Another great day made possible by computer repair. I picked up some easy cash with a printer install and getting a Comcast modem up and working. Nice elderly couple who appreciate the non-intimidating way that I teach things. They are on for some lessons early next week. This is why so many of my call-outs result in a second visit.
They’ve removed the turnstiles from the dog racing park and have a tacky pickup truck with a portable LED sign in the box advertising “Slots”. This is the new gambling casino north of here that caused a political uproar for a few years. It must be open for business, a sad and crying shame that this is the only new major business attracted to this area in twenty years. That and the fact that gambling is more a way of life than a recreational pursuit. It is less than a mile from the next gambling joint, I wonder who came up with that one?The temperature dropped to where I almost dug out a jacket, but I roughed it over to the shop in my shirt sleeves. Could that be shirt sleeves because I heard of a blizzard in Colorado? Naw, just coincidence. More network troubles, but all of this experience is going to work out very well in a few years. You see, I’ve definitely passed the threshold where just a year ago others seemed like experts--until you ask them to explain something, I mean. I am now encountering problems they cannot solve, and in some cases never heard of.
Example, I can now hook up single user computers and printers into virtually any kind of network. This puts me on a par with the local experts. However, the moment I add other users to a computer [on the network], the network disappears, even to the administrator account. Some of the applications will not share and have to be re-installed for each user account. I know that if others had gotten this far, they would have said something by now. Also, the network printer disappears.
I purchased some of that spray foam I usually hate so much. Time to plug the holes in my walls where the critters got in last week. Strange that removing the food supply does not make them go away. It always worked, you know, for other little pests, like kid brothers. However, I would not be surprised to learn that Florida has evolved a new breed of rodent that exists only to annoy homeowners. As if the bureaucrats need any help.
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This is a classic picture of a strange tree. It is on Washington Street a mile north of here and I thought it would make an interesting shot. The tree is leaning toward the North-north West, which I cannot explain. It is not the sunlight or prevailing winds. Well, the tree knows what it is doing, look how it swamps the owner’s tiny little house.Practice is tomorrow so I’ll run through the song list. There is progress there as well because I am running into idiotic quirks that nobody has mentioned even in the Internet gripe lines. I spent an hour figuring out that the user patterns for some reason do not remember which drum set you originally assigned them, yet they must be returned to that assignment to sound right. The manual mentions pairing up set to songs, but that is unworkable even if that is what they mean. Plus, only one song matches each number, and I have six tunes assigned to drum set six.
Ruth called, she wants me there when the next shipment arrives. Moments later I logged on to her web page just to keep an eye on things and I see that it has expired. Or at least the domain name. I am so dismayed with that Internet billing practice where each requirement is billed separately and nobody will give you a straight answer. I recall something from Bratpak, but nothing to indicate the annual domain name required renewal. It all reminds me of the things Wallace tells me about Canada, where the system is full of little deadlines and renewals that constantly trip people up that you just know the system is designed to do it on purpose.
What a pity that the Internet, which basically uses ordinarily available materials and such will evolve from basically free to a money grab for those who build the money grab into the system. But, America is now full of people who have no other concept of making a living. If they could figure out a way to make you pay for staring at the ceiling, some bastard these days would do it.
To end on a livelier note, I discovered an error in my favor on the bicycle. During re-programming, there indeed was a wrong setting. My actual speed and mileage are around 10% higher than recorded. Everything positive goes up except the time spent riding which was unaffected by this error. My radius of operation seems to be four miles, that is how far I will ride without giving it any second thought and up to six miles by deciding to leave earlier, both numbers corrected to the new settings. Consider that a good improvement that makes a good chunk of Broward County better known to me than many who live here. Mind you, most roadways here are far to dangerous to ride along, so careful what you do with my words. Ride you bike on the sidewalk and slow down at every blind intersection.
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