options. 

It now has to reload everything which takes time and all I have in manual change change with the A/B channel switch button. It takes 8-12+ hours to rebuild the schedule. And I'll have to call tomorrow if the problem is still there to schedule a technician to change the box.

All it all that took about 30 minutes from the time I called, half of which was on hold. The actual time with the service representative was about 3 minutes tops. Wel'll see what happens tomorrow.

Update.-- Comcast's service over the telephone or their Websites is a waste of time. I still have the problem, which cleared up for all but a few minutes after the technician left then returned. The telephone service to get a person is a confusion of menus and options. Their Website requires you have an account (I don't despite being a 20+ years customer) to check for problems in my area. That sucks.

All in all, I've never been impressed with Comcast's service to get a service representative and then an actual service call, and this only proves with the whole array of services they offer, it's worse than before just to get a person to talk to and explain the problem.

Original Post.-- For the third morning in a row, my cable box is stuck on the last channel I watched the night before. It won't recognize my remote, won't recognize the buttons on the box except the on/off button, and just sits there looking stupid.

We've had a cold spell recently and when the problems started and it took well into the late morning or early afternoon when things started to work again, meaning I'm not stuck on one channel and the box and remote worked normally again.

And today is no exception. All I get is ESPN the last channel I watched last night. And so really Comcast, three days of the same problem and it's not fixed?

Yeah, I know some problems are hard to debug and fix, I used to manage and operate a real-time data collection system from the downlink to the computers. It is hard sometimes, but this shouldn't be that hard.

I'll see how long it takes today. I did see a Comcast service truck in th neighborhood. But I'm not holding my breath standing in front of the TV with the remote waiting for this to be fixed, if only for today.

You're not worth it, especially at the prices you charge. As for the problem, any bets about tomorrow?

Mr Boehner

Mr Boehner,

What do you plan to say and what do you plan to do if the Democrats and the President decide to do nothing in the lame duck session about the "fiscal cliff" crisis and let all the Bush tax cuts, especially those on the top 2% you are so desparately defending, expire?

What will you tell your supporters, the wealthy, the corporations, and your party? What will you tell the American people, you know the 99%, about your arrogance and obstinance to negotiate and compromise?

What will you tell the media why you are the only one defending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy? Do you really plan to be totally dedicated to the Tea Party wing of your party over the rest of the Republican party?

What will you say when we know just how stupid you are on this issue, how dumb your words are when we know they're just your usual political rhetoric, and the tone and tenor of what you mean is empty and meaningless?

What will you say? But then do you realize there isn't anything you can say we haven't heard, anything you say we know isn't bullshit, and everything you are is just a liar?

Will you then get the message? Or will you continue to be arrogantly ignorant?