Tralfaz

Category: annoyances

  • When being a nice guy backfires: Traffic edition

    I have an easy commute. A hair over 7.5 miles straight up a surface street, never too bad traffic. I am never in a hurry (well, very rarely), so I am often willing to let someone in who is leaving a driveway.

    But today I goofed. I waved some lady who was trying to get out of a gas station. I figured she wanted to just merge into traffic. BZZT

    She took my opening, then proceeded in slowly obstructing ALL traffic to get to the left turn lane. Sigh.

    So I, and several other (justifiably pissed off) people missed the green light while this tool stopped traffic to get to the left turn lane.

    When I am in a similar situation, I :

    • Take a deep breath. Really, it isn’t the end of the world.
    • Merge into traffic, but look for the next convenient (and safe) place to make a U turn.
    • And get to where I want to go a minute or two later.

    What I don’t do is obstruct 3 lanes of traffic, hanging in limbo, just to “make” that next left turn. Sheesh.

  • Bad dog owners

    Owning a dog comes with certain responsibilities. Most people have a good grasp of these responsibilities. Keeping them licensed (if required), getting their rabies vaccination, keeping them healthy, feed them quality food, the usual items.

    Not here fidoBut increasingly I see lots of evidence of bad dog owners. I talk about dog feces left in the landscaping of the neighborhood. There are laws, there are signs posting that it is both illegal and a health hazard to not clean up after your dogs.

    But still, every time I am out with my dogs, I see lots of evidence of bad dog owners. Piles everywhere. There are definitely some places where people repeatedly let their dog do their business (as there are literally dozens of identically sized piles).

    The frustrating thing is that our neighborhood has plenty of stations that dispense baggies, and have receptacles for the bagged waste, and they are emptied regularly by the landscaping maintenance gnomes. Still people feel no shame in letting their pooches poop wherever they happen to be.

    And walking the neighborhood, I see lots of people who have let their dogs deposit their waste in people’s yards. It is bad enough that they don’t feel compelled to pick it up int he common area landscaping, but for f*cks sake, don’t just leave it when your best friend bends a biscuit on someones yard. Do they not get upset when they see dog waste in their yard?

    Sheesh.

  • Shame on Agilebits and 1Password

    I have been a hearty and enthusiastic user and advocate of 1Password. It is an awesome bit of software that greatly improves the security and experience using the internet. A password store, one of its strengths was the cross platform package, and the plugins and apps for your phone. I used it on my macs and my work PC, using dropbox to keep it all synchronized everywhere I was at.

    For $40, to get the windows and Mac package, it was well worth the money.

    Alas, the Agilebits folks have gone greedy. The version on the Mac went from version 3 to 4. A paid upgrade. Not a huge deal, I don’t mind an upgrade fee to keep software current, and up to date. But this upgrade broke the PC side. Suddenly my dropbox data store was jacked. And the plugin for version 4 on the mac just plain crashes on the PC.

    Once you upgrade your database to version 4, the PC version can still read it, but it seems to not be able to add new login credentials. Boo. And you have to jump through hoops on the Chrome browser, because it will try to load the version 4 plugin, which is NOT supported on the PC.

    The support forums claim that they are furiously working on the PC upgrade, but it will be another paid upgrade. So instead of upgrading both packages for one fee, I am going to get to pay twice for it.

    And then I found that my app for my iPhone no longer can access my logins. How much for the new version? A shocking $17.99. Really?  I have bought both the iPhone and iPad app in the past.  I could see a buck or two, but eighteen bucks?  Fuck me.

    Alas, there really isn’t a competitor.  Yes, I could go the keepass route, and have a largely manual but secure repository of logins. But there is no good way to export my 1Password data into it. And with over 600 logins recorded, I am not going to do that by hand.

    I get that it costs money to develop and improve the package, that the testing and maintenance of the browser plugins is a complex task. But the current path you are on is close to alienating an early user, who has probably referred 20 people who bought your package. You really need to think about your pricing for upgrades, and your customer loyalty.

  • The hand update

    I have been battling with what I originally thought was an injured thumb. A couple weeks ago, I went to my GP, and alas, the tendons seem fine, but the x-rays show that there is a bone spur, and what is likely the beginning of arthritis. Groan. Heavy anti inflammatories and a brace to immobilize the thumb.

    A week later, the brace was not helping (if anything, it was beginning to damage the nerves, numbing my thumb). So I call a hand specialist.

    FFS, what is it with these specialists? They are all booked through November. I can get in on Oct 28th to see a PA.  Sigh. I guess I will take it.

    It still hurts (even with 800mg ibuprofen twice a day), cycling is not good for it (but it isn’t going to stop me), and it hurts to play guitar. Sigh, getting old sucks.

  • Travel bullshit

    (well, poopies.  This is post # 300)

    I travel a lot for work. (well, usually, when we don’t have restrictions).

    This morning, I was taking the early flight, PHX to SJC, easy 1:40 hop, but I had a day chocked full of meetings, so I took the 6:25 flight. Ugh.

    That means I needed to wake up about 3:30 and get my butt out the door.  Ok.

    I get my pastry and starbucks coffee, and sit in the gate for SW flight 277. About 6:05 they announce that the flight is canceled. “Mechanical” is the proffered reason.

    The real reason was that there were only about 20 people on the flight, and they decided to not send the plane to save money, so I had to rebook, and hoof it to a different terminal, catch a flight to San Diego (that connected to SJC) and get in an hour later. My first meeting of the day was canceled.

    Airlines: I understand that you are all trying to remain profitable. That means that sometimes you have to cancel flights that cost too much to run for too few people. Just don’t fucking tell us “mechanical” issues. Like Michael Corleone said to his brother in law Rizzo at the end of Godfather one, “Don’t insult my intelligence”. Man up and tell the truth.

    As someone who often got caught in PHX after UAL canceled their last flights to Tucson, I am well aware of the process. It still sucks.

  • Long term, low level injury

    One of the joys of getting older is that I no longer bounce back from even minor injuries. Case in point:

    About a month or a month and a half ago, I jammed my left thumb. I don’t remember what I did, just that it hurt like hell and was tender for a few days. Usually, these things pass, and in a week or so, you forget that you ever did it.

    However this time, it didn’t quite go that way. It still hurts when I grip with my left hand. Like holding a beer bottle is a struggle (oh noes!!!!!). I can’t use my left thumb to dispense soft soap at the washbasin. I can’t open jars (can’t grib the jar with my left hand).

    Cycling is hard, as you need to grip to be somewhat safe and efficient.

    So, off to the doctor. Probably a referral to a orthopedist, and X-Rays to ensure that I didn’t break anything.

    But really, I just want my left hand to work right again.

  • IT upgrade or is it really a downgrade…

    Last friday night we had one of those upgrade events. Supposedly to improve our broadband connection, and improve the experience of using both the internet and the internal network.

    I have to say it is a resounding failure. Sending 750 MB of data to a server in Colorado Springs (intranetwork), has taken 45 minutes, and is still only 75% complete. It used to be faster.

    Guess I will have to submit a helpdesk ticket. (FWIW, it would be faster to drive home, VPN in, and transfer this data from my home network connection).

  • The crazies are back – bad drivers

    My commute is a nice sedate 7.5 miles up a major street.  No freeways, no HOV lanes. A couple of schools so you get the dropoff madness, but in general it is a smooth trip. Heck, if you time it right, you can miss almost all the red lights on the way in.

    Lately, the traffic load has gone up. Significantly. Not sure whether it is the seasonal uptick (the snow birds slowly making their trek back to the sunbelt), or just something in the water, but at my usual time, it has been heavy enough that traffic doesn’t flow at or slightly above the posted speed limit.

    Well, living in Arizona, where compensation is all around (re: truck vs. penis) I am seeing a lot of aggressive, stupid driving. Cutting in and out of traffic lanes. Passing one car and immediately cutting it off. Squeezing between a gap that barely fits your vehicle. All to go maybe 2 mph faster in aggregate.

    You are still going to have to stop at the next light. Or, if you run it (blushing) you will be waiting at the next light when I catch up to you.

    Of course, this increases the likelihood of an accident, and alas, today I was rewarded with an extra 20 minutes to get by some idiot who tried to turn left in front of a Suburban. Minivan vs Suburban = unhappy commuters.

    I am just going to the office.  I am never in a hurry. And I am watching for the zany antics. The Chandler po-po could fill the coffers ticketing these idiots.

  • Really? That’s your advice?

    I have been battling with my HP work laptop for what seems like since the day I joined my company.

    Lately, it has gone through a few system boards, and a handful of tech visits.

    Nothing has been able to fix the latest issue.

    If I hibernate the system and undock it, when I go to spin it back up, about 50% of the time I go straight to a bluescreen.

    If I sleep the system, it goes into zombie mode (it never powers off, the HD spins and continues access, until the battery dies. Only way to recover is to force power off – 5 seconds holding the power button).

    The latest advice? Update the bios (done), re-install the video drivers (done more than twice), and I might have too little disk space left (I have about 180G).

    ARGH, throw this POS away already.

  • “That House” – every neighborhood has one

    You know what I am talking about. The house with the smoker who only smokes outdoors. It seems to always be a man, perhaps his wife doesn’t smoke, and makes him go outside, or perhaps he is just considerate of his family. Or maybe they are worried about selling their house later. Whatever, they smoke out doors.

    Of course it is obvious which house has this person living at it. There are cigarette butts everywhere. Perhaps over their back wall, or on their side yard. Or in the street in front of their house. One thing these people never seem to do is to properly dispose of their refuse.

    Is it so hard to have a bucket of sand to drop your butts into, and to empty once a week?  Apparently so.