llpricedesigns

I’d rather get a root canal. I’d rather have the flu.

I hate getting my driver’s license renewed. I hate it. I hate it.

Nebraska is horrible –  Arizona was worse. The examiner in AZ was a crank who couldn’t believe that I didn’t see his dots line up in the stereoscope. He all but  yelled I was a liar. I have a common and non-lethal visual defect. If I close my left eye and then close the right, or look in a stereoscope, my eyes focus in a slightly different spot.  Optometrists often don’t consider it necessary to add a correction for minor problems like mine until the patient needs glasses for reading or distance.  In Arizona, I had to go outside and make a long-distance phone call from a phone booth to my previous state. Then I had to bang on a pipe so the examiner could hear the ruckus from inside and take the connection. For real — in Tempe.

I’ve never been to the Nebraska DMV on one trip. Usually forget to take cash. Like they couldn’t revoke the license if I wrote a bad check? Today I had to go home and root around for some mail with my name on it  to “prove” I was me.

Really?

The document THEY sent with MY NAME on it, and my PHOTO ID (the old license) were not enough proof that I wasn’t some illegal alien terrorist trying to  bluff my way into america?

I waited in the wrong line to pay as usual. Then had to go to the right line –like there are such crowds — all ten of us.

The fee is never some round dollar figure, it’s some oddball dollars and cents. I put out my hand to take the change and the cashier plopped the bills and coins on the counter like I had cooties. Guess people who work for the treasurer’s office don’t need to know how to count money back. Thanks for the splendid customer service dear.

The nadir of the process was the photo — stringy hair stuck to my face and all.  My license photo looks like hell and that’s just how I feel. I think I’ll use my computer’s camera to make a pasty when the real deal arrives.

Restless storm clouds swirl and part to reveal light from the cloud tops. 2009.

Storms have pounded the Nebraska Panhandle with giant hail, and swept north and south of the Platte in wave after wave, but Kearney has only seen  (knock on wood) frequent rains, a bit of lightning and thunder, but no sirens wailing or warnings. As the jet stream moves northward, we might expect fewer, and less intense storms in the next weeks.

A nice summary from NYT staff specialist on healthcare issues, Reed Abelson: The Cost of Doing Nothing on Health Care.   “It is a course that is literally bankrupting the federal government and businesses and individuals across the country.”

Yes Virginia, (and Maryland) “Global warming” can mean MORE snow.

Link: “Get This: Warming Planet Can Mean More Snow”

Snow storms may be a somewhat unintuitive consequence of climate change, and it’s understandable that the unwelcome snow storms would be the butt of jokes, but did people in Washington really think that the crisis would only mean they’d have Miami weather in February? The conservationist, Hunter Lovins, suggested an alternate term: “global weirding.” That neologism might be easier for ditto-heads to wrap their quotes around, but climate scientist, Joseph Romm, recommended “‘Hell and High Water’ — since at least it does accurately describe what is coming,” Whatever term sticks, bloggers, pundits and (unfortuantely) politicians sound like nincompoops when they take the jests about Gore and recent, wearisome weather seriously.

Conservatives have one tool to control the economy: interest rates, Those rates were run into the ground early in the last decade. That left the Republican administration and their allies with no option but magical thinking “thing will improve-they always do.” Republicans, the party of “deregulation” let the Wall Street Bull go tearing through the streets without oversight.

Republicans claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility, but the hated Clinton Administration reduced deficit spending. Deficit spending increased under the “Conservative” President George Bush, just as it had under Reagan before him.

The new, post-neo-conservative teabaggers have turned away from their “birther” rants, to howl about the ratty state of the economy. They conveniently forget that a credit gridlock was avoided, a depression was avoided by quick action of the new administration. The slow jobs recovery is painful, but look at the jobs chart below. Job loss (red) increased under the conservatives. Blue represents the job growth in the last year.  UPDATE: Read more about what the chart means.

May Job Growth

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/02/05/0737210/GameStop-Other-Retailers-Subpoenaed-Over-Credit-Card-Information-Sharing :

MSNBC explains the scenario thus: “You’re on the site of a well-known retailer and you make a purchase. As soon as you complete the transaction a pop-up window appears. It offers a discount on your next purchase. Click on the ad and you are automatically redirected to another company’s site where you are signed up for a buying club, travel club or credit card protection service. The yearly cost is usually $100 to $145. Here’s where things really get smarmy. Even though you did not give that second company any account information, they will bill the credit or debit card number you used to make the original purchase. You didn’t have to provide your account number because the ‘trusted’ retailer gave it to them for a cut of the action.”

http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2010/jan/jan27a_10.html

Cuomo has sent subpoenas to 22 well-known merchants that have deals with the three major companies that offer these discount programs: Webloyalty, Affinion/Trilegiant and Vertrue. The subpoenas seek information about retailers’ practices of sharing consumers’ account information with membership program companies; their knowledge of any deceptive solicitations; and compensation from the membership companies. The merchants being investigated include: Barnes & Noble, Orbitz.com, Buy.com, Ticketmaster.com, MovieTickets.com, FTD.com, Shutterfly.com, 1-800Flowers.com, Avon.com, Budget, Staples.com, Priceline.com, GMAC Mortgage, Classmates.com, Travelocity, Vistaprint, Intelius, Hotwire.com, Expedia/Hotels.com, Columbia House, Pizza Hut and Gamestop/EB Games.

It’s really sleezy for a retailer to pick their own customer’s pocket after a transaction. Find alternative to the losers above. Buy from Amazon, Office Max, The local flower shop, Pappa John’s, etc.,. Will corporate management never learn the breaking trust is not a long term strategy? This double-dipping behavior is disfunctional.

I wasn’t really following the Mac tablet rumors with baited breath, but when I heard an NPR brief about the unveiling, I visited Apple to look-see. Yeah. Okay. So the pay-per-opinion crowd will pan it (actually, they started weeks ago), but they are so wrong.

This is another game changer, and the price is not a turnoff.

Of course I want one. Don’t know how soon I might buy, but I can imagine myself cheerfully evicting the expensive “timer” calendar from my handbag and slipping iPad in its place. I’d sync at home; I’d sync at work…

It’s not about the slick design.
It’s not about the slick design.
It’s not about the slick design!

Yes, it has that beautiful slick case, but my lust for the product is about the design from inside out, not the other way around. Get that. It’s what’s inside the counts. The suggestion that it’s all about eye-candy is so cliché, so insulting, so petty, so sour-grapes.

THIS is the toy that will kill the netbook Mr. Balmer. Of course, I’m going to keep my precious white Linux EEE pc, but the slew of windows netbooks are going to change or die starting today.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I do not work for Mac but like most Mac owners, I have a PC laptop, and before last week, the OS was Vista.

I was hesitant to upgrade my PC “frisbee” to Win 7, so I was distraught, but not surprised when the first attempt to upgrade was a bust. I was ready to ask for a refund after a second try, but on the third attempt it magically installed. I was surprised — surprised that it was so attractive and easy to use. At first, the monitor colors were skewed to purple, but it was a snap to adjust the balance to get a really clear, color correct rendering of my photos and documents.  All of the settings seemed easier and more intuitive than any Win program I’ve ever used. Bugs aside, bad corporate behavior aside, I have to say Microsoft seems to have done well with this release.

If you’re stuck in Vista, upgrade as soon as possible; it may improve blood pressure.

Viewing those wretched Haitian earthquake images provokes a outpouring of desire to help. The organization, Doctors Without Borders, is “on the ground” and has operated facilities in Haiti for years. That makes them an excellent choice for donations that will alleviate some of the current suffering.

Before the earthquake, Haiti was not so much a failed state as a unofficial, failed colony of the US, a hapless condition Hispaniola’s Western population has endured for at least for the last 100 years.

All the piecemeal charitable efforts of thousands of private groups have failed to bring significant improvements to the lives of average Haitians, the country has been a sink-hole for small scale charitable efforts, as frequent eruptions of violence have erased the hard gained advances time and time again.

The economic refugees, who have fled deplorable conditions, have been treated with deplorable contempt by politicians and immigration agencies, not to mention the smug fundamentalist preachers.

I sincerely hope that the massive efforts, which will be needed to reconstruct the capitol to the pitiful state of affairs before the quake, can be extended to transform the political system, the social and economic circumstances of the popluation, and lay a foundation for sustainable development into the future.

If the international community can’t manage successful nation-building in this tiny country, Politicians surely must be deluded to speak as if “America” can do it anywhere else.

I logged  back into my Win-laptop Monday and spent a couple of hours getting the frisbee up to speed. I downloaded all the current anti-malware definitions, then I turned to those critical Microsoft updates again.  I manually selected just the titles that looked appropriate to my setup to avoid  the 94% problem. Still feel  irked that I had to waste so much time.

Last night I installed an update on my Mac. I got an email alert that it was available; a dialog box prompted me to enter my pass;  I kept working. When the update was completed seconds later, I closed the notice dialog. Such a breeze. Guess I’m just spoiled by my trusty OSX software.

RANT ALERT II:

I sometimes run across articles with references to Mac “Fanboys,” the people who prefer Macs to Windows. The pejorative is hogwash, bunk, poppycock, horsefeathers, hooey, twattle, a shibboleth of those with Mac envy.

If it wasn’t just a more pleasant experience working on a Mac, I’d still have to keep one around to find information on how to avoid being sideswiped by Microsft little features.

Today for example. I fired up the PC to see how the notoriously buggy IE would render the CSS for a new page I had just authored. Unlike Apple, which sends its painless updates four, maybe five times a year. I was greeted by yet another Win-Vista update alert, which plodded along for serveral minutes after launch. I don’t want malware, so I usually follow the Win prompt to get the critical patches.

First it downloaded, then it labored to install, then it has to do something else after shutdown. Today it stalled at 94% complete. The computer restarted and re-ran the install back to 94%, where upon it restarted and re-ran back to 94% three times; four times; five times looping to 94% then restarting, all the time warning me not to shutdown.  Ha, like I could shutdown this infernal machine! There is no manual off switch to kill the never-ending loop.  After trying “F8″ then “Control,” then “Esc,” I went to my Mac and looked up “Safe Mode.”
A sticker note I had pasted on the face of my laptop was correct after all. I needed to use “F8″ (and we all know what that “F” stands for), but I couldn’t just hold down F8 during restart.  I had to tap it like a fool during startup or watch it keep cycling through its stupid little loop.  Finally, after minutes of nonsense, I  was able to select reset to a prior install, and then wait.

Minutes later, I was back where I started, and had to to ask myself, Should I go through this obnoxious routine again just to possibly get a  security update, or should I ignore it and take the risk?  Easy. Ignore; forget it! Perhaps I’m leaving the machine open to some botnet attack, but what do I care? At least this Frisbee runs for now. A tragedy of the commons perhaps, but so be it. I’d wasted enough time.

Macs are about twice the price of pc laptops, but they’re  worth every pinching penny and then some. Worth it in time saved, in frustration avoided, in repairs bills dodged, and better security.

So I also must ask, who’s the Fanboy? The people who know how much better the Mac works, or the die-hard Win fanatics, who wish to inflict their sorry software angst on everyone else?

Maybe I’ll check that CSS tomorrow.