Category Archives: About Me - Page 24

It Wasn’t Me This Time

Posted by anachostic on February 11, 2016 No comments

Today, I got an answer to something that I’ve always wondered. What would I do if an accident happened right in front of me? Well, it was actually right behind me. I drive that road every day after work and I know how it can get.

The road is a two-lane off-ramp connecting two interstates. At that time of day, the right-most lane gets backed up. There have been times that I couldn’t merge in and I couldn’t very well stop and hold up traffic in the left lane, so I was forced to take an alternate route home. Because the right lane backs up and the left doesn’t, I think that people driving in the right lane (and this has happened to me) misread the speed of their lane, because they are keeping pace with people in the faster left lane. Then all of a sudden, your lane grinds to a halt.

If you’re lucky, you’ll see it happen a couple of cars ahead, if you’re not lucky, the car in front of you will suddenly slow down. If you’re really unlucky, the car in front of you will swerve onto the shoulder and the car in front of them will be stopped. All of that happened today.

I actually was not lucky, I was surprised by the car in front of me. The cars behind me were less lucky. I escaped unscathed. But not being involved in the accident, what was I to do? This is the question I had been wondering about.

See, I hate the world. I really hate people. I blog about it; it’s not a secret. But I hate that the world is that way. And so what did I do in this moment of truth? I pulled over and jogged back to see if there was anything I could do to help.

Everyone was as fine as you could hope for. One guy who had his airbags go off seemed a little stunned and I had to roll his windows down to get some fresh air in there (Airbags really stink. That’s the second time I’ve smelled it.) Another Samaritan was checking on drivers too and said he would call 911, but he disappeared quickly after.

I hung around until the police and paramedics arrived and gave everyone my contact info in case their insurance company wanted it, but I’m not sure I’ll be of much help. The people behind would have been better witnesses, but everyone’s got somewhere to go…

So, why didn’t I take off like everyone else? It’s not my problem – I was lucky. I suspect that I don’t care about “people” because I can’t. I can’t care about them because I can’t do anything about it. People trapped in a cave in Argentina? What the fuck can I do about that? People right behind me getting in an accident? I can try to help there. It’s a proximity thing. I might have said before that help begins locally and this just reinforces it.

You’re Welcome

Posted by anachostic on February 8, 2016 No comments

Every time I read something from Ayn Rand, I get really irritated. Yet at the same time, whenever I try to do something just for the benefit of others, I also find myself irritated. It seems you can’t do anything for anyone without hitting some issue.

I like writing software. It’s a great profession and it gives me plenty of opportunity to experiment, create, and solve problems. It’s not always work for me. So there are plenty of times I will create a small utility to fix something or make a task easier for me and I think maybe someone else would find some use from it. So, I put it out on the Internet. The idea is nothing new and is pretty well known as open-source software.

I’d been hesitant to do any promotion of my latest creation because I feared a backlash of people that are, in modern vernacular, “haters”. They contribute nothing but criticism and have no intention of ever offering help. You know, “I’d love to contribute to your project, but your coding style sucks.” “Too bad it’s in VB.NET, I could really add some features.” “If I helped out, I’d end up rewriting all of it.” None of these statements have happened, but they are very likely coming from the elitists out there.

A few days ago, I tentatively responded to a couple of forum messages suggesting they try my utility to solve their problems. On one forum, someone replied and said they got an error message. So, I responded with some troubleshooting suggestions and gave a link to my blog for more information. When I submitted the message, the forum told me my message was marked for review.

Later that night, I got a private message from a forum moderator saying that I was receiving a warning for posting a link to my own blog. This was not allowed because it was considered “self-promotion”. Then the message gave an excerpt of the community rules and a message that I was expected to follow them. As a final insult, the moderator requested a “Read Receipt”, which basically says, “I want you to tell me you’ve seen this so you can’t argue this in the future.”

That completely spoiled my day. Here I made something to help people, and I have information to share, but I’m not allowed to post it. The moderator took the time to verify my link when to my personal website, but didn’t seem to notice there was no spam, advertisements, or solicitations on it. If I had replied as a different person and posted the same link, it would have been fine, because it wasn’t “self-promotion.” Posting information about another person is fine; posting information about yourself is bad.

I don’t even know where to go from here. The urge to be extremely childish is really, really strong right now. But how do you even talk sense into people with a viewpoint like that? The best course of action is to just walk away, and the assholes win again. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

Maybe This Is A Problem

Posted by anachostic on January 22, 2016 No comments

It’s probably an indication of a problem that I have more phones than hands to hold them. No, it’s not as bad as it sounds, but it might be becoming a trend. I had been really good about not buying things I didn’t need and that’s morphing into buying things that would be useful, then into buying things that might be useful. It’s only a couple steps from buying things that I have no use for. So, I’m putting myself on notice.

I have five Windows phones in my house. The first is my ancient Windows 7 phone, the Dell Venue Pro. It’s a beefy phone and served me well over the years, but it always suffered from a ridiculously poor camera. The physical keyboard and vertical slider form factor was something I didn’t think I could live without. Alas, physical keyboards are all but gone anymore (Hi, Blackberry!). It’s just being kept for nostalgic reasons.

I still have the replacement for the Venue Pro, the Lumia 810 with the shattered screen. I really don’t need it as a last resort backup anymore, so it will probably be trashed. It served me very well over the years I had it.

My current phone and the replacement for the 810 is the Lumia 925. This is an unlocked AT&T phone that I’m using on TMo’s network without any issue. It’s a nice aluminum phone with a wireless charging shell. It’s great and all, but looking forward, it’s not on the official Windows 10 Mobile upgrade list, so it would have to be unofficially upgraded with Windows Insider. It also doesn’t have the specs to run Continuum, which is going to be a big deal in the future.

On a whim, I bought a Lumia 435 for $30 over the holidays. This is a TMo prepaid phone that I am using exclusively as a music player. It’s upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile and has a 128GB SD card in it. it’s tiny and it could be a backup phone if I ever need it to be. You see, now we’re at the point of “would be useful”.

Then, the step into “might be useful” got me to purchase a Lumia 640 for $60. This is an AT&T prepaid phone, so I paid an extra $30 for an unlock code so it could be used on any network. Do I have a need for it? No. But I did buy it for the GF to use while her phone (a Sony Z3) was being sent in for repair. But when I get it back, what will I do with it? It’s a nice phone – hardware-wise, it’s as good or maybe a little better than my 925. It doesn’t have wireless charging, but does have an SD card slot. It also can’t run Continuum. I guess it’s just going to be a cold spare, waiting for me to drop and shatter my phone again.

With all these phones, I need to be cautious about falling into the gadget trap. It’s been at least 20 years since I was into buying toys just to see what they would do. It’s not yet time to get back into that.

Another Round Of Metadata For My Friends Here

Posted by anachostic on December 29, 2015 No comments

As I mentioned with my new MP3 (phone) player, a lot of my music had no album cover art. Now I’ve heard, but can’t confirm, that Windows Groove Music uses cover art stored in the files, so I’m doing another round of metadata cleanup. This time, I’m embedding the album cover art into the files.

I had resisted this for a while, because I didn’t want my library size to balloon. But, considering each song file is somewhere around 25MB, what’s another 100kb on top of that? Plus, it should ensure that I never have to go hunting for album art ever again, because the art is always in the files.

Well, the deal is, there’s some album art that’s not all that easy to find and some that’s in poor quality. So, as I made my way though the albums, I had to do a few scans along the way and post them to my Flickr account for posterity.

This will be a never ending cycle, I’m sure. Right now, my album art is 500×500 on average. Soon (sooner than I expect, I’m sure), the standard will be 800×800, then 1200×1200, then on and on.

The next thing will be embedding artist images in the files, because that will be used for a future utility I have kicking around in my head right now. We’ll see how that goes along.

Everything’s A Phone Now

Posted by anachostic on December 25, 2015 No comments

A recent post on a blog I follow informed me that there was a great deal happening on an entry-level, budget Windows Phone – the Lumia 435. I could pick one up for $30. That made me pause for a moment.

A brand new smartphone, capable of running Windows 10 Mobile, with expandable memory that can take an SD card up to 128GB. What if I bought it, never put a cellular SIM in it, maxed out the memory and just used it as an MP3 player? Huh? What’s stopping me?

Let’s look at some current MP3 players. They are really dwindling in numbers, because, well, smartphones do everything now. 16GB Sony Walkman – $80. 8GB Sandisk Clip – $35. 160GB iPod – $399. 32GB Zune HD – $275. This phone – $30. 128GB MicroSD card – $50. And I don’t even need the 128GB card now. I have a 32GB card from my old phone. Consider this a done deal.

So now I have another Windows phone. It’s going to be my new MP3 player. And better than other MP3 players, it will do Internet and Bluetooth audio, and games, and whatever else I want (except phone calls).

I began setting it up by installing the 32GB SD card I had around and upgrading the phone to Windows 10. Boy, what a drawn-out process that upgrade was. When I was done upgrading, I then uninstalled every app except for the ones I needed – primarily Groove Music.

Ok. Now, how do I get my music on there? I keep the music on my computer in WMA Lossless. That format works with Zune. But you can’t sync to anything other than a Zune device using the Zune software. And although I can copy the files right to the phone, I don’t want to use my lossless files since they’re around 25MB per song. I was dreading the idea of manually transcoding my entire library just to copy it and delete it. Surely there has to be some software that would automate that.

Enter the old stalwart, Windows Media Player. This software will not die, nor should it ever die. Windows Media Player can sync files to another device that is nothing more than a memory card. And in the process of doing so, it can transcode the files to a different bit rate – Exactly what I need.

Then you choose what you want to put on your device, and drag it to the Sync pane. Then Windows Media Player just does its thing.

So, with my test using the 32GB card, I got about 40-odd percent of my music on there. There’s some stuff I can take off because it’s not really mobile audio stuff. I also discovered that Windows Media Player encodes to WMA format, so I probably don’t need a high bitrate of 192k. 192k in MP3 is moderate quality, 192k in WMA is very high quality. Bringing that down a notch to 160k should reduce the space usage. And I see I also need to get cracking on cleaning up my album art.

But! Once that’s all done, I will have a pretty sweet MP3 player, that isn’t a phone, but really is a phone, just not being used as a phone.

Christmas Cheer Is Here

Posted by anachostic on December 15, 2015 No comments

I have to say, I love my first Christmas tree. It’s a great mix of standard ornaments, special ornaments, and embellishments. The color palette is varied enough without being too schizophrenic. The ornament coverage is full, but not overwhelming. It’s at the point where adding garland would be too much.

There’s a nice mix of balls – matte, shiny, and clear. There’s a set of 6 glass icicles and an even cooler set of 3 ice drops, just enough to be a nice surprise here and there. Then there’s a bunch of diamond and ruby drops hanging at the ends of branches.

As far as unique ornaments go, there’s enough on the tree that it might be a nice scavenger hunt to find them all. This would be the list:

Hedgehog
Balloon animal dog
T-Rex
Flamingo
Bird nest
Coke cans
Buoy
Nutcracker
All three birds
The owls

And there’s plenty of others, too, but not unique enough to call out. Metal bells, acrylic stars, snowflakes, and candy canes, fabric candy canes, and more.

As I mentioned before, all the ornaments are hung with fancy hangers, not the simple green or silver wire hangers. Aside from how much easier it is to attach the hook to the ornament and how much easier it is to hang on the tree, these fancy hangers are sturdy and become a part of the decoration. So not only do you look at the ornament and try to ignore or look past the simple hanger, you see the hanger as part of the ornament.

I remember how the lower loop of the simple wire hooks wrapped around the bulb’s hanging loop. I remember how that was always just a little annoying to connect the two and it was enough of a hassle to not want to detach it when breaking down and packing the bulbs back up. Well, the fancy hooks don’t loop; they’re just hooks. So disassembling them after the season is going to be a breeze. It makes we wonder why the wire hooks had to be so secure like that?

The great news is that neither cat nor dog had any incident with the tree. For the most part, there wasn’t any need to put the non-breakables at the bottom of the tree. But we did put all the bells down there as an early warning system. In fact, the cat loves it. “…and to all a good night”, indeed.

Christmas Startup Costs

Posted by anachostic on December 13, 2015 No comments

This is the first year I’m going to be celebrating Christmas. When I say that, I mean this is the first year I’m going to be doing the traditional tree and trimmings. In years past, I did a tiny 3-ft, pre-lit artificial tree. You know, the bare minimum. I’m approaching this as a multi-year project, building up a little each year. Maybe next year will be exterior decorations.

The point I’m making is that I’m starting with nothing. I don’t even think I have a single tree ornament of my own. So, if you are considering doing your first Christmas, consider this list for the things that you will need. But, keep in mind, most all of these will be reusable next year, so you can spend a little more and get quality stuff that will last year after year. Normally, I would factor in whether I wanted to have something new each year and budget for disposable items. But I think Christmas stuff should have a sense of stability and memories each time they are used. And if your approach is also a multi-year vision, decide what you want for next year and hit the after Christmas sales.

So, this is what I started with:

Tree Skirt

This was the first advance purchase. The GF and I were evaluating our options at Old Time Pottery and we found one with the fabric we liked, but not the right colors. Later, we were at Lowes and saw one we both immediately liked. We noticed that Lowes’ Christmas supplies were really selling out (impressive), so I grabbed it right then to avoid any remorse over missing something we both agreed on. Price: $30.

Tree Lights

Wow, so many options. When I was growing up, we had one option for bulbs. I think they are classified as C7. But now, you have the LED lights and all these different shapes and colors. This is where I had to start thinking. I could do a themed tree, like all gold or silver or blue, in which case, I’d probably get a single-colored set. Or, I could go traditional and get the multi-colored sets.

I like the look of themed trees, but they seem so boring to me. I wanted a more interesting tree, with ornaments of all different types, to encourage exploration and to capture different moments. So, the lights I choose will either be multicolored or dual colored.

I started at Lowes. What the hell. They’re down to less than a full isle of Christmas stuff. Less than a full isle! They didn’t have the lights I wanted. Ok, let’s try Sears. Sears usually surprises me with prices and selection. Nope, Sears is down to thin pickings as well. Ok then, I know Target has them because I saw them the day before when I bought my tree stand.

I bought a 200-bulb string and two 50-bulb strings, for a total of $63. All LED, all sphere shaped. The 200-bulb is shiny and faceted and the two small strings are solid pearl lights. That’s about 100 ft of lights, at $.63/ft Not cheap, but much better than I budgeted.

Tree Ornaments

Consistent with my choice to have a non-themed tree, the ornaments will be a collection of many different shapes, colors, and styles. One thing I am against, though, is “shatter-resistant” ornaments. These plastic bulbs with the visible molding seams are cheap and tacky. I understand their place in families with dumb children, but for the record, I never broke a glass ornament when I was growing up. And since my household is not and will not be child-friendly, I’m having nice high-quality glass ornaments. Although, after discussing with the girlfriend, we’re going to have to put shatterproof ornaments of some sort at the bottom to account for curious cat and clumsy dog – their first Christmas with a real tree.

There’s no shortage of variety when it comes to ornaments. And the prices are all over the place, too. You’ll probably start with some multi-sets, then in future years, buy unique individual pieces to create memories.

I hit two places at first, Old Time Pottery and Michaels, and got some basic red/green/clear balls and a spire tree topper (which I’ve learned is called a Finial). Total running cost: $47. Then I did another run at Big Lots, Sears and JCPenney. The quality is getting better and plenty of diversity. Total now: $104. At this point the cat thinks this is going to be the best Christmas ever.

Then I hit Pier 1, Hobby Lobby, Bealls, Target (again), and Michaels (again). And I think we’re done. Total: $195. We did decide to go with the fancy ornament hooks instead of the simple wire hooks. I have to say, they’re worth the investment, both in looks and usability.

As far as what we ended up with, there’s probably close to 200 ornaments on the tree, between glass balls, icicles, bells, diamond and ruby gems, a few birds, a bird nest, individual personal items, and some novelty items.

The Tree

The tree is going to be a live tree. The initial reason for this is to have the more traditional experience. If I find I don’t like it, I can always go artificial next year. But I think I owe it to myself to try the real tree first.

We went to a tree stand that’s always been coming to town since I can remember: “Booger Mountain”. We picked out a tree. A big tree. 8 feet high and dense and wide. They only took cash, and it was a chunk of cash. $90.

Tree Stand

Since I’m going natural, I’ll need a tree stand. I might as well get a nice one. I had a couple of gift cards from Target, so I figured I’d use them there. I ended up with a nice plastic stand with an easy watering opening for $20, $10 after gift cards. I thought that was a good deal until I stopped at Walgreens and saw a stand on clearance for $7. But what’s done is done. My stand is good for an 8’ tree. It did the job just fine.

The Complete Damage

Adding up everything, I’ve spend $390 on this project. All but $90 will be reusable in future years. The girlfriend spend $300 on her own exterior home decorating (first year for that, too) and all of that will be reusable in future years. So, it looks like we’re even.

Behind-The-Curve Savings

Posted by anachostic on December 10, 2015 No comments

There was an XKCD comic a long while ago that made the joke that if you consistently remain behind the curve, technology still advances and is just as impressive, it’s just that the experience is delayed for you. It doesn’t say anything about the great savings you will have if you adopt this strategy. For example, I can pick up a Wii pretty cheaply now. I think I saw a bunch for $30 at local pawn shops. I’ve not really experienced the games a lot, so it’s still all new to me.

So, last Friday, I was a little klutzy and dropped my phone. It was fine. I’ve dropped my phone a few times in the years I’ve had it (photo history looks like I’ve had my Lumia 810 since March, 2013). It’s always taken the falls like a champ, even if the case back flies off and makes you think the phone has exploded into pieces. I have never used a case on my phones – never seen a need to.

Later on that night, I dropped my phone, again. Geez. This time, it landed on its side on my chair’s base and when I picked it up, I saw something I’d never seen on a phone of mine before. It wasn’t cracked, it was shattered. I was shattered, too. Now, I had to find a new phone and pretty quickly, too. This phone still worked. Touchscreen still worked. Swiping and dragging was a bit more risky since I don’t like cuts all over my finger. So, I wouldn’t want to be using it more than a couple of days.

I am a Windows Phone user. What does that mean for me? Well, I don’t have the massive selection of devices that Android users have, and I don’t have to pay outrageous prices like iPhone users have to. I had just read a couple of reviews of the newest Microsoft phones to come out and I was a little surprised at the retail prices. Over $900! No, that’s not going to happen.

Saturday, I hit some pawn shops looking for a cheap phone replacement until I could figure out what my plan was. Surprisingly, no one had phones. I didn’t get it, they used to have craploads of phones. When I asked about that, I was told that people were pawning phones that weren’t fully paid for and the phones would get blocked, so the next buyer could never activate their phone. Damn scammers.

So, Amazon it was. I was amazed at the prices of Windows phones. Most were less than $200. And these weren’t cheap phones, either. The one I ended up getting was the Nokia Lumia 925. A phone from 2013, discontinued in 2014. Windows Phone OS is very lightweight, so older phones have no trouble running it, either. This new phone will still be an improvement over what I had and was under $200. I don’t need to spend $500 or $800 or $1000 for a new phone. That’s awesome.

Since it’s a new phone, obviously I need to buy more accessories for it. This time, I’m going to invest in Qi wireless charging. The 925 has an optional wireless charging back in a few different colors. I picked up a white back for cheap (because discontinued phone, right?) and Qi chargers seem to have become commonplace since when I last remember researching them.

And the best thing is, it’s still all pretty much new to me.

It’s Happening Again

Posted by anachostic on December 4, 2015 No comments

A couple of years ago, I wrote about tea. I had casually mentioned that I found a new tea brand and I was enjoying it. That brand was Te Bustelo. Well, over two years later, I am still very much enjoying it. My GF, ever-thoughtful, bought me two huge cans of tea mix, and they lasted me, well, two years. I’m just finishing up the second canister now.

For Christmas, I suggested she replenish my stock. Te Bustelo could only be had at Wal-Mart, and that’s not a place I go. A few days later, she reported she was unsuccessful in finding any. So I searched Wal-Mart’s website. It said the product was no longer available. Panic starts setting in. I jump on Amazon. The only thing available is a 6-pack of canisters and there’s only 8 cases left of them. At a little over $7/can, this isn’t really a great deal.

Oh shit. This is just like what happened with Nestea. I find something I really like and it disappears. So, without delay…

Today, Amazon only has one case left in stock. You can’t find Te Bustelo anywhere else online. This is the end. So, I guess I’m probably good for 2-3 more years and then it’s on to something else. But what? Back to Lipton? Try the 4c brand I see everywhere? Will they even be around in 3 years?

Door-To-Door Windshield Replacement

Posted by anachostic on November 5, 2015 No comments

Yup, that’s right. I had two people in my neighborhood going door to door telling people they would replace their windshield for free by submitting claims to their insurance. Oh, this is right up my alley. First, a story from my past.

Somewhere around 5 years ago, when I had my Acura, I had a small crack develop on my windshield. Here where I live, there’s some deal that insurance companies have to fix cracked windshields for free. So, I call my insurance company and say I need my windshield fixed because there is a crack. They say no problem and send a company out for the repair.

The repair company looks at my car and calls me outside. They say I need to replace my windshield. The Acura is at least 8 years old and has like 150k miles on it. I say, you can patch that, the technology will handle this. They say they’ll check it again and I go back inside. They call me back and say that I need my windshield replaced. I tell them I want a second opinion and I’ll call my insurance company again. They weren’t happy, but what could they do?

I call the insurance company and explain to them that I felt they were being ripped off by the company they sent first and I wanted someone who would come out and patch my windshield. They obliged me and when I went out to meet the new repair people, I went to show them the small crack I wanted patched. The crack wasn’t small anymore. The previous company had pressed on the crack and expanded it before I dismissed them. I was furious.

Despite that, the new company was able to patch the larger crack and it never grew for as long as I had the car. So you can say I am a fan of patching whenever possible.

Jump forward to today and I have this hyper dude telling me that yeah, I have some chips in my windshield and they can replace it for free just by getting my insurance information. I start my objection by saying I am a fan of patching, not replacing. He makes some claim that if you have more than 6 chips (and he’s sure there’s at least that many), your insurance will recommend you replace. I think that’s bullshit, so I just say that replacement is unnecessary.

He says that I don’t pay for anything. The insurance company pays for it. I hold up my finger like the educated man I am and reply, “Ah, but I do. The cost of replacements is reflected in everyone’s insurance cost.” Deftly countering that argument he says, “You realize you’ve paid for this many times over already, right?” So I don’t have to pay for this but I’ve already paid for it many times over. This guy is an uber-salesman. I just shrug and say, “Hey, I’m just doing my part to keep costs down for everyone.”

I explained to him my glass has already been replaced once and I like the one I have because it’s a little more tinted than the factory glass. Somehow he still thinks he has a sale, so he says he can put a tint strip along the top. That’s fucking ugly. He throws out another option. No. Not interested. So that starts a whole new argument about how this isn’t the right windshield for my car. What? Then he says the manufacturer of my glass isn’t that good of quality. He will guarantee his glass with a lifetime warranty. Eye-roll.

So I educate him that the car is 5 years old, has been through a flood, is on its second engine, has 190k miles, and just got repaired from a rear-end accident. The windshield is really the least of my concerns. At this point he is laughing at me. Not the kind of laugh that I’m out-arguing him, but more of a mocking laugh. Fuck this guy.

He shakes my hand and thanks me for my time. I decided to give him an honest offer that I would call them if I did choose to have my windshield replaced. I asked for a business card.

“I don’t have any cards. All I have are invoices. Invoices for people who are getting windshield replacements.” Well then. You can go fuck yourself and your fly-by-night scam business. Boy, I wish I paid more attention when he talked about his company so I could report them for fraud.

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