Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Going Home.

When I bought my first computer it was an Apple II. It consisted of a box and two floppy drives, back when floppy disks were flexible and actually flopped. Soon after came the first MacIntosh Apple (Mac) with less memory than my ROM Cache today (128K).
because Windows was nothing but a pale I had to convert to a PC for business reasons. Business went from mainframe to PC network. I actually had a head start on my contemporaries because Windows always was a pale imitation of the Mac. In fact, I became a coach in our companies effort to build a local area network (LAN). Became of that I became a home and office user because of the compatibility. Well now I'm retired and I want to go home.
I'm sick of error screens, inconsistent performance, problems with add on programs, and VIRUS threats.
Apple is easier, more intuitive and responsible. What do I mean by responsible? When a Mac has problems you don't get into those finger pointing sessions where the software guy is telling you the hardware's the problem and the hardware guy is telling you it's a software problem. They are probably sitting side by side in a call center in India laughing as they frustrate you.
The new Mac is just as easy to use, as it always has been. I like the compatibility with all of the applications I use and the files I have that mean something to me. I'm going home and I'm happy

Monday, February 05, 2007

How Cold Is It?

( February 5, 2007 6:30am, Milwaukee, WI, Temperature -13 degrees)

The wind chill factor is in the area of -30 degrees. On a beautiful sunny day, we will cancel school, because children walking to school could experience frost bite. For anyone who has not experienced this kind of cold let me give you some idea of what it's like. Any warm air from a chimney, exhaust pipe or just breathing will freeze on contact with the air. Frost coats every thing and won't melt even when exposed to direct sunlight. Moisture of any kind from a spilled cup of coffee to spitting on the sidewalk will freeze on contact. Exposed skin is vulnerable to freezing in minutes. Walking, even from the front door to the car, is painful. You have to dress in many layers and dare not forget to cover yourself. whatever you don't protect you will know immediately. Even the dog seems to hurry through her business. Walking her? Forget it.

Cars with weak batteries won't start. Batteries will actually freeze if they aren't able to hold a charge. Because of advances in computerized starting systems, most cars will start if the battery is in good shape, but it will not operate normally. The suspension is stiff, the brakes are soft and the transmission seems like it's stuck in mud.

The macabre thing about weather like this is the window view. Aside from any frost that might be on the surface from moisture on the inside of the window, you would think the weather was great. When we get extreme cold like this it's because of intense high pressure, which means clear skies and dry air. The sun rises early with no hazy or fog. It sets late on a razor sharp horizon. But alas the heat generated is unable to have much if any effect on the weather except solar heating of the rooms of their house that get the sun and some minimal heating of the inside of your car if it's parked in the sun.
It can fool you, but if your a veteran of this climate you just know better than to run to the garbage can in your tee shirt just because the sun is shinning. I know you've seen pictures of over served young men at Green Bay Packer football games baring their chest in this type of weather, but let me assure you it is not this cold when they do this or if it is their exposure is brief or their life is short.

Fortunately, this kind of weather doesn't stay long. By the end of this week, our temperatures are due to move up to the low twenties for a high and above 0 for a low. That may not sound like much relief if your living in Florida or California, but the difference in living conditions is huge. We might even open the schools.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Watching Peter O'Toole

Watching Peter O'Toole in his performance in Venus was like watching Ali with Parkinson's, you'd rather retain better memories of him. Watching his demonic red rimmed eyes, landslide sagging facial features and the wet weak lips in full closeup was not flattering nor particularly endearing. While you get a glimpse of the cocky, intelligent rogue of old, mostly he just looked pathetic as he panted and lusted after the young, Jessie, played by Jodie Whittaker.

O'Toole plays, Maurice, a charming and still popular actor that represents a not so pale image of himself, who meets this irascible young women and gets a death sentence from the doctor at the same time. Maurice is still working as an actor, but living with all of his popularity and accomplishment doesn't seem to be enough, he can't resist one more dive into the love pool, when he meets his friends niece, who was dumped on his doorstep by a mother who had enough of her rebellious uncontrollable women child. When we meet Jessie she is consuming all of the food and alcohol she can ingest and has this frantic look of a Holocaust camp survivor Maurice makes this headlong leap off the high-board in spite of the tremendous cultural difference between the two and his inability to perform anything like a normal sex act.

For Jessie's part, she is first appalled at his approach, than curious, playful and manipulative and finally in spite of all logic, fascinated and pulled into a relationship that somehow they both profit from.

If this film lacks anything it's a believable script. Despite a wonderful performance by all of the cast, my ability to get taken in by this story is clouded by the conflict of characters. I never could quite buy the idea that Maurice offered this waif enough charm to sidetrack her on her trip to self destruction. I did understand his fascination with her and his desire to have that one more time with someone young and vital. I just could never accept the fact that she was willing to do it.
I did get two things from this. I'm assuming there will be few roles in the future for O'Toole. Seeing but a flicker of the old Peter O'Toole is better than seeing a raging fire from some of the new young actors or should I say what passes for actors today. Witnessing the introduction of Jodie Whittaker was a find indeed. I think this young lady has offered us great promise.

Friday, February 02, 2007

More About Software Addiction

As long as we're talking about software, let's mention the standard "office package" that many people think they need to survive. MS Office in its many configurations usually consists of Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, contact management and data base programs. Some packages include so-called Publishing, photography management, web site development and other programs that I put in the "might be nice, but do you really need them category".

If you want to take the time to look at these programs one at a time, you will realize that they are for the most part loaded with features that you may never use, but more to the point most people don't even know that they have. I guarantee that if you go out and buy one of those door stopper manuals that the aftermarket provides because the software developers don't, you will find mind boggling features that you will strain your mind to figure out what you would even do with them. At a Microsoft (MS) seminar about ten years ago, we were told that users on the average take advantage of about 10% of the capabilities of the programs.

Some of the programs I have I almost have to relearn in order to use them because I don't use them often enough for them to be intuitive. I don't have a Data Base, except of course my contact manager, which even though it is in MS Outlook is nothing but a database in a pre-formatted form. I don't use Access for anything and the couple of times I tried I found it difficult and confusing. But that is the problem with a lot of software. The developers have given all of this whiz-bang technology, but it isn't intuitive and it tends to be unstable

I am doing this article on something called Google Docs & Spreadsheets. I can transfer this to my blog because it is writing the text into HTML. This is advantages in a lot of ways, but the important thing is that it's doing it without any extra effort on my part. I can actually assign collaborators, co-workers that would have permission to edit or change this document (and I'm sure my copy editor A-Rob wishes I would). what makes it a little clumsy is formatting it into a letter form or using it for extremely long manuscripts. But I have even more options than this program and MS Word for word processing. There is an Office Suite Program called Open Office that is available free at www.openoffice.org. I also have a version of Word Perfect 12 that came with my computer. I have so many ways to word process that you might think I was David Progue or some other software reviewer. I'm loath to give up MS Word because so many of my manuscripts are in that format, but now these other programs are able to read and even convert MS Word files to their format or vice versa.

I've written in all of these programs and frankly after a while I don't even notice the difference. They are so much a like that, let's face it,word processing software is a commodity. And I think we can say the same for spreadsheet, contact management, web browsers, data base, and inexpensive photo manipulation programs.

Were they put the buttons and what they call them might vary, but the similarities are more obvious than the differences. I agree the inner activity between MS programs and the sameness of the layout can be comforting, but I find that most of the stuff I use that is not MS, works just fine. I also agree that certain "power users" might have legitimate reasons for preferring one package over another, but the vast majority of user are not in that league.

I've been tempted to buy a clean computer, one with nothing preloaded and use Linux as the operating system and free Office suite software, just to see if it had any downside, but alas there is so much software out there and so little time. The problem is if I really wanted to simplify my computing life I know the answer. Buy a Mac.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Sftware Addiction

Yesterday, I shopped for a new office chair at our local Office Depot. You might think that it would be the worst day for anyone should be going anywhere near a store that sells computer software. Microsoft (MS) released their first full overhaul of Windows Operating software (OS), Vista. I didn't see any crowds. I didn't see any express counters with signs saying, "Vista Customers Express Checkout" No, it seems that the reaction at this store was measured.

But there was that big display. It was sitting there like a girl with a low cut blouse on a summers day by the lakefront with her hair and her skirt blowing in a warm breeze. The attraction is unavoidable, but like the girl I can and do avoid such temptations. It's just that niggling feeling that if I don't upgrade I'll be missing something.

My addiction to new software makes me want to avoid the reality that the software I have on our computer is already overkill for our needs. I want to ignore the threat that one of these days Microsoft is going to quit supporting my version of XP. Vista's immediate relative, the way they did with WIN 98 and the others. I don't want to face the truth of the statement that mine ain't broke so why would I want to fix it.

Upgrading is probably going to mean tacking on a lot of files to the system I have. The only way to start fresh would be to erase my hard drive and reload everything. I visualize my computer Operating system as a messy basement with all kinds of things I don't need taking up room for things I do need. I see my information having to detour around piles of cardboard boxes in order to find the right box with the answer. If it was the basement I could clean it, but not my operating system. Be sure, if I were to delete anything from my operating system I would find out the next day that it was absolutely essential.

One of the perceived problems with Vista is the memory demand. Why worry, I'm told. It's only memory and memory is cheap. Yeah, I've heard that ever since I've bought my first PC, back in one AD. (After DOS era), when were just getting a graphical inner face software I was told I had enough memory on my laptop to last a lifetime. I would never need more memory. The capacity of that hard drive was smaller than my ROM cache is today.

So the question remains. One voice asks me, Why do you want to spend a couple of hundred bucks to install a new Operating system and go through the learning curve and readjustment period that could take weeks. The other voice asks why don't I take a pass until MS dumps me on the doorstep of obsolecense and forces me to change my OS. I want to say no. I want to say, It's probably great, but I'm going to let someone else work out the bugs. That way my eventual buy will include the traditional Service Pack with all the fixes for the the post release bugs that will take a hour to download if I buy now. But than the other voice whispers, "You might be missing something."

Sftware Addiction

Yesterday, I shopped for a new office chair at our local Office Depot. You might think that it would be the worst day for anyone should be going anywhere near a store that sells computer software. Microsoft (MS) released their first full overhaul of Windows Operating software (OS), l Vista. I didn't see any crowds. I didn't see any express counters with signs saying, "Vista Customers Express Checkout" No, it seems that the reaction at this store was measured.

But there was that big display. It was sitting there like a girl with a low cut blouse on a summers day by the lakefront with her hair and her skirt blowing in a warm breeze. The attraction is unavoidable, but like the girl I can and do avoid such temptations. It's just that niggling feeling that if I don't upgrade I'll be missing something.

My addiction to new software makes me want to avoid the reality that the software I have on our computer is already overkill for our needs. I want to ignore the threat that one of these days Microsoft is going to quit supporting my version of XP. Vista's immediate relative, the way they did with WIN 98 and the others. I don't want to face the truth of the statement that mine ain't broke so why would I want to fix it.

Upgrading is probably going to mean tacking on a lot of files to the system I have. The only way to start fresh would be to erase my hard drive and reload everything. I visualize my computer Operating system as a messy basement with all kinds of things I don't need taking up room for things I do need. I see my information having to detour around piles of cardboard boxes in order to find the right box with the answer. If it was the basement I could clean it, but not my operating system. Be sure, if I were to delete anything from my operating system I would find out the next day that it was absolutely essential.

One of the perceived problems with Vista is the memory demand. Why worry, I'm told. It's only memory and memory is cheap. Yeah, I've heard that ever since I've bought my first PC, back in one AD. (After DOS era), when were just getting a graphical inner face software I was told I had enough memory on my laptop to last a lifetime. I would never need more memory. The capacity of that hard drive was smaller than my ROM cache is today.

So the question remains. One voice asks me, Why do you want to spend a couple of hundred bucks to install a new Operating system and go through the learning curve and readjustment period that could take weeks. The other voice asks why don't I take a pass until MS dumps me on the doorstep of obsolecense and forces me to change my OS. I want to say no. I want to say, It's probably great, but I'm going to let someone else work out the bugs. That way my eventual buy will include the traditional Service Pack with all the fixes for the the post release bugs that will take a hour to download if I buy now. But than the other voice whispers, "You might be missing something."

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

We're in The Newspaper

We had our home reviewed in the local newspaper this last weekend. My wife, Maria, is the Executive Director of Historic Milwaukee Inc. (HMI), a non-profit group that recruits motivated volunteers to conduct tours of Milwaukee. Maria wanted to promote the "Immersion Series" a course on architecture and history of Milwaukee that can lead to the student becoming a guide for HMI.

Her contact at the Milwaukee Journal - Sentinel agreed to help if she could do an article on our East Side Condo. I've seen my wife nervous because of the impending arrival of company, but imagine the company being as large a group as this visit could promise. The article was great and certainly accomplished Maria's original goal. The photographer was so good that if I didn't recognize our personal processions I may not have known it was our Condo apartment.

But than another thought came to me. When we moved here I took some record photographs of the place before we moved in and some additional shots after we got somewhat settled. I pulled them up on my computer and did some comparing. When you live with something day after day, you are not quite as cognisant of the changes that occur, even if you institute the changes. I was able to see how my wife's vision for the place was coming together. I have no talent for imagining what a room will look like if I paint it a certain color or moved the furniture. One look at the before and after photo's of our condo would convince you that some people, like my wife, are especially blessed with that talent.

Environment does count. I tease my wife about her addiction to decorating magazines and remodel TV shows, but the truth is I benefit greatly from her genius. The colors that surround me, the accessories and furniture, she has incorporated into our living space provide and atmosphere of tranquility and yet stimulate the senses in a good and seemingly effortless way that provides me with a sense of pride and satisfaction in that, this is my home.

We don't live in the photo's that were published in the paper. Spaces that are used in magazines and newspapers are staged. They are perfectly clean, painted and prepped for perfection. After the photographer left, the family photo's come out on the tables and he magazines began building their teetering pile next our chairs and on the ottoman. However, the bones of that structure that was in the photographs the paper published is our space our home and that is what counts.