geeky tip-of-the-day

Some months ago, I built a project for a client that pushes Access data into a SQL Server database. For development, I installed SQL Server Express and it worked great.

Now another client needs something quite similar so I went to start up the SQL Server Express service and Windows said "sorry, I can't start it." A check of the Event Viewer revealed a couple of files that had been compressed, the last time I ran the 'Disk Cleanup' function, and SQL Server could not deal with those (critical) data files being compressed.

So, the problem is how to decompress files that have been compressed by Disk Cleanup. No, you can't use WinZip!

It took 20 minutes of internet searching until I found a thread discussing this, where one guy casually posted the following in a long list of comments:

1). Click Start
2). Click Run and type “cmd” to open a command prompt
3). Type “cd \” at the prompt to goto the root directory
4). Type “compact /u /s /a /q /i *.*” to decompress all files in all directories
You can run that command in ANY directory and it will decompress.

It took a while to use the DOS window to drill down to the appropriate directory (I always have to lookup the parm for showing the 8.3 names (dir /x), but I pasted in the above command, there was a heart-stopping pause of about a minute, then an 'all files decompressed' message.

Voila - the Service started up as normal and I am off and running. It's weird things like this that suck up an hour here and there, when you're trying to get real work done.

adventures with the cable guys - moving forward

The specialist recommended by the Xfinity guys stopped by this morning, as promised. He was the quintessential grizzled old guy, who has seen everything.

He walked thru the house and listened as I explained the two routes into the basement that I had discussed with the young guys (who threw up their hands and said they didn't know how to make either work, guaranteed).

45 Minutes later, he was done, having taken a 3rd path, entering the basement a couple of feet from the aborted one that they explored the other day. Labor + materials + 30 years experience = $55. Such a deal.

So, now we're back on track for the full install, which is scheduled for next Tuesday. For the record, the guy's name is Ken Taliaferro, at 503-453-5025. Call him for any kind of custom wiring problems - glad I did.

adventures with the cable guys - the saga begins

So, an Xfinity (i.e. Comcast) guy came to the door the other day, and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse, for cable TV and high-speed Internet. We've been pretty happy with Qwest DSL for over 10 years, so this is a big change.

It wasn't too hard to figure out where the cable needs to enter the house, to connect to the TV. The problem is where I ideally want the modem and wireless router to live, down in the basement, so I can connect my main PC directly to the router via ethernet, and have the WiFi centrally located in the house.

I've spent MANY hours thinking about various alternatives, and believe I had a scheme that involves only one risky hole-drilling, up from the playroom ceiling and, hopefully, into an enclosed cabinet a few enclosed feet from where the TV box will live.

Also, we are a far distance from the street, so just getting the line from the street to our house is a challenge, to comply with the many regs they need to follow.

The Xfinity guy arrived, we spoke about the complications, and he immediately called for reinforcements.

After an hour, we all agreed that there were three possible routes to get the line into the basement, and, of the two that did not involve destroying the clean look of a (relatively) freshly-remodeled room, both had difficulties.

Eventually, they gave me the name of the local wiring guru, and he's coming over Thursday to assess the situation. They apologized and left.

End of Phase I. Phase II tomorrow!

fun with Microsoft (the never-ending saga)

Many of my clients have upgraded to Office 2010 and several users have reported that SOME forms do not display correctly (as they do in Access 2003 and Access 2007). Clearly, Microsoft changed SOMETHING in Access 2010 in how Tab controls are drawn (in 2010, tabs are sometimes invisible, preventing the user from switching from one tab page to another).

But, before I could begin to delve into this, I had to install my (totally legal) Office 2010.

I spent many hours trying to get Office 2010 installed, while leaving intact my Office 2003 apps as well as Groove 2007. I was never able to do this, without the install obliterating Groove (my workspaces were unaffected, but the GROOVE.EXE program and associated stuff was removed).

At one point, I had both Access 2003 and Access 2010 launchable, but, alas, Groove was gone and my Groove install CD said it couldn't reinstall until I uninstalled it, and there was nothing to uninstall. I ended up uninstalling Office 2010, then reinstalling Groove, and, after many hours, I was back where I started.

That was yesterday. Hours of fun.

This morning, I bit the bullet and told Office 2010 to REPLACE all existing Office apps. The Office 2010 install appears to hang indefinitely once the progress bar is entirely filled in, but I patiently waited (almost an hour?) until it actually finished normally.

The Office 2003 apps are indeed gone, and Groove 2007 is replaced by its rebranded successor ('Sharepoint Workspace', which, ironically, is still launched with GROOVE.EXE). Best of all, it had no trouble communicating with the Groove 2007 install on my laptop. This was a major relief.

All programs now appeared to work and I finally got into the guts of Access 2010 to find out why SOME of my forms were not displaying correctly.

Turns out that Microsoft made a small change between Access 2007 and 2010. In a 2010 Tab control, apparently, at least one tab page MUST be defined as Visible = True. I sometimes use the technique, when the tabs to be displayed depend on the context in which the form is opened, of defining all Tab pages as Visible = False, and programatically turning on the page(s) I want the user to see, during Form_Load.

Again, this works great in all versions of Access PRIOR TO 2010. Making the first tab page Visible = True (and then adjusting the code accordingly) permits everything to function exactly as expected.

Thanks again, Microsoft.

android - final hurdle resolved!

So, to recap, connecting the Captivate to my Windows 7 laptop via USB easily mounted it as a drive, and permitted browsing folders, creating new folders, and copying files.

However, kept getting 'USB device not recognized' on my XP desktop. Uninstalled and reinstalled all relevant drivers, but no change.

One commenter in one thread somewhere out there suggested changing USB cables. I knew the cable worked OK on the laptop, so it definitely was OK. Another guy said to try a different USB port.

'What difference could that make?', I asked myself.

Plugged the computer end of the USB cable into a front panel port, and everything worked great, soon bringing up a normal window onto the phone's file system. If you have a rational explanation for this, I'd love to hear it.

This concludes the Quest for New Phone saga. Here's a recap:

Step 1 - issues with my old WM 6.5 phone

Step 2 - let's try a Windows 7 phone - oops!

Step 3 - maybe Android will come to the rescue

Step 4 - Captivate is promising, but major setbacks cause anxiety

Step 5 - maybe everything will be OK, after all

This post - everything may actually be OK, after all.

android - break on thru to the Other Side!

Thanks to Dave for suggesting two things:

1) Before I get totally frustrated about the Captivate NOT being unable to be seen by my main (Windows XP) Desktop as a drive (for copying files), why not try it with Windows 7?

I connected the phone via USB to my Win 7 laptop, and it just worked. Not only was I able to copy an Excel file to the phone, but, when I opened the 'QuickOffice' software on the phone, it instantly saw the Excel file and opened it as normal. This is a big thing.

2) Before I get totally frustrated about issues syncing with my USA.NET email account, and having the UCWeb browser not able to do a Send when accessing that account via WAP, why not just attach to my gmail account (that I have automatically picking up USA.NET mail). That worked great for offline reading, and the UCWeb browser displays gmail wonderfully, when connected via WiFi.

One gmail feature worked great on mail sent from the phone, that I was sure would fail. When I send mail from gmail on a computer, I want the sender to show up as 'blavine@usa.net', my primary mail service. I sent mail to myself from gmail on the phone, and, sure enough, the sender was stamped as I want, not as my gmail address. This was, for once, a pleasant surprise.

So, after a lot of teeth-grinding and imprecation-muttering, I popped my sim back into the Captivate, and will work with it for a few days.

Now I need to find out how to get Android to see the MP3 file, that I copied to the phone, as a selection as my ring-tone. How hard can it be?

All absolutely-critical functions are now working, and I can tinker with getting my XP computer to recognize the Captivate at my leisure, of which you must be thinking I apparently have far too much.

android - trouble in paradise

I had gotten so many things working on the new Android phone, that I decided to pop in my sim and start using it as my main phone, since there were only a couple of functions I had not yet tested.

This morning, I set up the connection to my POP3 email account, and it started downloading messages (over WiFi). So far so good. Unfortunately, it proceeded to download ALL messages in the entire mailbox, not just the current Inbox.

I had to keep downloading and deleting messages, going back to 2007. That was cumbersome, but I eventually got to the point where it downloaded two new messages, that had just arrived. This was exciting, especially since it was clear that, unlike the unfortunate Windows Phone 7 POP3 client, this did NOT cause messages to be deleted from the Server (there is a visible switch controlling this in Android). I even replied to one, saw it in the Outbox, and successfully sent it. This was big - the POP email client was fully functional.

So I thought.

But wait - a couple more messages arrived in my server Inbox, but the phone email client was UNABLE to see them and bring them in. This is bad, but I figured I could resolve it later. Onward...

Next, I wanted to connect the phone to my computer (Win XP) via USB, and see if I can drag and drop files. No go. A quick Google search brought up this unfortunate news. I assume it's true, and I will have to, once again, wipe the phone clean, resync my Contacts, configure POP3, add the couple of apps I've installed, etc.

This is a hassle, and I am not amused.

Finally, I had previously tested using the UCWeb browser to access my web email, using its great implementation of the WAP interface. I had previously read mail, but had not done a 'Reply'. Everything else had worked great, but imagine my surprise when I hit the Send button, but the cursor highlights the address line (which is correct) and the Send does not happen.

Why would it fail at that point? Grrrrrr.

So, where I am now, two days into the Android phone, is a phone that almost but not quite does everything my old Windows Mobile 6.5 phone does. I have not been able to connect to my PC, the POP email client isn't picking up new messages, and the browser interface to my email won't do a 'send'.

The camera is great, though, BUT my sim is now going back into my Tilt 2, and it's back to Square One with the Captivate. If this continues, I will have to dump it and, finally, try a (wait for it...) iPhone.

Of course, I could probably get a great deal on a different WM6.5 phone, but is horizontal progress really progress? Nothing comes painlessly in these modern times.

the phone fun continues

So, having concluded that the Windows Phone 7 Samsung Focus just wasn't going to work for me, I went back to searching craigslist.

Yesterday afternoon, I saw an ad for the other phone I've had my eye on (Samsung Captivate). One popped up at 3:30 pm for a reasonable price (I've been watching), I called the seller at 4, was at her house an hour later, and bought it.

It's running Android 2.2. Maybe it was my time spent with the Focus, but I found the interface pretty intuitive, once I figured out how to invoke the Settings menu.

I wiped it and proceeded to play around with it a little, this morning. In record time, I had brought over all my Contacts, had synced with my Google Calendar, and had downloaded from the Android Marketplace both a free widget for turning off Cellular Data AND my favorite WAP-compliant browser, that I had been using under Windows Mobile 6.5.

The first thing I checked on the Captivate is that it's easy to configure the email sync function to NEVER delete server mail when you delete it on the phone. This option is present in Windows Mobile 6.5, but NOT in Windows Phone 7. Why? Did the WP7 development team decide that the 6.5 guys had given users too much power, or did it simply never occur to them that this option is critical for some of us (there have been many online complaints about it).

Unfortunately, my email service is currently down for maintenance (quite unusual), so I didn't complete the mail account creation. That's the last unknown essential function that, if successful, means I am good to go with this phone.

This morning, I posted a new craigslist ad for the Focus and, 10 minutes ago, sold it for $10 more than I had paid.

At any rate, I believe all my show-stopper difficulties with the Focus will disappear with the Captivate. If this is misplaced optimism, you'll read all about it here, and see another craigslist ad shortly thereafter. Stay tuned.

Windows Phone 7 - the Verdict

So, I've had a Windows 7 Phone (Samsung Focus) for four days, with the goal of getting it set up to do everything my old Windows 6.5 phone did, and more.

Let me say that there are certainly many features that I liked. The interface is cool and very responsive, and options offered for most functions were logical and easy to configure. Installing applications from the Marketplace is totally simple.

But, to spoil what little suspense remains here, I'm not going to keep this phone.

There were three deal-breakers for me:

* The POP/IMAP setup certainly connected to my web email without any difficulty, but (unlike the Winddows 6.5 mail client), there is no option to leave email on the server when you delete it on the phone. This is a killer for me - good thing I tested it with one deleted message before I accidentally purged my entire inbox! Strike one.

* My email service provides a VERY lean, cool WAP interface, and the free UCWeb browser does a masterful job of presenting that interface, under WM 6.5. Alas, the developer does not yet have a WP7 version, and Internet Explorer for WP7 is confused by the WAP instructions. Furthermore, viewing my email's normal web interface with IE on WP7 was unusable. Strike two.

* No Google Maps for WP7. The 'Maps' application that is included is OK, but really lacks a lot (no links to restaurant reviews, satellite view, etc.). I love Google Maps. Strike three.


I have a couple of other quibbles, and some things were certainly extremely nice (SkyDrive/Windows Live integration is excellent, not surprisingly). Phone call quality was excellent, and the Focus attaches to my home WiFi two seconds after turning it on.

Final verdict on Windows Phone 7: for me, sadly, it's a thumbs down.

Next up: an Android 2.2 phone.

adventures in phoning

So, after watching craigslist cell-phone ads intensely for the past couple of months, I leaped into the unknown two days ago. Here's the setup:

I have been on AT&T since my Enron days (my first cell phone). We have 4 phones on our family plan, so that makes switching to another carrier a challenge, especially with Dylan living in Ashland (we pay for his phone, in the curious hope that he will call us often - ha ha).

Furthermore, since I have been a customer so long, I am grandfathered into a situation where I am NOT required to purchase a data plan, UNLESS I buy a phone from AT&T and renew my expired contract.

I am generally quite happy to rely on WiFi for internet access on my phone (have had a 'smart' phone for several years). If I am somewhere where I absolutely need to get on the internet, I either find an open WiFi site, or ask one of my ubiqitous iPhone friends to look it up for me.

There are two significant benefits to this: I save $300/year on Data Plan charges, and email I send from my phone does not have the highly-annoying 'Sent from my iPhone' signature.

I was extremely happy with my Windows Mobile 6.1 HTC Tilt - it did everything very well, including taking pretty sharp photos and videos. It was set up exactly as I liked it, and was stolen in Costa Rica last December. No identify-theft took place, but I lost a bunch of photos and videos of Zacky.

I replaced it with a Tilt 2, running Windows Mobile 6.5, purchased from a craigslist person for an amazing $65.

Over the course of the past few months, I had it set up exactly as I liked, with effortless Calendar sync (using a 3rd party tool), a free WAP-enabled browser for my email service's very-lean-very-nice mobile interface, the (free) Freda eBook reader (populated with many free epub files, both downloaded from Project Gutenberg and created myself, using this wonderful web service which permits you to convert Word files to epub), and a cool Task Manager, to easily kill background processes that were consuming memory.

Really, I like Windows Mobile 6.5 on the Tilt 2 a lot. It also has an FM Radio and Google Maps, not to mention Word and Excel. Moving files to it (using ActiveSync via USB) is trivial. Managing files and editing the registry is easy. Vertical scrolling via a finger-swipe is smooth. Using a stylus to tap the keyboard is pretty fast and accurate. All in all, a pretty darn good phone.

The only drawbacks to the Tilt 2 are:

1) lousy camera - photos always out of focus
2) decreasing battery life over the last month
3) unable to see my home WiFi from places in the house where the original Tilt worked great
4) increasing problems with AT&T phone signals here at the house - did they change something?
5) beat-up case and somewhat-scratched glass cover (my fault)

So, moving to a new phone went onto my To Do list a couple of months ago - no hurry. I just knew I wanted a good craigslist deal, to maintain my don't-need-no-stinkin'-Data-Plan cheapness (and minimizing my internet-data-consumption footprint, unlike all you folks out there who are using the internet to listen to the freaking radio and continually update the current temperature, for God's sake, but don't get me started).

I knew I didn't want an iPhone, since, on principal, I must resist Apple fascism, no matter how good their products are (as you all keep telling me, ad nauseum).

That meant either an Android or another Windows phone. Since Microsoft is getting props for Windows Phone 7's innovative interface, I figured it would be nice to go that route, rather than get another Windows Mobile 6.5 phone.

So, as I said, I've been watching craigslist obsessively, and, on Monday, spotted The Deal. I met up with the guy Monday night, and bought his Samsung Focus for a pretty-darn-reasonable $100. It's running Windows Phone 7, with the Mango beta installed (the guy is a hacker).

What I like:

* I can now see my home WiFi from the in-front-of-the-TV couch, which is a mixed blessing.
* totally easy to sync my Google Calendar with the phone's calendar. This was absolutely essential. No need for a 3rd party sync tool (which they haven't ported to Win Phone 7 anyway).
* Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (can't imagine ever using this) are included
* two-finger pinch-to-zoom works great
* camera seems fine, with flash
* Win Phone 7 Marketplace seems full of good stuff, and installing stuff is easy - this is how it will be on all phones from now on.
* the interface is 'interesting', very responsive and seems well thought-out
* integration with my SkyDrive is, naturally, excellent.
* telling AT&T to not do any data-pulling is controlled by an easily-accessible switch, which I will leave turned off until I break down and sign up for a Data Plan, someday.
* word suggestions when typing text are amazingly-apt

Less than cool:

* it was easy to import my Sim Contacts, but Contacts that had multiple phone numbers (i.e. Home and Mobile) generated separate Contact entries, rather than one entry with multiple phone numbers. Dumb!

* the POP3/IMAP setup for my email was easy, but there is NO OPTION to leave mail on the server when you delete it on the phone. Grrrrrrr. So, I have my Gmail account set up to pull mail from my usa.net account, and the phone pulls in Gmail, which I can delete as I wish, without impacting my main mailbox.

* I miss the ability to mount the File System as a drive on my PC. I no longer have the ability to drag-and-drop files, and haven't quite figured out the best way to move files to the phone, short of emailing them to myself (clunky).

* My WAP-enabled browser (see above) has not released a Win Phone 7 version yet, although I understand it is in final beta now. Internet Explorer does not display my email very well, which is a genuine bad thing, for now.

* no 'Message Sent' confirmation when sending a text message. Anyone know how to turn this on?

* the 'Maps' program included is pretty good, but I'd like to get Google Maps installed (love the ability to tap a restaurant and get reviews). Does anyone know if this is possible?


That's where I stand, two days into the new phone. I am writing this to record my first impressions - let's see if my gripes are ever resolved.

In the meantime, call or text me anytime: 503-860-4514

the recession gets closer

A friend we've known for MANY years called Saturday morning, to tell us that his (or her) home has been foreclosed, and he (or she) needs to move out of the house immediately. We were truly shocked, as we had had no inkling that this person was in trouble with (did you guess correctly?) Bank of America.

This person just found out last Thursday that he (or she) had to get out NOW.

Anyway, we spent MANY hours yesterday helping with the move. We are storing in our garage a fridge, washer, dryer, oven, dishwasher, couches, bookcases, tables, chairs, boxes of books, etc. etc. etc. A giant garage sale is planned.

After moving all that stuff here, we ended up the long day moving bed and other necessities into the spare bedroom of another friend. It was 12 hours I had planned to spend in other ways.

This is the first person we personally know who has been directly affected by the double-whammy of drop in home values and loss of job. He (or she) is admirably philosophical about it, accepting the loss and preparing for the next phase in life.

All we can do is stand by and help as we can.

are they stupid or shameless?

First thing every morning, I run thru my list of Favorite web sites, to make sure that I get my initial dose of correct (i.e. non-GOP) thinking.

At the top of my list is Talking Points Memo. This morning, here are two stories (the links are live) that grabbed my attention:

Romney Backs Away From Climate Change Support

and

Rubio: Social Security Harmed America

So, are they simply pandering, to curry favor with their financial supporters (who certainly have agendas contrary to the Public interest), or do they actually, totally, believe these positions (i.e. stupid)?

The only alternative is even more horrifying: perhaps, it is a complete synthesis of both.

'Compassionate Conservatism' will go down in History as one of the most clever marketing slogans of All Time (or is that End Time)?

my clever son

It's great to see that my son has managed to be his own friend. The question remains, how the heck do you do that?

good-bye, Mitt

The gaffe about 'Corporations are People' is fascinating, for many reasons. Obviously he didn't mean it in the sense of the Citizens United decision (which, in effect, declared virtually exactly that). However:

1) The Media that seeks a good story ignores that context and piles on, ironically stoking the Progressives (as if we need any more reasons to roll eye-balls at Mitt). This is unfair to him, of course, but nobody cares since 'knocking off the Front Runner' is the chief sport at this phase of the race.

2) It reveals the world in which Mitt lives, where he honestly does hob-nob with fellow Rich Guys, who all own corporations. He just simply sees them as the People who make up Corporations. Ergo, Corporations ARE People.

3) Didn't John McCain use the 'my friend' rhetorical gimmick a lot, too? Just sayin'.

4) Either Mitt was oblivious to the consequences of such an off-hand statement (which calls into question his qualifications to speak as a President), or he knew what he was saying and didn't care how folks reacted (which calls into question his qualifications to speak as a President), or he honestly subscribes to the notion of Corporate Personhood in its fullest sense (which calls into question his qualifications to speak as a President).

I don't see any way he can escape being branded with this for all eternity. This is Mitt's 'I can see Russia' event, and this fodder for ridicule will scare supporters.

He obviously has enough personal wealth to pursue the goal, but once the common meme is that you are a doofus gets established, your political prospects are in jeopardy. Think Steve Forbes.

Of course, there are exceptions - a former Texas governor comes to mind, although I believe there was eventual consensus reached on him (unfortunately, much too late).

I gotta go.

obama's sinking poll numbers

Let us remember.

During his first two years, when there was a 'kinda' Democratic majority in the Senate (but not the magic '60'), the GOP Senate launched a record number of fillibusters, intended to deny Obama any of his progressive measures (had he taken the trouble to fight for them).

Thus, he was 'forced' to cripple the Stimulus bill, by accepting a ridiculous amount of 'tax-relief', which was certainly enjoyed by the folks who benefited (hint: not you).

The Health Care overhaul that, from the start, was missing a Public Option is another story - don't get me started.

Then, after the 2010 elections, we see the crackpots in the House dominating the show, preventing any reasonable compromises (except for the ones Obama made - that's another story).

So, do I blame Obama? Kinda, but let's keep in mind the reality that the GOP decided from Day 1 of his administration that nothing meaningful (i.e. counter to the GOP philosophy that 'give good stuff to the Rich and everything will be OK) will pass Congress.

Add to this toxic mix the corrupt, utterly disgusting Supreme Court majority, and this explains why an argument can be made that the Obama Administration failed.

Oh yes, there's the unpleasant memory that the GOP ran on 'jobs, jobs, jobs', but I've heard nothing but crickets from them, on this issue. And yet, the media (ah, the Media) covers the Horse Race as if it mattered.

Very sad. Our Republic is in bad shape, and I know where I place the blame.

The Backmann candidacy is the one bright spot in all this. I am hoping that the seemingly-endless bamboozlement of the American public will reach a tipping point with this. Certainly there can't be enough Evangelical idiots to actually propell this woman to the White House. You read it here.

I gottta go.

is blogging dead?

I gave up on Twitter, as being too superficial.

I like Facebook, because I can tell, at a glance, what my 'Friends' are thinking about, and there is always someone posting something of some interest. It's not quite as superficial as Twitter, and often leads to some valuable links.

I used to love blogging, since it gave me unlimited space to rant, post photos, and link to sites I find valuable.

Now, these days when I am consumed with the sense that we are seeing general Collapse (climate, economic, social, you name it), all I can think of to write about here is that stuff, and who needs to be reminded?

Today I am taking my 100 year-old mother-in-law to the airport, so she can fly back to her current home in Santa Cruz. She's been with us for two weeks, and it has been alternately inspiring and infuriating. She is a character and, despite problems with sight, hearing and memory, constantly shows that not only is she quite engaged, but has retained a zany (hence, infuriating) sense of humor.

So, the tomatoes are coming along nicely, the beans are beginning to blossom, there is chard to pick tonight. I should have no complaints.

But today is Recall Election day in Wisconsin, and I hesitate to write to my brother, hoping that he gets out to vote for his local Democrat, because, after a number of conversations and forwarding-to-me-of-inflammatory-emails-about-Obama, I simply don't know who he would vote for.

It's all so complicated, but the main thing I wonder about is, with the rising tide of hooliganism (just who was Hooligan, by the way?) in Britain, what will it take for the copycats to think this would be great fun here, too?

sick of it all

The Washington Circus is so damn distressing that I can't deal with it anymore.

The 2010 voters sure picked a crop of outstanding citizens to represent us. The only satisfaction I am getting, and it's minimal, is knowing that the Chamber of Commerce plutocrats who pushed the Baggers on us are now watching uncomfortably, as the idiots pursue their uncompromising idiot dreams, which are now counter to the interests of the Big Boys.

Time will tell whether Obama has been truly suckered or is truly a Machiavellian genius.

Time will tell whether the barely-paying-attention voters will blame the disruptions on the Baggers or the Black Guy. I am beginning to sense a shift in the Media Guys narrative, who are just loving the 'Civil War in the GOP' angle.

Bah! It's just another symptom of a crumbling Empire, where, once again, the Super Rich have overplayed their hand. Happens again and again.

delayed gratification

As an after-thought, we planted some teeny garlic starts last Fall. Haven't done anything with that patch except some casual weeding and pinching off flowering tops a few weeks ago.

Dug 'em up this morning - will let them dry out a bit then braid them. Then, we shall see how they taste!

the Netflix price-hike

It's a no-brainer for me. We sometimes keep our one-DVD-at-a-time for weeks before watching it, and I have found MANY gems (umm, and a few duds) streaming on-line. We will be cancelling the DVD service.

But, I don't get it, from Netflix's perspective. By maintaining both distribution methods, they are not saving money. The cost of supporting the aquisition, storage, and distribution of physical media is not going to be reduced - as long as they still have customers paying for that service, they need to maintain the entire infrastructure.

A few months ago, KPOJ was playing frequent (!) commercials inviting entrepeneurs to get in on the DVD-rental-kiosk franchise business and I scoffed, thinking that that was already a business that had peaked. Now I'm not so sure.

Do they really think that most subscribers will elect the hybrid option, in THIS economy? I have to believe that most will choose one method or the other, reducing Netflix's monthly take by $2 per subscriber. Great business plan. What am I missing, business school graduates?

why the American republic failed

We never voiced discomfort when the News Media collectively decided that any knowledge or mention of History was now considered irrelevant.

Instead, we permitted Media to get away with (out of laziness, or fear of antagonizing Corporations?) speaking only of today's or this week's controversies, with a total absence of what a little historical reflection might add to the presented picture.

That is why I am awake at 4 AM today.

I woke up at 3 worrying about a purely domestic issue relating to freshly-painted closet doors (don't get me started), and found myself plugged into NPR Morning Edition for an hour.

They reported on the 'impasse' between the President (more about him later) and that consistently-infuriating Mitch McConnel (don't get me started) and then actually mentioned statements by several members of the consistently-infuriating Republican presidential challengers, mostly along the lines of 'no new taxes'.

There, for a brief, crystalline moment in time, was the opening for a voice to quickly remind us of the devastating Bush Tax cuts for the rich, two VERY expensive wars of our (well, the Republicans') choice, the horrendously-expensive Medicare Part D (GOP written), and other major Corporate concessions/malfeasance, all of which brought us to our current National Debt situation.

But, no. Instead, NPR devoted a healthy (sic) segment to a review of the offerings on the new Oprah network, from a male perspective.

So, I ask, if historical perspective is banned from the media, what's the point of pretending that this Republic is possible to salvage? Without an audible voice to put the daily bloviating into context, we are doomed, and the Bachmanns win.

Obama, I like you and so wanted you to succeed. But you caved when we would have supported you standing firm against the Greed (single payer, repeal of Bush tax cuts, Afghanistan, etc.), and you were silent when you should have gently, firmly reminded Us that the Republican economic philosophy of 1980 was the beginning of the End of the America we thought we posessed.

I don't think I will be able to go back to sleep.

Gore Vidal's term for us is totally apt: the United States of Amnesia.