iOS7: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Dislaimer:  I am fairly tech competent, but by no means an Apple "Fan Girl".  I am a PC user who doesn't like Android OS.  I have an iPhone 4S and the newest generation iPad, and I installed iOS7 on both about 24 hours ago.

Now, here's my irrelevant opinion.

The Good:  I think the best upgrade that I've found  so far is that you're no longer limited on how many apps you can stack in the folders. It only displays 9 at a time, but layers them in pages, so that's allowed me to reduce a lot of folders. I also like that you can choose vibrate patterns and can activate LED notifications. That may get old, but I like the flash.  The multitasking feature (double click the home button) is interesting as well. The jury is still out how they've rearranged web browsing.

The Bad:  The upgrade wiped a lot of my pictures so I have to go and get them back. It's also crashed some of my apps and has been a huge battery drain. I did slow the battery drain problem a bit by disabling the parallax, but am torqued off that some juveniles programmed a feature that sucks the life out of my battery for something that only looks marginally cool and serves no real purpose. The calendar is almost unusable and the contacts, are difficult to navigate.

The Ugly:  The appearance...oh how I hate the appearance. It's cartoonish. The white is garish. A 3rd grader with an 8 pack of crayons could do better with the iconography. The apple design legacy apparently died with Steve Jobs.  I don't like what it does when it "color coordinates" with your background, because visibility is poor. There's an option that allows you to reverse the color scheme, so everything becomes white on black.  The appearance of that inverse interface looks pretty sharp, but then all of your photos, games, and web browsing look like X-Rays, so the scheme's not usable, which to me is just more pretty, fluffy, wasted space.

Again, I've not been using it that long, but this is what I have so far.  I'll update as I find more stuff, and check out suggestions and comment.

Deadbeats

So, somebody named Milka Gonzalez doesn't pay her bills. Ordinarily, I couldn't care less, because I'm not the one out the money. However, when people start calling my cell phone looking for her, then I get annoyed.

You see, I got my first cell phone in 1998. I've had the same phone number ever since. So it's not like Milka has had this number recently, if ever. This doesn't prevent collection agencies from calling it.

 So today, I called a collection agency back to tell them to quit calling me. I was informed that the number was 'attached' to the account, not one she had given. In other words, some nimrod at a collection agency or credit bureau associated my number with Milka at some point, and now I get to deal with jackasses calling me for some deadbeat.

I'm not a real big fan of either Milka or dumbasses that call essentially random numbers to find her right now.

Worked Into Sculpture

Good lord, but I think this may be the most ironic and completely unaware thing I've seen on the internet. There' s so much irony here you could use it for metalworking. 

Gawker published an article entitled Journalism Is Not Narcissism. Throwing that up on Gawker is bad enough, but then crossposting at Jezebel? Jezebel is a celebration of the tired old premise that the personal is political. Jezebel is nothing but navel gazing and self-obsession masquerading as commentary. 

If Nick Denton or anybody else at the Gawker sites truly believed in the premise, their websites would be shut down by the time I finished writing this post.

I suppose I should thank Sugarfree for bringing this to my awareness.

The Death of Brick & Mortar

So, the freezer here at YPS Manor died. We had put off doing anything about it because we were hoping that the manse would be up on the selling block and we could wait until we moved before replacing it. Alas, football season rolled around and with it the need for freezer space. So, in a wild burst of optimism, I called Sears to see if it could be fixed. The estimate to fix a 10 year old freezer that cost $300 came in at $1300. I felt so good about paying a guy $65 bucks for that tidbit of information. However, he gave me a coupon so that if I bought my new appliance from Sears in the next 60 days, I would get the $65 back as a discount.

So it became time to research freezers and see if Sears had anything suitable. Lo and behold, Sears' advertising is not a lie. They have a wider selection of appliances than any other national retailer. So after some perusal and consideration, we decided upon a frost-free model from Kenmore. As the nice man had told me I would need to go into the store to use my discount, I took a shower and put on pants this past Saturday to buy me an appliance. As it turns out, I may have been better off staying at home.

Sears' sales process for appliances these days is to have a cheerful, yet somewhat clueless, salesperson type your information into an iPad on what looks like the very same screens I could have used from home. Instead of typing my info in myself, I now get to watch clueless Bob fat finger his way through the process. The kicker comes when Bob can't figure out how to apply my discount code. The discount is the only reason I got up off my ass and came in here. No $65 off, no sale, buddy. So Bob attempts to find a coworker. Coworker explains we have to use the register. No problem, right? Except that it takes Bob no less than 3 attempts to process this transaction. At one point, he attempted to find a manager, only to find out no manager was available. On Saturday afternoon. At the mall. WTF? When did retail decide no manager on duty during the busiest shopping day was a plan? But finally, our purchase was completed and delivery scheduled. Strangely, when I went online that very morning, Sears could deliver next day, but in the store it transforms into 2 days out.

Now, I am no expert on how Sears expects to stay in business in the modern era but if this transaction was any indication, they need to rethink the plan. You need to be providing me something I can't get online when I come into your establishment, be that immediate gratification, human interaction, or physical samples. In the case of clothing, it should be things I can try on to see if they fit. For a transaction like appliances, knowledgeable and trained sales staff would be a good idea. As a bare minimum, have your people trained to complete transactions. If all you're giving me is a guy who's doing the same thing on an iPad I could do from home (and screwing it up), I have no reason to come into your establishment. I can do the data entry quicker and faster, and I don't even have to put pants on or take a shower.

Screw Boston & Chicago & Go Eat some Chick-Fil-A Nuggets or Something

This whole Chick-Fil-A issue has really rubbed me the wrong way. I have no problem at all if individuals choose not to patronize businesses whose corporate philosophies differ with their sincerely held beliefs; my problem is that in both Boston and Chicago, elected officials are using the power of tyrannical government to ban a legal business, simply because these officials disagree with the beliefs of the CEO. I wonder if the people who think this is so wonderful would be so thrilled if a Republican mayor closed down every movie theater in town because he or she didn't want all those communist actors on their movie screens? Let's start burning books...hooray! I mean really, what's the difference?

Ironically, it is this same Boston mayor who has circumvented every established law and code to get a mosque built that many in the area don't want. So the CEO of Chick-Fil-A doesn't like the idea of gay marriage...OK, so do most folks. (For the record, I respectfully disagree with that view.) But, there is no evidence that his company has ever maltreated any gay person. Let's contrast that to the teachings of Islam on homosexuality, which is, well, a death sentence for its participants.

 The mayor of Boston and that retarded ballerina in Chicago are disgusting, hypocritical trolls who should be banned from elective office until they can actually prove to a competent person that they have even a rudimentary knowledge of the United States Constitution.

Of course, I would expect no less pathetic behavior from the open-minded and oh so tolerant left.

Open Note to Retailers...Dedicated to Guitar Center

So, it appears in our spare time (between 2-3a), we're going to take up electric guitar. We decided that Guitar Hero is an absolute waste of space, we can push buttons, let's learn a craft. T has an old one that's he's taken apart and is going to need a lot of work, and I don't have one at all, so we decided to do our homework and get some gear.

Imagine the glee when we found that Guitar Center is running tax day specials, (since we'd have to purchase, at minimum 2 guitars and an amp) that we could get up to $100 off our order, because hobbies ain't cheap, bitches. Well, decent musical instruments aren't anyway. I played bassoon for over a decade; ever price one of those things? Hint: you could buy a car.

Note to retailers, if you run a sale, then exclude everything from such sale, it's not a sale, but a gimmick. Exactly ONE of my items qualified. They had a note on their website that if you had exclusions, call them. So, I'm thinking, given the size of this order since this stuff is excluded, you might cut me a little break, yeah?

HELL NO. Basically, the Customer Service Rep told me that once she keyed in everything (manually), there might be specials that aren't online advertised. So, I asked, "you're not going to make me redo this order manually with you, and spend 20 minutes out of my life before you tell me there are no special deals, when I can just do this one I've already got online in a couple of minutes?" She assured me, "defnitely not", that there are deals that they can't run online.

The short of it, is that she lied. I spent 20 minutes doing a phone order, there were no special deals, and the thanks I got was some nice young lady trying to upsell me on extended warranties. No little 5-10% discount or whatever because the order was a biggun or anything. Just a "fuck you very much, what's your credit card number?" Actually, she was totally nice, I'm just pretty dissatisfied with Guitar Center right now.

So, what was on special? Well Roland (excluded) would allow some obscure synthesizer to be sold on the promotion. Basically, a lot of back stock shit nobody wants is on sale. They're running a deceptive special and I just wanted to take my 5 minutes and let people know.

Try Musician's Friend (their tax day special is a bit of a gimmick as well) or One Music Square. The latter is a small town shop out of Huntsville who will match any advertised price. Anything but Guitar Center, because right now, as far as I'm concerned, Guitar Center is stupid and sucks balls.

Why We're Screwed

J likes to have the TV on in the morning for background noise and a little information. She keeps it tuned to Fox News, because after all, she is a republican. One story they've run a few times is the sad tale of a little company in Kentucky who makes jackets for Air Force One. The Federal Bureau of Prisons was going to compete for the work, and the loss of the contract would put the poor firm out of business. However, the brave business owner complained to the media and his Congressional delegation, and lo! The Federal Bureau of Prisons decided to withdraw from the bid, and the company is saved!

There are so many things wrong with this story it's hard to know where to start. Let's go with an immediate Business 101 level observation: if you are dependent on one customer for your continued existence, you have a problem. Diversify. Find other markets for your product. Find other business avenues to explore. Do something, anything, so if the big customer quits buying from you, you can survive. Frankly, piss-poor business practices alone should ensure Ashland Sales & Service goes bankrupt.

Moving right along, let's discuss the contracting issue. You have no right to have the taxpayer buy your product, okay? If, as it appears was the case, the Federal Bureau of Prisons can provide the item at a lower cost, guess what? I want the Federal Bureau of Prison to provide it. The federal government is not a jobs program. The fed should be trying to be wise stewards of the taxpayers' dime, which means going with lowest-cost bidding. If you ain't the lowest cost, screw you. Compete. Lower your costs. Improve your productivity. Don't whine about how the mean Federal Bureau of Prisons has lower labor costs and it's impossible to do anything. In other words, do your job and don't run to the government to get protection. This is the epitome of special interest: AS&S wants the government to screw over the taxpayer so they can benefit from the decision.

Next up, why in the hell are we buying special jackets for Air Force One, anyway? Unless things have changed, the zoomies get uniforms just like us groundlings did. All the personnel on Air Force have jackets, thoughtfully provided at taxpayer expense. What, they need another just because they fly on the same plane as their boss? Last time I checked, we don't have a palace guard in this country. The President is not the God-Emperor of America, and those blessed with his presence shouldn't get special uniforms. And the man himself? The President does not need a nice pretty flight jacket, and even if he wants one, he makes 400 large a year and should be able to afford one all by his own self.

Strangely, none of this was discussed in the coverage I've seen. These are basic considerations that maybe, just maybe, we should be considering when we decide to spend the government's our money. Instead, everybody's tear-jerking about how the business will go under and people will be unemployed and boo-fucking-hoo. Quit trying to tug on my heartstrings and think for a minute. We are $15 trillion and change in debt, and we have to be a jobs program for jacket manufacturers. We can't get anyone to ask "Why are we buying these jackets? And if we have to buy them, why can't we get them cheaper?" Nobody in the government is empowered to ask these questions but our elected officials, and they don't have the fortitude and willpower to do what's necessary.

And that, boys and girls, is why we're screwed: We have given ourselves the government we deserve.

Steve Jobs and Cultists

Steve Jobs was an innovator whose vision and fortunate partnership changed the way a lot of people use media.

I learned to program on a Mac SE over 25 years ago; I still have my fully functional "banana junior computer" that T constantly threatens to dismantle and turn into a fish bowl. I love my iPod and I love my iPhone and intend to purchase the new one. And guess what? Apple will still make products, and I will either choose to or not to buy them.

I don't know Mr. Jobs personally. I am sure this is a terrible loss for his family and for the people who knew and cared about him. I've lost many people I love and know what they face. It is unfortunate, and it is life.

What I detest is this creepy mourning death cult mentality so many take up every time somebody famous dies. Teddy bear shrines and candles and WTFever at Apple stores is just retarded. Stop it you idiots, it's meaningless. If you want to show support for Mr. Jobs' family, buy a Disney movie then go home and cry your crocodile salty ham tears in private. You're an irrelevant spec on the ass of the world and we don't care about your manufactured pain.

Despite PC society's reactionary anti-religionism, like it or not, people still yearn to be part of something greater than themselves. So instead of finding solace in the divine, they turn to the most frivolous crap that pops up, in a feeble attempt to give their empty existence some meaning. Creepy mourning death cults are fleeting, kiddies. Stop littering in front of retail stores. Do something. Find a real belief system. Try a Church.

QOTD

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

--Senator Barack Obama

A Short Diatribe About The Metric System

So, I hate my job and haven't had the time or energy much to blog lately. I'd much rather tweet random statements and make snarky comments over at Hit & Run.

Anyhow, my ire was raised by the absolutely bastardized implementation of the metric system that exists in the US. Now, I'm not talking about the SI system of units, a lovely idea in theory that has failed to catch hold here in America. I'm discussing the ancillary bits and bobs of technology that are specified in metric units. Today's example will be bolts.

As I peruse my handbook of all things mechanical I note an M8 x 1.25 bolt has a head size of thirteen millimeters. This means one uses a 13 mm wrench to remove said bolt, right? Perhaps in a perfect world, such is the case. Here in ugly reality, oh, but hell no. I have before me two M8 bolts, which go in the same piece of equipment. One was removed with a 12mm wrench, the other with a 1/2 inch wrench. I mean seriously, people, WTF?. There is no system of bolts I am aware of where you use metric threads with inch heads.

On the other hand, if I go buy a 3/8 inch bolt anywhere in the country I have a close to 100% chance I will be able to use a 9/16 inch wrench to remove or install it. Metric? Luck of the draw. Somewhere close to the nominal size will be what you need.

This is why people who work with things in this country have a propensity to hate the metric system. We're just not very good at it.

Groundrat Day

So, today is Groundhog Day. I find, though exhaustive research (aka five minutes with a search engine), that the groundhog is a marmot. This means it's a large ground squirrel. And what are squirrels? That's right, tree rats. So a groundhog is actually a fat grounded tree rat.

So we're all worked up about whether a fat groundrat sees it's shadow. Wait, what? How ridiculous a holiday is this, anyway? Incidentally, groundhog is another name for woodchuck. Based on the overall appearance of Punxsutawney Phil, that fat little bastard would have problems chucking a twig. So the answer if he's the benchmark is "not much".

I'm celebrating Imbolc or Candlemas or Ayn Rand's Birthday instead. They certainly can't be any more more ridiculous, although they'll certainly be less marmoty.

I have to admit, I kind of like the word marmot, though. So have a marmot of a day and celebrate whatever you think is appropriate.

Dare Call It

A side interest of the larger and lumpier half of YPS has always been the study of the various and sundry conspiracy theories wafting through the breeze. My interest comes and goes, because my grip on reality is tenuous enough. Start wandering in the weeds out where the hardcore whackos live, and you run the risk of some of the crazy rubbing off. If you're like me, you already have a lifetime supply of paranoid suspicions and don't need anybody else's.

I bring this up because a couple of posts over at H&R recently have brought conspiracies back up. Both posts are worth reading, as are the linked articles. The brain tries very hard to impose order, even on things that have no order. Use this knowledge wisely. Or start a cult. Whatever works.

And since it was brought up in the comments, I bring you one of the greats of the Internet, still as crazy as ever: TimeCube!

Morning Moments of WTF

First off, I have one question in regards to a story about a man who got stabbed in the neck during an altercation at a movie theatre. Who brings a meat thermometer to the movies? What, are you going to check and make sure the internal temperature of your hot dog is up to code?

Next, I know all the children these days are unruly little bastards who have no respect for authority and all that good jazz. That's not news or anything. But still, I think sawed off 12 gauges for dealing with the urchins is a bit extreme.

Indeed.

Everything Old Is New Again

Jerry Brown is running for Governor of California.

Somebody get Jello Biafra on the phone and ask him what he thinks, would you?

MFC 2009 Edition

Once again, we take a break from our usual misanthropy to wish all and sundry a Merry Christmas. We took care of our visiting and gifting yesterday, so we have been laying around the house watching the old Rankin-Bass stop-motion Christmas specials on DVD. After watching most of them one after another, we have come to one inescapable conclusion: Romeo Muller was (or still is) one deeply strange human being. The rest of the Rankin-Bass crew enabled his dementia. If you get a chance, clear your mind of all your childhood memories and watch these shows again. They are freaking bizarre.

As a side note, the minions of the Heat Miser and Freeze Miser are the prototypes for Mini-Me, aren't they?

Intentions Are Key

So, the n00b won the Nobel Peace Prize for... for... wait, what the fuck? According to the Swedes, it's

for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples

Seriously? Are you people on crack? He hasn't accomplished a bloody thing. Oh, wait, he didn't have to according to the committee. He got a Nobel for effort. When I was but a lower-case t, the prize for effort meant you were completely useless, but tried real hard. Are they going to apply this standard to the other prizes? Because, really, won't that make the prize way more inclusive? Maybe Pons and Fleischmann can get a Physics prize now, since they tried really, really hard to make cold fusion work. And they tried even harder to make people think they had. Surely that level of effort deserves some kind of reward.

For most of us, 1994 marks the nadir of the Nobel Peace Prize. When you hand out a prize for peace to a guy simply because he agrees, in theory but not in practice, to stop slaughtering people to achieve his goals, you've pretty much rendered it meaningless. I could also point out 1981 as a fail point, when they handed it to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. One could make the argument the completely ineffectual work the UNHCR has done with regards to the Palestinians has done more to prolong conflict in the Middle East than any other single organization.

Seriously, aside from the fact they give out big cash, why does anyone care about this award anymore? It's a sick joke.

UPDATE: I am allied with the GOP and terrorists! Or so says the head donk:

"The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,"

The jokes write themselves. Or run political parties. Whichever.

Bad Presents

I stayed home from work today due to profound gastro-intestinal distress. While I was lying in bed half-asleep, the Dog V2.0 hopped on the bed and started whining softly. I opened my eyes to see him staring at me, holding something in his mouth. I fully opened my eyes and sat up to see what the hell he had in his mouth. Dog V2.0, upon seeing he had my full attention, wagged his tail vigorously, dropped his burden, and hopped off the bed.

Leaving a dead bird on the sheets.

Thanks. Way to cap off an already shitty morning, junior.

Little Bits of News That I've Heard Today to Add to My Generally Pissy Mood...

Henry Waxman is trying to hold to his promise to pass this cap and trade Carbon Tax disaster by the end of day today and the Democrats are so desperate that they've maybe topped themselves. The Wall Street Journal reports that, due to the possibility that Republicans will require a formal reading of the 1,000+ page bill to slow its progress, the Democrats have a speed-reader waiting. So, now, apparently Evelyn Wood is now the most powerful force in government.

Our friends the Donks have also rejected an amendment that would stop the cap and trade tax if unemployment rises to 15% or gas reaches $5/gallon. I'm guessing that because there are still some of us left who haven't elected socialists to office to devastate our state economies, Congress has to make sure we're all equally punished and destroyed. One ring to rule them all and all that dreck.

I also heard a clip today where the infallible teleprompter of the Barackulous informed him that his Secretary of Defense is William Gates. Um, Mr. TOTUS, I think the man's name is Robert. William Gates would be one of the founders of Microsoft. Hmmm...maybe that was intentional after all.

Commentary

We don't get many comments around here, mainly because nobody reads us. So we thought we would highlight tonight's comment.

Jack H is trying to set me up by posting false homosexually charged messages in my 'anonymous' name on his 'Forgotten Prophets' blog. He has also been editing my own words to imply other falsehoods including potential criminal activity on my part. He may be doing the same elsewhere. I believe that he also plans to post a sexually charged or sem-nude photo and a link and make it appear as if I posted that photo myself. If you happen to see this photo and know of its original source, post that source here. There may be criminal activity involved. Jack H has claimed to be many things including a body builder, psychology major, gun owner, and super genius with an IQ of 164. I have reason to believe that Jack H may actually be a student or staff member at Drake University in Iowa or possibly another in California or Colorado.

Okay, a few comments are in order here. One, this was posted on a comment from '05. You might pick a more recent comment in order to, like, show up on the front page or something. Two, how can you slander somebody posting under the name 'anonymous'? Which 'anonymous' are you, anyway? Third, don't drag us into your weird homoerotic spat. I don't care if he does post "sexually charged or sem-nude" pictures of you or even if you posted nude pics of yourself. Don't post anything about it here. Start your own blog or keep it over at 'Forgotten Prophets' or where ever the hell you're having your little internet weenie waving contest. Don't bring it to a completely unrelated blog. Finally, I don't care what Jack H. has claimed to be or who he really is. Although, being a body builder, psychology major, gun owner and super genius isn't that unbelievable. Aside from the psych major, I meet all of those requirements. Okay, I'm not really a body builder, either. So two out four ain't bad. Of course, when you refer to yourself as a 'super-genius' the Wile E. Coyote comparisons should start flying pretty thick. Plus, shouldn't a super-genius have a real major instead of psych?

Paging Ned Ludd

Why is Twitter useful? Honestly, I'm baffled by the application and its utility. What does it offer that isn't available through some other platform or medium?