Category Archives: Technology

My God, it’s full of stars!

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Artimis Stage Separation

Yesterday, after months of delay Artemis II finally launched to the moon. It will not land on but circle the moon, much like Apollo 8 did almost sixty years ago. This back to the future (or is it the past?) flight occurs against a backdrop of our latest so-called Mission Accomplished war against Iran and closer to home, there are the problems with Anne’s iPhone.

She has been complaining for days about problems with her phone. I have offered to help but have been rebuffed. Lately, though they seem to have multiplied. New problems include Google not being able to access the microphone and the calendar app not being able to add new events. When she tries, she gets an error message saying, “Calendar does not have permission to access your calendar.” I googled these errors and found online solutions.

Equipped with this advice I was able to convince Anne to allow me to assist her. Unfortunately, none of the menu trees called out by Google’s AI matched what was available on the phone. With mounting frustration, I tried calling the Apple Genius Bar to make an appointment. All I got was a lot of run around, but eventually in lieu of an appointment, their AI suggested that we reboot the phone. We did this and voilà! Like magic everything was working again.

I guess it was my bedside manner or lack thereof, but Anne was not happy with me. Words were had and at that point I wisely baled. Returning later, ruffled feathers were smoothed and peace reined over the land. Well, at least here.

Monkey Business

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Monkey Business in STL

Saint Louis has made the news this week, but in a good way. National news reports that up to four vervet monkeys have been spotted loose on the streets of north Saint Louis. As this story was breaking AI images of these primates have circulated. The veracity of the underlying story has been verified by a police monkey sighting, but AI photos not only add levity, but also cast doubt. Saint Louis police have waived charges for the keeping of these animals.

Garden Afterglow

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Orange Shrimp Plant

Busy day! I bought a new laptop. Replacing the previous ancient one. It might have been eight years old. Like that one, I got the new one at Micro Center, a warehouse for computer equipment also-known-as my happy place. I purchased a refurbished HP, with 32M of RAM, 1T solid-state disk drive and at 4lbs it is pretty light and still clean of bloatware. This completes the second of my three-step computer modernization program. Last year I did the iPhone, today was the laptop, next up is the desktop. I had been considering using the Micro Center’s porting service, but Microsoft did everything I had wanted done for free. I spent most of the rest of the day setting up the new machine. Meanwhile, Anne got our new high-tech birdfeeder up and running. We set it up in the front yard for better Wi-Fi. We only had the remnants of last year’s bird seed, so tomorrow after gyro we’ll have to buy some more. Later in the afternoon, we went to the gardens and got some exercise. Most of the Garden Glow decorations are still up and we used them to pose for pics and sent them to the kids.

Raking Leaves

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AI Anne Furiously Raking Leaves

Before Thanksgiving, when we last went to Ann Arbor all of the leaves were still on the trees. When we came back home, they were all on the ground. They have sat there until this week. For part of that time the leaves were buried under 9″ of snow, which soon melted, but not before I snow shoveled them around some. For most of that time they served to obstruct the walkways. With the return of warmer, drier weather Anne and I got out there and raked most of the leaves onto the parking strip. Where they still sit awaiting the city’s leaf removal service. 

Ra-Ta-Tum-Tum-Tum

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AI Little Dummer Boy

There is a game that I play at this time of year called the Little Dummer Boy Challenge. The object of this game is to not hear the Christmas song by the same name, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am honor bound to tell you that this year I lost. Over the last few seasons, I have been doing pretty well, but this year I failed hard. It is a stupid game. The song is really not that bad. True the little drummer boy is a mythical character inserted into a religious story of great significance, but so what. Anyway, there is always next year. I’ll just have to husband what hipster mojo that I can muster until then.

Hovel for Sale

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Little AI House on the Prairie

This old photo of Great-Great-Great Grandma Anne magically appeared. She is pictured wearing homespun standing out in front of our old sod homestead, which with its dirt floor she could never keep clean. Even our Roomba was little or no help, what with it always getting clogged with dirt. It is cold here today but should warm up for the rest of the week starting tomorrow. Last night, we ran the basement sink, to keep the pipes from freezing. Who knew that one could have a basement under dirt floors?

Last night, we watched The Shop Around the Corner (1940). This B&W Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan romantic comedy features two employees of a gift shop who can barely stand each other, all the time without realizing that they are also falling in love each other through the post as they correspond together as anonymous pen pals. An updated remake You’ve Got Mail (1998) featured Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Where director Nora Ephron tried to recapture the magic of Sleepless in Seattle, by substituting email for snail mail and AOL for the Hungarian postal service.