Features that you don't want

Any feature that you don't want will be constantly getting in your way.

One of the best examples of this is the Safari Sidebar.  I don't know anyone who likes this, but Apple keeps trying to make it the default, and in your face, as much as possible.

In my case, I use a relatively narrow monitor on my kitchen table because there isn't much horizontal space available.  I use large typefaces because my eyes have floaters and somewhat imperfect focus at the monitor distance.  This means the safari sidebar renders the rest of my browser window very narrow.  It's terrible.

So I wonder, does Apple keep trying to stick this in my face because...they want to sell a newer bigger Apple monitor???  Usually these endless features have some purpose like that; they're either part of planned obsolescence of some kind (a new monitor every 3 years as we add needlessly add more pixels) or part of some other kind of sale (your personal media viewing and listening habits, or a lifelong relationship where you can keep on being gouged long into the future with additional offers for additional relationships).

So I remember many many times turning off the Safari sidebar.  Often I just dive into the Safari preferences.  Curiously, there isn't any control for the sidebar there, though it obviously seems like something which might be considered a preference.  I seem to recall there was a preference for it many years ago, and then that preference item went away.  I might be mistaken about that, and confusing it with similar features, but it seems to me at some point Apple removed that preference item and thereby invalidated innumerable pages found by Google telling you how to turn off the sidebar--that kind of invalidation is happening all the time for all such troublesome features for sure--and any given Google search for any such features is likely to first unearth 10 useless descriptions of how it was/is done in some earlier/later version of the software/OS involved.

So now that turning the sidebar off disappeared from Safari preferences, it did sorta often seem like it remembered the way I liked Safari (without the Sidebar).  But then, sometimes possibly after Safari updates, or OS updates, the sidebar comes back on, persistently, and I have to struggle to find useful information on how it can now be turned off in permanently or at least semi-permanently in future windows, not just the one I'm looking at now.

Then there are the features like the innumerable different modes the iPhone camera app lets you do photography.  Most of the time, nearly all the time, all I want to do is take a simple snap shot.  Not a video, not a panorama, etc, etc.  But often I'm trying to take this photo holding the phone at a distance where it's not easy to see what part of the screen I'm contacting or how.  So I end up twirling through the various photo options that are always there, always reminding me of how clever Apple is, cleverly providing features that are constantly getting in my way of just trying to do simple things.

The first two laws of delivery

1.  A waited-for package never arrives.  Alternatively, when you want early delivery, they want later.

This almost goes without saying.  It's happened to me many times, in many scenarios, now corrollaries.

a) If you see the delivery truck pulling into your street, it's not for you.

aa) If you see the delivery truck pulling into your neighborhood, it will be for the street just past your street, unless (a).

b) If you come home early to wait for a package, it will be delayed to the next day.

c) If you come home mid-day to wait for a package, it will be delayed longer than you can possibly wait before going back to work.

d) If you are waiting for an early delivery before going to work, it will be delayed longer than you can possibly wait before going to work.


2.  When you want late delivery, they want early delivery.

Especially with freight shipments, where you want to be back from work, or back from lunch, or have the assistance of friends and neighbors to help move the freighted item into your house, so you want late delivery, THEY want early delivery, which makes all of these less possible.

In some cases, they don't just want early delivery, they force it on you by just showing up and unloading the item.  Those situations are, in theory, refuseable.  Even if they have unloaded the item from the truck and are standing in your doorway with the sign out sheet, you can refuse, insist they load the item back on the truck and come back during the scheduled delivery window.

Or at least so I've been told, after I accepted such an early delivery (it was even on an earlier day!).  It messed up my personal schedule and I lost points at work.  I was angry, but the delivery company just said I could have refused.

But the first step will be to initially suggest an early delivery window.  "We can deliver that 8-10 am on Monday morning.  Is that OK?"

Confronted with that, you ask for their latest delivery window, etc.

Then you can look forward to at least one phone call, perhaps on the day before the scheduled delivery, or on the scheduled day but very early in the morning, such as 7:30 am, with an offer, often with some claimed urgency, to make an early delivery.  You must calmly remind them of the scheduled delivery window.

Presumably they want early delivery because it saves them time and money somehow, or they can reserve the later slots for people who are paying for the extra services (in home assembly), etc.  But still, if late delivery works better for you, and they ultimately agree to it, you can expect them to be constantly trying to weasel out of it.

The Destination Already Has a File Named ...

Dialogs which force you to make a decision like this are very unhelpful.

When a destination folder already has a file with the same name, the copy command should check the files for identical contents.  If they have identical contents, no question need be asked, the copy is as good as done already.  If they don't have identical contents, then the question needs asking, but the dialog should at least include some other information, such as:

1) The sizes of the files.
2) The creation and modification dates of the files.

If you're worried about the speed for file comparision, you should not be.  At least on Linux systems I've used, giant files and even whole directories of giant files can be compared in a few seconds and sometimes even under a second.  Meanwhile, antiquated (and actually newer in conception) file comparison tools on Windows are unbelievably slow.  I believe a good Windows program could do it as fast as on Linux, but atomic file operations have never been a priority a priority for them (or Apple).

If you're still worried about the speed of file comparisons, it would at least be a step forward for dialogs to include the sizes and dates so you could make a sensible judgement without having to open more windows for file examinations yourself.

Random Slideshows and Creating Playlists

I have a lot of experience with random slideshows, and music playback, both in use, and frustratingly trying to make them better by programming them, using well regarded random number generators seemingly suitable to the task at hand (I believe I used 48bit repeat--and not the current standard Mersenne Prime generators).

Somehow it always seems that random isn't really random.  Or if you just leave something running, and keep coming back to it at irregular (but perhaps not quite random themselves) intervals, it seems you mostly see or hear about 10% of the entire list contents, and there's at least 30% you never ever see or hear not in years.

No matter how large the list, when randomly selected it never appears to take long to start seeing duplicates, and those duplicates are the ones that seem to occur over and over.

I'm not sure of the validity or mathematics of this, I'm just reporting my experience.  Many years ago I even gave up with random song playback on my Sonos system for the reasons described, and just started playing through my music library sequentially.  I ultimately gave up on that also, and for now, I have no satisfying "automatic" playback of my music library, nor any particularly good playlists.  With all my vast collection of purchased and available music...I find myself mostly listening to FM radio so my choices are simplified (which of 3 or so tolerable stations).  I've liked Pandora automatic selection, but even it can get tiring before long, and it's not uncompressed audio.  I haven't much tried the auto selection of Roon with my own library and Tidal HD.

For video, I devised and incredible picture viewing system, actually a hodge podge of programs running on my Amiga, which permitted me to create playlists on the fly, and add to them, and navigate within them, all from just a few pushbuttons on a standard Sony remote control.  THAT was the best system I ever had, but it required exhausting picture format conversions that couldn't be completely automated because the PC to Amiga transfer wasn't reliable enough.  I finally just abandoned the system when my old video connections to the computer room were withdrawn temporarily...I could set it up again now with the new professionally wired video connections but I haven't bothered, in part because the computer room is already and still such a mess.  So, the best program ever, is lost to ruin.  I hestitate to program such things on more "modern" computers.

One thing you may find true, playing random songs is somehow going to skip lots of songs, you'll hear the same couple songs from every album and never the others, so it seems the best thing is to select Albums randomly, not just songs.  That way at least you hear all the songs on an album, if you listen long enough.

In my program, there was a history so even a random slideshow could be paused and gone back through.  The history of the current process (since when the Amiga was rebooted) was channel "0", which could be reselected at any time after going to another channel/playlist which was specified by a number with as many digits as desired.  Once a playlist was selected more could be added to it.  Also individual pictures could be saved, on the fly, to any number with a leading 0.

Creating playlists is something that needs to be able to be done on-they-fly, as you are otherwise listening or viewing things.  Otherwise, there's never enough time.

*****

Perhaps the apparent non-randomness at least party stems from real duplicates, and near duplicates.  I also think that leaving a stream running, and then sampling it at the same times each day, stresses the randomness properties of oldfashioned random number generators.  And maybe other things I haven't figured out yet.

One way of dealing with it is daily pruning, removing things that have gotten stale, and adding new things.  Seemingly just adding one thing is enough to change the mold and get you a new subset of the main set.

Buffet Interrogations

I've pretty much eaten at cafeterias and buffets all my life after going away from home for college.

I like them because you can fill in all the things you need in the amounts needed, including fruit.  Fruit is one thing not often served by restaurants, except those with salad bars, which are kind of like small buffets.  Marie Calendar used to have a pretty good Salad Bar and Buffet about 25 years ago, but it went into such decline at the local outlet that I began to fear going there.  Buffets and salad bars have been in disappearance and decline it seems, since about forever, especially from their peak about 22 years ago, but I've frequented a pretty good steak bar and buffet for decades.

I've always liked to have my buffet dinner during working house (mid-day is best for the greatest meal) and do my reading, usually a magazine or nowadays often my phone.

Buffets don't require much personal service.  But they want to make a show of personal service if for no other reason that their table servers be paid a lower rate as "tipped staff."  OK, I'm fine with tipping for minimal service, or even none.  (When I was younger, this pissed me off.  I'd rather get my own drinks than have people constantly ask me if I'd like a refill.  But now I have more sympathy for the employees, and frankly I don't get asked as much anymore anyway, as I drink less.

I'm fine with tipping these people--they need the money...and I'm partly saving the service cost in the direct payment.  But sometimes these people amp up the show to either assure contribution, assure retetention for following the the rules, or some such.  Before too long I feel like they're not really serving me, they're "Serving" me to someone else.

Often servers make ask over removing plates after they are done.  I generally wouldn't care much if they didn't take anything, OR just took it without asking.   Actually, at expensive restaurants, they generally grab the plates at the earliest moment unless you stop them immediately.  However, once you stop them, they then make permanent adjustments.   But at buffets they often ask if you want you're plate removed, when you've started on another, and it's an interruption.

Much interaction nowadays is for the drink refill service, and I suppose one can't complain about that, as long as one is not asked too repetitively if you want your drink refill, which was typical in some places I used to go.

And then there's the seemingly mandatory "Is everything OK" or sometimes "Are You OK?"  I guess once per visit would be OK, but frankly I'd prefer not being repetitively asked such questions, or even once, when I'm obviously very busy eating and reading something.  If something is not OK, I usually try to find some staff immediately, or stare at any staff I see, not look busy reading something.

If I merely nod or mumble OK, that usually works for most servers, but some seem to be a bit hard of hearing, in which case I might get further asked the "Are you OK?" a second or third time with greater emphasis.  And then have this entire ritual played out 2 or 3 times in one visit to the buffet. It gets very tiring.

Decades ago, I started complaining about being asked such questions, actually in regards to the minute by minute "Would you like your drink filled.:  One time I determined that I had been asked if I would like my drink filled 8 times during a 30 minute dinner.  I refused every time.  No matter how many times I asked, to the same service people, that I didn't want to be asked such questions anymore and ever again, the same people resumed asking at the next visit.

Ultimately, hoping I'd get less attention, I tried reducing my tip.  That didn't get the intended result either, but convinced one server I was a starving student, so now I now got fake sympathy on top of everything else.

The very worst of all, is being asked what I've brought to read, as is most often done at entry.  It's as if I was bringing the anarchist cookbook or something, and they were screening people for such things.  They always try to make it seem friendly, I find it intimidating.  I haven't brought The Nation to buffet in years, I hesitate to admit, for this reason.  I was thinking of hiding it in something else, and I did that a few times.  It's bad enough to take Scientific American, which is one of my standards.  In fact that might be worse, more than once a person commented that they knew of something better, or they stumbled for a moment, which in both cases I suspected was for politico-religious reasons.

Upgrade to Mojave Quicksand

Software makers are endlessly putting quicksand in my way.

The latest is the endless reminder to "Upgrade to Mojave" which has no obvious way to turn it off, EXCEPT to upgrade to Mojave.

Actually, I do not want to "upgrade" to Mojave, because it will break all my 32 bit applications.

As I have said before, "upgrades" are really a kind of corporate fascism (realizing that is redundant).

Fortunately, there appears to be a way to turn it off.  This time Google was a better friend than Apple.

Speaking of upgrades, I talked to my computer geek friend last weekend.  He generally uses Mac, but when he uses Windows (for games) he uses Windows 7.  He says when Microsoft expires Windows 7, he's going to switch to linux.

I'm beginning to feel that way about High Sierra.

Typical: No Manual, No Quickstart, Bad Link

My Flir One Pro came with a thin page that identifies itself as the Quick Start Guide.

Constantly forgetting to get my reading glasses out, I finally start at the side with lots of almost microscopic printing.  Turned out that's the multi-language warranty section.  The slightly larger type on the other side is mostly the United States Limited Warranty.

The actual instructions on this Guide were simply:

Download the FLIR ONE app to
your smartphone.  To get started; visit
FLIR.COM/Start

So I downloaded the app.  It comes up saying

Plug in your FLIR One to see the heat.

So, I plug in my Flir One Pro, and nothing happens.  I wait for minutes.  I try plugging and unplugging.  I try terminating and restarting the FLIR ONE app.  I still get no response.

OK, too late, I gave up for that night.

The next day, I took a look at the Quickstart manual again, and remembered the website.  Aha.  As instructed, I typed this into my Safari browser:

FLIR.COM/FLIRONE/Start

It comes up to the FLIR product page.  No Help.

*****

Some site searching gets me to FLIR ONE faqs, I couldn't seem to find an actual manual.

Sure enough there's a battery faq.  Apparently there is an internal battery that needs to be charged.  OK.  So I start charging, and see a blinking green light.  What does that mean???  The FAQ doesn't say.  I try posting the question, it seems to recognize my blogger ID.  Post rejected saying "missing item."

I suspected there was no manual after all this time, but still more searching I found the actual Support Page, and then with more tricky navigating, I finally got to, The Manual.

And the manual makes it quite clear, the light blinks while it is charging.

Total online searching time: 15 minutes.  Total wasted time about one hour.  One missed opportunity to use.