General Musings

When it comes to spreadsheets, word processors, and general office software I hate change.

I remember using one of the very best Word Processor’s ever written SpeedScript for the Commodore 64 and wondering how anyone was ever going to top that simplistic gem written by Compute! Magazine contributor Charles Brannon. I remember literally typing in the code from the magazine to create the software. Ah, those were the days.

We’ve come a long way since then. I use half a dozen different programs for different purposes. Word processors, manuscript writers, concept writers, etc.

Office 2010 is a major jump for anyone who uses Office 2003. Let’s face it; we’re talking a seven year gap.

I remember using Office 2007 and becoming frustrated by the new menu system.

I did some catching up last night by taking a few online courses and we’ll see how it goes.

Update: Our offices are now entirely upgraded to Office 2010. I think that once you get used to the “ribbon” and where they’ve moved everything, its not a bad upgrade. At least I no longer get errors when I try to open any Office document.

For reasons unknown to me, Word Press is not allowing me to delete widgets or even just make them inactive from the sidebar.

It just sits there and gives me a spinning wheel of nothing.

Why is it that every time these people make a change they seem to break the basic functionality of Word Press itself?

Enhancements are great but not at the expense of basic functionality.

I will have to step away from WP before I break something…

…else.

Update: Re-installing Word Press fixed the issue. I’ve since moved to another host and everything is still working. Yah!

Last night as we were taping The Delivery with Jimmie Bise on UStream, it hit us.

The Republicans “Pledge to America” did little more than support “big ink” because most of the document is a complete waste of time and of course, ink.

I’ll be writing about this in depth in the next few days but wanted to warn you first.

The british man who recently bought the Segway company has died by the same.

via Reuters…

(Reuters) – The British millionaire businessman who owns the firm Segway has been found dead at the bottom of a cliff with one of the two-wheeled electric scooters near his body, police said on Monday.

Very weird way to go.

After about 3 years or so I have finally decided to turn on my cell phone’s voicemail feature.

Anyone trying to call that particular phone for the last few years will be able to attest to the fact that you have not been able to leave me a message because I didn’t set the mailbox up.

Well, now you can.

So, please don’t.

This bi-polar moment brought to you by the Are To Are Not Foundation.

For those of you waiting for the Hobbit movies to come out will just have to wait longer.

Now, according to the BBC we have union troubles.

Those contracts “provide no minimum guarantees of wages or working conditions”, no payment for future broadcasts and no cancellation payments, they said.

“The International Federation of Actors… resolved that the time had come for performers around the world to support their colleagues in New Zealand and seek a union contract for all performers on The Hobbit,” a statement said.

The FIA said producers have argued that entering into an agreement with the union would break New Zealand competition laws.

getthebigpicture.net points out the top three reasons why this movie can’t seem to get started.

– Guillermo del Toro leaving as director (granted, Peter Jackson stepped in, but a director leaving is a director leaving)
– MGM’s financial woes
– The film still not being greenlit by New-Line and MGM

In any event, those of you waiting to see The Hobbit will just have to wait longer.

via Wired…

1960: USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched in Newport News, Virginia. CVN-65, nicknamed Big E, was the first carrier of its kind, powered solely by its eight nuclear reactors.

With nuclear power to propel it, the Enterprise does not need to carry its own fuel oil and has more room for aircraft and weapons. It routinely carries 70 to 90 planes. The ship measures in at 1,120 feet (about 100 feet longer than the USS Saratoga), with a 250-foot-wide flight deck and 93,970 tons displacement. It relies on a crew of 5,700.

All this came with a price: around $451.3 million (equivalent to $3.3 billion in today’s money), according to Jane’s American Fighting Ships of the 20th Century. The Enterprise came in well over budget and ended up being the only ship in its class. Five other planned ships were not constructed.

According to Wikipedia, the Enterprise is scheduled for decommissioning in 2013.

Yes, it is still on active duty.

So much for unlimited bandwidth on your cell phone.

via Reuters…

It’s the beginning of the end for unlimited data plans on smart phones. Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile carrier, plans to stop selling unlimited data plans to new customers and instead introduce two service plans with monthly data caps.

They had to see this coming.

If you read the entire article, the author never raises the question of whether or not the carrier needs to drastically upgrade their equipment to handle the extra phones, instead they decide to limit users access to the system.

Carriers have long insisted that their top bandwidth users are at the upper 5% of the spectrum. Sound familiar? The top 5% of wage earners should pay most of the taxes type of thing. Well, in this new scenario the top 5% of the bandwidth users will be paying for the bandwidth.

That is all well and good but it doesn’t address the root problem of poor infrastructure. In a way, the carrier will argue that setting limits will alleviate infrastructure issues and in the short term they will be correct. Unfortunately, people are not going to stop buying smart phones and in fact, they will most likely buy even more.

Without the infrastructure upgrades, this problem will happen again.

Treating the symptoms and not treating the disease; that is all this is.

I wonder if these two stories a could be related?

Hmmm.

Location: Take That Media, LLC main office outside of Lancaster, PA.

The mountain bike brings home a smashing victory!

Literally.

The table was picked up by the storm and landed square on top of the bike which in turn, smashed it.

The chain was knocked off. The kick stand was pushed forward.

Other than that, everything else looks fine.

…Geek Brief?

I saw the new Revision 3 show with Cali Lewis and subscribed to it without thinking too much of it.

I just watched her latest show and noticed her wedding ring was missing.

I Googled it.

This is what I found.

Sad.