Messing About
So, while I’ve been watching triplets of tropical weather, I’ve been setting up my Computers and getting them back on line. Meanwhile Apple, Ubuntu, and M$ are sending out major updates.
I was lucky on the iPad. I didn’t realize there was a major update, IOS 10, coming out, so I was late to the party. That meant that I got IOS 10.00001 [OK – 10.0.1], the version that didn’t ‘brick’ many older devices.
I am currently upgrading my Linux box to version 16.04, the latest long-term support version.
Then I have to go back and check to see if Windows 10 finished its upgrade. It said it was updating, but then it stopped letting me check to see how far along it was.
28 comments
The Professor finally got ticked that he couldn’t watch his movies during his dialysis sessions so he went out and bought a brand new laptop: a Dell with Win10. So far, so good, but it’s only been 3 days. Of course, it’s nothing like any of his old machines, and he can’t find half the commands. It also appears that the speakers don’t shut off when he plugs in his earbuds which could be annoying to other patients.
So, brand, spankin’ new… What are the chances that this update will kill this one, too? 🙁
I’ll send him a note about downloading Classic Shell [classicshell.net]which will give him the ‘look and feel’ of XP/Win 7. My Toshiba does the same thing if I don’t use one of the functions to turn off the internal speakers.
The newer equipment don’t seem affected by whatever they are doing wrong.
This is odd (the speaker thing), because my HP Envy 14 that I bought for $325 (used, “refurbished”) and that came with Windows 10 doesn’t do that. I plug in my headphones, and the speakers immediately shut off. I’ve actually been pretty impressed by my little $325 computer thus far, unlike my previous Toshiba (the $250 one), it actually has enough horsepower to do real work. It’s sitting at the office right now running some long-running queries against production while I’m here at home playing with my Mac.
All it takes is a slightly more expensive headphone jack that breaks the speaker circuit when the headphone plug is inserted. They would rather put those pennies in the profit pile than in the value of their product.
Borya, It might help if you send messages to the Professor care of me. He’s still wrestling with the ISP over his email. 🙁
I’ve never encountered an electronic product that doesn’t override speakers via the headphone jack. It’s so bog standard that you’d think downgrading it would actually cost more.
Will do, Anya.
I’m blaming the jack, PJ, but it is also possible that the plug is a bit thin at the tip, or doesn’t go far enough to break the speaker circuit. Two of my audio cables work with all of my other computers, but won’t work with my iPad. The plug that works with the iPad is just a bit longer than the plugs on the other cables.
As if you didn’t have enough problems with hurricanes, tropical storms, oil spills, etc., here’s another thing to think about:
Radioactive Sink Hole
There’s just no end to all the good news…
Sometimes I think that we won’t need an asteroid or massive earthquake upheavals or anything else outside of ourselves to eliminate ourselves.
Looks like you would be too far to the west to be a part of this aquifer, but Florida has certainly had more than it’s fair share of environmental mayhem in the past few years.
Floridians may want to check their butts for boils and watch for raining frogs, it’s looking kind of biblical down there.
It’s not really a problem as that part of the state is going to be a salt water wading pool in a decade or so. I’m more concerned about the gasoline pipeline running from Houston to New York City that sprang a leak in southern Alabama. That will be an excuse to jack up the price of gas. We actual get water from the watershed that may be affected by that accident, and it is being used as a reason to reduce the safety regulations on tanker drivers. What damage could a few hundred thousand gallons of gasoline do? 😈
“The newer equipment don’t seem affected by whatever they are doing wrong.”
Ahhhhh… yeah, they are! Haven’t you been paying attention? I have 2, and they are both screwed (though the Tablet now has Win 8.1 and seems happy so far). And if you read the relevant forums, you will see I’m not the only one by far! Though, perhaps it is less of a problem on newer systems, in some ways. It certainly does not mean they are immune! If it wasn’t for my Win7 DELL Notebook, I’d have been nuking Redmond about now!
Juanita, I’ve always said that Humans will destroy the Earth long before anything else will. Homo Sapiens is the new Global catastrophe!
Bryan, I had heard about the spill, but didn’t realize how close it was to the watershed to your area. Of course, you do know “it’s contained”…that’s what they always say, isn’t it?
There’s a property in Virginia near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Amherst County that we owned which was on the border of an 80 acre tract. The 80 acre tract had once had a bulldozer (or some big piece of equipment or other) on it that had broken a fuel line near a trickle stream which was probably coming down from a high country spring. It was years later when we had this property listed, and you could still see seeps of it showing up as ugly little rainbows of fuel around the edge of the stream. Five years later.
Kryten, yes indeed, we are a global catastrophe.
Oh, yes, Juanita, and half the oil that came out of the Deepwater Horizon isn’t really sitting on the bottom of the Gulf waiting for a hurricane to pull it to the surface. It’s always contained until the containment pond breaches and takes out a few houses or villages. The Panhandle is literally downhill from Alabama, and when there is a spill it eventually gets here.
Actually Kryten, I was thinking of machines that came pre-loaded with 10. Obviously the software that said that my big box was compatible with 10 was lying like hell. I still haven’t figured out how to stop trying to update the driver for my printer. The printer doesn’t want to work with Windows 10, and I don’t blame it.
Ahhh! Apologies Bryan. 🙂 Though, even systems that are preloaded with 10 are not immune. My new Epson Workforce all-in-one didn’t work fully with W10 6 months ago. It was just an expensive scanner, until Epson finally got new drivers out. It was “Win 10 compatible”. Seems OK now, haven’t tried using the FAX yet though. *shrug* 🙂
Yeah, Humans are more like a slow cancerous death. Mother nature & the Universe generally are usually far quicker when they decides to kill everything! LOL 😉
Florida isn’t a great place to be for the next few decades it seems. I wish you well & best of luck m8!
I’m about 13 feet above sea level, so I have some wiggle room before it’s time to tread water.
The people selling computers with Win 10 preinstalled had the time to be sure it was going to work.
Oh, check the Windows Update on Win 10. If you go in one more step they admit that they are Beta testing and allow you to be an official member receiving new builds and sending them feed back.
LOL @ Win 10 Update. I told you (a few times) it was a beta. And I wasn’t joking. 😀 Every half decent developer out there knows it. *shrug*
I have a new favorite TV Series!! And it’s American, and curiously, the guy upsetting everyone isn’t dead yet! Seriously! 😀
here’s the first episode (last year) to give an example why:
Adam Ruins Everything: S01E01 – Adam Ruins Giving
This is a sampler of some episodes. One on the uselessness of security (especially Airports & credit cards), Fingerprints aren’t unique, US Voting system… etc. 🙂
Adam Ruins Everything – 5 Most Mind-blowing Facts
One of my favorites is “Adam Ruins Everything – How a Legal Loophole Created a Mall Bonanza” LOL
If you know of the show, good. If not… you should! LOL (Though I am sure Bryan and others already know most of this anyway). It’s nice to know someone is actually *outing* it. Not that it will make a lot of different of course. *shrug* 🙂
Trutv is not a major channel, if channel it is, but I’ll see if I can locate it.
Sure, we weren’t even sure it qualified as a Beta, and now I come across an invitation to be a Beta tester in the Update settings. It is just weird. It’s almost like a call for help from inside M$ that the poor sod stuck inside the code so the guards wouldn’t notice it. 😈
Ha! 😀 I had a similar thought about the cry for help (and as I have an overactive imagination…) 😈
Yeah, I’d not heard of TruTV before. I thought you might enjoy it, at least to know that not everyone is drinking the cool-aid! 🙂
Maybe we should contact the Red Cross and see about sending in a POW [Prisoner of William] box. 😉
The last thing people actually want is the truth.
“The last thing people actually want is the truth.”
Ain’t that the TRUTH!!
But then, they may actually *shock* have to get off their lazy pathetic asses and DO something! Easier just to believe whatever moronic BS they agree with and let others do stuff. And they are too ignorant and stupid to realise that the others doing shit are not doing it for them! In fact, they couldn’t give a rat’s arse about them!
I just signed a petition that truly should NEVER EVER Have been needed! For some insane reason. the Qld. Minister for *Justice* has allowed a criminal parole for the THIRD time! He immediately re-offends until caught! He is supposed to be serving consecutive life sentences after the last Judge decided he was a high risk and threw the book at him! WTF??!! I said on the petition he must either be the moronic Minister’s lover or brother, or family member of a wealthy donor! We should make her serve his sentences! His offence: he has raped and physically abused several women & teenagers. He has threatened to kill the next victim. It’s on record. Of course, the dumb bitch who allowed him to appeal and paroled him is an member of the Australian Liberal Party. But even the right-wingnuts are not THAT insane, are they? 😯 😐
Hell, yes they are. When governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, Fundie wingnut, paroles a rapist who beat the heat out of his victim, because the victim was a shirttail relation [a distant cousin] of Bill Clinton. Not long after release the convicted felon murdered his next victim. Huckabee claims it was a simple act of ‘Christian compassion’ to release the violent thug back into society. It was more important to attack Clinton than to protect society.
*sigh* yeah, I know. It didn’t actually surprise me, more anger at the insanity of humans. It’s become the norm I guess.
Oh well. *shrug*
On a brighter note for me, the Postman finally delivered my pre-ordered copy of the new DOOM (and Watchdogs – About cyber criminals in Chicago, essentially).
After the latest Radeon driver update finishes d/l (bug fixes including a few more W10 Anniversary fixes), I’ll kill some pixels! Maybe I’ll feel better. LOL
Haha… Yeah. Well, that plan didn’t last long!
Just tried running the Radeon update and I get: “The AMD Software Radeon Installer has Stopped Working!”
Luckily, AMD use a 7zip executable archive, so I can unpack it and run the installer manually. But if a basic 7zip .exe doesn’t work on W10, it’s really screwed! This is the first one that’s done that, only since the Anniversary Update. *shrug*
I truly hate M$ & W10.
Oh, and the game above should be: Watch_Dogs
🙂
Just got an email about a terrible petition I signed and donated $100 to spread the word. The response has been just awesome! Even the media has been very positive and a full front page magazine article will be published. 🙂 A 12 yo girl who wanted to kill herself had enough courage to cry for help, and got it. 🙂 You should know how I feel about innocent children, so I feel better now than I have for some time.. 🙂
In spite of insane assholes like the above Minister, people CAN make a difference if they really try!
Exclusive: From “most unpopular girl at school” to magazine cover – one girl’s story of finding her voice
😀 😀 😀
Even William Shatner and other celeb’s signed the petition and donated to spread the word. 🙂 Here’s the original for context:
School bullying is killing me, PLEASE, PLEASE HELP
The first year in high school is hell. You made it through six years climbing the social ladder in primary school, and then you have to start all over again. Kids in middle school are generally assholes and if anyone shows weakness they are attacked by the others. The attackers are often doing it so they won’t be on the bottom and the target.
Bullying results in child suicide, and politicians and school administrators still don’t take it seriously. It is often seen as a normal rite of passage, and nothing special.
The great majority of comments on both posts have been positive. but there have been a few nasty ones, probably from the bullies at her school. Like this recent one:
And my reply:
Most bullies are cowards and hate themselves or their families. Usually because they were bullied in some way. but it’s no excuse. many were bullied, as I was. Some of us survived and became stronger. The school & business managers/employees do nothing because either they are cowards also, or the families of the bullies are important in some way to them.
“Bullying” is a crime for adults. It has a lot of different names from state to state, but it is still a crime, and children need to know that. School is concerned with teaching children to live in their society, and when a child files a report about ‘a crime’, the authorities have a responsibility to do something about it. If there is no penalty for bad behavior, why would people clean up their act and become responsible citizens. This is why we have an epidemic of affluenza that has resulted in the global financial meltdown, and Donald Trump.