Tralfaz

Month: May 2015

  • Hawaii Five-O Observations

    I have mentioned in the past about watching classic TV on Netflix and singled out Hawaii Five O as endlessly entertaining.

    jack-lord-4Lately, I have swung back into that series, and I have a few observations:

    • 12 seasons – how on earth did that show last for 12 seasons? Seriously, by the 4th season it was becoming tiring to watch, and the plots have become super predictable.
    • Rain in Hawaii – Knowing that the islands get a pretty consistent amount of rain, it is remarkable that there are almost no scenes where they are prancing around policing in the rain. But every trip McGarrett takes to the mainland? You guessed it, he is under an umbrella. (it takes until season 8 before they are chasing a suspect and it is raining.)
    • Tourism Promotion – I get it, the show is a thinly veiled tourism promotion vehicle (as well as a way for Jack Lord to get paid to live in a garden paradise). But all that crime? Oy vey, according to Five-O, the islands are awash in gangs, prostitution, gambling, and Chinese spies. Not a very inviting place to vacation, eh?
    • Gunplay – The quantity of shootouts is truly staggering. I believe every episode has gun battles with bad guys being gunned down by the righteous agents of Five-O. In the real world, far fewer police actions involve firing their weapons. I get that it is the late 1960’s in the show, but holy hell, do they shoot a lot of people.
    • Drugs – One persistent theme is the scourge that is illicit drugs. In many of the episodes, there is the specter of LSD, marijuana, and even methamphetamines awash in the island. I know it is a sign of the times, but the portrayal of the strung out dopers is hilarious.

    I know my parents looked forward to the weekly exploits of McGarrett and Danny Williams. 30 years on, meh. Give me the Rockford Files any day of the week.

  • Weekend Trivialities

    I have gotten out of the habit of updating things here lately. Work has become super busy. Homelife has been busy, and frankly the blogging has suffered.

    A bunch of things today.

    1) Apparently my car is dripping oil. If it was s late 1960’s British car, this wouldn’t be an issue, as they leak oil until they are bone dry. However, being a Honda S2000, it is disturbing. I had it serviced a couple weeks ago, so it is back to the jugheads at the dealer to figure out what they fucked up.

    2) Having a broken toe sucks. I was just getting back into the biking groove, and then BAM, I break a toe. It hurst like hell, it is purple and swollen, and it will take a few weeks to heal. Whenever I hear about how one of the tip tier MotoGP riders flogging their bikes with a broken finger, rib or ankle. I think back to this pain, and am amazed by their intestinal fortitude.

    3) WordPress is really beginning to bug the shit out of me. Yep, it works, and it is #1, but damn, I spend more time messing with it, updating shit, and the like than actually writing. On the lookout for something different.  Not immediate, but it is coming.

    4) While I am on the topic of blogging, I am surprised that far and away, the top draw of searches to my blog is people looking for information on the Specialized Crave Expert 2015 I own and write about (and that reminds me, 9 months of ownership, and I have some new things to write about).

    5) Still grooving on the XBox One, and Forza Motorsports Racing 5. I wonder if they will continue the tie in to Top Gear now that the lustre has faded on Jeremy Clarkson. Still it is great fun, and I am now on the Grand Touring circuit, with the Lexus LFA, a ridiculouly difficult car to drive (I ‘bought’ an Audi R8 to trade off with, as the AWD is easier to control).

    6) I think the end is near for my ancient iPad 2. I bought it in 2011, and it is struggling with the latest iOS. Sadly, you can’t “not” upgrade the iOS as applications like the NY Times (probably the most used app I have) crash constantly unless you are up to date. However 4 years is an awesome run. I suspect an iPad Mini 3 will be in the cards.

    7) 15″ laptops suck. Yep, I was a bit of a snob, insisting on a big fast, tons of memory and disk MacBook Pro. But almost 2 years ago I on a whim bought an Mac Book Air, and I love it. 12 – 14 hours of battery life, super light, and a good performer. I still have my vintage MacBook Pro, and it is almost painful to use.

    Well, that’s enough for now.

  • DoublePlus Suck – Seizure AND broken Toe

    Grab bag here, and a quickie post…

    Yesterday was our anniversary, 15 years! Woot. Great dinner, and life is good.

    Then at 10:10PM, Tate has a seizure. I was not really sleeping so apart from the panic it wasn’t too disruptive. Apart from the trauma of the seizure.

    Then, as I was bolting down the hall to address the seizure, my left corner finder ahem I meant little toe catches the corner of the wall.

    Net Result: Broken little toe, and a shitload of pain, a couple weeks of hobbling around are in my future.

    And the weekend bicycling? Fuhgeddaboutit

  • Moving, the last frontier

    Moving, the last frontier

    Yesterday I groused about some of the last dregs of moving. While the majority of the unpacking has been done, there was still a clot of boxes in the middle of the garage. Annoying, yet stubborn.

    This morning I was determined to do something about the clot of boxes. It was about 3/4’s of Barbara’s stuff. From her old office and from her folks house. Once I got determined, I was on a mission.

    garageFirst up was the boxes. With Barbara’s help, I was able to find three boxes she wanted to rifle through in her office. Cool. There were 4 more that went to the over-garage storage area. Bam, middle of garage floor clean.

    Second, like most techies, I have a box of cables, power supplies and other detritus of 25 years of tech goodies that I could never part with. I sorted them into three piles:

    • Power cords and adaptors. It is amazing how many of them piled up.
    • USB, Firewire, and network cables. The astounding collection is extensive.
    • AV and video cables. About 10#’s of them.

    shoesThird, all the bikes were hung except the Mountain Bike. It didn’t fit well on the wall hangers, so it got hung from the rafters.

    Lastly, I built a pile of donation boxes. More good fortune for the charities.

    As I was putting items on the side wall, I noticed that there was something rattling inside a cooler. My missing cycling shoe. Yay!

  • Moving Notes

    Moving Notes

    Well, we are mostly unpacked, and all is mostly well. 95% of the boxes are unpacked, and the house is well organized. The boys are settled in (and too comfortable).

    However there are a few wrinkles.

    Before we moved from Chandler, I bought a new pair of cycling shoes. My old ones were 13 years old, and hurting my feet, so $225 later some new wide Sidi shoes were there.

    Unpacking, I have found only one of them. Damn. Of course my old shoes made the move so I am using them again. But I really miss my new shoes.

    On the plus side, before we moved I had bought a print from an artist in the UK. It arrived before we moved, but I couldn’t get it framed, so I left it wrapped up. It turns out that it was a limited edition of 200 prints, and I have 1 of 200. Way cool (the print came from almostanangel66 on Etsy.

  • The Skype Virus

    Whenever someone wants to talk to me and they say that they want to use Skype, I cringe. For a long time, I was unsure of why I cringed, I just did. Until recently when I installed the latest Skype client on my work PC.

    Sigh, there are plenty of things to hate about Skype. It is owned by Microsoft. It has occasional audio drop outs. But some things are truly pernicious:

    • It really really doesn’t want you to quit it. In the menu, you can log out, but the “close” option really just minimizes it. It is as if they know that you really don’t want to quit the program (to exit it, you must right click on the tray icon, and select “exit”).
    • Spurious contact requests. Every day I get two or three contact requests. Often for ridiculous named contacts. Often with naked avatar images. And often with pitches to ask me what I am doing (like phone sex). No, I do not want to video chat to “watch U cum”. This is one reason why I stopped using Yahoo Messenger.
    • Advertisements. I guess it is the bane of the modern tech world, but advertisements are everywhere. Some tools make them unobtrusive. Not Skype. Front and center. While messaging, or while calling. Groan.
    • Hijacking anything that looks like a phone number in the browser. Be damned careful in what you agree to when installing, as it will try to install a browser plugin that will “Skype-ize” anything remotely resembling a phone number in your web browsing. Really fucking annoying.

    Sadly, I install Skype, use it, and now uninstall that pig as soon as I am done.

    I should add that it is far less annoying on the Mac, as cmd-Q will quit it.  Still hate using it though.

  • Getting old sucks

    Freshly into my 6th decade, I am beginning to feel my age. Some observations:

    Once you get gout once, it is likely to recur. Sadly, now when I have even a couple of malted beverages, I get the start of a flare up. Not being able to have a couple brews on the weekend sucks.

    Your appetite doesn’t match your caloric or nutritional needs. I still love to eat steak and potatoes, but even when I balance with a lot of leafy green veggies, and other “healthy” items, I suffer for a couple days after. Turning 40 altered the metabolism, and the medications post MI further fouled with the engine.

    Aches, pains, and weird popping/creaky noises accompany you everywhere you go. Partly due to the heavy abuse of cycling, motorcycling, running that I did in my youth, I suffer.  A modest bike ride can yield three days of awkward awakenings. Groan.

    I fear I am looking at milestones of when I can no longer do things I used to enjoy. Oh well.

     

  • Marking a Half Century…

    Marking a Half Century…

    Today, May 10, I turn 50. Like many milestones it was both looked forward to and dreaded at the same time.

    I was working on a long, sappy, post, but screw that.

    I kind of remember turning 30. I was working at Read Rite as a process engineer, having fun, but still felt young. Life was simpler then, but living in Silicon Valley meant that I wasn’t going to be buying a house anytime soon.

    40 was much more of a struggle. Your metabolism changes, and it is difficult to adjust. It became really difficult to control my weight.  That was a struggle. Of course, by then I had:

    • Gotten married (to my wonderful wife and best friend, Barbara)
    • Become a “marketing” person in product management
    • Moved to Arizona, with the snakes, desert and blistering hot heat.
    • Became a huge proponent of Greyhound rescue.

    The most ominous time though came at the age of 44, where I had a heart attack. An eye opener, and really the first glimpse of my own mortality, and the limitations of my body.

    Today I mark the 50th year, and I am seeing a lot of changes. First, post heart attack I get to take a not-so wonderful array of medications. Statins, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, and anticoagulants. These all mess with my metabolism, and are by no means “fun”. But it is better than the alternative.

    I no longer ride motorcycles. I gave them up in 2008 when a few close calls on the streets of Tucson reminded me that my reflexes were beginning to suck. That was a hard hard thing to give up, having ridden since my pre-teen years, it was a big part of who I was.

    My sense of invincibility is now gone. I used to think nothing of heading out for long hikes on isolated trails, or bicycle rides with no particular route chosen. Heck, in the 1990’s I used to load up my truck with my dirt bike, head out on a weekday to one of the riding areas and ride alone, oblivious to how bad it would be to get hurt when you were in a 20,000 acre riding park alone.

    I am quickly getting to the point were I can’t play guitar anymore. A few years ago I was struggling with pain in the base of my left thumb, and instead of it being some transitory ailment, it is osteoarthritis, and the cartilage in the joints is virtually gone. Hence, my ability to play is evaporating. A cortisone shot provided remarkably little relief, and the surgical options, well, let’s just say that the doctor said we don’t do them on people as young as you, as the downsides are drastic.

    It is this which I am lamenting the most. I am at a point in my life when I can afford the fine instruments that I have long desired, and I can’t possibly enjoy them.

    Wrapping up…

    As I enter my 6th decade, I am recognizing my limitations, and accepting the future as it comes. It is sobering, but it is also hopeful. I still bicycle, I still hike, I still enjoy listening to music, I still enjoy exploring technology, and the advent of social media like Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with many people from my past that I had lost touch with.

    I am back in the San Jose area, where I grew up, and enjoying that (although, I really loved living in Tucson), regardless how the demographics have changed.

    For those who have read this far, thank you for the time you spent. I remain amazed that anybody reads the dribble I write.

     

  • WordPress musings

    My first flirtation with WordPress was in 2009, and I have been a regular user since. It has mostly been an enjoyable experience. Initially, I created a free site on wordpress.com, and quickly dove into the self hosted solution.

    Early on (pre 2.0 era) I got hacked. Entirely because I used sketchy plugins from authors who were only a little more sophisticated than myself.

    As time has gone on, and I have become (ever so slightly) more sophisticated and diligent, I have had good success with WordPress.

    However, recently, an incident that was a throwback to an earlier era threw me for a loop. On the installation for my wife’s page wordsbybarbara there was an included plugin, the Revolution Slider (a slideshow plugin), that I installed, but never used. Sure enough, it got a driveby sideload of a series of malware exploits.

    After spending far too many hours cleansing, scanning, cleansing, scanning, and then recreating content, I am getting fed up.

    WordPress is a great platform, and the creativity of the community and the team that maintains it has matured greatly. If you stick to using plugins from the WordPress.org repository, and are diligent about doing updates, you will be fine. The theme selection is fantastic, and with some modest CSS and HTML skills, even a duffer like myself can put together a decent looking and functioning site.

    But I am beginning to move my main properties away. I just have far less “fun“maintaining it then I used to, and my time is valuable. I have moved my product management blog to the new Ghost platform (with their hosting solution, so I no longer have to futz with the back end), and I am beginning to curate my content here for a similar migration.

    I am not sure when Tralfaz will make the switch, as my, uh, discipline with using tags and categories has left something to desire.

    I should be cautious. WordPress doesn’t suck. Far from it, it is solid, reliable, well supported with a fabulous community of support, and so many themes/plugins/modifications that you can do pretty much anything you might want. But because of this complexity, it has become a hassle to manage on the back end.

  • Not too happy with WordPress right now…

    Nothing like getting an out of the blue “Abuse Notification” from you webhost provider. Sigh.

    About 9:00PM last night I got the warning that there was malware on my wife’s WordPress site. Scripts in three unrelated files, and who knows what else damaged.

    Earlier, doing my normal maintenance, I found that the plugins and theme updates would fail. This was the first hint that something was amiss. (for the record, the three other WP blogs on the same VPS were and are fine).

    I manually changed the permissions, and forcibly re-installed these plugins, and thought all was well.

    Then the Abuse message. Shit.

    The hosting company quarantied the affected files, and they all were in a plugin that was part of the theme. Revolution Slider. We weren’t really using it, so I removed it (forcefully), yet there is still something hinky going on.

    This weekend, I will do a deep clean, and fix it all up. Alas, I really didn’t want to blow a bunch of hours on this. I will also look at a malware monitoring tool for my VPS.