Category Archives: Blog
OSX Lion/iCloud
I’m usually pretty happy with Mac products, but I recently had a spate of icky happenings with upgrades. First, my mac, happily running Snow Lepord for nearly three years, started to complain that it couldn’t keep my contacts and stuff in sync any more, since the mobile me was being replaced by iCloud. I’ve been using mobile me for the gallery stuff for a while, and the synchronization of calendar and contacts with my iPad has been going along OK for over a year. It was, frankly, not easy to get things going with gmail as my hub, but, things were working.
After seeing the great TV ads showing the iCloud synchronizing iPads, iPhones, and apparently desktops, I finally succumbed and forked over $29.
Laptop blues
Anyway, my laptop started to complain about the pending end of the world if I didn’t upgrade to Lion. So, I did. What a pain. It took HOURS to download, update, and reconfigure my system, and now, the system is slow. The speed deficit is no doubt due to the new “features” that attempt to re-open every application that was open each time you start your mac, as well as re-open every web site that was open when you shut down Safari. It took a couple of days to sort that one out and find the controls to stop this behavior from happening. 
I don’t know about you, but I often have dozens of web pages open, and I usually don’t want to reopen every page at once when I return. In fact, I close the browser periodically just to shut the pages. I was able to stop that (unless your have to force your browser shut because it got stuck, in which case, safari will try to reopen all the windows that were open when you forced it to be closed — a STUPID DEFAULT BEHAVIOR — when I have to force shut an application that’s misbehaving, I don’t want the application to try to return to what it was doing, I want it to just shut and start anew). But, I digress.
I also discovered that the browser features a feature in which it intentionally refreshes pages periodically. This has the effect of requesting page data over and over again. If you have dozens of windows open, this can be a performance pig. If you are doing software development, you may not WANT a window to refresh, hard to debug if it won’t stay put. I found a how-to article here that helped me work around that code oddity.
In addition, apparently the desktop OS is now kept busy doing indexing and version control, because things like opening a folder can take a VERY LONG TIME. Opening a folder to attach a file can take over a minute. I’ve seen my browser crash while waiting for the downloads folder to open to attach a document. I’m very disappointed.
The two-minute window
It took nearly two minutes to open this windows as I was writing this article, and then only did it because I typed in “s” to start the search.
iPad troubles
On the day that iPad 3 came out, I had a wonderful pair of popup announcements appear when I opened Keynote and Pages on my iPad: “New software update available, you are not on iCloud, all your documents have been removed from this iPad, don’t worry, they are backed up on iCloud”. I had just arrived in class, ready to take down lecture notes, when I discovered that all of my class notes and presentations were GONE. They were not ANYWHERE. Our professors let us download lecture slides for note-taking.
Note: This nifty picture of iCloud at work IS A BROWSER WINDOW, folks!
I had to scramble to download new copies of everything, and was afraid I’d lost a year of course notes in a blink. What was maddening is that I had been using iCloud on my iPad for quite a while. The “update” message was simply wrong. I had to wait until I got home and spent a nail-biting two hours as I waited for the iPad to upgrade to iOS 5. whatever, and Keynote and Pages to update, and FINALLY, for my course notes to reappear. That was really annoying. If I had been counting on the iPad to hold a critical presentation for that afternoon, I would have been out of luck. I know now never to schedule presentations for days that coincide with Mac product announcements.
iCloud
What really fries me is that I fell for the hype on iCloud regarding keeping everything in sync between your iPad, iPhone, and desktop. All the advertising on TV showed the magical appearance of photos and documents on a desktop machine as people merrily created or purchased them on their iPhone or iPad. That was pretty cool looking. The iPad versions of Keynote and Pages were pretty functional, but the iCloud integration with OSX Snow Leopard was just not there. I had to email myself documents, or hobble my way through a webdav service that allowed me to export/import files from places like Dropbox.
SOO, does OSX Lion do the iCloud sync with my desktop the way it does on TV?
NO! NO! It only LOOKs like it does on TV because it uses a BROWSER to access the iCloud. You STILL have to export/import/email documents from your iPad to your desktop.
I’m out $29, my laptop is slower than ever before, and I am still recovering from adrenaline overdose caused by the in-class loss of class notes.
Unhappy camper.
Monkees lead singer dead at 66
Sad to see this guy go. Davy Jones, 66, was in your face a lot if you were a kid growing up in the 60s. (See Monkees lead singer dead at 66.) The Monkees were not in my top 10 as a kid, but I did hear a lot of them growing up. They made lip syncing an art form, and personified the faux boy-bands at the time. They were self-spoofs, and Michael Nesmith was a true talent (Elephant Parts, anyone?) The other guys were too, and Davy Jones was the heart throb of many I knew. I do regret not bothering to keep the original vinyl LPs my sister bought. (I did have a vinyl MONO Sergent Pepper’s album that I threw across the floor in Mr Shell’s music class in 7th grade accidentally, and which forever skipped in the midst of “When I’m 64.”) But I digress.
Get out your old VHS tape of Head, play it backwards, and remember The Monkees, Frank Zappa, Cher, Mott the Hoople, Carpenters, The Osmonds, and all the other bands that added some color to the 60s by either not taking themselves too seriously, or by taking themselves very seriously. Spinal Tap too!
The A to Zen of teeth cleaning
Dalai Lama A to Zen of Life
This poster was on my dentist’s ceiling, I read it at is as I had my teeth cleaned yesterday. Not much else to do at times like that. The writings contain some of the best tips on living a peaceful, happy, giving, and loving existence. Each phrase reminds me of the way my best friend lives every day — without the need of a poster. Having your teeth cleaned gives you a few moments to just lay back, stare, and think about life, and how good things really are.
The experience was only slightly marred by the poster for Hangover II that was inexplicably on the ceiling next to it.
I just grinned and thought, as the Dalai Lama says,
“Sit quietly, do nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”
“Especially if you don’t remember to floss,” said my dental hygienist! 
Tutorial about converting html table to css
This article gives an interesting tutorial “how-to” on converting html <table> tags to <div> based css classes. This can speed up page load and improve SEO rankings by reducing the ratio of html tags to content.
How to convert your HTML tables to CSS.
I’m going to play around with this and see if it works to teach me. The site also sells a tool to do this.
Component analysis of Bach prelude
Here is a cool video/animation that my stepson Dan Chitwood did of a Bach prelude with R PCA graphs.
This took 24 hours of work using software to create the graphs, then prepare the animation.
Geese And Their Poop A Messy Situation At CSU Stanislaus
Sometimes school stinks. Literally! From CBS Sacramento, a story about my school! The geese also chase, grab toes, and have been known to, well, “goose” students.
Geese will be geese?
Geese And Their Poop A Messy Situation At CSU Stanislaus « CBS Sacramento.
Convert your Prius into a generator
This site has information on hoe to adapt your Prius to work as a generator.
Wood hauling, another use for a Prius?
Prius hack — turn off annoying backup beeps
Found a tip in Wired magazine, Feb 2012 issue, page 58 that allows you to turn off the Toyota Prius backup beep. This is said to work for 2004-2009 Priuses*.
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- Normal Odometer Display (your mileage may vary)
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- Odometer showing b-on (beep on)
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- The b-oFF setting — backup beep OFF!
The wording was unclear, so I modified it here. The big thing to remember is to keep your finger on the ODO button during steps 6-11.
- Set the foot brake for safety. (The brake beep will beep during some of these steps).
- Start engine with foot on brake
- Press ODO button until the odometer shows mileage
- Turn off car
- Start engine (with foot on brake)
- Within 6 seconds, press and hold the ODO button
- Continue holding the ODO button for 10 seconds
- Keep your finger on the ODO button as you
- Shift car into reverse
- Press the PARK button
- Release the ODO button (The odometer display will read B – ON)
- Press the ODO button to display (B – OFF)
- Turn off your car
- When you turn your car back on, the backup beeps will be gone
Please note: The backup beep is a safety feature. Be aware that disabling the backup beep may make the fact that you are backing up less obvious to you and your passengers, who may remain blissfully unaware.
Wired also mentions other cool Prius hacks in past issues. And one web site claims to be able to use a PRIUS as a UPS/Generator for your home or other purposes for $200-$300.
* (Is plural of Prius Pri, Priora, or Prioren?)
Are memory foam mattresses made of circus peanuts?
Just wondering if memory foam mattresses are made of the same material as Circus Peanuts.
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