If you want my business, don't require an app.

 Oh now don't go all OK Boomer on us.  I don't mean don't HAVE an app.  I mean don't REQUIRE an app.

There is a fine line there and I got my tail dragged all over it.

Yes, this is a little rant-y so bear with me.

I was doing some online shopping.  In this case I was happily looking at things I could justify either way.  Buy or not buy.  I am not exactly floating in money these days, oh I get by but floating in the stuff?  No.

Every time I clicked on a link there was a helpful hopeful link explaining how you can have an app sit on your phone to do all this work.

No.  From a Security Standpoint, No, Just No.

I have a friend up in New Jersey.  She won't do anything with an app and I think she may be onto something. 

So you download their helpful little app and it sits on your phone listening to what you are doing and where you are going as well as assisting you on its intended purpose.  You now have what the gov'mint says  is a vector for attack.  You have to create a signon, give the thing credentials.  It now has a privileged place.  It lives in your pocket or your purse.  When you start the thing, it is going to serve you ads.  The FBI already says if you can block an ad to do so.

I absolutely agree.  Block any and all ads aggressively.  I do so on my laptop with a hosts file and on the phone with a VPN to an ad blocking DNS.  If I see an ad, it is a surprise.

Now while this is shaping into an anti advertising rant, it's probably not the main reason that I give people why I refuse their apps.  It's the size of the things. 

I'm a big dude.  Athletic, 193cm or 6'4".  A fit 85 Kilos, 190 pounds this morning.  Oh sure I could go onto a cutting diet and tune that all down a bit more towards the lean side, but with a BMI of 23.5 I don't have to.  As much cardio as I get in a day, even on the bench as I have been since the last sports injury, I don't pass that dessert cart.

Being a big dude, I have big hands.  Now don't get wild with that parallel, ladies.  I find it difficult to operate a cell phone.  Tablet perhaps is more my size, laptop I am great with.

Linux, Hosts file, Firefox, and ublock origin.  Like I said no ads.

But a cell phone?  Damn things are too small for me.

Went from the general purpose site to a specialized one to do some purchasing.  I'm expecting the economy to "tank" next year and a world wide depression happen.  So I am stocking up on things.  If I had the tools to do so, I'd be lowering the gas tank on the Jeep and repairing it.  That check engine light is not going away on its own.

Repairing things is a good way to live anyway.  The Brits used to say Make Do And Mend, and I like mending my 23 year old Jeep.

So I went on with my purchase. 

Lo and behold the site REQUIRED me to download an app in order to deal with the purchase. 

No. Just no.

And who the site is is not important.  There's this shift to the smart phone that I avoid where possible.

Of course there was a problem with the app.  It simply did not download and there was a subsequent problem with the order.  I missed a tick box and it required me to pay an extra $1.55 for some nonsense called ShipTection.   Insurance on your shipping.

I wrote back telling them to reverse that charge or I will cancel the sale with my credit card.  I also fired off a comment saying that if you insist on charging what sounded like a "Protection Racket" because your method of shipping is so bad, I'll go elsewhere next time.

I'll go elsewhere anyway, I don't like being forced to jump through hoops.

I got everything cleared up, which is why I am not naming names, but damnit no thank you I will not be downloading your sketchy app.

I have quite enough of those sketchy apps anyway, we all do.  ThankYouVeryMuch.

How To Turn Off Smooth Scroll in Firefox and LibreWolf

Get me annoyed.  When I am annoyed I will fix things.

Facebook (Yes, I know social media is utter garbage) forced smooth scrolling one day.  I don't know if it was permanent because I removed it.

I Fixed It. 

This is not perfect.  If you have a private chat sub-window open and page up in the main one it will smooth scroll until you click the main page.  Clear as mud?

I use Firefox and Librewolf.   Librewolf is "said" to be better contained than most for keeping spy sites, ads, and Trojans contained and since it is derived from Firefox I use it for Facebook and other "snoopy" websites, and surf the web with a separate Firefox instance. 

Want more security?  Get Linux.

Smooth Scrolling is something I have always found awful.  I turn it off in preferences everywhere, including on dumb terminals and of course Firefox.  Unfortunately Facebook forced it "on".
`
This is how to force your browser to turn Smooth Scroll Off.

Standard Internet Warranty applies - Follow these instructions at your own risk.  Ramblingmoose is not responsible if you fat finger your browser and everything comes up in Sanskrit.  Work slowly and carefully.

Start Firefox or your favorite derivative and follow the steps:

Step 1.  Ctrl+T to start a new tab.

Step 2.  Surf to about:config and accept any warnings about causing damage to your browser.

Step 3. enter in "smoothscroll" in the search bar, unclick the button that says "Show only modified preferences" then hit enter.

Step 4: Change every entry from "true" to "false" as you prefer.  The more that you change over, the less you will experience SmoothScrolling.

Step 5:  Close the About:Config tab. 

That's pretty much it, happy surfing. 

Now... don't get me started on this nonsense about one or two spaces between sentences.  I use two because I use two.  It makes it easier to read and I don't want some software developer in another country insisting that I need to get with the times.

Besides going between Proportional and Monospaced (Fixed Width) Fonts frequently will make your eyes cross.

Get off my lawn.

Rack In The Car, Oscar in The Yard, Weather, and Pests on the Phone

Having a picture that just refused to be cropped correctly for a month, I settled in to work on it.

It just wasn't going to be an easy one.  Most people would shrug and say try again.  I am too stubborn.

The first problem was it looked like something from the criminal's lair in the campy old TV show from the 1960s, Batman.  Tilted to the one side, it was a picture taken behind my back.  I was trying to be slick.  I didn't want my dog to be distracted.

One day we had piled into the big blue beast and drove down to the office.  This was one of Rack's all time favorite things to do.  We would head down A1A and he'd stick his head up just high enough to watch the endless summer parade by with accents of tourists and palm trees.  For a dog that I see shut down way too often, the joy in his canine brown eyes was a pleasure to see.

So I stuck the camera under my left arm, between the seats and tapped the trigger a couple times to fire off a couple shots.  It wasn't like I expected much.  But I did like the picture if I could "Do Anything With It".

I settled in this morning to play with the software.  I could eventually paste it into Photoshop, but let's see what happens in Irfan View with a judicious crop.  Try to find the rotation tool...

The weather alert fires off for the first time in weeks.  I'm actually happy it "still works".  Listening to Sneezy The Weather Robot, I try to get a little further.

Try 15 degrees...

Marine Warning?  I'm on dry land.  Ignore.

14 Degrees...

Phone rings.   "No, Dave's not here, man!".  Yes, seriously.  Cheech and Chong when the phone rings before 9AM is about the best I intend to do.

Man.

13 Degrees... Yes! Close Enough!

Oscar flaps around a bit, and I start to crop.  Like a Barber - A little off the sides, a little off the top.  Maybe a Mani-pedi and a little off the bottom.

Suddenly, Monsoon.

I set the computer back on the table.  Grab Oscar's cage.  A picture of Rack's Favorite Thing will wait, I have Oscar's Favorite Thing for the first time in over a week.  Rain.

I take the top of the cage, bird and all, out to the back yard.  It's raining buckets, but the water hasn't even gotten off the roof yet to soak the back of my shirt as I walk him out to the pool deck.

That gives me 15 minutes to work on things.  A pass through the Spanish Tutor.  I could eat apples and drink milk with the best of them but only while I'm on the toilet apparently.  Learning Spanish On The Loo it should be called.

I head back out to the chair to work with the picture more and play Photo-barber.  It's a square format, it will have to do.

The rain stops as suddenly as it started.  Better go after the parrot before the Opossums or the Raccoons do.  The "scale" on the outside of the cage had washed away in the torrent.

I bring Oscar back in and set the top of the cage on the base.  Phone rings.

"Dave's not here, Man!".

Tommy Chong, I am not.  I am however getting tired of the wrong numbers.  There's a car website somewhere that people sign up to opt in for phone calls from people to help them find cars.

Opt in.
To Find Cars.

Why on earth would you ever want to hear from a shouty car salesman?  I have heard from all the high pressure car dealers in South Florida over the last week.  Most of them are blocked.  I have heard from Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Subaru.  Most of them are insistent that this is Dave's number.

"No, dude, you've been scammed, remove the number he gave out mine".  I usually can't even get the sentence out before I'm talking to a dead line and a bloop from my phone.

I start getting texts from someone who insists I need to look at a video on my phone.  No, I won't bother, the idea that I have to watch a commercial in order to watch a video that lasts less time than the commercial is insane.  All that is blocked on the computer.  Adblock Edge to the rescue.

Phone rings.  More "Dave".  http://www.truecar.com has my ire.  I will never be able to block all of these things.

Look at the watch.  A 10 minute crop and edit has taken an hour and a half already.

Oh well, by the end of this I will have every single car dealer in South Florida Blocked.  Thankfully I have a modern Android phone that lets me do that sort of thing?

One last burp.  The music in the house.  It stutters, I think nothing of.  I'm almost done here..

The internet goes down.  Damn Comcast!  I walk into the laundry and reset the cable modem.  That doesn't help.

Comcast is down until 2pm.

(Sigh) One Of Those Days.  I'll have to use the bluetooth keyboard and finish the post on the phone.

Outlook.com - How To Block Messenger

Microsoft, please don't annoy me before 6AM.

I had gotten in after the dog walk, settled in for some iced tea, and wanted to check my email once the computer got started.

Using www.outlook.com has never been a pleasure for me.  I want an email service that stays out of my way with extra "features" that I don't want.   Having a chat service tied into an email program that is a bloated mess was not my choice.  Even Hotmail.com was better than the steaming pile of garbage that Outlook.com has been bloated into.

At the lower left of the browser screen was a helpful "Messaging" area with little icons of people who I have written in the past.  I found myself immediately looking for a way to turn it off.  After wasting a half hour in the "Byzantine" settings menu in Outlook, I went to do a search for how to do it.  I found this page suggesting that I add an entry into a low level file and restart my computer.   The low level file is a text file called "Hosts" that your computer reads in when it starts.  What Hosts does is to override networking.  

In Windows it is at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and Linux keeps it at /etc/hosts which would be where I would expect to find it on Mac OSX.

Some very basic and oversimplified networking concepts.

If you type in http://www.ramblingmoose.com your computer doesn't know what that does. It consults your network stack, finds the gateway, and then talks to your internet service provider.  In this case it looks at a giant phone book called your DNS and gets the IP Address of the site.  Since my blog points to a blogger site, that number changes, and it's hosted by Google anyway. 

But I can change that.

If I bring up Hosts in notepad or any other TEXT editor, I can add in a line saying that a specific IP address is to be used when you go to a specific web address or URL.

For example, if I want to block Google, I add a line to the file:

127.0.0.1  www.google.com

Save the file and restart the computer.

This works for some sites that are advertising providers and other nuisance sites.  My own Hosts file is pretty large having gotten one that has most of those malware and advertising sites that were known at the time.

But all this is annoying to maintain.  Fortunately, there is an easier way to do it.

Adblock Edge or Adblock Plus in Firefox and whichever other browsers it supports.  Adblock Edge is always the first thing I add when I install Firefox.  It allows me to block ads, hide pictures, and even block whole websites (domains) if I choose to from a semi-friendly interface.

Simply add a custom "rule" to adblock to block the following URL:

geo.gateway.messenger.live.com

It would be a whole lot simpler if Microsoft had decided that it would give you a way to block that Messaging app within Outlook.com settings, but they chose not to.  Luckily I can turn it off and get some things done.

How to add a custom rule:

• Ctrl+Shift+F will open a window called "Adblock Edge Filter Preferences".
• Click on the "Add Filter" button in the upper right of the window.
• In the blue box, enter geo.gateway.messenger.live.com and Enter.
• Close the window by clicking the Close Box.
• When you refresh Outlook.com in your browser, it will be blocked in that browser only.

The Tyrrany of the Logical Place

Living in a small house means you have to make allowances.

We have a little shed in the backyard.  Without having measured it, my best guess is that it's about 10 feet square, but it could be smaller.  Maybe 3 meters on a side.   I can stand in it comfortably.

That is when I empty it.
Or when I can actually go into it.

There's a ritual involved.

First, think clearly of what you need.  No, Not what you are looking for, but what you actually NEED.  That is to say, you have a lot of projects "pending" so clear your mind and go through that mental list thinking about what you need to complete them.

Dremel tool.

Wiper blades for the Jeep.  You have no idea how difficult it is to find 13 inch wiper blades even in an Auto Parts store these days.

Lights for the little Charlie Brown Holiday Tree.  Ok, so that's a little early, but it is best to start in August when you're looking for that sort of thing.

Second, remember why you went out there.  In this case, I'm trying to get together a Care Package for a good friend up North.  I do that sort of thing periodically, as he sends me random things periodically.  That means that I keep packing material on hand as a rule.

You know, Bubble Wrap.  For crying out loud stop popping that, I need it!

Third, find the bug spray.  This is Florida.  South Freaking Florida.   While that shed gets hot during the day with the tin roof partially exposed to the sun under the spreading Sea Grape Tree, it doesn't really get hot enough to keep it clear of wildlife. 

Not those entertaining little lizards, they use it as an incubation chamber and leave little gumdrop sized eggs in the corner.

I am worried about those other family pets.   My Flock of Mosquitoes and my herd of Spiders.

Die, just die.

I open the door gingerly.  Spray the spray of death into the small chamber.   The two moths that I flushed into the open flutter to the ground.  I did say I am not a practitioner of Jainism where every life is sacred.  If that moth was one of my reincarnated relatives, you shall find another place in your next life.  Let me suggest something a little more charismatic like a parrot or gecko.

I close the door with flourish.  The metal plate behind it thrums.  Drop the padlock into the latch and walk back to the house.   I need to let the poison gas do its thing. 

Try to convince Rack that he really does not need to hide behind the chair.   It's sunny, we only have a 50 percent chance of rain.  Come on boy, Backyard!

Nothing.  Ok, I'll do this alone.

Reopen the shed.  The sweet smell of bug death leeches out into the yard.   I step back to allow it to "fall out" while rolling the lawn mower out into the yard.

Stepping back into the shed I immediately get knocked in the head.  Mango Pole for Mango Season and the Pole Saw are hanging from the rafters.  They need to be secured.

I start to dig.   Everything was placed out there for a reason.  Sure.  I'll need that.   The old radio for my Jeep sits waiting in a bag.  Do people still listen to Cassettes?  How about AM Stereo?

Yeah that ship has sailed.

My motorcycle license plate from New Jersey, still with the sticker on it from 1991.   I miss that bike.  Honda Goldwing Interstate.  *Sigh* Can't ride one down here, these people think driving is a contact sport.

Ooh there's that wiper blade!  The holiday lights!  The Bubble Wrap!  That's why I came out in the first place.  Bubble wrap! 

Not all of it.  Somewhere we have a big roll of the stuff.  Better find that by mid September, I'll see if I can make do.

Any chance I can find that Dremel?  I have a couple beer bottles to cut down to make "Votive Candle Holders".

Yeah I know, kitchy.

But no luck on that Dremel.

Whacking my head on the Mango Pole I look at the bikes hanging forgotten in the back.  I never liked riding them anyway.

One more pass for the Dremel.  Nope.  Set the wiper blades in clear view and back out.   The Mosquitoes are heading back in the void.  I dared to breathe too long.  The Carbon Dioxide is collecting in the enclosed space.

Everything was put out there for a reason.  It's the Logical Place.   The problem with putting things in a Logical Place is that it makes too much sense.  Out of sight and out of mind, you forget about it completely.  Add to it that it is in a place you try not to go to because of the logistics and you end up wasting another hour on another day looking for something that you need, serendipitously hoping you will find it.

Not a chance, but you may find the other plate for the Motorcycle some day.   The Pennsylvania plates always looked more cool anyway.  Shaped like the state with that silly notch for where Erie County is.

You know they actually bought that from New York?  Erie Pennsylvania?  They wanted that?  Must have been for the harbor.  Made Pennsylvania the forgotten Great Lakes state and a great trivia question.

Two states border the Great Lakes and touch the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean - which are they?

New York and Pennsylvania.   The salt line goes up as far as Philadelphia on a dry month.

So? Are They Friendly? If I have to ask...

Have you ever been out and saw someone dumbwalking?

I did at 5:40 in the morning on this particular day.

More importantly they were "on my planet", which is to say they were so involved in texting or playing some game that the guy didn't realize that he was about to have a Dog Incident.

Not to worry, I had read Rack's reaction to the two Schnauzers or Scotties and nothing happened.

Hey, Buddy, Pay Attention, you Bonehead!

Actually I defused the situation a lot more politely.   Having seen this person before, I knew his dogs were out of control.  While Mr X was standing there engrossed in what he was doing on the small screen instead of building a relationship with these two living and breathing creatures, those same creatures had spotted us.

His dogs had went into an aggressive stance.  They crossed to his rear and formed an X across his back with the leashes.  Rack at this time had walked to the far side of me and had stretched out my arm to get as far away as possible.

I used The Voice.  This is the Command Voice that I can use well.  Lots of booming sound, designed to wake someone up and draw attention.

"Are They Friendly?"

I knew better, having seen these dogs before, I had seen them lunging and growling both at me, my dog, and others in the same situation.  Clearly this is someone who should not have a dog, let alone two.

"Oh Sure, they're friendly!"  Then he noticed it was me and looked away as far as possible.  As he was gathering his dogs together, I passed.

Of course my thumb had just flicked the safety switch on my Taser Flashlight that was in my pocket, and I had it out at my opposite side.  I pretended to look at an object with the light thereby proving that everything was energized in case I needed protection.  It either is a Flashlight or a Taser but not both.  I generally need to watch, and that flashlight gets taken out of the pocket other than to light my path a startling amount of times, roughly every fourth or fifth walk.

Having gone through a dog bite incident, I simply wasn't going to walk blindly into that situation again.  There are just too many bad dog owners out there.  The dogs can be trained.  The people are questionable.

I see this far too often.   Living in a resort town, Wilton Manors, people come here literally from all over the world.  They take a lot of time and effort to get here.   So what do they do when they get here?  Pull out the smartphone, sit in front of a coffee shop, and ignore the world.

I could have saved you vacationers a lot of time, if you really wanted to use that phone, you could have done that on your own couch.

As for the locals who have the little yappers?  A dog is a dog is a dog.  They all can be trained, even the dinky little Frou Frou dogs that city dwellers have a preference for and some people feel it is appropriate to stuff into a purse.  That is to say that somewhere deep down there is that spirit of a Wolf.  If you don't take control of your dog, your dog will take control of you.

You have been "owned".  Or "Pwned" as Them Thar Kids say now a days.  And it is never appropriate to stuff a dog into a purse.  A dog is not an object, it is an intelligent and sentient being.

Your dog will take control of the situation.  Since dogs are territorial beasts, they will growl, show teeth, and go to protect what they think their territory is.  That is to say, you.

On the other hand, a well trained dog is welcomed just about anywhere.  Many restaurants and shops will allow a well trained dog in.  If your dog is lunging and growling and barking, it is not well trained and simply does not belong in public.

Some people don't need a dog, a plush toy would do, or even a picture of a plush toy may be more appropriate.

So every time you go out and see a dog in a shop or a restaurant, watch the interaction.  It really isn't that hard to tell if the person is over their head and needs training.   The dog has trained them to be in the back seat and is now in charge anyway.

As for the rest of our walk?  I got well away from that dumbwalker and dropped Rack's leash.  When there

are no dogs around, he's being trained to be a "Good Citizen".  For now, this is only at the early walk.  The other walks are a bit too intense.  I intend to get him to the point where he can walk off leash anywhere, whether there are other dogs there or not.  The minute I drop Rack's leash, he circles back and glues himself to my leg.  Then he looks up at me for suggestions.

Where're we gonna go, Dad?  Huh?  Walkies?  GREAT!

Reimagining the Desk - A Journey With A Stiff Neck

One of the earliest things that I had written about was my living room.   Specifically, I took a picture of my chair, my laptop, and the rest, and I then told the story of the Poang and how I tend to sit in my chair and write.   I also do more than that, all sorts of software development for fun and profit, as well as pretty much treat the thing as an office.

There's a problem.

I originally thought that it was a Tall Guy Problem.  It's not.  It's simply a problem.

After reading Reddit and the Tall Subreddit where people take random selfies looking uncomfortable because the world was not engineered for someone over 6 feet tall, I came to the conclusion that Mom was Right.

My posture had become awful and my coveted chair was contributing to it all.  Back pain, stiff neck, and general achy self were some of the things I had noticed.

Yeah I know, Hey, Bill, Take Control.  Grab the Reins.

Ok, Smart Alec that lives inside my head, what do I do?

The house I live in has my desk.  The desk is in the Florida Room.  That room needs insulation and since the exposed beams warm the place to another five degrees F warmer than the rest of the house as soon as the sun starts to bake it, I had abandoned my desk almost immediately after I settled into it.

Don't ask, it's too warm to use.

The Ikea Poang in the middle of the living room is under a vent and a ceiling fan redirects the air conditioning so it's comfortable.  I used to say that it was the coolest seat in the house, but I'm not so certain.

What I did was to relocate to the dining room.

I have an old 1950s or earlier solid maple table in there with matching solid wood chairs.  When Mom got this set, I took a liking to it.  I saw an opportunity when she started complaining that it didn't do well in her kitchen in Barclay Farms, Cherry Hill, good ol' New Jersey.  So I "helped her out" of it and it's been with me ever since I moved into my first Philly apartment.

After waking up with a proper stiff neck that never went away and some other disturbing creaks and cracks that were getting more insistent, I tried some minor changes.  It convinced me that while this isn't perfect, I'm onto something.

Ergonomically speaking, your eyes will track to the center of the device that you are using.  In my case it is a 16 inch wide laptop.  If I put that on my lap, it will create some problems.

The worst problem is that since I slightly recline in the Poang, the view to the laptop means that I am looking down.  In the more than 10 hours a day I am sitting there using the laptop, my head ends up with chin literally glued to my chest.  That is not a good position.  Not at all.

The laptop had to be raised off my lap and placed onto Mom's Maple table.

Good first step.  Now, slide back... great!  But those chairs are stiff.  Nobody wants to sit on an un-padded wood Captain's Chair for hours no matter how nice it looks.   Plus the angle is still "down".

I slid the chair aside, moved the Poang in.

It's much better.  My eyes are dead center on the monitor.  The picture I took from my right shoulder, while it is out of focus, is perfect for showing the view I get from the bouncy chair.

One problem.  I am an excellent touch typist.  Mrs Momarella and my good friend Donna W. from High School taught me well.

The laptop is just below shoulder height.  That doesn't make for comfort.  In fact, I tried typing that way for all of five minutes.  My hands nearly came off at the wrist.

Seeing that I can type with my eyes closed almost as well as I can with them open, I needed something else to happen.

I pulled the captain's chair out again and used it for a platform to set the track ball.   It's a big clunky thing that uses up my USB port and won't sit on the arm of the chair.  Since this is "work hour use only" no worries there, I'll just "own" using my dining room as my office.

One more thing.  Keyboard.

My old school IBM Model M Keyboard with the clicky keys!  Lets try that first. 

Nope.  It drains too much power to use on the USB converter thing.

Digging through the Parts Cabinet, I found an old Microsoft wireless keyboard.  That is on my knees right now just inside the picture.  It works "well enough" but I still want my PS/2 Keyboard.   Once I find my powered USB hub, I know that it will drive the keyboard I really want to use. 

Too bad you can't get those clicky keyboards with bluetooth though.   It's 1980s technology that will work because it's just that good.  Too well designed to toss with real mechanical switches on each key.  They weigh almost as much as the laptop does.  I have about 4 of them in the house buried under the bed because when people tossed their old PCs, the keyboards would end up at the computer shows being sold for a mint.

If 5 dollars could be considered a mint.  Now they go for between 80 and 200 US Dollars more on auction and reseller sites.

No, I won't share.  Get your own.  Besides, I may figure something else out with my coveted clicky IBM Keyboard Model M.

Yes, I have Ideas.

For now, I have my Tall Guy Adaptation.  It really isn't about being tall though, it's more about looking at how you are working and making sure you are sitting at the right place to put your head when you work.  When I touch type... I can set my head back and close my eyes, like this paragraph was typed.  If your are smaller and have a shorter torso, like about 95% of humankind, you can vary the height of everything so that you can work with it at ease.  That is why most "office chairs" have those adjustments to make things more comfortable.

But Laptops?  I'm beginning to realize that they just aren't meant to live on your lap for 10 hours at a stretch.

Besides, if you do, these days, you will end up toasting your legs.  I'll leave Mom's Table to handle that for me.  I'm nice and cool listening to music on headphones, typing on my lap, and resting my head back with my eyes closed.

Yes, I can do this with my eyes closed.

Really.

Writing can be an effortless experience.   If I could only have told my 12 year old self who was bored hearing about all that in English Class in Mr Custer's Sixth Grade Class in Stafford School on Berlin Road in Cherry Hill.

Boring as hell but useful.  Not everything can be an adventure novel after all.   Some come with a beige cover and will bore you to tears but you will use it every day of your life.

Just like that table and laptop combo.

Now oddly enough, before I wrote this up and headed on my little obsessive journey for desk nirvana, the Washington Post had written an infographic on this same subject.  I'll make it a point to get out of my desk and chair more often, or I'll at least try.

Since the poster is at this PDF link, it won't fully display here.   On the other hand, I see that picture below and think... Is THIS what I put my body through?  YUCK!!!!

Now I Know Why People Store Passwords On Post-its Under The Keyboard

I have a video.  In retrospect it isn't all that much.  About a minute of my dog romping in the back yard.

I got it off the video camera, reformatted it to the correct size.  HD Video used to be a special thing, but now... even a cheap phone will do better video than we used to get back in the square box days of TV.

Not too long ago, and yeah, get off my lawn.

I grabbed a picture of my dog, and my neighbor's dog Ellie.

Both were a lead-in.  I have done this sort of thing before, professionally.   I may be a bit rusty, but editing video is something I have done since the mid 1990s both professionally and as a hobby. 

I have taken video that I have shot, as well as video created from broadcast sources, and I even made a giant Powerpoint project that I converted to video.  Yeah, you know the one that runs behind the stage to annoy, er advertise companies at a street party?  I did that.

I managed to get the short video, three transitions, four titles, a comment frame, and more, put together and in the right format for the web.

Time to log into youtube.  Oops.  Where's that password?

Wait, the washer was beeping.  It needs to go on another spin cycle anyway.

Back to ... where was I?

Postman arrived... I can ignore that for a little bit.   Let me tweak the titles again, I'm not too happy how things show up in motion.  I'm getting a blur.

Time to render the video again.  Crash.

Windows is demanding a reboot, I can postpone that.

Bring the project back up again.  I think I need to find a better piece of software to do that task, I'm running something from 2003 still.  At least it's not like writing a novel in an extinct word processor and on DOS.

Once I get this render done and uploaded, I'll look into Cinelerra and Ubuntu Studio again.  I have enough Linux machines around me that that shouldn't be a problem.

More distractions, this time the fifth recruiter in the last hour.  Sure, you're from New Jersey.  Right, and I'm living on the Moon...

Ahh, render is done, now back to that old youtube account I have... Ramblingmoose.   What was that password again? 

Fail.  No such luck.  Should have written that thing on the bottom of a Post-it and stuck it on my desk somewhere.  It's not in the emergency file either.

Oh well.   Time to drop back five and kick.   Write about the experience, curse at Google with my best might, and put up the original video of Rack licking peanut butter out of the Kong.  

*sigh*

Wow, that was only a month after I got him? Long time ago...

How to Stop Facebook From Auto-Playing Videos

Believe it or not, I don't have an April Fool's Joke.  I don't believe in them.  It's for the amateurs around us.

So while today is Amateur Day, I'll give you a little helpful hint.

I enjoy videos.  I watch an awful lot of them, probably more than I should.

When I launch a web page and it has a video on it, that video should not automatically play.  If it does, I am searching for a way to close that web page as fast as humanly possible.

I usually do it while at least growling at the laptop, and most likely with a few "invectives".

You know, four letter words.

So if you are looking at Facebook, and I do this far too much to support the groups around here that I support, here is a way to make your life a bit easier.

• Log into Facebook.
• Click the "Settings" gear in the right side of the blue stripe at the top of your Facebook webpage.  Lately that gear has been changed to a little subtle blue triangle, point down.   The link is here to put you directly on the page.
• The resulting "General Settings" page has a list of  settings you can work with in the left pane of the web page.
• Click on the Video Settings link on the left at the bottom of the list or just click on this link.
• Video Settings has only one thing you can set here, the Auto-Play setting.  Click on the "On" or "Off" button to set it the way you like.

Enjoy!

Monster.com, Are You Kidding? Fancybox? Really?

In business, there is a phrase.

"Eat Your Own Dog Food."

Monster.com doesn't seem to realize this in their roll out of new "features".

You see, Eat Your Own Dog Food really means that you're going to use your own product to make sure that it suits what you intend it to do, and that you aren't giving the competitors an unfair advantage.

In web development and Project Management, this means finding someone who becomes the "Subject Matter Expert" and "Product Owner" and takes on a very special role.   When I worked at the university, and in every position I have held back into the beginning days of my career, I've assumed this role.  It means that you are going to step back, listen to what the "Main User" of the system says about it, and champion that role within "Development" so that the Main User's need are best served.

It means that you have to anticipate how any person will use the system and make sure that problems do not occur, and that when they do, problems are dealt with gently and "Gracefully".

It also means that unintended consequences sometimes occur like in this picture above.

It is one of my least favorite features, the "Fancybox" or the "Lightbox".

It is also very very rarely used correctly.

This is an example of how badly monster.com used the fancybox.

I did this under "my signon" and on another browser with no signon and it repeats itself.

Simply put, go onto Monster.com and do a search for any position you like in what ever zipcode you prefer.  Monster will return a list of positions.  It may even give you more than one page.  When you go from page 1 to page 2, it will put a "fancybox" up on your browser asking you "Let These Jobs Come To You".

No, you blistering idiot, that is not what I wanted.

You see it will do that for this page, and any future page I want to look at. 

Every Blistering Page.

Ok, so I'm quoting the TV Sliders and Dr. Arturo with his wonderful rants and insults, but the point is still valid - Fancyboxes rarely serve a useful purpose For The User.

I went in immediately to my browser, clicked "Adblock Plus" and found a script.  I blocked it, and refreshed the page, and now I'm back to the old Fancybox Free behavior.

If I wanted an RSS Feed of the search parameters, it would not work because since I live in a major metropolitan area, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, there are thousands of jobs.  I have given up on RSS Feeds for this because they "max out" at 50.  I typically would need around 500 to be able to see the last two days worth of positions on this given search.

I have many searches, and have saved each individual page to save me a LOT of time that would be otherwise wasted clicking on "Next Page" buttons.   If I were not able to do the search the way I do, then I probably would have stopped using Monster.com a long time ago.

So all you need to do is go into your adblock plus and block the script called:

http://media.newjobs.com/nmy/usen/iperceptions506.js

It is badly written code, your QA, Development Department, and Project Managers have made a mistake.

It simply does not belong in a professional product like we have come to expect in Monster.com.  It only can have come from someone who has sat in too many Marketing Meetings and thought they could get more "buy-in" from their users.

Dealing with Facebook Annoyances Using Adblock Plus

Audience is either Firefox Users or Chrome Users.


Facebook is the website you love to hate.

Teens are leaving it, adults can be addicted as a time sink, marketers think they can buy the world's information at a song.

You can tame the beast some. 

Lately Facebook has made some changes to the way they present information.  It's all about getting you to opt into more things - you know, to "Like" them.   That helps them build a profile about you.   Since you tend to give up that information freely, it's pretty valuable.

But lately it got to be a bit much.  Since I manage a number of websites, and a number of social media presences online, I have to be on Facebook - all day.

First thing is you really need a good ad blocker.   The reason is that those ad services may be entertaining but they are watching what you do everywhere.  You may not have a problem with it, but I do.

I went to Firefox years ago and installed an adblocker.  The latest iteration of it is called "Adblock Edge".  It will block both intrusive and non-intrusive advertising.   The distinction between that and "Adblock Plus" is that Adblock Plus has been paid by Google and perhaps others to not block their text ads.  That raises the question of what else are they not telling you.  Supposedly Adblock Plus is making the decision as to whether something is acceptable, and I'm not comfortable with that.

• Simple, get Adblock Edge instead.  Adblock Edge will allow you, once you learn how to use the thing, to block any advert as well as things like frames and those reprehensible "Fancybox" and "Lightbox" things that seem to float over a web page.

I'll let you look into that whole learning process.   It's best that you look into it yourself, but the default settings on Adblock Edge are pretty good to begin with.  The simplest explanation is that you can right click on an ad, Select "Adblock Plus: Block Image" and tailor what you see.

The next step is to import something into Adblock Edge that works with Facebook itself.   There's a big long list of things that they added that annoy me, as well as clutter their interface.  Frankly I don't have time for most of it, but a long list of that stuff can be found in this article. 

Those annoyances are the "You May Like" or the "You May Know" genre of items.  They got to the point where they were more than half of what I would see on Facebook.   So when I saw the article, I followed the simple instructions:

• First Surf this page.  It gives you a graphical representation of things you don't want to see.

• Second, select the link you want.  I selected the Block All in the first column but that may be a bit too much.  You can see the graphic and select the one you want by clicking on the green "+ add" button.

• Third, add the rules to your Adblocker.  When you click on the "+ add" button, it will pop up the Adblock dialogue box for "Add Adblock Plus Filter Subscription".  Click on the button to "Add Subscription".

You're done.  Facebook will be less cluttered - until they break that by changing things.

You can always hide those people or businesses by unfriending or unliking them, but that is a bit of a Nuclear Option.   This keeps the friends but loses the "chaff".

It just got too hectic, so thankfully Technology came to the rescue.

Turn Facebook Sound Notifications Off

Ok, the little "bedoop" sound was Facebook being "cutesie". 

Distracting little sound that fired off whenever you got a notification.  I guess you could tell I didn't care for it. 

They're up to stuff again, and we're going to have a bunch of changes forced on us like the graph search and more advertiser friendly layouts to the pages.  It remains to be seen whether we can turn most of that off.  The ads, I will certainly look for a blocker for.  I run adblock plus on every browser I have on all five operating systems I run. 

We shall see.

But the little sound notification can be stopped.  It's cute, but definitely not office friendly.  I do a LOT of research, probably as much as 6 hours a day and having my laptop make noises is not a good idea.

First, Log into Facebook.
Click on the little gear for your account menu.
Click Account Settings in the little dropdown that shows up.
Click Notifications on the settings in the left hand column.
In Notifications Settings, Select the first "View" for "How You Get Notifications".  This is the "On Facebook" line.
You can turn off the little sound by ticking the box for "Play A Sound When Each Notification is Received". 
Click Save Changes and then go back to being social.

After all, you may like the sound, and you can turn it back on by leaving that box checked.

It's up to you.

For now...

Now they're naming Winter Storms? Give Me A Break!

This morning, through all the web chaff I wade through, I made a stop to check the local weather for Fort Lauderdale.  The Weather Channel's website went through a recent redesign to make it more social.  The problem is that it made it less useable and more difficult to actually get the information that I want to see on it.

I'll work around it.  It's not pretty but it will have to do.

The problem was that I loaded the page and my heart did that usual little flutter it does whenever I see that "Warning Will Robinson" red stripe at the top that screams there's something to watch out for.    Reading it and dreading a late season Hurricane, I saw these words:

Breaking News:  What Will Winter Storm Brutus Bring?

I will tell you, it's going to bring me laughing at The Weather Channel and refusing to take it seriously.  The Weather Channel is the channel that brings you all hype all the time, I realize that.  After all it had that bobble headed blond Jen Carfagno call the King Kamehameha Hotel in Hawaii the "King Kammey Hah-hah-hah" hotel, as well as quite a lot of misinformation when the Tsunami disaster happened in Japan a year back.

You basically want to hit the weather channel when they do the cut away every 10 minutes for the information and turn to something else when the bobble heads come back with their "news".  My suggestion would be to turn to your family and talk about current events because the hype machine would roll on regardless.  I guess it drives Ad Revenue but frankly it feels a bit irresponsible, in my opinion.

The National Weather Service has just put out a message telling their people not to use these Winter Storm Names because they are not a part of their "product".  It's a pretty good idea not to.  All those names do is give more fuel to the hype machine.

My own reasons are pretty basic.   I lived in Metro Philadelphia most of my life.  I've been through countless winter storms.   Some of them were pretty scary and dumped more than two feet of snow on the roads.  I don't want to minimize things, they can be dangerous.  But adding to the fear of preparation, such as going to the supermarket and "buy Milk, Eggs, and Bread" with your whole zip-code, is irresponsible.

No, really that's the going joke.  Winter Storm is coming, you have to buy Milk, Eggs, and Bread and stand in line for hours.  After all, all your neighbors will be making French Toast the day of the storms because the cities have finally learned it makes more sense to close the main roads so your first responders can clear them and get to people who really DO need the help.

I think I'll make French Toast later, come to think of it...

So I'll be looking for a better place to get the weather information.  I've had quite enough of The Weather Channel's hype machine and screaming red bars for a storm that basically works out to be a strong Tropical Storm and rarely, maybe once a year, a weak Category 1 Hurricane equivalent.  I want to know when the storms will form because I want to know my sister, her husband, and my nephew will be safe in New Jersey.  That goes for my cousins in New York City and The Island too, but the hype has got to go.

Time to change some links I guess.  The Weather Channel has rendered itself next to useless to me.   Since I stopped watching their blather on cable, I've found that I am actually better informed.  They've become the Fox News of Weather Forecasting.

And Friends Don't Let Friends Watch Fox News.

Consider Downgrade on Firefox 16.0

There was one of those exploits that you hear about found on Firefox 16.0 the other day.  As a result, the recommendation is that if you have Firefox 16.0 to downgrade to version 15.0.1 and wait for a fix.

You can check your version by doing the following:

Start Firefox
Click Help
Click About Firefox

If you have version 15.0.1 you're safe.
If you have version 16.0, you will want to downgrade to 15.0.1

The good news is that they're working on a fix and supposedly will have one out by today, October 12th, 2012... but you never know.

For more information, you can read up on the problem here, or look into their Security Blog here.

What the bug does is it allows an evil doer to see what you have done since you started the browser.  So if you plan on waiting it out, don't hit the banks.

That's what happens when you rush software out the door.

Removing Smooth Scroll and other Tweaks in Windows 7

After setting up my computer with Windows 7 I noticed that there were a few basic things that I'd qualify as being "Annoyances" that really are "eye candy".  The biggest one for me is something called "Smooth Scroll". 

Smooth scroll in Windows is where you're looking at a document and hit a Page Down or Page Up key.  What happens is that instead of it snapping to the next page, it scrolls down smoothly in something that looks like you're reading something on a roll of paper that someone is pulling away or towards you.

In my case, it just seems unnatural and slightly nausea inducing.   Seeing that one of my favorite things in life is a Rollercoaster, I'm not saying this lightly.

Here's how I set the computer up to get rid of Smooth Scroll plus a few video tweaks.  I hadn't turned all the eye candy off.  As you can see in the picture, I still have Aero Glass turned on.  I'll leave eye candy on when it serves a purpose, and the effect seems to work for me.

1. Click Start and select Control Panel.
2. I suggest you select "View By: Large Icons".  Makes life easier to find things when they're not stuck together in categories.  Besides, that's how I find things.
3. Select System.
4. Select "Advanced System Settings".  This is on the list at the upper left.  You will see a pop up telling you if you really want to do this, you need to be an Administrator.  You do.
5. Under the System Properties, select the Advanced tab.
6. Under Performance, Click on the Settings button.

Your screen should look like the picture below.

You can take my word for it, if you select things like in that list, you'll be on your way, but I will explain specifically what you want to do here.

1. The first three check boxes are to turn off animations in windows.  I find them unnecessary and not having them will make your machine seem faster.
2. The second three check boxes are to turn on Aero Glass and Aero Peek.  I like them, you may not.
3. The next five buttons I turned off.  The fade effect irks me because it feels like it's slowing the computer down just to get things done.  Task bar effects I personally never found useful and the shadow under the mouse pointer has been shown to slow down your video card.
4. Shadows Under Windows helps me to tell where one window starts and ends, but at a performance hit on the video.
5. Thumbnails instead of Icons, will search a folder and try to present you with what the item actually is, but it is a performance hit when you open a large folder.  Your choice.
6. Translucent Selection Rectangle is a help when you do a lot of cut and paste, as I do.
7. Show Window Contents While Dragging is one of those things that I keep on because the alternative is to just show a selection rectangle while you're moving windows.  Your choice.
8. Slide Open Combo Boxes is another one of those things I don't see the point of, you may.  It feels like it slows down the computer to me.
9. Smooth edges of Screen Fonts is important if you do a lot of word processing and composition like I do.  I personally prefer it.
10. Smooth Scroll List boxes.  Evil.  Turn it off.  This was the one I got started going through my preferences with in the first place.

Select Apply and OK, and you're on your way.

But there is more...

If you do a lot in Explorer, you will notice that they are still trying to convince you that Microsoft's Smooth Scroll algorithm works.   It does not work well, especially with a long list of files in a folder.  To turn that one off, do the following:

1. Click Start, then Control Panel
2. Click Internet Options, then the Advanced Tab.
3. In the long list, find the Browsing group, then "Use Smooth Scrolling".  Turn that box off, then select Apply and OK.

Finally if you want to stop Smooth Scroll in Firefox:

1. Select Tools
2. Select Options
3. Select the Advanced Tab
4. Select the General Tab
5. Uncheck the "Use smooth scrolling" check box.
6. Click OK and you're done.

Windows 8 Should be Called the Why Should I Operating System

A while back I was given a task.  Take an empty computer, install the latest version of Windows 8 on it, and write about it.

First impressions hadn't changed my mind.  After two weeks I'm looking for a reason, any reason, to dump Windows 8 and go back to my comfortable Windows 7.

The hardware is competent, it's certainly fast enough to do the job.  I won't go into fiddly numbers, this is one of those "Functional" things, meaning it's more important how something functions rather how you get it to function.

You know, "Don't ever learn how sausage is made if you enjoy it".

I'm accepting quirks like my USB devices forgetting that they actually work since I'm using all Windows 7 drivers to get the machine working.   Most manufactures aren't supporting Windows 8 officially yet.  To blame Microsoft for that sort of thing would not be fair.

The problem is that they took the beautiful Windows 7 with its "Aero" interface and lobotomized it.

It now looks like Windows 2.0 where everything is flat and hard to read.   Primary colors are back.  Although you can configure some of that away, Why Should I?

And that is the biggest thing wrong with Windows 8.  I keep asking "Why Should I?".

Things that worked on a laptop or desktop machine since 1995 with Windows 95 loudly proclaiming "Start Me Up", simply need work arounds.

You can't find any of the folders that you're used to having like the old "Start up Folder".  That means that if you have a program that you like to have running when you start your machine, either you have to start it, or literally create a shortcut on how to do that.   They removed the start up folder's link from the Start Screen.

Now think to yourself, You are Joe Average PC User.  You really don't want to learn how this thing works, you want it to "Just Work" and just work every time.  Not wanting to make sausage here, how exactly do you create a short cut in windows?

Right click where you want the icon.
Select New.
Select Shortcut.

Great!  Now you have a new icon on your desktop and with Windows 8 you happily find yourself presented with a wizard that says "What item would you like to create a shortcut for?" and a browse button.

Microsoft has forgotten that Mr or Mrs Average PC Guy doesn't know or care where that item has gone.

For me, the location for the short cut I had to browse to is (and here's a little sausage making):
"C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"

Ok, so ask yourself average person, "How would I have found that?"

I didn't, I had to look it up online with a search.  I found the article fairly quickly, but I had to ask myself "Why Should I?" yet again.

They really should rename Windows 8 "Why Should I?".

In other words, as a regular PC user, "Why Should I?" be replacing things (functionality) in Windows that were taken out?

That is just one small thing that they did.  I have been told that Microsoft has been wanting to remove that for years and just got around to it.  The reasoning is that "App writers should include the auto-start functionality in their apps and not depend on Windows to do that".   Problem is that the app writers generally don't.

So if you're considering Windows 8, this is just one small reason why you really want to hold onto your Windows 7 or good old trusty Windows XP for a while. 

The numbers coming in are apparent that Windows 8 will be widely disliked by the market.  The "Pre Launch Adoption" rates for Windows 8 are 1/5 of the rate of Windows 7 at this time.  You can read more about that in this article from ComputerWorld, if you're in the mood for more sausage.

I personally am going to bang out more articles on Windows 8 and try to get this project done quickly so I can remove Windows 8 from this machine and go back to Windows 7.  It truly has been a maddening experience.

I'm sorry Microsoft, you really do need to rethink this one.

What did you do with your old Smartphone

After reading this article on Lifehacker, I was left smiling.

So very much bile and grief.

Ok, so you have a smartphone.  It's older than your contract.  Get it unlocked.   You can even do that with your AT&T Phones.  Mostly, anyway.  There are some phones that are simply hardwired to be with the company you got it from.

My being the king of electronic repurposing, there area a lot of uses that you can get out of the little beasts.

You will want to remove the SIM.   That's the little chip that tells the phone to talk to the cell towers.  If you managed to get it unlocked, you still can use it for "Old Times Sake" or just give/sell/pass it on to someone else.  But that SIM is required in the new phone to make it work like a phone.

Some of the things I use my hand-me-down smartphones for are:

One of them is unlocked.   I use it when my "real" phone is dead.  Swap in my SIM and now I'm back on the air.  You can even use it when you're in a bad neighborhood so you don't lose the "good phone".

Load it up like an iPod and walk around listening to the same tracks over and over because I can't stand having iTunes on my laptop phoning home every couple hours.   At least that is easier to deal with on Android.  Fewer programs to "manage" my music preferences.

Download a copy of Magic Jack for emergencies.  You can make free phone calls in the US using your Wifi and this software.

I keep one on the nightstand for when I wake up.  Since the "regular" phone is on charge, I turn this thing on and use it to check up on Radar/Weather/News/etc. 

Internet Radio is great when you have a wifi-only no-longer phone smartphone.  I use a program called TuneIn and can listen to all those streams or radio stations from outside of the house when I'm tired and want something new.

No, this isn't earth shattering news.  But it is better than tossing it in a drawer and then in the trash in a few months.  May as well use the thing, after all you paid for it, and really you paid quite a lot for it.

Is Facebook Releasing Your Phone Number To Advertisers?

Actually from what I am reading, "Premium Advertisers" with Facebook are going to be granted access to your Phone Number and Email Addresses.  This is planned to happen by way of a program called Power Editor.  Pay them money and FB is giving access to your supposedly private information.

How do you combat this?

Dropping off of Facebook won't stop that, the information will still be there.
Deleting your account may but will they actually delete the information?

What I did was to mess with the information.

Go into what I call the Steaming Pile of Slop called Timeline.

(Who on earth thought two columns was a good way to portray variable information should be horsewhipped with a book of Fonts and the Chicago Book Of Style.)

Find the button that says "Update Info".

Page down until you find "Contact Info" and click on the Edit Button.

Change your phone number to Your Area Code 555-1212.  Such as 609-555-1212.  That will put you in contact with the information.  You know '411'?

Click on the button on the right with a down pointing triangle.  That is where you control who can see the information.  Change it to Only Me.

I did this to my email accounts too.  They don't need all that either.

At this point the article that I saw on Gizmodo says it will be granted your name and phone number as well as your email.  Any advertiser who calls me will get a lecture to put it mildly.

No matter whether this program becomes real or if it is a rumor, now is a good time for you to go in to your settings and see if you really do want to be sharing something.  My personal opinion is that if you want to know something about me, ask.  I may actually tell you.

Of course the safest way to protect your privacy is to simply not put it online.  I'd say if you're on Facebook, that ship had sailed a long time ago.

CMAS is a TERRIBLE idea

Have you ever had an idea that sounded good?
You know, something that would be a great benefit but in the end turned out really terribly executed so it basically is like banging your head against the wall. 
Something you stop doing when it ceases to be theraputic?

Read on, McDuff, this is one of those ideas.

Luckily I didn't make this boneheaded mistake.

CMAS is a piece of software that runs on smartphones.
CMAS is a service that allows you to be warned, here is the wikipedia page.
It gets information from some central server somewhere that is supposed to be keyed on where you are, based on the cell towers you are near.   Yes, even if your GPS doesn't work on the cell phones, you can find out where your cell phone is at based on the old Triangulation technique.  

If there's something that happens that is an emergency in your area, a notification is pushed to your phone and ...

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.

Last night, in the tail of Tropical Storm Isaac, around 4PM, there were some Flash Flood Watches sounded for this part of the world.  Not like they weren't expected, we've had four days of rain in a row and a Duck and Cover Event called the Tropical Storm Watch.  Or Warning, it's never quite clear which is which. 

When you live in South Florida, these warnings are literally EVERYWHERE.  You simply can not escape it because a helpful neighbor will ALWAYS tell you about it.

Sitting in the green comfy chair, watching the rain fall, there was a Thunderstorm.   We're used to that here, the storms can be entertaining in itself.

Right as a lightning strike hits, some drone sitting in a building somewhere decided to make my phone disgorge noise.  First it started to vibrate.  Violently.  So as I reach over to grab the phone before it begins a trip to the floor, it then starts to scream like a siren.  Then back to vibrating.

Figuring it was possessed, my first thought wasn't Oh Let Me Check For An Emergency Warning, Oh no.  I wanted to Kill it with Fire.  As in accelerate it as fast as I could at the nearest Concrete Block and Stucco Wall to MAKE IT STOP.

Had this happened while I was driving, there would most likely be an automobile accident.  Mine.

Regaining composure I found the settings for this vile software.

I had three levels of Alerts. 

1. Presidential Alerts
2. Imminent Threats
3. Amber Alerts

I was able to immediately turn off Imminent Threats and Amber Alerts.  Helpfully, this evil software said "Presidential Alerts are always presented."

This piece of software may not be removed.
This piece of software may not be turned off.
This piece of software may not be modified so that the alarm sound is less offensive.
This piece of software may not be modified so that the vibrate can be turned off.

This piece of software will be the reason why I will be "rooting" my phone, then installing another "operating system" so that I won't have to experience this "feature" in the future.

Cyanogen Mod will be in its future.

You see, this is the problem with software these days.  You have a marketing drone somewhere that says Oooh We Can Give The This Feature And They Will Love It And Pay Us Money.

Remember you can't uninstall this.  You are locked out from this particular feature.

I can't even find an example of it in Google Play so that I can explain what it is. 

T-Mobile's page on this software is here if you want greater detail.  I just want to know how on earth to block this thing.   It is like killing an Ant with a Sledgehammer.

I do know in the future, my purchases of Android hardware will be governed first and foremost by whether or not there is "Locked In" software like this and if I can "root" the device.  

My Device, My Rules.

That unfortunately is a big problem with software these days, whether it be Android or Windows or what have you.  I spend more time removing software from a brand new computer than I do installing operating systems.  Spyware, useless browser toolbars, and games that report back to the writer what you are doing for more pertinent advertising are the norm on Windows.  At least you can remove them there, in the case of my little purple phone, I have to go to the level of wiping it clean and starting over. 

Sad really, because the addition of things like Twitter or Facebook are only useful on a phone if you have an account and use them.   I do not have a Twitter account and do not want one so why can't I remove the software again?

Oh right that Marketing drone.

Oh well, it will be gone too I hope.   In the meantime, while I fully support President Obama, I'm hoping that he doesn't send out an order to make the phone do that again.  It was just too much of a shock the first time.  Once in 9 months is enough.  Three times in one night was ridiculous.  Since all it did was scare the living daylights out of me and not provide me with any useful information it really does need to go.  A Cancel Box plus a one line blurb saying that there was a Flood Watch In Effect is simply scaremongering.

CMAS is currently a voluntary service that needs to end.   At least in this particular way of providing the "service".

How Do You Know it's Time To Get A New Chip Reader

The Floppy is dead, the "Stiffy" is long gone, the CD is dying, the DVD is annoying to use.   Apple moved away from "optical media" for distributing their software years ago at this point. 

So just how do you move data around today?

For a while, it was Compact Flash cards that were almost indestructible.  They're still around, but not terribly well supported any longer.  There were stories of these larger than a postage stamp sized square getting lost in the trash or dropped into the bottom of the pool and surviving.   I still have a few of these things from that era.

It went to USB "thumb drives" and the SD Chip or SD Card.  Most likely we all have a few of those thumb drives around.   They're typically much smaller than your thumb, but when they came out, that is what they were shaped like. 

As for the SD Chips, I've got quite a few of those.  My camera uses them, my Android phone uses them, one lives in my laptop for professional data, and there is one that lives in my Nook tablet.  There are at least two sizes of them, but they're all the same hardware so they can be used in many places fairly easily.

Today I had a few pictures to get off of the camera, and I couldn't tell you where the cable for the thing was so I had to pop the chip out and put it in the reader.  I'm still waiting for it to read.   I've got a blue spinning donut on the Windows Explorer window telling me that it just doesn't know what to do with all this electronic chaff.   I imagine the little person who lives inside of the LCD screen sitting there, scratching his virtual head, twiddling his virtual thumbs waiting to do something with this but it isn't quite right.  He's about the size of an ant and looks like one too because I see him walking around on the outside of the computer once in a while.

You see, the chip reader is "flaky" and it's time for a new one. 

I guess that means that the pictures of the Penta, Bougainvillea, and Hibiscus from the back yard will have to wait for another day. 

SD Cards are fairly "robust" and put up with a lot of mistreatment.  There is one of them sitting bare on the "mulch" that is on top of my table between the two big green chairs in the living room.  It really should be in a device like a computer but there isn't any real pressure for me to do so since I trust it to survive being placed between a copy of Information Week and last month's check register from the Bank. 

On the other hand, the $.59 reader that I had shipped from a web site a while back isn't doing too well.  I'm afraid the patient isn't going to survive Mr. Moose.

I'm sitting staring at a translucent box plugged into the USB port in the side of my laptop in what mom would have called "Bilious Green".  It's got my 8GB chip sticking toward me like a computerized electronic tongue saying "Neener Neener Neener, I'm not going to give you those pictures! Bwahahah, go find something else to do!".

I guess the Gods of the Devices aren't in my favor and I'll just have to wait a week for that new $.59 reader to get here from my friendly UPS Driver or my friendly USPS Postman.  Both nice folks.  We're lucky that way.