dr_phil_physics | Entries tagged with complaints

I don't spend a lot of time following the stock market.

Though I suspect that between NPR news and Marketplace, plus some newspaper columns by the Motley Fool and our NPR station's Saturday line up of news humor shows, I do better than most.

So I was amused to discover that Wall Street just pooped a nice Christmas present on itself, with the Dow closing above 18,000 for the first time.

18,024.17 to be exact.

Googling "dow jones" provided the following screenshot:

Wikipedia has updated its entry on the DJIA:

On May 3, 2013, the Dow surpassed the 15,000 mark for the first time, while later on November 18, it closed above the 16,000 level.[28] Following a strong jobs report on July 3, 2014, the Dow traded above the 17,000 mark for the first time.[29] On 23 December 2014 the Dow Jones industrial average traded above 18,000 for the first time after data showed the U.S. economy posted its strongest growth in more than a decade.

Okay, reality check. Yes, I know that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is NOT the stock market, it isn't very industrial any more, it's an indexed average of a changing basket of stocks and it isn't the only index on Wall Street.

But it's famous. People quote it. It's important in that sense.

Okay, this is where it gets weird. Because just last Thursday we were talking to our financial guy, and I asked, was the Dow still over 16,000? And back on the Fourth of July I wrote:

Huh.

Just yesterday morning we were talking to our financial guy, and he made a comment about the Dow. And I pointed out I haven't been following it in a while -- was it still over 16,000?

Well, NPR just reported that yesterday's pre-holiday session had the Dow Jones Industrial Average exceed 17,000 for the first time.

I told you I didn't follow the stock market closely.

Following that pre-holiday theme, we had the week before Thanksgiving 2013:

So on Thursday I posted the following observation on Facebook:

4pm news lead stories: CNBC -- DJIA closes above 16,000 for first time. MSNBC -- the nuclear option in the Senate. FOX News -- McDonald's drops McRib from nation menu, many protest, is Michelle Obama to blame?
Well, you can't say all the news is the same... Dr. Phil

A little over four years ago I noted when "the stock market", i.e. the Dow Jones Industrial Average, broke 10,000+ (DW) for the first time in the recession. At the time I wrote:

Wednesday (14 October 2009) the NYSE surged above 10,000 again and stayed there. Happy days are here again. The Recession's back has been broken. We are on the path to recovery. Well, aren't we?

To some extent, I think the same sarcasm is due.

I missed the May 2013 breaking the 15,000 barrier, probably because I was in the hospital, having just got out of the ICU.

Yay. We're above 18,000. The Dow has jumped 3000 points just since I've been dealing with my heel.

But, as the Dow grows, a 1000 point gain ain't what it used to be. I was in junior high in White Plains NY, just north of New York City when it first topped 1000 points total. It's a matter of diminishing percentages, those thousand point records.

One of the reasons that I am not greatly excited about this, even as I note the historical value, is that it's a game. Sure, business needs investment money. And the value of a stock gives a gauge as to the health and wealth of a company. But past that... Most of the money made on Wall Street is a masturbatory fantasy game that Wall Street does to make Wall Street money. And an avenue for outsiders to come in and "invest" in a company by buying it up and changing that which had given it value in the first place. Chasing the tail of stock prices has fueled most of this raging drive towards short term gain at the expense of long term legacy and long term employment.

It has changed America in so many ways, and not all of them positive. For good or ill, many of our pensions are still tied into this game. And in the long term, it's a money maker. Mostly. But we don't retire in the long term, we're each on different countdown clocks. A lot of people were hurt when Wall Street screwed up the last time. And they're in the process of trying to get some of the controls enacted after that meltdown removed. Because these practices worked so well the last time.

So whoopee, here I am twirling a finger in the air.

It's just another big deal in a string of big deals.

And yet... I'm sure happier having a surging Wall Street than another market crash. If only some of this optimism and profits would actually trickle down far enough to do some good.

Dr. Phil

An Oh Too Familiar Refrain

I get to the office about 8:40am for my 9am class. The message light on my phone is lit. There is just enough time to check to see what Important Message is in my voice mail box.

Alas & Sigh. The caller wanted to let Dr. Phil know that regarding the twins on heroin, that the mother should lose custody of those children.

Right. We'll get right on that. As soon as I lose my sanity and start hosting a psychology self-help television show. And do a piece on twins on heroin.

Where do these people get this telephone number from? Any place on my university website where I have the number, there's a link about that Other Dr. Phil fellow. You know, the one who knows Oprah and is rich and has a television show where they just did a piece about twins on heroin and their worthless mother?

Anyway, I'm not that guy. Don't call me and leave me a message about the TV show on my Physics Dept. phone voice mail.

And don't be one of those hit-and-run cowards who goes to all the trouble to dig through the Internet to find The Secret Actual Phone Number for Dr. Phil, expresses Extreme Disapproval -- and then doesn't bother to give a name. (evil grin)

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: aggravated

Sigh

I've written about this before, but it happens enough in letters and phone messages, that it bears repeating. I am NOT the Dr. Phil on TV.

I was last in my office on Monday 23 August 2010 and now it's September 1st. Mostly students either don't try to contact me or they use email, so I sometimes forget to check my voicemail while I'm away from the office for a week or ten days. So I get in today and the message light is on and the phone's display says there are two messages. The first was a reminder for something that already happened, no problems there. The second one, though. Sigh.

The Long Ramble Of Paula F.

Paula just wanted to leave me a message about "the show today" and the girl with the eating disorder. Paula wanted me to know that this is a real problem. She then rambled on about some girl she knew. In addition, she had read an "awesome book", for which she provided a proper citation and a page reference to a particular part which she quoted. Finally, she was glad of this opportunity to set the record straight, etc.

(I had to listen to the whole thing, since the voicemail system won't accept the delete command until the message is over -- or else there is a STOP command which I don't know about.)

First, the voicemail system doesn't give you a time stamp, so I don't know which show was "the show today". Second of all, you didn't leave a phone number or email, so not only will no one from the show ever contact you, I won't be able to either and direct you to the right place. Third of all, I am NOT the Dr. Phil on television and never have been. And anywhere you would've gotten my office phone number would have told you that!

Somewhere In North America

Probably in the South, given the ac-cent, there is a nice middle-aged woman feeling smug in the knowledge that she has set the Dr. Phil Show straight and given him/them important information. Too bad her research skills don't go beyond book citations and page references and grabbing phone numbers off the web, to include actually finding the right phone number for that Other Dr. Phil who is on television.

Remember the spotting features -- this Dr. Phil has hair, both on the top of his head and all over his face. And if the web page you've found says that This Is Not The Dr. Phil On Television and has a picture of a hairy fat guy who doesn't look at all like Phil McGraw, believe it. Accept no substitutes -- for either of us!

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: annoyed

Taking Out The Garbage

Last week the temps were in the 30s and 40s. This week the temps are in the 40s and 50s. Indeed, one road thermometer in K-zoo this afternoon was saying 58°F, though I consider it an anomaly. Still, a Grand Rapids billboard at US-131 and 84th Street read 51°F at 5:45pm.

Dragging the garbage can out to the road behind the Blazer's trailer hitch was so different. Last week the driveway was still a thick sheet of ice. This week? It's 85% clear and the last ice sheet, which hides in the shade of the big pine trees, is rotted with deep tire tracks and will melt up fast now that it's broken. I have to tell you, getting the gravel driveway redone with slag was such a great move. It drains really, really well and we don't have any worn low spots or standing water.

That Last Snow

The last serious snow we had began as freezing rain, so the bottom of the snow everywhere has this thick hard base. The interesting result is that vast expanses of snow away from the roadway has remained blazingly white all the way down to the hard base. Looks like thick frosting, rather than the usual sad end-of-the-snow. We had sun nearly all last week and the fields of white made it all even brighter, even with the lower sun angles of early March.

And After A Week Of Nice Weather...

Construction season has erupted in Michigan. Lane closures, road closures... with a major closure of I-196 east of downtown Grand Rapids happening in early April. Lovely. (grin)

And Yet...

M-43 West Main in Kalamazoo had a sea of vehicles and lane closures getting from US-131 to campus. They're stringing up new traffic lights. I'm assuming that they're putting up lightweight plastic housings with LED lamps. Saves a bundle on the energy costs. Unfortunately, they're discovering that since LEDs don't generate heat like incandescent bulbs, snow and ice don't melt off of these new traffic lights. So the brighter LED lights get obscured. And the weight of ice buildups either causes the traffic lights to come crashing down or for big ice chunks to come crashing down. Either way, cars are getting damaged because of the obsession with energy savings over any other criteria. Really? Thanks. Good engineering. Trying to get a job at Toyota?

Reminds me of the obsession with getting rid of those nasty incandescent light bulbs and replacing them with those lousy compact fluorescents. All without spending any more than lip service about the question of mercury. Come on guys! You break one of these CFL bulbs in a work place and it's considered a hazmat operation! Let's outlaw light bulbs BEFORE we address this issue! Good call! (not)

Am I the only person who is rational on this planet? (sigh) Oh wait -- this was supposed to be a nice piece on the nice weather and not a rant.

I really am in a pleasant mood. Really.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: contemplative

Origin Story

The other day while working at home I turned on USA Network and found they were running the J.A.G. episodes which introduced NCIS Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and company, followed by the first two standalone episodes of NCIS. I haven't seen any episodes of J.A.G. in quite a while. Never really watched the series when it was on first run, but ran into it from time to time in reruns. Never quite believed that US Navy JAG lawyers ran around that much, but hey, it's television and with the popularity of Top Gun, having an F-14 Tomcat pilot wandering around was both good P.R. and "good" television sense.

The early NCIS episodes were, of course, a bit raw compared with the current product, but that's to be expected. Quite a lot of interagency intermural nonsense, too, between alphabet national security and police agencies. I'm sure that played well with Hollywood, but they toned that down for the series.

Now if I had problems with J.A.G. as JAG, I'm also quite sure that NCIS isn't an accurate depiction of the real Naval Criminal Investigative Service. But they've got a good quirky cast and a reasonable formula. It's a good buddy team police procedural and we like NCIS well enough, along with the various Law & Order's, the original CSI, Criminal Minds and NUMB3RS.

NCIS Los Angeles

CBS, Tuesday, 9pm

With NCIS a big hit for CBS, and it already being a spin-off, you know they had to try to touch lightning again. Even got two Big Names, or reasonably Big Names, for the cast. Plus the marvelous Linda Hunt. (!) And the obligatory one or two episode crossover with NCIS to introduce NCIS Los Angeles, but even when we started seeing the ads, I kept on seeing NCIS Lite.

My biggest problem, right from the get-go, is these guys aren't acting very professional. Special Agent Gibbs in NCIS may be a hard ass, but the man knows how to produce a badge, and flip it around to show I.D. I'm not sure I've seen the NCIS Lite guys announce they were NCIS Lite special agents or show the NCIS Lite special agent badges once. Or if they did, it sure didn't make an impression. Are we sure this is the same agency? Or are we to believe that L.A. is so casual that federal procedures aren't really necessary, dude?

I'm still watching, mainly because it's on in between NCIS and most excellent The Good Wife. But it's all glitz and sunshine and beaches and casual -- and a tough nut in Linda Hunt -- and it's shabby dressed up with some fashionably sloven glitz. The Law & Order spinoffs kept the grit of New York City. CSI: Miami and CSI: New York not only keep up the running attempt at science, but have a real identity which NCIS Lite has failed to come up with.

You know what I really miss? They got a computer hacker, but they don't really have anyone doing the forensics and they don't have a quirky medical examiner. NCIS Lite is just that -- NCIS plus Lite. It lacks credibility.

Watchable, But Not Noteworthy

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: disappointed

And Away We Go

Wednesday the NYSE surged above 10,000 again and stayed there. Happy days are here again. The Recession's back has been broken. We are on the path to recovery.

Well, aren't we?

Banking -- Ur Not Doing It Rite

Meanwhile on Wednesday I was listening to NPR's Talk of the Nation and they were talking about the problems with the programs and efforts to get mortgages redone to prevent foreclosures. In many cases, the few mortgages that are being rewritten end up with $50/month savings -- rather than the $500-$1000/month needed for relief. Then in some cases the penalties built up from before the rewriting get folded back into the mortgage, resulting in a monthly payment more than it was before. Some re-fi, eh?

Worse, a lot of banks seemed to have hired the paperwork gurus from the health insurance industry, since besides saying "NO" right off the bat, they seem to be unable to hold onto any paperwork. People are reporting having to resend the same information an obscene number of times -- and even the successful rewritten mortgages seem to take up to two-and-a-half years to process. One real estate person in Florida said that in his area the banks were more willing to lose $400,000 of a house's value in a short sale, than lose $200,000 in a rewritten mortgage. It's all part and parcel of the short-term gain mentality which has been steadily ruining this country since the 1980s or so. Worse, it's not all stemming from people with no income getting outrageous homes or people buying McMansions -- there's quite a pool of people who would've qualified for a perfectly ordinary and reasonable mortgage they could've afforded but were steered into or sold with some other mortgage product which came equipped with land mines and balloon payments. Caveat emptor on one hand? Or malfeasance and greed on the other?

If the Fed's interest rate to banks is essentially zero, why are there mortgages charging rates like bad credit cards? None of this financial mess would pass muster in any freshmen Economics class!

In Ohio it was mentioned that this one reporter couldn't confirm that National City (now part of PNC out of Pittsburgh) had been able to rewrite any mortgages. One caller to the program said that a judge had ruled against Wells Fargo and Deutchebank for what sounded like hiding behind a shell game of who owns and who controls the mortgage. So much for Federal programs to provide relief -- as it was six months ago, the people most likely to get help are those who contact either someone in government or a reporter, and get a response from a bank that doesn't want to look bad? Yikes.

Thursday, Goldman Sachs was flying high on massive profit reports -- and the news that they wanted to pay millions in bonuses. Other good financial news? Citi lost less than expected. O happy day.

Uh, Never Mind

Today's stock market? Well, let's say that Bank of America and GE had "disappointing" earning reports -- and the Dow-Jones dropped quickly back below 10,000. There was some sort of nonsense of Bank of America wanting to pay bonuses as they cheerfully lost $2,200,000,000.00. Um, that was decided to be a dumb idea.

We're Still Number One!

In Michigan the unemployment rate rose from 15.2% to 15.3%. We still don't have a budget, even though the state's fiscal year began October 1st -- we're operating on a one month extension. The House and Governor are Democratic, the Senate is Republican. Something like eight of the spending bills have been passed by both houses and reconciled, but the State Senate is holding on to them until the last minute to try to prevent the governor from using her constitutional line item veto.

Yeah, I'm not very happy about some of this stuff. Really.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: disappointed

The Lamest Windows Campaign Ever?

Two weeks ago I ragged on Microsoft's ads for Windows 7 which featured this little girl cutting and pasting blurbs about Windows 7 into pictures with animals. Well, there are now at least three versions of this ad. All have different animal graphics. And all HAVE THE SAME SET OF PRO-WINDOWS 7 BLURBS.

Come on, Microsoft. For crying out loud, your new OS is coming out in just a few weeks. And all you've done for the last few weeks is try to convince me that Windows 7 is a great OS for toddlers. This is your great marketing plan? For this you want me to abandon Windows XP Pro? Dream on.

Fire your advertising company and fire the middle-management layer that approved this crap.

Or are you telling me that Windows 7 is so lame and so flawed, that you can't even figure out how to sell it? After all, you had the silly Windows Mojave (equals Vista) ads where people went gah-gah over computers that didn't even do anything for them.

Do you remember why we bought computers in the first place? I don't know about anyone else, but I do work on them. My work. NOT your work. So you're damned OS better work. But you're not convincing me about this new Windows. Really, you're not.

Those Mac Ads

The Mac & PC ads? Those ads are so kicking Microsoft's butt from one end of the country to another. Even people I know who would never buy a Mac find them funny. And there are a LOT of them. Typically I see about 2 or 3 in rotation at any given time. Like right now, I've seen (1) PC in a Mac guy suit and telling the person to buy a PC instead, (2) the one with the suave Top Of The Line PC who tells the lady to call, "when you're ready to compromise", and (3) the one with the bubble wrap and the cupholders. Cupholders! Not only was that a joke in the hey-day of the minivan and the SUV, but a staple joke of the IT tech support world is about the cupholder (CD tray) in the PC not working right.

Those Other Windows Ads

The campaign about You Find It, We'll Buy It? You know, a lot of people will compromise on what they'll buy if someone is in the parking lot willing to give them cash to buy what they want them to buy. Smooth move. I'd get a Vista laptop if someone else was paying for it. Of course I might put a Virtual PC or VMware on it so I can run Windows XP Professional. Because if it was MY machine after YOU bought it, why I'd be able to run anything I want in order get some work done.

But giving people money to buy your own machines doesn't seem like a sustainable business model.

Me? I'm not very excited about the Windows 7 future.

Sorry.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: cranky

This Message Has Zero Chance Of Working

Phone message from Tuesday 9-22...

The following isn't quite a verbatim transcript because I don't care enough to listen to this message too many more times:

This message is for Phil.
Hello? Hello? There are two kinds of people who call me "Phil" right off the bat. People who really know me. And skunks who've never met me, but are trying to be my best new pal. A lot of people, even close friends and family, call me Dr. Phil. The hooey meter is quivering around 10 already.
My name is Mark Sitsema.
Who? The last name was said quickly and only once, so it's just a guess. Right. Like I am just supposed to know? Or are you hiding something?
It probably won't ring a bell.
Okay, so you're saying you would be in the category of people calling me "Phil" who have no idea who I am. Which means you should've spelled your name for me. I take notes.
But your name was referred to me.
Really? By whom?
I am a business owner in Grand Rapids.
Um, you're not telling me who referred my name? That's odd.
So -- what's the name of your business?
And I'm looking to open some new offices in the area.
Um, you're not telling me what the name of your business is. But it needs more offices in the area? What are you selling, cell phone plans? Investment securities? Fajitas?
I don't know if you're keeping your career options open.
Right... because you really don't know me at all. And I don't think I ever talk about "career options". And if I did, it would start involving a B.A. in Integrated Sciences, an M.S. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics. Just sayin'.
But if you are keeping your career options open.
And if I was keeping my career options open, you're now going to tell me what this is about, because I am not getting any love for this phone message.
If you could call my business partner Stacy at 616-8xx-6xx3
Stacy? Stacy? Oh... STACY! Never heard of Stacy. Such a good business partner, Stacy doesn't even have a last name. Sounds like an employee, not a partner. Oh, and love how well you're telling me what your business is -- I am just champing at the bit to find out... not.
She can provide some additional information for what we're looking for.
This is sounding so much like a boiler room operation at this point -- I cannot tell you how excited I am about dialing this number and talking to Stacy to find out if SHE KNOWS WHAT THE FUCKING SCAM IS AT THIS POINT.
That's Stacy at 616-8xx-6xx3.
Oh good phone skills. You repeat Stacy NoLastName and the Magic Phone Number. AND YOU STILL DON'T TELL ME WHAT THE FUCKING CAREER OPTION IS AT THIS POINT.

And I've Just Outed Your Poor Business Skilz

Mark Sitsema, or whatever your name is -- your phone message was lame, lame, lame. And you really don't know me if you thought this would pique my interest.

No. It doesn't.

But with a healthy dash of snark, I feel much better now.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: pissed off

10-22-2009: The End Of The World Is Coming

Microsoft is getting ready to release Windows 7 to the world. Windows 7? Really? Actually, I know it's Windows NT4, NT5 (2000), NT5.1 (XP), NT5.1 (6) (Vista)... so obviously WIndows 7 comes after NT, 2000, XP and Vista. What?

But the marketing campaign... shakes head. The latest commercial with some six-year-old "on Daddy's laptop" cutting and pasting preliminary Windows 7 reviews into shots of marshmallows, bunnies and hamsters with skimmer hats. Right... I am surely going to believe someone who cannot read the big words properly. I'd rather have, what did they do? Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates stealing a stuffed giraffe to sell Vista? Geesh.

We've Been Through This Before

It's actually possible to fix Windows. XP Pro SP2/SP3 is pretty stable, for example, and its library of printer drivers is a helluva lot more successful than the Vista driver situation. Not that we'd ever want to actually ever print any of the work on OUR computers. Using hardware we actually ALREADY OWN.

But seriously.

WIndows 1.04 shipped with some IBM PS/2 systems -- and was worthless and useless.

There was Windows 286 versus Windows 386... and then Windows 3.0, which really didn't work right and had early Word and Excel for Windows which didn't work right. Windows 3.1 and 3.11 -- they actually performed good enough that Windows actually began showing up on machines.

Windows 95 made a better interface and allowed easier windowing and task switching. Of course it was supposed to work with USB, and Windows 95B OSR2 had USB drivers -- which didn't work with most USB devices without crashing or ignoring the USB hardware.

Windows 98 fixed the USB problems and... oh crap, Win98 had enough problems they had to come out with Windows 98 Second Edition. Which actually works. Then they upgraded it to Windows Me Millennium Edition and the shit really hit the fan. Not a good upgrade, though some computers equipped with Win98ME work okay -- hell, I have a Sony laptop with Win98ME I still use, go figure.

Meanwhile, in the NT parallel universe, NT 3.51 was functional, but NT 4.0 Professional was much better. Service Pack 6a was good enough that SP7 was cancelled.

Windows NT 5 became Windows 2000 Professional and shipped with thousands of bugs. But it's up to what, SP4? SP5? And some IT departments still use it because they've made it stable.

And XP. Once we got to Windows XP SP2, it was worth using. Even Win XP Home SP3 on netbooks seems to work. The same, I fear, cannot be said for all users of Windows Vista, which has so many damned versions no one can quite keep them all straight.

Bottom Line

So you want us to think that Windows 7 is the greatest thing since sliced bread, because you say so?

I don't think so.

Call me in 2012 when you've got Win 7 SP2/SP3 going. Meanwhile, stop with this nonsense of planning to kill Windows XP too soon. Really.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: pissed off

233

Weather's been cool all week -- highs in the 60s and 70s. Today the gray clouds scattered for a while and the sun shot us up to 81degF, but the clouds came back. Decided to skip the Allendale fireworks.

Gas dropped down to $2.48.9 over the last couple of weeks, then shot up 21 cents a gallon about Wednesday and dropped about a nickel to $2.63.9/gal by Friday. What crisis could make the prices jump up so fast? Oh, it's Dr. Phil's New Theory of Holiday Gouging -- big jump followed by a small drop for the weekend to make you think that They Care. What, me cynical? (grin)

Went out in the middle of the day to see a movie, eat some popcorn. I-96 construction over the Grand River is done, opening up the lanes, no problems with the drive. Then came home and did the old family BBQ bologna recipe. Still having strawberries around here, so strawberry shortcake with whipped cream and topped with a couple of frozen blueberries from last year -- red, white & blue!

My late night July TV viewing is set -- the 96th Tour de France began today. Everyone is talking about the unretirement of Brett Favre, er, Lance Armstrong, who looked very strong today in Monaco. Versus channel on cable has developed a decent Tour broadcast team, they have excellent video feeds and take the time to explain what is going on.

And now the various mouth breathing morons who live anywhere near us are firing their illegal-in-the-State-of-Michigan big booming and high flying fireworks. Of course, they started testing them about three or four nights ago.

Ah, Happy Fourth of July... hope you enjoyed yours.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: happy

I'll Be Good

And I won't bug John about something involving bacon. Why do I want to be just of those annoying people who sends him e-mails about everything bacon related? Besides, since I put his name in the Subject line, he'll probably find it anyways. (grin)

Father's Day Is Coming

Stromboli's, an excellent local Allendale restaurant, is advertising their Father's Day buffet.

It's Manly Food I tell you!

Stay for lunch and get bacon ice cream for dessert!

Besides the current American food habit of putting bacon in or on everything, bacon ice cream doesn't sound like the biggest travesty in history. Indeed, I'm sure I've seen something like this -- or worse -- on any number of the food competition shows from Iron Chef to Top Chef. I'd make sure the bacon was nicely cooked in plenty of maple syrup myself, if I were making bacon (maple) ice cream. (grin)

Along The Highways And Back Roads Of West Michigan

During the winter I refer to US-131 from 76th Street in Grand Rapids south into Allegan County as the Allegan Skating Rink. Particularly treacherous is the grade from 84th Street to the county line and on to Exits 68 Dorr and 64 Wayland. Between 6 and 6:30am lots of cars and trucks end up in the ditch. Well, maybe not so much anymore, as they are installing a steel wire barricade.

Nowhere To Go now.

I haven't decided if keeping the Wrecks On Ice show on the shoulder and potentially blocking the traffic lanes is a good thing or a bad thing. Cars running hip deep in snow don't always take that much damage over hitting guardrails and steel cables, but sliding across the median into oncoming traffic? That's never a good thing.

Meanwhile the other morning I spotted a wild turkey ambling by the side of the road on 84th Avenue, about three-quarters of a mile from our house. As it slipped back into the tall grass, I slowed because, like deer, you often see more than one turkey and you don't want to hit them. Yesterday morning a car at M-45 and 92nd Avenue hit a turkey at speed and ended up damaged on the side of the road. Anyway, I stopped and took this quick picture of the wild turkey chicks at the edge of the grass, running and peeping.

After I took this picture I saw Mom glaring at me just to the left of this frame in the deep grass.

( Update to the Placid Waters development after the cut. )
And that's the doings here in West Michigan. Oh, and if John comes by -- aren't you glad I didn't clog up your inbox with desperate messages about OMG THERE'S BACON ICE CREAM NEXT SUNDAY? Though if you did show up for Father's Day in Allendale, I'd buy you a bowl. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Arrive At Office, Voicemail Light Is On

Dial voicemail, then access code. First message.

The first (and only message) is from someone who mumbles their first name. Then gives their phone number. "I don't have access to the Internet. But I need the phone number of the real Dr. Phil."

Okay, let's remind you here, Sparky. I AM a real Dr. Phil.

Now, I will concede that there are other Dr. Phils out there, and one other Dr. Phil in particular of whom I believe you are speaking. But there is not a Dr. Phil Club where we have super sekrit meetings and trade phone numbers. I certainly don't have TV Phil's phone number, and anyway, it isn't my business to enable you to contact so-called entertainment/psychology shows.

What is strange is that you claim you don't have access to the Internet. Then how did you get my office phone number at Western Michigan University? I checked -- and area code 306, the one given in the voice mail, is in Saskatchewan CANADA. WTF?

No, really.

What you really need to do is go to your public library and get some help from a reference librarian. At the very least, they'll be able to pull up the Dr. Phil Show FAQ page and discover they don't have a direct phone line to Dr. Phil either.

I swear, someone must be making money given people my office contact information and swearing that I can get them in touch with "the real Dr. Phil".

Sigh.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: cranky

Never Rest, Never Surrender

If people weren't bastards, then one wouldn't have nearly as much pressure to upgrade software on computers. And one of the things which really annoys me is having to patch the OS, update anti-virus and upgrade firewalls -- none of which actually DO anything except run the computer and, hopefully, keep it safe. What a waste of time, all because a bunch of idiots have some misguided notion that they have a right to access my machines, mess with my data, steal my information, have demand rights on what little moneys that I have. Sonsofbitches.

ZoneAlarm

For the last several weeks, the Norton Anti-Virus on the Sony VAIO S270P laptop has wanted to give me a free copy of NAV 2009. Thing of it is, I installed NAV 2009 on the Fujitsu U810 and it was ugly. Basically the version on the install CD-ROM couldn't update itself and I had to download the updater from Symantec. Anyway, Symantec hates ZoneAlarm, so before I got around to do anything, I downloaded and installed the latest version of ZoneAlarm. Version 8 is leaner than Version 7, and claims to run faster. Hopefully it maintains itself as a decent firewall, because that's why I'm installing it.

NAV 2009 -- NOT

Pulled up the message saying they wanted to upgrade NAV to NAV 2009. Clicked on the link for More Information. Naturally it fired up my default browser, which of course is not Internet Explorer, and hung. I'd anticipated that, fired up IE, pasted in the URL and waited. And waited. Don't know what the problem was, maybe too many people were running the Symantec servers on a Sunday afternoon, but there's no way I'm going to do a huge download over the net if they cannot even load an informational web page.

Sorry Symantec. Fail today.

MathType 6.5

I've been using MathType 3.1, the full version of the Equation Editor used in Microsoft Word, for a long time. MathType 3.1, however, only runs for me on Windows 95, 98SE and NT4. I have a copy of MathType 5 for another machine, but I've been meaning to get a current version and hope that it works with my old MathType 3.1 equations in my Word 95 documents. I shouldn't have worried so much. Double-clicking on an equation in an existing file fired up the new MathType just fine. And now my Windows XP Pro machines will have proper equation editing, which makes my life a lot easier.

So... two out of three software upgrades went fine as they should. I suppose I should be grateful for 2-out-of-3. And to be honest, it was the FYI webpage at Symantec which failed to load -- I never got as far as upgrading NAV itself. Later on that one.

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Those Who Lie In Wait, Dream Deep

Entries tagged with complaints

18,000

More Clueless People

Oh Those Brilliant And Well Read TV Show Viewers

What A Difference A Week Makes

NCIS Lite

10,000+ !

Microsoft -- You Need To Convince A Lot Of People

A Really Poor Cold Call

Redmond, We Don't Believe You

A Simple Fourth Of July

Hey John Scalzi! Look At This! Bacon Ice Cream!

Another Who Is Unclear On The Process

Two For Three In Software Upgrades