Truth

In truth, the US military could defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria if it had the orders to do so, but it doesn’t, not because we as Americans don’t want to see it happen, but the politics of the Middle East exclude that option, for a foreign nation to do what they can but won’t do, because it’s about a complex array of issues going back to the post World War II delineation of the countries and going back hundreds of years between two opposing dialects of Islam, along with the economic and political issue of which Middle Eastern nation rules that region.

This is what the Bush-Cheney doctrine with the neocons knew but ignored. And it’s what the democrats don’t want to talk about, that we can’t solve the Middle East without provoking a greater war which is now global. So all the politics aside, the war against the Islamic State is winnable but not in the global political arena where we would become the enemy, something that poltics can’t solve. It’s why, like it or not, we’re there for a very long time with no end in sight and no victory in mind, just less of the worst.

ps. updated for spelling errors.

Twice

Yesterday was one of those days you wished you hadn't decided to work on your Mac, because after all was said and done, you spend the whole days fixing software that didn't work right or broke OS-X. Really, one of those days.

I keep track of what updates are available for the apps on my Mac. I use MacUpdate to keep current. I don't use their app or subscribe to their service because I don't like the user interface. Some apps automatically update from the user settings or the company has their own app to check updates, such as Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription.

Anyway, I found one needing updating, Adobe Air, which is free and not in the subscription service. It's been an easy update, but the latest version downloaded and installed, and after finishing I clicked the "Finish" button to quit the app and eject the icon.

That's when the first of the two times yesterday, the installer didn't work. It finished and I was able to eject the icon but the app didn't quit. I don't know what happened, but OS-X had it in the dock as open, and it wouldn't force quit.

When I closed all the other apps I tried to restarted the Mac, nothing. It was hung. I tried to shutdown the Mac down, nothing. It was hung. I powered it off for a minute and restarted it. This is the sledge hammer approach but if nothing else works, this works.

OS-X is good about recovering itself after an unexpected power shutdown, but it is recommended once everything is up and running, to restart or shutdown and restart again to get a clean start, which I did and carried on with the other work.

Ok, onward to installed Datacolor's application for their Sypder 5 Elite color calibration tool. I downloaded it, and ran the installer program. And when it finished and I clicked the "Finish" button, the same thing, nothing.

Yup, the same thing again. The Mac was hung and wouldn't respond to anything, which necessitatd a power shutdown and repeat the process to wait and do it again for a clean restart, and then get everything working.

That done I put Datacolor's icons for the Spyder 5 utility and Spyder Gallery Utility to calibrate smart phones and tablets in the Menu bar. I don't calibrate the iPhone 5s anymore because Apple's bluetooth software on the iPhone won't pair with the Mac but will with the iPad.

I use Bartender to arrange and manage the Menu Bar icons. It's a cool app, but recent versions have problems with some icons and the drag tool doesn't work to move the icon. I'm not sure if it's their app or OS-X, but the two Spyder app icons wouldn't drag to where I wanted.

I finally got them in place but it completely rearranged the rest of the icons, so I had to load all of them and move them to where I wanted them, and the restart the Mac to ensure the arrangement was right. It's not right with the two Spyder icons, but I'll live with where they're at for now.

Update on below.-- The iStat app runs fine now. The first time it ran without problems but the second time the file cache (below) went beserk. The third time today, it's ok, not increasing app memory or file cache, so it may have been an anomaly with the Mac. I'll continue to use it now.

Ok, you can see where this is going, and one would quit for the day and do something else. Not me yesterday as I had one item left. I use iStat to monitor the Mac. It's a good app, and I put the display in the Menu bar, but hidden behind a single icon, which shows below the menu bar, so the block of information doesn't clutter the menu bar.

Well, the app tends to eat app memory over time, and isn't released when you quit the app. This is because it runs 3 daemons all the time, and one continuously montitors all the processes and sensors, etc. going on. This is the daemon that is the problem, which can use 0.5 to 1 GB of cpu, much which is allocated but unused.

And the OS-X daily maintenance doesn't recapture it if you quit the app. So the company sent me a beta version which supposedly eats less and releases unused memory. Well that it does quite well but then out of nowhere it will eat file cache, like your uncle at a free Thanksgiving Day buffet.

It was fine for about an hour but then went beserk and ate 5 GB's of file cache in just a few minutes. I quit the and purged the file cache (a command you should learn to use). I haven't decided to uninstall and reinstall it and try the new version again. I think being a beta version they do some testing and then remove it when the app works.

That's for another day for now. I'm fried of being frustrated at the events.

Difference

it would help if republicans, especially conservatives or christians, opposed to anti-discrimination laws for trangender people open their minds to understand that there is a significant difference between cross-dressers, along with drag queens, transvestites, etc., and transgender people, some defined as gender queer, etc.

The difference is that transgender people want to live in the gender they know they are inside, and not the sex they were born with, and cited on their original birth certificate. This requires extensive medical proceedures with therapists, physicians, specialist, surgeons, etc. and extensive legal proceedures to change their name, gender markers on their local, state and federal documents, and eventually their birth certificate.

Other people, the whole array of them (above) don’t identify in the gender opposite their birth sex, and have no interest to live fulltime in the other gender. They don’t go through any medical or legal process because none apply to them. They simply like to play “dressup”, wearing and going out in women’s clothes. It is not defined in the DSM V as a condition, disorder or disease, but just a innocuous fetish.

This means transgender people, mostly transgender women, live as women, of whom the vast majority pass without notice as women. Only a few who don’t readily pass have been used by politicians and people as examples of all transgender women. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people have seen, meet, and even talked to a transgender women without realizing it.

The laws protect the rights of transgender people don’t lnclude cross-dressers and the rest of those who are not medically and legally defined as transgender, meaning with Gender Identity, and thus are illegally trespassing entering private spaces designated for the other sex or gender. They’re committing a crime and are not protected by the law.

The important point is that transgender people are not their birth sex. They’re their gender, so a transgender woman is not a man but a woman and vice versa, so calling transgender women “men” is offensive and wrong. And attacking them is not right, and why their rights need protecting to just live like everyone else.

Starbucks Final

Final thought.--- This morning Spotify finally worked on the Starbucks app to show the song playing in the Starbucks, both in the dashboard and in the music (click on music icon in upper right corner). And it didn't take their wifi to work, just LTE. Enuf said from me.

Orignal Post.-- Ok, enough about Starbucks, which I can say because I finally got an intelligent answer from their customer representative about why the information about current song playing at any Starbucks you visit wasn't being displayed on the Starbucks app.

Here is part of the response:

"Some of our stores are equipped with technology through the Starbucks Digital Network. If you're in one of these locations and are connected to our in-store Wi-Fi, the song currently playing will be displayed with the option to purchase it through iTunes.  If you've left the welcome page, it can be found at digital.starbucks.com. Unfortunately this is not available in all stores, but we are constantly working to make this functionality more robust!"

This explains a lot, and here's the rest of their response:

"Here are some tips to get this feature to work on your App:
- Make sure that the location service is enabled;
- New music features within the Starbucks App will automatically show you what's "Now Playing" and "Recently Played" in participating Starbucks stores.
- Starbucks customers will need a Spotify account to save or create Spotify playlists.
- You must have a Spotify account to play music and must connect your Starbucks and Spotify Free or Premium accounts to save music."

This means that Starbucks released an app with software features they didn't have the technology in place to work. Along with all the other problems Starbucks have had with their app, it's clear they're resolving them, but it's also clear they released it too early to initiate the new rewards program, with untested and known bugs, assuming any customer problems won't hurt customer loyalty.

And it's clear, just from my experience, they're customer service, while good isn't great and why they handed out a lot of stars and credits, and are offering frequent additional stars for more purchases. That said, it doesn't change much for me, and in fact, makes me use other cafes more often now for the higher priced drinks.

I'll still go to Starbucks, in part because it's the halfway point on my daily walk which has a good Doppio con Panna (tried the non-Starbucks cafes) and I will accumulate stars for that and other occasional purchases, but on trips I'll do what I always do first, find a good local cafe and only Starbucks if one isn't around.

Election

So it's Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton. An ecccentric, arrogant businessman, pseudo-republican, against a conservative democrat. Who's left out? Moderate republicans, liberal democrats, progressives, independents and libertarians. Seem the vast majority of Americans don't have a candidate to represent them this election. just two extreme - in their party - minorities. What a time to need Mae West, Will Rogers and Mark Twain.