Technology Blogs (216)

I scanned an old photo to send to my brother last night and my computer wasn't connecting to the email server. I tried to access the main website and it too appeared to be offline.
They sent messages a few days ago about upgrading to an entirely new system!
So much for the improvement.

The main page was functioning this morning but most of the links didn't work and the email doesn't respond. Hopefully incoming messages aren't lost while this issue gets resolved. I'll send some test messages from my corporate account.

No doubt some heads are going to roll by this foul up.

I check a site called giveawayoftheday that offers free software each day. Typically, it's less known authors looking for feedback to better their products. Usually the products are offered without technical support or updates, some are only free licenses good for a year and after stop working or continue with less functionality. I avoid about 98% of these offers and uninstall the trial ones if they don't suit my needs. Over the years, I've found lots of nice free programs, mostly in the music, graphics or utility areas.

Being free comes with a catch as they usually have a nag screen to get you to upgrade to the paid version. Some try to sell you on other selections they offer. I make it a point to uncheck other free offers when installing the one I want to try as many installations have rogue software that mysteriously come with the package. I'll go back to the original offer and give a bad review explaining the unwanted software bundled in the package.

Three months ago, I installed a basic program that saves YouTube videos to disc. Works great and doesn't leave it's name (watermark) on the video it saves. Now ads are popping up when I boot my computer as this selection is in the startup of Windows. I close the program and all is well... except this morning a few minutes after I closed the program, a browser window opened with an offer to upgrade to their latest paid version. If this nag upgrade becomes habitual, I feel a divorce will be sooner than later.

WOW...Connecting Singles is a "used to be thing".
When someone has to maneuver reading or reply & try to put it somewhere to have it read.
I think it is highly overdone when the the site seems desperate to claim such huge ads. Are they broke?? They can`t realize why we singles are here? And they were once doing so good!!
I`m so sad they go to this length to cover or discover our mail. I really am hating this new stuff.
Answer how you feel. Will complaining do? (at least to make the ads smaller).
Nessie G

Info junkie stuff, pretty informative vid,

Earlier this week, I read a story about looters in California who broke into a car dealership and stole luxury and sports cars worth millions of dollars. Tonight, it appears it's happening again. Storefront windows are smashed, locked key boxes are broken into and they match a key to a car and drive away!
I'm curious if these high-end vehicles have Lo-Jack and if so, it's only a matter of a few hours before the cars can be tracked.

Still many broadcasting to many (developing) parts of the world. In dozens of languages. The cutbacks, with the internet, seem greatest in Europe and North Merka. But the (FINALLY) rising sun spot cycle index, making for improvements in reception and transmission, is improving things everywhere.
This morning, after a few chats on the ham frequencies, I switched from SSB to AM, and cruised on up to 49 meters. Radio Marti, Havana, Beijing, others, and the usual God squaders, were coming in strong. On a lark, I sauntered up to the higher reaches of the band, usually not very active. Only to find radio Japan, NHK, booming in with news, etc, in Portuguese! Sure, it had a bit of the Brazilian dialect, after all, it was there that the antenna engineers focused their signals. But what a treat for a Gnome struggling with this tongue, so close to Spanish, yet sometimes, so far away.
As I've blogged, listening to these programs can often be just listening to propaganda, on many sides. Yet often, from what's said, it is possible to ferret out a good deal that;s not only likely valid, but inportant, for effective world citizenship.
Used to be that it was necessary to spend large on radio receivers to add this to our knowledge base But those thousands who read my rants, know, what a cheap bastard I am. Just ordered a great AM, FM, SW receiver---with an MPV card reading decent music and voice recorder, for USD 17, delivered, direct from the one party stat of the PRC. Reviews say its terrific, but I'll blog if it's the usual Chinese cheap consumer trash. Pressing my thumbs.
Keep it valid, folks, and if critical, and even a tad bit acerbic, try to do so only as to obvious signs of lower class.

Too often batteries are the issue in things needing to be replaced. Years ago, I had cellphones that the user could change out a battery when it no longer would hold a charge. Cellphones now are sealed to be dust and water resistant. They require the user to send it to a factory center... a process that often takes 2 weeks to get the phone back.
Too many things happen in my life and I don't want to be without my phone for weeks. Is it possible? (groan) Yes, but not practical. Some phone stores have loaners but they are entry level phones and limited, meaning I have a good chance I'll lose data in multiple transfers.
I'm at the crossroads now. My phone that used to go 2 days without a charge needs to be juiced twice a day. I can get around that with a charging station and I'm waiting for a deal on a new model with 5G capability.

For weeks, I've been saying the battery in my car is near the end of life and wanted to get it replaced at the wholesaler I normally do business with. I carry a spare battery in the back of my car for use when I go to the model aircraft field. It runs my laptop, chargers and some cooling fans. I charged it 3 weeks ago. Yesterday, without warning, my car wouldn't start. I connected jumper cables to the spare but it wasn't fully charged and didn't start the car. Lucky for me road service responded in 10 minutes and a new battery was installed.

I've been through packs and packs of AA batteries. The two main manufacturers claim 10 year shelf life. That said, I've had had to replace hundreds of dollars worth of electronic & mechanical devices due to leaking batteries that corroded rendering the device useless with batteries less than a year old.
I don't need a flashlight very often. when it doesn't work and I unscrew the case I'm guaranteed it will have some gooey mess inside from a leaking battery.
Currently, I'm taking photos and discarding the damaged devices (like smoke alarms and flashlights) at some point complaint letters will go out to manufacturers.
Seriously, I wouldn't try to rehabilitate a smoke alarm by cleaning the terminals with baking soda to remove the corrosion.

I've got a love/hate affair with batteries.

America made a poor attempt to convert to metric in the 1970's and with the exception of tools and some engineered products, we switched back to the imperial system learned from England.
Last time I checked, America, Liberia and Myanmar were the only countries still measuring by feet and weighing by pounds. Thanks England for abandoning us!
It's time to set the record books straight.

Let's start with the 1967 song 98.6 by Keith.

From now it's "Hey 37C, it's good to have you back again... Oh hey 37C, her lovin' is the medicine that saved me..."

This is for young people who weren't around when there was no such thing as online anything. The personal computer wasn't even invented yet. Oh, there were computers, but you needed a forklift to move them and a college degree to be allowed near one. There was no Google or any other search engine. If you needed to research anything you looked it up in an encyclopedia, or went to the library for a book on the subject. libraries were very popular, everybody had a library card.

If you wanted to buy something from a distant company, you called them on the phone at a number you got from an ad in a magazine or newspaper or on TV. Maybe they would send the item COD or you had to mail them a check before they shipped the item.
There were no dating sites. If you wanted to meet somebody, you either went to a bar, cruised around looking for someone waiting for a bus and offering a ride or a friend introduced you to a sibling or a friend. There were also "Lonely Hearts clubs" you could join. It was a painstaking process but at least you weren't spinning your wheels on someone from a different hemisphere or getting fleeced by scammers from Nigeria or Ghana.
There was no email. If you wanted to write to someone, you either wrote or typed a letter, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and brought it to the post office to mail it. If it was going very far away you could send it Airmail for extra postage or it would be transported by train or steamship if it was going across the ocean. It could take a week or longer for a letter to go cross country by regular mail.

There were no online games. If you felt like playing a card game you got out the deck of cards and played with another person(s) or played solitaire. Same with any other kind of game. Or you could go to a bar where they may have had a console with a game called PONG which was just bouncing a ball back & forth on a TV screen with a paddle you controlled with a knob.

Today at 3:30 PM EDT (12:30 PM PDT) from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with live stream expected to kick off around 3:15 minutes prior, SpaceX is putting 60 broadband satellites into orbit as part of their Starlink service to a total of 418 satellites making them the world's largest private satellite operator.
Later this year, Starlink broadband service will be online for customers in the northern U.S. and Canada.