Today, some time will be spent looking again at the writing market. I’ll submit something to Cahoots, I’m thinking of something to do with Starbuck’s and their anti-American ways. You know, the thermos sized coffee they call a “medium”, or the mix of unnatural substances into the mixture. Certainly the lack of free refills. They also have this “spelling bee” kick, which is novel but entirely predictable (since somebody else already thought of chess).
You go in there, and one of the chairs has a cloth saying reserved for champion. I presume they mean local champ, as it takes a while to visit all 5,000 locations. One has to also presume that spelling champs drink coffee, which is probably a safer statement than saying all coffee drinkers can spell. If they had that much useful education, they might have the guts to speak up and say, “No, I want an ordinary cup of coffee, not what you want to sell me instead.”
I took a picture of the sign at Dunkin Donuts advertising nine “flavors” of coffee. These were non-coffee flavors such as raspberry and cinnamon. This is the kind of bullsh the world does not need. If you don’t like coffee, don’t be drinking it. You want to drink a cup of perfumed liquid, the place to do it is not really a coffee shop. My real rub with these people is that they’ve made it hard to find a good cup of coffee any more. I walked out of a convenience store today because the smallest size they had was 16 ounces, which is two cups, not one.
People who think coffee tastes better with vanilla and chocolate belong in a candy store. They have never had a decent cup of coffee or more likely, didn’t know it when they did. You know who has damn good coffee? Burger King. I was a Denny’s man for years but their counter service has gone downhill so badly I finally gave up on them. Their coffee is still fine, but you can’t get any, or worse, they bring it around when they feel like it.
The O’Ts have their network. I have a ton of experience that I needed, and I was quite right that most of it was not in the book. I, and most technicians, do not know or care what TCP/IP stands for, nor is it important except that you know what to call it if something goes wrong. Every last network install I have done so far has had some kind of major departure from anything covered in the documentation.
Each one brings enlightenment, which is not always a good thing. You see, most of the situations are caused by things not doing what they are supposed to in the first place. A good example is the modem and the router, both designed to be hooked together. Or are they? Did anyone mention that the BellSouth modem and the Netgear router have to be five feet apart or they interfere? Which brings up the related problem of finding desk space that far apart. This represents the typical problem when everybody is a boss but nobody is in charge.
I have another example. The Hollywood Circle library has to move since the roof leaks. Not too far, but enough to make you lose your way. Nobody is in charge, so I’ll make you a bet a year from now the library street signs still point to the old building.
Back to computers, I also found out that Network Neighborhood and My Network Places are, at least part of the time, incompatible. You cannot view the network connections on the XP machine which has the potential for a major problem. Mike did some networking during the Win 98 days so he walked me through it. I had to install “niddy” drivers, a subject omitted in every book and course I’ve studied on networking.
From there I went to that complex across from the Sheridan Publix. It was a Hewlett Packard choked up beyond belief with rapid fire popups. Same old story, they had a relation visiting who was “working on a book”. When he left a week later, every known stealth virus was on their hard drive, but of course, you can’t prove anything. However, you can sure pay for the stupidity of lending out your computer. Two hundred bucks, man. I could see the importance and urgency if it was James Michener, but he’d bring his own laptop (or typewriter as the case may be).
There is a situation where I need to invent another word. I’ll describe it and remain open for suggestions. It goes like so: You meet somebody who has undoubtedly used a computer before, but is clueless about the harm and damage he is doing to the system. Of course, none of the viruses he downloads or instant messenger pop-ups obstruct what he does, but when you try to tell him you don’t want him doing certain things, he goes into defense mode. A definitive characteristic of these types is that when exposed, they try the bluff that they know something very high-level and secretive that is beyond your understanding, you know, that their computer knowledge is huge, but different and esoteric. Usually passwording your computer is enough to get rid of them. Anyway, I need a word for that kind of operator.
Here’s a before and after shot of my planter. I got home late and spent some time painting the back. Some lady came up and said she couldn’t paint and that she heard unless you knew what to do, it would be all streaky. I indicated she could grab a brush and I’d show her the trade upon which she left.
This computer is full of unwanted quirks, I think I know why the former owner got rid of it so cheap. It will not, despite the $300 video card, properly display pictures. It places them behind text when grouped and identical resolutions cannot be made exactly the same size. Once it is behind text, you cannot select it.
Mike called and it has been a month since he placed his ad on Justin’s host. Mike says that he cannot find his site doing a search, which I have explained to him around four times now. It does not work that way. You pay big bucks for that to happen, or wait until the web crawler updates the search engines. We had a short talk about women, and his plan (everybody has a plan) is to get in with the condo associations on the beach. They all have these activity rooms, where presumably something interesting happens once in a while. Hey, Myrtle, let’s go down to the games room and see if there are any bachelors on duty tonight.
He says that if they [women over 50] got money these days, they want a 25 year old boy friend. Well, they are welcome to them. I admit that old men are probably no better company than old women and that when it comes to sex, you get what you deserve in this life.
One of the regular customers came in today with his daughter. Their computer had crashed and they needed an assignment printed. I had Open Office in the print server so I got that happening. Somebody mentioned it was a book report, which caught my attention. I looked it over quickly and I was shocked. The content was what you’d expect from a ten year old girl, but the spelling and layout were terrible. Shame on the public school system. Even at my worst, I never produced something that bad. I gave them a few pointers and a strong suggestion that $100 spent with me would be a very good idea if this kid had any pretension of going to college. I mean, get some remedial help before such habits get fixed.
A review of my computer file backup systems shows that it never was good enough. I tend to make too few backups in the first place, not through laziness but because it consumes computer time. I would rather be creating new than preserving old. Obviously, this diary should be backed up daily, not twice a month. I will try to save full backups for a while to see how the disks fill up and because differential backups are a logistics headache.
