The Elaine Report: Feb 7 2013

Nothing to report because I watched this video 
and all the headlines seemed terribly ridiculous and petty afterwards.

However, I do recommend this post if you have an interest in letting a living award-winning author know your opinion on the reselling and lending of ebooks and audiobooks.

The Elaine Report: Feb 6, 2013

From Richard III to Beutel-Ei Nr. 1 in 8 steps.

• Reconstructing Richard III's Face So glad they did this! The portraits existent are so flat and characterless. There's a good description of digital facial construction and its limitations.
• Indian women robbed of their uteruses by money grubbing doctors ... and the government does nothing. Many women now convinced they cannot recover from illness without a hysterectomy. 
• New York city negotiating with Air BnB to keep visitors off the street. I was an Air BnB host for about a year. I met some intriguing, kind travelers who appreciated my local expertise. And helped pay my bills.
• Turns out being miles underground is the best way to study dark matter and get real peace and quiet.
• Microscopic nutrients from the Sahara rain on the Amazon. We are all one ecosystem, ya'll! Not a lot of other facts or explanations in this brief article with a Nikon-sponsored video of lovely shots of the Sahara.
• 21 Things You Should Never Buy at a Garage Sale. Full of ooky bugs and germs! Would have been better to tell us what we should buy.
• Internet to be replaced by esoteric time stream. Note the napkin sketch at the end of the article. Doesn't really help. Tumbled it.
• Technology aging backwards? I don't get it. Read about three paragraphs and became overcome by dark matter.
• Seamless beautiful backpack made of wool. The artist named it an Egg Bag. It is sort of egg shaped. Looks more like a Lady Bug to me. Pinned it.

Sky 321 - lined

Sky 184 - tribute

gobledeegook here geek glop easy

Still working on trying to get WordPress to do what I know it can do. Or, rather, to get my head to understand plugins. If that fails, then to get head to understand coding. Ack!

Obviously I'm not a coder. I am putting in this time so that I can reap the rewards of hard labor by being able to easily upload and add new content for the foreseeable future. I'm going down the list of WordPress gallery plugins hoping for one that will work as a portfolio viewer.

I click on a link in the list to a page about the gallery plugin hoping to see first and foremost to see a demo of the plugin and then maybe some explanatory text. What mostly happens is I end up on a page full of text with links to stuff I don't understand like alpha and beta versions, open coding sources, and, oh, incidentally, here's link to the actual plug in itself. Most frustrating was a plugin site that linked to screenshots of the plugin demo sites. After much digging I did discover links to the actual sites, most of which are obsolete.

The best bet so far is Grand Flash Album Gallery which offers this happy little 14 minute video to show you how easy it is to use.
GRAND FlAGallery WordPress plugin tutorial from pasyuk on Vimeo.
Am I the only one who's first interest is NOT in what the latest news is from the developer?

Current Fads
Listening. Marketing Mentor Podcast and Genius Mixes (Brit-Pop & Rock Mix: based on U2, Coldplay, Radiohead and others); hungry birds
Watching. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
Activity. keeping warm
Gadget. WordPress
News Source. Google News
Reading. The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkein; The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing - Ilise Benun and Peleg Top; Story - Robert McKee
Writing. marketing plan

The Miracle That is iTunes Visualizer

There isn't enough attention and praise for that magnificent freebie that comes with iTunes: The Visualizer*. While the music plays, Visualizer generates colorful patterns on the fly. All of the patterns evolve dynamically and are directly linked to the beat and melody of the music played. They turn in 3-D space, burst apart like fireworks and morph freely. These screen shots are just wretched facsimiles.

I show here the "new" visualizer. There is also the Classic visualizer, which you can choose, if you prefer. You can also choose to restrict the spontaneous art to one of three themes: Lathe, Jelly or Stix. My mind boggles.

Once a couple of guys stood in front of my monitor trying to identify the "repeating" patterns but they finally had to admit, after 30 minutes of viewing, that the patterns were, in fact, generated on the fly in response to the music.

These colorful patterned designs look to me like breakthrough fractal algorithms. I suppose I could do some research and figure out just exactly how this spontaneous art is generated, but I prefer to marvel at the magic.

Current Fads
Listening. recent acquisitions and classical genre (iTunes playlists); high pitched ringing in ears
Watching. Donkey Skin (1970?) and HD Digital Free Over-The-Air TV (they gotta come up with a better name for that)
Activity. looking for work
Gadget. Elegato Eye TV
News Source. Google News
Reading. The Druids - Peter Berresford Ellis; Ill Met by Moonlight - Sarah A. Hoyt; Heart Steps - Julia Cameron

*And, of course, iTunes is free, which makes this all even more amazing. How can anyone wonder why I'm an Apple fan?

Digital TV Ensares Me

After having my Elagato EyeTV 250 for over a year, I finally installed yesterday. The first show I watched with drug-like fascination was "60 Minutes." There was segment on Sully that was very gripping. More gripping were all the details on my monitor, like being able to count Sullys freckles and see exactly how many split ends the flight attendants had. I followed this up with The Grammy Awards. It was sort of like watching a train wreck. I kept wanting to get back to life as usual but just couldn't stop. The whole potato chip thing, ya' know ... you can't eat just one.

Great things about digital TV:
1. I can get it on my analog rabbit ears.
2. The reception has it all over analog.
3. Excellent detailed picture. (I can almost tell what brand of mascara the newscaster is wearing from the way it clumps and the color.)

Thanks to Elgato I can record and pause "live" TV. I'm not sure how live TV is anymore. I noticed that there were times during the Grammy Awards when Paul McCartney and Coldplay were seated in the first row across from each other, and other times when the first two rows looked like a game show audience.

But Elagato Eye TV 250 is totally great. The software install is a two step process: copy and double click. Yes. Really. The remote control, on the other hand, needs a freakin' manual. I still don't know how to use it. Thank goodness the software is simple to use and the virtual "remote" self-explanatory.
I think these screen shots are compressed. I know the live picture is much better than these snaps. Gotta check the settings.

heartwind.com missing in action

It's my own fault. I went dabbling in things I know nothing about, like CNAME. I've read the help sections at me.com, Yahoo! and Network Solutions and am none the wiser. In the meantime, I have disabled my domain and probably lost about 36 hours of email. This is the only place I am still okay. Sorry! Please try again around Tuesday. All should be okay by then. In the meantime, try my temporary Mobile Me page(s). And you can email me at elainegreywalker@mac.com.

I'm such a ditz. Kinda reminds me of that time I punched all six doorbells in a three story building because I wanted to know if they worked or not. They did. You can't really blame me though, none of them had names listed and some of them had busted name holders. What I learned is to never do that when my Dad is around. ha ha

Gadget-lovers Future Paradise

How do you like the future so far? Trek to the MOMA and see how much further you can go with personal gadgets. They can make your environment perfect for you and keep it perfect for the person next to you (those backseat fights are a thing of the past). You can create energy by walking, remove impurities from the air naturally, and cool insulin anywhere. Are you a lonely guy? Get a virtual companion to steal the sheets, rub their cold feet against yours and throw plates. I'm telling you, whatever you want, it's there.

(The site has a funky interface so Mac people go with Firefox.)

I'm Back!!!

Woo hoo! Happy Dance! I gave up on Verizon and adopted Clearwire. And guess what? Clearwire really works! And it's faster than Verizon! and it's cheaper! Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!

Is that great dialogue or what? Oh? It's a monologue? Why do I care? I have joined in for the annual madness known as Script Frenzy. This year I will be writing a screenplay even though I had a choice of TV script, stage play and screenplay. I am now the proud author of 1.5 screenplays. Which is great? Right? Wish me luck.

Better yet. You do it, too. We need more stories.

damn the phone company -i'll be back

Due to forces of nature and the lousy customer service of Verizon (it's either up and wonderful or never coming back, there is not in between), I have been without internet since Saturday night. I've been borrowing access to do the essentials. At the moment I'm at the library with 18 minutes remaining on my time at this terminal. When I get more time I'll tell you just how insane Verizon is. They have not kept two appointments. Well, gotta run. Wish me luck

Blue Screen of Death - Coming to an Apple Near You

The Apple I used to know and love was a friendly, happy company – the lovable big guy on the block who would take on all comers and put flowers in their gun barrels. The guy to whom you could go to with all your problems and who would say, "No problem! I've got that covered." He was a welcoming dude with a living room as large as however many people wanted to jump into it. Those days are over.

I understand, somewhat, that an iPhone software upgrade broke the hacks that opened the phone (well, transportable mini-super computer, actually) to extreme litigation by the people we used to call Ma Bell. Hacking and breaking are, after all, illegal and hobbies akin to stealing. I'm all for paying people for the work they do.

I understand also that if you want to make really cool software that runs happily on Mac OS you need to make a fianacial contribution and join the club. If I had put a lot of time and effort into making a really efficient system with features that border on AI, I'd want anyone who wanted to mess with it to show some commitment, too.

iPhone users got their warning. iMac users didn't. Or if they did it was only in media that doesn't get to me.

Last night I watched a DVD on my brand new iMac running Jaguar. When I was finished I shut down the system and went to bed. This morning I started it up and launched Safari. Or tried to. Safari wouldn't launch. I launched Firefox. Okay. I have Firefox up and running. So, what's up with Safari?

I ran the Update Software utility. Three updates were waiting for me. I installed them. The updates required restart. I restarted. Voila! Blue screen of death (although it's a much nicer blue than the dozy one) followed by the Welcome Screen. Like, where has all my personal information gone? No problem. I enter it all again, click continue and I'm back at the Welcome Screen. After about five retries (yes, I am persistent) I give up and call Apple. It's too early for California – they're all still in bed (ty 1-800-MYAPPLE).

Fortunately, I still have my old (non-Intel) G4 and can look up solutions on the Apple website. I try the least destructive solution: removing ApplicationEnhancer.bundle and it doesn't work. The next solution jumps way back to 1995 with what we used to call a "Clean Install" of the system. That's what I'm doing right now and have been doing for over an hour.

Dear Mr. Jobs, please send a warning next time you want to boot out my system enhancers (of which I have none – is this an Apple vs. Adobe thing? Do you have a bee in your bonnet about Tasty Aps?) and rob me of 2 hours of production time. I'm happy to remove substandard items from my machine or at least to set aside needed time to fix something. I'm not happy with this new bully on the street. Put him away, please.

Normally I would not be writing this sort of thing but I've watered the plants, fed the dog, swept the floors and there is still time left over to be angry about having to reinstall my system. Fortunately, I've been using Time Machine. The most I will lose is one day. Yes, I did consider restoring the system with Time Machine, but that option removes everything on the hard drive. Theoretically I would get it all back in the restore but, no, thank you. I've been there and done that. There's always some little nit that I dearly loved which turns out to be irreparably damaged or gone AWOL.

Argggh!! Well, now I have time to take a shower and get dressed. And take the dog for a walk ... and watch the sun rise over the neighborhood ... and ...

Unlock Books!

Free the books! Freedom for readers! Why don't they just chain us in underground cells and read the books to us then they can make absolutely certain no one is making copies!!!

I recently purchased an electronic book in PDF format from Fictionwise. Before I could actually download the book, I had to click through three screens warning me that I was buying an Acrobat PDF and Fictionwise wasn't responsible if I was unable to read it. Very dire warnings indeed. What was all the insanity about? I've bought PDF books before and read them without problem, even the "locked" PDFs. I make PDFs all the time whether at work or not. So, I bought the PDF with intent to make a copy for my Palm Zire PDA so I could read it in comfort. What book did I buy? Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man. Yes, I 'm a big fan. Although I didn't start off reading his 50 books in order, I am now.

Okay. I download the book but it's not a PDF. It's this weird .etd format. I double click on it, Acrobat Professional opens and I get an error. Can't open the book. I go to the Adobe site and spend about 30 minutes in an endless loop between two pages on the Digital Editions web: the download page and the help page. Back and forth. Back and forth.

I paid over a thousand dollars for Adobe CS 3 Suite (of which Acrobat Professional is a part). I figure that if I call them they will help me out here. No such luck. I need to talk to the Digital Editions people. (Or person. I think it's just one guy who fiddles around on his lunch break.) Anyway, I call them and they transfer me to the Acrobat people who tell me I need to talk to the Digital Editions people. Another endless loop. In desperation I send an email the the Digital Editions people thinking it will be days before I hear anything.

Meanwhile Reaper Man languishes unread and starts to burn a hole in my brain because I picked up the next book in the series as a paperback while out one day, knowing how fast I get through Terry Pratchett books and wanting to have another waiting for me when I finish Reaper Man.

Surprise me! About 24 hours later, I get an email from a very nice guy at Adobe Digital Editions (back from lunch, I suppose) who takes about three emails figuring out my problem and telling me the solution. My Apple computer is too new. They don't make Digital Editions for it yet. Would I like to know when it's available. Yes, please, I tell him.

Meanwhile, back on my old G4 I get the hint and download Digital Editions easily although launching it requires returning to the Digital Editions web site. Quirky or what? The book opens and, hooray!!! I can now read my book but only on that G4 and only when it's connected to the internet. OMG!!

No wonder Amazon has come out with the Kindle and Fictionwise sells their own formats as do the Palm people, not to mention the MSN Reader (snappy title, eh?). Adobe has alienated the customers they created by making it nearly impossible to use the PDFs that are purchased.

Sad really. Adobe originated digital documents and now they're going to lose them. Next time I buy an e-book it won't be an Adobe PDF.

Current Fads
Listening. Night of the Furies - The Rosebuds and recent purchases (unpublished); heavy rain
Watching. Blade Runner (year)
Activity. learning yoga; back exercises
Gadget. cell phone
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City - Anne Soffee; Poltergeist - Kat Richardson; First Impressions: What you don't know about how others see you - Anne Demarais and Valerie White; The Marshall Plan for Getting Your Novel Published - Evan Marshall; Mensa Bulletin; Popular Science (Yes, I really am reading them all right now—I'm a reading addict. What can I say?)

a new level of smooth in tv entertainment

ABC is back on my entertainment list with a player that really works. Unfortunately it is some type of proprietary player that wraps up Quicktime in a box of commercial ads. I had to download a browser plug-in which took about two minutes and automatically recognized me as a "Mac People." After the install confirmation I was seamlessly returned to the show I had chosen. Pretty neat.

The show played smoothly (except for that two minutes of smeary visuals) in high resolution. The ads play really huge (of course). Your days of opting out of commercials are numbered. Fortunately they can still be muted and there aren't as many of them as on "free" tv.

I watched two episodes of "Samantha Who?". I guess that means I liked it. I enjoyed seeing Christina Applegate in a new role that suits her. She was perky, believable and, well, smooth. I liked the writing, the dialogue is good, the costumes and make up are shinier than a new penny. The plot is entertaining in a "die hard" sort of way. There's a lot of action and one must suspend a fair amount of disbelief. One must also be enamored of formula and the amazing sheen of polish. I am reminded of the 50's as in "Father Knows Best" and "Leave it to Beaver." Gloss. Very glossy.

Back to real life.

Notice anything different?

This is me blogging from my new 24" iMac. I look so much better don't I? Now I need to run out and buy a firewire cable so I can transfer everything over from my old mac. I'm a little sad. I will miss my friendly G4 buddy of eight years. Wow! Say that about a PC will you? Never!

Actually, there will be no running for a couple of days. Like when did I ever run? My back went out this morning. Thanks to my lovely chiropractor its now back in but I must be careful for a few days. er ... how did I get my iMac out of the case? Very carefully. Takes more than a sore back to stop that train.



Now back to my iMac.

missing in inaction

For some reason my host server flipped out for most of the day. I've no idea what happened. Looks to be okay now. Sorry.

My iTunes Purchases

Wow! This is a great widget! Forgot to mention you can choose from three sizes and five color schemes. Love this one. I hope you will, too!

If I had to define my taste, I'd say "eclectic." And you?

My iTunes

Here's a nifty widget from Apple that shows you my iTunes favorites. It seems to be a list of the music I play or have played at least once using iTunes on my machine. Some of the names in small type don't look familiar to me, but I have a lot of tunes. The big, bold names are really the ones I play most often so if you want to know what I like, check those names. I thought I played U2 more often than the size of its name shows, but I realize now that I play them a lot in the car, and that's not reflected in this widget.

Downside? I had to partially break my privacy with the iTunes Store to do this. I had to agree to let Apple access my account but just for this widget. I don't know. I feel a bit squidgey about that but, obviously, not too much to not do it. Anyway, this is a trial. If it works then I'll be making this a regular feature. Let me me know if it makes my page way too long to load.

I'll be testing it myself this weekend when I shut down my machine. We'll see how it works then.

Nice blogger swag, btw.

Permanent Shoes

Here's a new concept in shoery: one inny many outies. They are called skins. My favorite is Hailey (the last women's shoe in the slide show) althought Aimee is nice, too. Unfortunately someone thought that women would like all their shoes in black. Who did that market research? The shoes all come in other colors, of course, but they all come in black! Funerals, anyone?

Aside from that, it is an interesting concept and just might work. Imagine never having to break in another pair of shoes and always knowing your size. I like the notion of being able to order online and know that when they get here my shoes will fit and be comfortable right away. The trick will be in getting the right "bone", or inner structure of the shoe. I'm sure that will involve a custom fit. Fortunately Richmond is one the map. Yay Richmond!

You can find out more at the link above and here where you can also order your bone (if you feel like taking the risk).

Something Completely Different
Thanks to my daughter, Kathleen, for leaving her old computer here and the nice 17" LCD display. My display is dying so I'm using hers. For an "old" display it's pretty good and much better my 1998 model. And thanks to Apple for making the G4 compatible with any old display I jam on it. That's real plug and play. Not that fake stuff whosname is pandering.

Forget ABC!

Yes. ABC.com has paid some lucky hobbyist programmer to recreate something that already exists: a movie player plug in. Why not just stick with Quicktime which works beautifully on loads of platforms and has for years. YEARS! Where have they been? The new improved player is much like the new improved mail service at work: worse! The "improved player" has worse playback quality than the "old" one. The main result I see of the "improved" player is bigger commercials and a direct link to the developer's blog. Oh yeah. That's why I watch TV shows, so I can read developer blogs. NOT! I also see hampered interactivity (pausing the show restarts the commercial!!!) and time lost to installing this piece of crap which leaves the potential that I may not come back. And I won't.

I watch shows on abc.com because I like them and it's real convenient for me, especially for shows like "Men In Trees" which comes on late at night. And what episodes are currently available on the site (labled as 6/28/07)? Only the pilot!!! What happened to six months of episodes?

If you really want to see some innovative web programming, check out the iTunes/iPod site. And you if you want high resolution video playback with solid performance, try Quicktime.