On a clear day...

...radio waves travel forever.

On the way to work this morning, my usual syndicated radio station - with a local receiver and antenna - was hijacked by another station. It was odd enough that the frequencies were wildly different (105.1 for the syndicated station, 98.1 for the hijacker), but the interloper is located in...

...Grand Rapids, Michigan.

As the crow flies over Lake Michigan, Grand Rapids is 114 miles away. It was a gorgeous, clear still morning.

Unfortunately, the other station wasn't to my taste, so I changed over to a CD for the rest of the ride in. Interested to see what I pick up tomorrow morning.

The value of being a Luddite

Luddite

1. One who fears technology (or new technology, as they seem pleased with how things currently are...why can't everything just be the same?)

2. A group led by Mr. Luddite durring the industrial revolution who beleived machines would cause workers wages to be decreased and ended up burning a number of factories in protest

A luddite generally claims things were "just fine" back in the day, and refuses to replace/update failing equipment/software/computers on the basis that they were just fine 10 years ago

Source: urbandictionary.com

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

Revelation 13:16 - 18

Much has been made in the last week regarding Samsung's smart television. A handy feature allows you to use voice commands to change channels, just in case you happen to lose the remote control. Unfortunately, as stated in the fine print in the manual, the microphone that picks up the channel command will also pick up any speech within the reach of the device. More than that, the recordings will be transmitted to a third party.

Yes, that "cool factor" that made you buy that television is enabling massive data mining and putting your personal information at risk.

It isn't just Samsung. As the so-called "Internet of Things" continues to invade our lives, it is becoming more and more difficult to keep our personal data, well, personal.

For as long as I've had a smart phone, I've refused to enable the location function. It's true that it may be an issue should I be vocally incapacitated and need to call 911 (and I'm sure there are other ways for them to determine my location in that situation), but I'm not thrilled with the number of applications that insist they need that location data as well.

For instance, last night I wanted to know the flavor of the day at Culvers. If it were a favorite, I'd swing past after work and buy a pint. The Culvers app on my phone (don't judge - what apps do you have on your phone?) came up and I discovered that unless I enabled the location function, the app would not find my local Culvers.

Needless to say, I didn't have ice cream last night.

It's not just phones and televisions. Wireless technology is creeping into everything. Cars? You can now buy one with its own personal wireless system. Refrigerators, ranges, home thermostat systems...the list goes on.

This article, while lengthy, does a great job of highlighting the risks of an always-connected society. At the rate at which the tech is expanding, it may soon become almost impossible to opt out.

What does this have to do with the mark of the beast? Everything. The next logical step after installing this technology in all the things is to install it in all the people. This isn't a science fiction, future times dream: the technology exists today. It's not so much a question of "can we?", but more "when will we?". All it takes is a society that has been inured to the dangers and sold on the convenience factor.

I'd say we are pretty much there.

Change of season

Needed something less fussy, calmer. I've a different colorway of this as the background on another account - taupes and a darker, dustier gold, there. I like the chrysanthemum-ish look of the flowers.

As always, free background from cutestblogontheblog.com.

It's spring, darn it

I've been meaning to do this for a few days, but didn't mean to do it when I'm up late (for me, anyway) and wearing glasses (I don't see as well with glasses rather than contacts, particularly when I put them on later in the day). So please forgive any errors or oddities; I'll fix them tomorrow when I can see.

Stupid sleet had the audacity to hit my windshield on the way home. Now, I'm thankful we didn't get hit with the six to twelve inches of snow they got in the northernmost reaches of the state, but I'm darned tired of this. i'm on vacation in a week, and I'd like to be able to plant something outdoors, darn it.

I'm not holding my breath.

Cable ties

Time Warner Cable has been the cable and internet provider around these parts for years. We love to rag on them (and I've had my share of less than stellar customer service from them, though in fairness, I've had a few great experiences as well), but they are our company to rag on, you know?

Word has come down that Comcast is planning to buy out TWC, adding TWC to the largest media company in the world.

This is not good news for subscribers.

Everyone I know who has Comcast as a provider has at least one horror story to tell that far outstrips any a TWC customer has to offer. Aside from the lousy customer service, the larger company will be able to force customers to accept new bundles, most likely carrying services/channels they neither want nor use, and most definitely carrying a higher price tag.

My own internet service is through TWC, on an extension of the contract the university has with TWC for the internet service in the dorms and other campus buildings. I can easily see this buyout costing the university a bundle (no pun intended). I won't whine (much) if the cost of my internet goes up; I've been paying only $32 a month for the last five years or more, versus the $60+ (and that's a lowball) for the same type of service were I to buy it individually.

Our one hope here is that the combined company will trigger anti-trust laws, but I'm not holding out much hope. Big brother wants to control all the information, and this is one step in that direction.

Monday miscellany 121012

Hey, I did say daily posts, not quality posts - you were warned.

'Tis the season to indulge my unaccountable love for sappy Christmas movies. Netflix streaming right now has a wonderful selection of fluffy winter fare. Tonight's choice is Snow 2: Brain Freeze, with Tom Cavanagh (who I've loved since the Ed days) and the adorable Ashley Williams.

Sappy movies are perfect to watch while you address Christmas cards.

Tomorrow night there is a multi-church Advent service at the church whose pastor's office is visible when you look out my office window (really visible; the church wall is five feet from our building). My church's worship leader is doing a couple of songs, so I thought I'd work late (I do have rather a lot to do) and wander over to the service. My heart's pretty heavy on behalf of quite a few people right now; an Advent service may be just what I need.

Friday night, my church is having their own Christmas concert, to which I'm taking a friend. The concert itself should be fantastic; we've an incredibly deep pool of musicians from which to draw.  But the real fun will be the sideshow...our pastors will be pulling espresso. Pastor Tom even roasts some of his own coffee, and may roast a blend specifically for our event. They are taking both cash and non-perishable food donations; the event is also a fundraiser for a charity we support.

I've so much to do at home to get ready for painting, to just keep up with life...so naturally I spent some time Saturday afternoon organizing my closet by color.

Sweet potato fries - is there anything better? I'm not much of a fan of the traditional casserole everyone makes for holidays, but boy, are they great when made into home made oven baked fries.

The only thing missing from my movie-and-cards scenario is a cup of hot chocolate. Catch you later.

Where a tax may be a good thing

Speedy delivery with a smile!

Amazon finally caved on the on going sales tax issue; they are making deals with the individual states to begin collecting appropriate taxes. To date, Wisconsin is not one of those states. The state trusts us to report and pay sales tax on any on-line sales as part of our tax returns, with predictable results (hey, don't look at me, I paid almost a hundred bucks last year in use tax; I'm no angel, but I'm not a tax cheat).

So why would the retail giant suddenly give up a position it has long defended? This article at Slate explains why.

Same day delivery - is it possible? In some areas, it may be. Not only will offering almost immediate gratification seduce more people over to buying from the devil's website, building the needed distribution centers will provide much needed jobs, both in the construction phases and for some level of staffing.

Because I'm lazy a bargain hunter, I generally check Amazon for prices before I go wandering out to the local stores. Because of the free shipping that comes with my Prime membership, it often happens that Amazon is less expensive. I certainly don't mind waiting two days in order to take advantage of the free shipping benefit, especially when, as the linked article mentions, oftentimes things arrive earlier.

I'm helping keep the FedEx, UPS and Postal workers gainfully employed.

So - will the prospect of getting your hot little hands around your goods just hours after you order them entice you to order more often from Amazon than trekking out to the local stores? Or do you think this is a lot of fuss over nothing?

Thumb twiddling

Poor baby! Do you need
some asprin?

Since around midnight last night our server has been out of commission. It's an actual hardware issue, not software.

Not only do we not have access to any of our own work saved on the server (where most of our stuff resides, as ITS insists, "Save your work on the server! We back up every night!"), but none of the financial systems are working, though the internet is up.

While our web-based phone system is working, we cannot access our contact list (stored on the server). Who actually remembers phone numbers anymore?

You don't realize how often you use the computer until the programs you use aren't working.

Ah well, it's a chance to clean the office a bit.

Dear Blogger

Why did you change my post title font? What else have you changed that I haven't caught yet? I don't have time to play games with you right now.

Bibliophile

Last year at this time, I bought myself a pair of diamond (very, very small diamonds) and onyx earrings as a personal reward for not quitting my job or braining my boss during a high stress project.

This year, as a reward for the same project (it's an annual thing), I bought a Kindle (the Kindle cost more than the earrings, which tells you just how small those diamonds really are).

Honestly, I've been hankerin' after the Kindle since they first came out...more books in a smaller format, less storage space needed, super long battery life.  And just plain cool.

The verdict after two weeks of use?  Love, love, love it (no connection with Amazon, did not receive any consideration for a review, yada, yada, et cetera, et cetera). The e-ink is remarkably easy to read, even with eyes that are old and fatigued from staring at a computer screen under fluorescent lights for ten hours a day.  Page turns, bookmarks, notes, moving around within a book or between books and organizing your content is all easy to do and fairly intuitive. There are a number of other cool features, but in terms of it's core function as a reader, it is absolutely stunning.

But the best thing?  This announcement yesterday: later this year, Kindle owners will be able to "check out" kindle editions of books from 11,000 public libraries! 

So many books, so little time.  It's a good thing that launch won't take place for a while.  It gives me some time to get through the nine ten twelve?! physical books in the reading stack, plus the four or five currently in the queue on the Kindle.

Grindstone, meet nose

The Monday after Thanksgiving; is there any more depressing work day?  A glorious stretch of time off, family, friends and feasting (plus Black Friday shopping for the intrepid - I love Black Friday, but only for the name, as its roots are in accounting), then a massive thud as we return to work for the never-ending slog until Christmas.

This is the beginning of the really, truly hectic (insane, actually) portion of my work year.  From now until the start of June will be stressful, annoying, life-consuming and, every so often, rewarding.

Tonight I'll package and freeze the rest of the leftover roast, clean a bit more and poke away at the Christmas decorations.  The tree is up, the lights plugged into a timer so I can both come home to a shimmering tree and wake up to the same.  The lights are one of my favorite parts of Christmas.

Over the weekend I managed to do a little bit of shopping:  I replaced my cell phone.  At four years old, my phone could have been considered a technological dinosaur, in spite of the fact it was in near perfect condition and worked just fine, thank you.  Call this an impulse switch.

What is it?  A Samsung Acclaim, an Android (Google) powered phone. If they let me stack my work discount and the pay-through-auto-deduction discount, the final monthly plan cost is within five bucks of my old plan - yay!  I'm still getting the hang of it; it vibrates at odd times for purposes I cannot fathom, in spite of the vibrate notification feature being firmly turned off.  Eh, if I can't figure it out I can take it back in next Saturday and have the nice barely wet behind the ears clerk explain it to me in words of one syllable (with diagrams!).

On the agenda for this afternoon:  planning our attack on the year end reporting for non-resident aliens, who have their very own tax code.  You think doing your own taxes is confusing...

Little stuff

There's no doubt satan is doing his best to stop the spread of the gospel: In the last day of the pledge drive for Klove, the nationally syndicated, listener-supported Christian radio station, the pledge phone lines have gone down. You can still contribute via the website. This is just an opportunity for God to show what He can do.

Strawberries the size of small apples - on sale at the local grocery, two pounds for $4. And they are good. In spite of the almost freezing temperature this morning, it looks like spring may be here.

A co-worker took me to lunch yesterday; I honestly don't think I've gone out to lunch in over a year. Shoestring eggplant strips for an appetizer. They weren't breaded and deep fried, but pan fried then topped with a bit of Parmesan. Yum. The presentation of Michelle's caprese salad wowed us both. The salad is traditionally tomatos, fresh mozzarella cheese and basil in an oil/vinegar dressing. A zig-zag drizzle of a balsamic vinegar reduction covered the plate, while the salad ingredients themselves were stacked into a tower: tomato, slice of cheese, basil, repeat twice. A little bit of the dressing over the top. It just looked...cute.

We received word a couple of days ago that a much-liked coworker died. She had been out since last fall, her sunny disposition and infectious laugh missed. The service is Friday afternoon; the family only scheduled an hour for visitation, and I think they are going to be surprised with how many people will show up.

After three years of maybe-yes, maybe-no, the answer on whether or not my best friend's son's family is moving to Missouri so he can attend seminary has been definitively answered yes. Which means Pam will be moving as well. Since I'm on vacation for quite a while over/after Memorial Day, I've offered to go on a road trip with Pam if she wants to go scout out housing. Her move is only temporary - three years, to help out with child care (they have four kids five and under) while her son studies and her daughter-in-law works - but she will be sorely missed.

Is it Friday yet? It seems as if it should be.

No fooling

Several weeks ago, our IT department began planning for migration of our data to a new server. Their chosen target date? Overnight March 31 - April 1. We've received at least four separate communications over the last week, reminding us to shut our computers down 3/31, and if anything looked odd when we booted up on 4/1, to simply reboot, and that would solve the problem.

Riiiight. Six-thirty this morning, and all four of us who are here do NOT have the new drive on our computers.

We have multiple calls in to the Help Desk informing them of their failure. While this doesn't affect our ability to access files, I'm sure their messing around to fix things will. I'm off to back up everything...

Comment on comments

Well, it's been a month since "upgrading" to JS-Kit commenting. The jury is still out. I like the fact that I can click on your name, and see your entire history of comments at this site. Having the emoticons is nice, as are the editing, photo and video embedding capabilities.

The one major drawback, however, is that as currently set, the comment does not provide a link back to the commenter's blog.

And that may indeed be a deal breaker.

You have to leave them to get them, and I've always made a point of visiting a visitor's blog and leaving them a comment, as well. Aside from the fact that I find that to be simple courtesy, it's helped me find some interesting blogs.

It may well be that this is operator error; there may be something I've not turned on at JS-Kit that will bring the weblinks back. I'll be hunting for that over the weekend.

Meanwhile, if you would, please leave your url in the body of the comments. I'll come visit, I promise! Any other feedback on the commenting system is welcome. If it's too much of a hassle, or if I can't figure out how to get the blog links to show up, I may switch back several years in time and decades in functionality and go back to the default blogger comments.

Thanks!

Holi-dazed

The Holidailies program isn’t officially running this year, but that doesn’t mean you are safe from the daily-during-December blathering I’ve posted the last two years. I’ve found that being compelled to post something every day actually sharpens my thinking (or, more accurately, forces me to think) and improves my writing.
That’s my story, anyway.

From now until the end of December I’m planning on putting up a post (almost) every day. I reserve the right to count an occasional meme or quiz as a legitimate post, but promise not to do so unless the inkwell of inspiration is bone dry and the route to the store impassable due to a huge writer’s block.

Based on past experience, some posts will be profound, others profoundly silly. The point is to make a habit of writing daily (even if I cheat and write several days’ posts at once). Feel free to visit every day, or stop in at the end of the week to catch up. By all means, make your voice heard in the comments; encouragement is the best gift you can give.

Not what I intended to do tonight

But it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Back in January, my dearest friend had me over for a dinner on my birthday. The gift she had for me was wrapped in gorgeous paper - a periwinkle lace-patterned background with stripes of a floral motif.

She thought I was a bit nuts when I insisted on taking the wrapping paper home with me (actually, even though she was convinced I would be living in the asylum before my next birthday, she insisted on getting me a fresh piece of the paper - she really is a keeper!). You see, where she saw disposable paper, I saw a blog header.

It's a sickness - seeing quilting patterns and motifs in flooring, bathroom tile, even grave markers; I once copied a gorgeous vine pattern for machine quilting off of the marker of a mass grave of British and American revolutionary war soldiers in Monmouth State Park (what else is there to do in New Jersey?).

Scan, crop, resize, then change the background and font colors. Now things look a bit more like spring.

If only the view out my window matched the picture on the header!

Converted

No, not the way you think: converted to digital television. My paid for with money sucked from my hard-earned paycheck government coupons expire today; I finally made the trip to Circuit City last night.

PSA: A co-worker’s husband works for the FCC, currently on assignment in Hawaii traveling to talk at nursing homes and retail outlets about the big switch (Hawaii is switching a month earlier, not wanting to disturb a rare bird’s nesting habits). The PSA: the Zenith converter available at Circuit City and the Insignia at Best Buy work the best. They are virtually identical units, both manufactured by LG. Cost for each is $59.99, so $19.99 out of your own pocket.

Installation

The converter is being used on a 13” television/vcr combo with rabbit ears and front A/V inputs. A DVD player was already hooked up through those inputs.

The converter unit itself is small – 8 x 6 x 2” or so. Several types of cables are provided for various hook-up options. I ran the antenna cable to the back of the converter, the RF cable from the converter to the antenna input on the television, turned the tv to channel 3, plugged in the converter and turned it on (remote included). It took less than a minute for the box to automatically find and set the stations. Truthfully, the most difficult part of the process was neatly arranging the myriad cords sprouting from the equipment.

The verdict

This set now gets a much better picture than the set in the living room – which is hooked up to cable. As an added bonus, I picked up several digital music channels, for jazz, classical, worship music and more. The DVD hookup is undisturbed (I watch movies in here while sewing). All in all, I’m pretty happy.

Caffeinated thank you

In the process of excavating the pile of mail on the dining room table I came across a squishy package I had been expecting for some time: a sample of Coffee 2.0 from Joffrey's.

A while back, via Carrie, I registered to get a free sample of a coffee that was being developed for and marketed to bloggers and computer geeks. It sounded like a very cute marketing concept (and I'm all about the free). But it had been so long since I registered that I figured the promotion had run out - or, in a fit of peri-menopausal fog I had mistyped my own address.

The coffee is very good, smooth and a little smoky, just as they claim. Take a look at their site, as they offer many other coffees as well.

As for the "increased focus power...faster, more efficient mental processing...amplified energy" that they claim the coffee inspires...well, if I'm still putting up posts at 2 a.m., you'll know that's true.

This weekend is not turning out how I planned

IE won't let me view some blogger sites - most notably my own. I got here via the main Blogspot site sign-in. I can't see Sarah's or Holly's with out getting the error message "IE cannot connect to website. Operation aborted." and the white screen of frustration, but I can see Skinny Dan's.

Hmpf.

Back when I can read my own blog.

Edit: Well, what the heck. After posting this, I clicked "view blog" and was able to see it without the error message coming up. Close IE, reopen and my home page - this blog - comes up fine with no error.

It's just messing with my head on purpose, isn't it? Now, if someone would find the package of card stock I bought a month ago, I'd appreciate it. It's been in the way for a month, and now that I really, really need it, I can't find it.

So far today... UPDATED!

...the behemoth (new!) copy/printer/fax/scanning machine decided to jam on the 4th copy of the ten I needed of my 13 page report, less than half an hour before I had to distribute said reports at a meeting. The jam was located inside the right side door, which was itself jammed tightly up against the counter of the cubicle in which this monster sits. We did get it moved, the jam cleared and the reports printed in time for the meeting.

...I tried to get into a seldom-used program in order to upload an entry someone needed done THIS INSTANT, only to receive the message "Invalid username or password". I write these things down - my notes said the last date I changed the password was 4-15-08 - not long enough ago for the system to demand I change it. A call to and visit from our tech guy, along with a phone call to another tech guy later, to discover that ALL the passwords on this program were reset six weeks ago. They just neglected to tell anyone.

...I heard the "voicemail message waiting" beep from my personal cell phone when I came back from my meeting. I retrieved the message, only to faintly hear a man and woman talking. From the little I could make out, it sounded as if it were in a business setting. The phone number is not in my contacts list, but it is one digit off from someone who is - no clue.

How much do you want to bet that when I try to post this, Blogger will eat it?

Technology is not my friend, today at least.

Update: Geez, I just spent ten minutes typing an update, only to have IE suddenly close itself. And in spite of the fact that Bloggers automatic save works insanely well most of the time, this time it...didn't.

Long story short: My twenty minute ride home took ninety minutes, in part due to the exodus of fans from the Brewer game (stupid me for getting on the freeway)(it would not have been much better on the streets). I enter the highway at 35th Street and exit at 70th; that portion of the trip took 80 of the 90 minutes. The traffic didn't ease up after passing Miller Park, but rather worsened. At 70th, the cops had the freeway entirely blocked, forcing everyone to exit.

A flatbed carrying mining equipment lost its load somewhere between 76th and 84th. It took a while to get a crane there to lift the 38,000 pound gear back on the flatbed.

Naturally, this was the one night this week I had plans - meeting friends for dinner at 5 p.m. I just made it.

I'm going to bed now. Care to place a wager on whether or not my alarms (one electronic, one battery powered) will go off in the morning?