[Author's note 2016-06-06: following is the type of entry that may span a few days. But I go with the date scribble in the corner because maybe I just felt like writing at the time. Here is a picture from 2005. It's Hurricane Katrina, still the only hurricane I've been through in Florida and ti was only a Category One. But it took the electric company three months to reconnect my power. They will never be forgiven for that.]
I’m going for a walk, and I’ll jog if I feel like it. So if this is goodbye, make sure I get published. Ha. Yes, the last set of entries spanned two weeks. Later, the jog trail is flooded out. There is a single pumping station I’ve ever seen in Hollywood, and it was busy pumping water out of the golf course. (Nobody but I can be expected to notice that it is pumping it, not into a canal, but back into residential areas.) Got to make sure nothing interferes with the golf game. I had pictures of some wetness recently, but this flood is many times worse.
In case anyone is tempted to try Malt ‘o Meal cereals “Betcha Can’t Taste the Difference”, I encourage you. I’ve sampled several of their products but was unwilling to give up my Kellogg’s Mini Shredded Wheats. Well, I can’t taste the difference, but I can tell the difference: $3.00 a box. There are a number of things I plan for today, what would be a reasonable morning plan on the west coast. These include arranging the Internet hookup, dropping by at Workforce and visiting the Ft. Lauderdale Library. Let us see, in the Florida system, how far we get all day. It is 7:45 AM now.
Interestingly [to me anyway], I was trying to clear my digital voice recorder this morning. Cakewalk takes the files and creates a version with a cryptic title that you cannot rename or Cakewalk can’t find it. All other easy versions seem limited to 60 seconds of recording time. I say interesting, because it has been so many years since I first recorded to computers, you’d think by now they’d have some shareware that worked right. But no. And what is it with this one minute thing?
[Author's note 2016-06-06: The answer was easy in retrospect, I was experiencing the onset of "Millennial marketing", but had not yet accepted anybody would be that so vulgar, or that shoppers would fall for it. You see, for most other products, this "free trial" scam doesn't work. But software is different. Some scumbag dug out the old manual for the semi-legal tactics that bombed on television. Or adapted the 30-day limitation. But the most enduring memory of the Millennials will be their ceaseless efforts to change the meaning of the word "free", thereby legitimatizing what any other generation would call "lying".]
The Hippie is again on the recording trail. He wants to make a demo tape of the four of us (we’ve only all gotten together once in five years). The two others have flatly stated they will not play gigs or have some other reason that performances will not happen. Yet The Hippie persists in the idea of a demo to get us gigs. There is a better chance that I would create the file and they could add to it without the near impossible task of all getting there together. These ‘practices’ invariably lead to jam sessions anyway, instead of good demo product. In any case, the demo would be misleading, because at least half of the musicians would not all be there. My experience is also that people can start getting really fussy about the sound and quality of demo tapes, and I don’t think The Hippie has the patience or skill to start punching out individual notes.
It was a day of information gathering. In the process, I ran into several people who, like myself, think that information that used to be free still should be. True, we are in a new era, but that does not mean you should start charging people for the time of day. Worse, if you block or sabotage the public clock first, so they can’t get it for free. There are some sick individuals out there. I can see five years from now, instead of being able to ask for the directions downtown, you will have to buy a $150 subscription to a website that gives you the info for all major cities in the world, including, of course, the single one you are interested in.
[Author's note 2016-06-06: I was close. They "turned off the public" clock by no longer publishing updated road maps. You know, the kind the gas station would post for free in the window. As for the subscription, well, now it is a $150 GPS device that insists you do things their way. That is, the way of whomever paid them the most. Just what we all wanted! (Just like our politicians.) It shows you the next pizza parlor, but not the motel prices or the name of the next town. Or when you are entering an ethic crime zone.
Ah, I heard some wise-ass saying you still had to pay for the road maps. He's missing the point, that they quit updating the maps. If you are a Millennial, see if you can figure out the difference. Not that giving directions to motorists was ever the strong point of most Americans.]
I know, get to the information. First, I see that the system has made sure nobody can get cheap internet service. By that, I mean when you add in the tradeoffs, no one service is any better than the others. Bell South, Comcast and gang. It seems, when you factor in all the variables, that they all charge virtually the same price (advertised price, the real price is not yet determined). DSL is $30 a month, Cable is $40. If you use WiFi, you need broadband, which means basically cable modem. If you use cell access, the speed is only 9600, too slow to do anything more than check your e-mail. If you get cellular broadband, it is $75 a month, but you can’t make cell calls on the line.
It was early enough to go over to American Computer Resellers. The dual-head PCI and AGP cards are very rare, and run upwards of $70 each, hardly a bargain. I discovered that Windows 98/Me can run up to 9 monitors, Windows 2k/XP up to 10 monitors. I spent three hours in the Ft. Lauderdale main public library and got maybe three pages of relevant material. I talked to the owner at ACR, and he says that the multi-monitor thing does not work at all as well as claimed.
On the way home two things happened. A dickweed in a truck started tailgating me and honking, which of course, I slow up five miles per hour per honk. Well, he was going insane, so I flipped him the finger. He just went berserk. So I flipped him the finger again and lightly tapped on my brake lights at the same time. He lost control of the truck and, I think, sideswiped two parked cars. I purposely gawked like a tourist and drove on. I did not see anything, but I swear I’d know that scrunch sound anywhere. That folks, was one stupid, arrogant truck driver. He could easily have passed me instead of tailgating and making noise.
Second, I notice the computer show is this Saturday. What coincidence, and I called Don. We are meeting up there at opening time. I will allow plenty of time to go over the wares twice this visit, and I will take real coffee with me. In fact, let me look up what happened last time. Okay, it seems I was not that happy with the show, calling it more of a flea market and not worth the admission of $6. This time, I will be looking for more specific items, and Don indicates he has some information on ripping software. I bumped into a Polish guy buying old equipment at the Goodwill, who kind of let me know what was available and where to find it. This was within an hour of reading at the library that the copyright laws forbid even attempting to break codes or to advertise either tools or further information on cracking. The fact is, for the determined hacker, all copyright protection is a waste. I was able to have a discussion on the topic with a stranger in the second-hand store.
Next, I priced out some general gear and got home in time for a call from The Hippie. We were on the line 90 minutes trying to solve a problem he had with copying CDs. If you want details, go back and read six months ago. He has the same problems for the same reasons and has not followed the same good advice. The Hippie is the type that when he sees 48x on a computer, he feels that is a personal commitment to him by the device that it will flawlessly operate at that speed. And, he will sit there and watch it breathlessly to make damn sure it does. He still has no real credible methods of tackling computer problems, and will often shelve an urgent project for a month because it did not work right the first time. He does not understand that opening an application and running it, then running it again are not identical processes. (The first time, he opened it and ran it. The second time he only ran it. Big difference, folks, to those who know the score.)
Rumors abound that Microsoft and Intel may have had a falling out. Something to do with the heat of the chip. I’m going to turn on the television to find the news – if it is not the biggest story, then I’m sure I’ve heard it wrong. I often wondered when those two would get out of bed together. In the loose ends department, there are two correct spellings: sphygmanometer and sphygmometer, a device for measuring the speed or pressure of a pulse. I could not find one, but I picked up a pedometer novelty, which estimates calories burned. I’ll calibrate it tomorrow morning, it was my little present for weighing in 25 pounds less than Xmas 2003. Nothing on the news, but then, in Miami the top story of the day still often involves Fidel Castro. There is the Michael Jackson thing. I am a long term proponent that people who win cases should be reimbursed 100% of their costs plus damages. Best joke I’ve heard on the matter? “When people complain there are no blacks on the jury, remind them that there are no blacks on trial.”
There is another celebrity charged with assault on a hotel employee in NYC. Trust me, I’m on the side of the star – the behavior of bottom rung zero status employees in this country is totally out of hand. They seem to think they deserve not only respect, but as much respect as people with a real job. Worse, to them, respect means you do something their way. It really sucks when you cannot tell off a damn floorsweeper or garbageman for bothering you in any way. I have no doubt the hotel employee is totally to blame and provoked the star with that “you don’t have to be rude” crap, while blocking the way or something like that. Gauranteed. I’m not saying I’m right, but that you should be able to throw a telephone at the head of any two-bit loser who pulls that line on you. The problem with this damn country is people think deserving respect is the same as demanding it. I recognize that toilets must be cleaned, but that does not mean the toilet-cleaner gets it all his own way. Nine times out of ten, I’ll wager the grunt was doing something that prevented the winner from doing something they had a right to do – a situation where I totally side with the winner.
People may have equal status, but jobs don’t. Some unskilled laborers have never figured this out on their own. If someone who makes more than you disrespects the job you do, and you monkey it into disrespect for you as a person, you need a wakeup call along with a slap in the head. (Catch the phone he throws at your head, and listen?) If your job is what is really causing the disrespect, the biggest problem is your attitude, not the other person. It all started with thirty year old busboys and waitresses thinking they were just as good as everybody else (but without explaining if that were true, why they are thirty and still wiping up other people’s slop). You know, that is the main thing I disliked about California and Hooters. All the bar maids were well into their mid and late twenties. An unskilled laboring job becomes their career, and they grow an ugly idea you somehow are obligated to respect that. “Off the table, Mabel, the two bucks is for the beer.” Like sex, a nineteen year old gal wiping tables is a totally different thing from the same gal doing the same thing ten years later.
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