Oh Yeah! Another Power Outage!

This is super cool. Well, since it is currently 92 degrees maybe cool is the wrong word.

Power went off around 11:00 am. Projected time of repair is 2:30 pm.

Makes for an interesting start to the week.

My guess is that a power transformer exploded (heat related) but it could just as easily be a stupid motherfonker who hit a stupid motherfonking telephone pole. Telephone poles, in and of themselves, is a funny term because we don’t use landlines anymore.

Update: 3:47 pm – “They” do not anticipate power restoration until the early evening hours. Some gizmo or “do-dad’ broke. It’s technical.

Updated: 7.16.2018 – Added a cool photo I took in extremely low light conditions.

Trello for Project Management

I was looking around for an easy project manager to use that would work with my iPad. I use the iPad for my planner (Pocket Informant) so it just made sense to use an app for project management as well.

Trello looks promising. They have some add-ons you can purchase but most of the functionality is free. Trello isn’t just an app but also has a web interface for those team mates that may not have Apple products. The folks that work for me don’t have iPhones, for example. No problem. The web interface works the same as the app on the iPad.

I have converted a couple of planner entries to projects and am looking forward to adding my team members to the process.

One of the major problems we have is reporting what we are working on and communication between us. We don’t always keep each other in the loop. This type of software should help fix that problem.

I’ll post back after using this for a week. I’m hopeful.

Great Idea!

I saw this post this morning and totally agree that this would be a great way to go with the Mac Mini.

Apple could still claim that Mr. Cook’s promise is in force. Apple could offer the most basic configuration of the 2019 Mac Pro as the 2019 Mac mini. At Mac mini pricing levels.

Of course, if properly designed, that very same chassis could be outfitted with the highest level of computational power. Say, 32 Xeon cores, 256, 512, or 1,024 GB of RAM, a 4 TB SSD. Plus a monster graphics system and all kinds of other plug-ins that would be beyond the realm of an ordinary Mac mini. That’s the $10,000 Mac Pro we’ve always been thinking of.

By cleverly designing a 2019 Mac Pro modular chassis, Apple neatly avoids product overlap and gives the Mac mini user base the upgradable Mac mini they’ve been dreaming of. And so customers of all kinds could start low, upgrade as they go, or start in the middle or go right to the top. The Mac world will have achieved computational heaven.

Fonking Shizz

I’m reading a book series called “Space Team.” The characters have translation chips imbedded in their heads that allow them to communicate with alien species.

The funny part about the whole thing is that the company who created the technology doesn’t allow cursing. When it picks up a curse word, it substitutes that word with something considered “safe.” Just hearing that from the Audible book reader is enough to make you laugh.

And that…is some fonking shizz!

News App Fail

The biggest (and if I’m honest) only complaint about the Apple News App has always been the inability to remove politics from the news. I hate politics and I do NOT want to see ANY politics in the news feed. I see various promises that claim that they only populate your news feed with the items you say you are interested in but sadly, that is just not true.

 

xBox One X

I ordered a new xBox yesterday morning. I waited an entire year to see if the price would drop. It did not.

Looking forward to seeing how much better the graphics are. I have an xBox One S with 4k resolution but the processor(s) aren’t really designed for the advanced graphics of 4k.

Not too many options as I had when I ordered a One S. My One S is blue. I don’t recall seeing any other color available than black.

Update: NOT at all disappointed. This machine rocks!! You can tell the difference between the One S and the One X straight away. The details are amazing and the game play is a lot more smooth. Thumbs way up.

IT Jokes via Slashdot

I found these on Slashdot this afternoon. I’m pasting some in here but there are a bunch more in the comment section of this link.

Real life stories (Score:5, Funny)

by Quirkz ( 1206400 ) <ross&quirkz,com> on Monday December 18, 2017 @01:33PM (#55762319) Homepage

Back in the day I ran across a site that had a huge list of purportedly real-life IT stories, like the cup holder, the floppy magnet, the foot-pedal mouse, and others. For whatever crazy reason the host had titled it with some non-intuitive word (spam, I think?) that the host insisted was valid usage, but makes it probably un-searchable these days.

So, here’s a few of my favorite real-life IT moments.

Them: It’s not working.
Me: Is it plugged in?
Them: Yes.
I walk over, check the power cord, and it’s unplugged.
Them: Oooh, I didn’t check that end of the cord.

Them: I can’t play this DVD.
Me: Um, you only have a CD drive.

The user’s password is on a post-it on their monitor. It was their initials and their date of birth. I still don’t know why they needed the reminder.

Email from customer: Help
Me, in email: How can I help?
Them, in second email: I can’t send email.
Me: It looks like you just did.

Them: Can you give me a copy of my predecessor’s files?
Me: Sure. There’s a lot, though. Which ones do you need?
Them: You do it. It’s too unsecure for me to tell you which ones.
Me: I’m just worried about file space. You can have any or all of them if you want.
Them: That doesn’t sound very safe. You tell me.
Me: I can’t really tell you what files you need.

Them: My mouse is jumping around.
Me: Oh, it’s just got a little dirt inside. It’s easy to clean.
Them: Can’t you just buy me a new one instead?

Director: I got a new computer. Can you drive out to my house to set up email for me?
Me: Okay.
I drive out and find the new computer is a laptop.

Me, on phone with ISP: We can’t receive email.
ISP: We’ll look into it and get back to you.
Me, four hours later: Can I get an update?
ISP: We found the problem and emailed you a fix hours ago.

Them: I’m trying to use Greg’s computer but it won’t come on.
I troubleshoot and discover user is pressing the monitor button.
Me: Look for the box, and press that button instead.
Them: Box? I don’t see one. Greg took his laptop with him. Does that mean I can’t use it?

Me: do you have a desktop or a laptop?
Him: I’ve got both.
Me: which are we using?
Him: well, it’s a desktop right now.
Me: Huh? Desktop right now?
Him: Sometimes it’s a laptop but right now it’s a desktop.
Me: You mean your laptop is plugged into a dock?
Him: yeah.
Me: Okay, that still counts as a laptop.

Them: The printer is working, but it’s not printing
Me: what does working but not printing mean?
Them: Well, I don’t know, but it’s …. it’s … it’s not printing, but it’s working?
Me: Well, in what ways is it working if it’s not printing?
Them: I don’t know. Can’t you just come over here and fix it?
I come over. The printer is not plugged in.

Them: My computer won’t play sound.
I adjust the volume slider. The computer beeps.
Them: Well, I thought it was the sound, but, it won’t play this voice mail.
I double-click the file, and it runs for one second and ends.
Me: I think it’s just a hang-up.
Them: Oh, nevermind then.

Her: I’m trying to opposite-click X, but it’s not working.
Me: Uh, most people call it right click.
Her: Yeah, but it’s the opposite button, so I call it opposite click.
Me: You know, if you use a term that nobody else understands, they probably won’t understand you.
Her: So anyway, I’m trying to opposite-click this file, and …

Him: I’m getting spam from myself! Help!
Me: Addresses can be faked.
Him: Ah.

Her: I used to be able to use my work computer at home, but the wireless stopped working.
Me: Hm, it seems to work here in the office.
Her: Yeah, it’s fine here, just not at home. It use to work but now it wants a password.
Me: Uh, let’s back up. Do you have wireless installed at home?
Her: No. I just grab something from the list of wireless networks. But now they have passwords.
Me: Oh, you’ve been stealing w

MacOS Mojave

Well, this is the only part of the new software that has given me any issues. The iOS 12 installs on my iPhone X and iPad Pro went extremely well and the operating system seems pretty solid out of the gate.

I’ll admit that sometimes I get impatient on software installs and may not have waited until everything was finished before restarting the MacBook Pro. After booting into Mojave, I couldn’t do anything. My guess is that I just didn’t wait long enough on the install.

I rebooted in recovery mode and am currently re-installing Mojave.

I’ll keep you posted.

Update: iOS 12 Prediction has come true. Apple has “by default” limited the USB data port activity to one hour. If you do not use the data port in a one hour period, the port is turned OFF. Well played, Apple.

Update: I’ve had many problems trying to load Mojave onto my 2017 MacBook Pro. Several reboots/reloads/praying…etc. I am actually still waiting for the 3rd or 4th try.

Update: (06.06.2018) – I tried an update last evening after I finally restored my old system. This morning it was locked up so I tried a different approach. I wiped out the SSD and instead of trying a complete restore of my user data — I just restored the OS using the recovery tool. The good news is that I was successful. The bad news is that I have to manually restore some of my files. It will be well worth it. I like Mojave so far.

Apple WWDC Predictions

This is the biggest software conference that matters. Well, it matters to all of us Apple people anyway.

In light of the whole GrayBox thing, I am going to predict that either Apple will allow you to turn off your lightning data port for everything except charging or they will turn it off by default.

So far, that’s all I got.

I look forward to spending next week in Swift/XCode land.

Let it Rain

Tent is up. Hoping to spend the night out in the rain.

Crazy. Yes.

Fun. Hell, yes.

Update: Did NOT rain last night as far as I could tell. Had a most excellent night sleep. It was the perfect temperature.

05.31.2018 – Updated Update: I have been sleeping in the Winterial Bivy Tent all week expecting to be rained on at some point. It finally rained this morning and I am happy to report that this tent is holding up pretty well.

06.01.2018 – Updated Updated Update: Last evening was a good steady rain and the tent is holding up. Good to know if I ever find myself in a monsoon.

Ok to be Evil Again

Google employees have been given the unofficial “green light” to be evil if they wish to be.

Google has removed the phrase “Don’t be Evil” from their employee manual.

I’m waiting for this story…

“Well, I had planned on donating blood today but I saw that my company [Google] had removed the don’t be evil thing from the employee book…thing and well, I decided to run over a bunch of puppies instead. You know…since it’s ok now…and all.”

Floating Pacific Islands Free From Government

This is a pretty cool idea.

If you’re struggling to do business or just live under your country’s administration, a movement of philanthropists, academics and investors is working on a very sci-fi alternative.

I like the concept and when it comes to overreaching government regulations. I have always felt like I am in the minority or that other folks just don’t care enough.

“If you don’t want to live under a particular government, people will be able to just take their house and float away to another island.”-Nathalie Mezza-Garcia, Floating Island Project

I was thinking about retiring in St. Thomas but this might be a better idea.

Take That Media dot Org

This is the big project I’ll be working on for at least 6 months. The plan is to put a complete archive of all of our shows on the site. We’ve done literally thousands of podcasts over a ten year period and it will all be up for your listening pleasure.

The goal is to have the site ready to go by November 2018. I thought I could get this done by the summer but I’m not holding my breath.

Productive Weekend

I thought I’d get a chance to post more over the weekend but alas, it was not meant to be.

Saturday was chock full of things to do around the house and Sunday was a full work day for me.

I still have a crap ton of stuff to do related to work and home. I should probably clone myself.

I have also decided to post the entire Take That! Media archive to the web so that anyone can download and listen to all of our old shows.

On Friday night, I listened to the Brass Balls Radio 50th episode (you can listen below) which was hosted by non other than Mark Steyn. It was a great show to produce and brought back a lot of great memories.

I’ve added the archive project to the growing list of things.

Laterz.