I met a lady at the computer shop this morning before work. Tall, brunette, self-employed, own house and truck. Such a woman isn’t wandering around unattached, that much we know. So what is the catch? I gave her my phone number with an invite to call next time she just wants to socialize. We’ll see how she deals with that, but be assured with my experience concerning women’s motivations, I won’t be surprised at much. She has the mannerisms of a serial divorcee. Not a problem. I’m not husband material.Rationalizing that I should have a spare by now, I picked up and shouldered six different basses at Guitar Center. Y’day I mentioned prices up to $2,199, which led to questions and the answer is that price was for the ton-of-bricks Corvette model. Every one of these instruments was out of balance, that is, the neck was too heavy for the body, so you spend the evening holding it up in addition to playing. FYI, this difficulty is referred to by bassists as “neck dive”. I may wind up having to consider another customized unit, though I’ll never find another Vinnie since Mars Music went under.
Who remembers what “Net Neutrality” is? That is the rule that keeps access to the Internet on an equal basis for all users. Mind you, that is characteristic bureaucrat equality, meaning equal only for those who have computers, modems, monthly cash, electricity and so on. If the Internet providers had their way, they would charge more for different grades of access. Don’t confuse this with your bit-rate speed. It means when a site you need is busy, instead of waiting, you are offered the option to bump somebody by paying a small fee right away. Net Neutrality says no way, so the providers are saying fine, we won’t keep upgrading our service. Lately, hotmail has become incredibly slow. I don’t know why, but I have noticed it is slowest at known peak periods.
I’m all for Net Neutrality, but I’m also against forcing the providers to pony up for new servers. Should fee-based service arrive, it is not my problem what others can’t afford, but it might throw some sense into the way some people use the Internet. The very idea of charging, however, strongly indicates the market is becoming monopolistic, or at least becoming that variation on monopoly where the market is dominated by a few large sellers. The opposite of oligopoly. I took my last economics course in 1987 so I’m allowed a memory lapse.
My affinity for detective and spy novels prompted me to begin “The R Document”. It came out some thirty years ago by an author I can’t recall, but all of his books titles start with “The”. That guy. One reason I’ll put off a book for so long is excessive characters, just too many damn characters. The “Doonesbury Rule”, if I have to keep track of 35 different characters, is it fun anymore? I’ll be keeping a log of the characters. Ah, Irving Wallace, that’s the authors name. And I will forget it again just as quickly.
Jack, the racehorse guy, has computer troubles again, so I was over there for a couple of hours. Once again, it is an AOL problem. Get that crap off your computer even if you are a subscriber. Use a different browser to go to the AOL site. What have I told you about digital cameras? They are a risky device unless you download your photos regularly. Jack had this expensive brand-name camera that he took exactly nine pictures with in three years. Could not figure out how to work the download feature. He now has a Facebook account, which explains why the camera is now important.
Actually, we had intended to scan his favorite portrait for his profile, but his computer has the loathsome “Vista” system coupled to an equally dismal HP printer. Neither stubborn party will allow the others equipment to work right. Vista wants only “approved” devices, which means you pay them money to get approved. What’s that smell?
Oh, and for all the people who call me about the message that keeps popping up that your anti-virus has been disabled: that is a virus causing the popup. The virus is self-installing and self-starting every time you boot up. It is called “Fakeavalert”. You have to get rid of it. If you don’t know how, remember that I have always been a fee-based service.
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