Writing on the Screen

 I got into computers shortly before the turn of the century.

Wow, it feels a little odd to say "turn of the century" and mean the 21st Century, and not the 20th Century.  At least it feels odd for someone born in the middle of the century.

1996

That is when I got a job that required using a PC.  Before I went in for the job interview, I had sat in front of a Mac for about half an hour.  That I was able to get the job despite having no PC experience, says something about the other applicants.  There was a PC portion to the interview.

Be that as it may, it was later in 1996 when a friend built me my first PC out of his spare parts.  And yet, with very limited PC experience, I was able to get a job at Dell, doing Tech Support, in mid-1997.  I think it showed a lot more about how desperate Dell was than how good I was.  But I learned fast.

Now, 23 years later, I still work Tech Support at a State Agency.

More than 2 years ago, I wrote a review of the HP Elite X2.  That was a work PC, and before that I owned an HP iPAQ 214 PDA.  And actually, back during my Dell days I had a Dell Axim PDA.  I am not trying to give you a history of my computing devices, just the ones where I could write on the screen.

With all of these, as well as my Samsung Tab A 10.5, the experience of writing on a glass screen is not great.  I got used to it on my PDA, but I have never liked it at all on any tablet...until now.

I recently bought an Acer Switch 3.

I actually enjoy writing with this stylus on this screen.  I think that the difference is the tip on the stylus, but I cannot tell for sure.

The problem with most 3rd party styluses (styli?) is that they fall in to two categories, passive styli with soft rubber tips, and powered styli, with hard plastic tips.

The soft rubber tip is floppy, and that is its biggest problem.  There is generally some resistance, which is good, but the floppiness of the tip ruins the experience.  The powered stylus, is one that you charge via USB or you use 4A batteries.  The problem is usually that the hard plastic tip on the glass screen gives no resistance at all, so there is no feel.  It is hard to know how much or how little you are moving it through the stylus body.  It works, but not well.

The Acer Switch 3 is different.  There is resistance when you move the stylus across the screen, just like with a pen on paper.  It isn't perfect.  It isn't as nice as a good quality fountain pen when writing on good paper, but it is better than most.

The Acer Switch 3 has a dedicated stylus that came with the unit.  I did not have to pay extra for it.  Something I forgot to mention earlier was my Dell Venue 8 Pro.  It didn't come with a stylus, but I bought the Dell stylus intended for it, and it does not compare to the Acer.

Now, if I could only get a similar experience with my Samsung Tablet.

Jeeves to the Rescue

 No, that is not the title of one of the Jeeves and Wooster novels, though it could be.

In my last entry, I spoke about Covid and coming out of my own little scare about the pandemic, but what I may have failed to adequately express is that I was also coming out of a side scare.  I suffered through a three day bout of anxiety.  Anxiety so bad that I could not sleep, and that eventually my doctor prescribed medication.

One week ago was the worst of it.  The anxiety coincided with our dog falling ill.  She fell down the steps into the backyard and was never the same again.  That happened Friday, and by Saturday morning my anxiety was in full swing.  I couldn't not seem to fill my lungs, I was full of nervous energy and unable to relax, and the walls seemed to close in around me.

Monday, one week ago was the worst, we had to say goodbye to the sweetest dog I have ever known.  This did not help my anxiety, which is why on Tuesday morning I had a virtual visit with my doctor.  After talking to him, some of my panic started to fade.  I took the first of the medication on Tuesday night, and got a good night's sleep and it has been clear sailing since.

Two things helped me get through those three bad days.  Monty Python's Flying Circus made for very familiar, well-loved, and silly background noise through the days, and Jeeves and Wooster were my bedtime companions.

When I feel stressed, I often turn to Wodehouse.  There is stress in his stories, but in most cases, it is Bertie concerned that he might have to get married.  So many of his adventures would cease to have any tension if he could simply say, "no, I will not marry you."

I would lie in bed and read Bertie's adventures almost until the book would fall from my hand.  It literally happened once.  There is no tension when reading Wodehouse...well, maybe once.  There is actually a gun in one of the Psmith stories, and not a hunting rifle, but a pistol, and actually pointed at our hero.  I was actually shocked when I read that story, because things like that do not happen in other Wodehouse stories, and I have read a lot of them.

Psmith, Mulliner, Ukridge, Blandings, Uncle Fred...I have read them all.  Well, I have read at least two novels or stories in each of these series.  I cannot claim to have read them all.  I have read all the adventures of Bertie Wooster, and his valet Jeeves, and many stories that do not fit into the series, but I still have the good fortune of being able to find and enjoy more of the works of P.G. Wodehouse, though they are getting harder to find.  You can find many of the books of P.G. Wodehouse in free editions, at the Gutenberg Project or Amazon Kindle.

So, if you are feeling stressed, I suggest that you go back to what seems like a simpler...and sillier time, when the biggest concern was finding yourself engaged to a beautiful woman who isn't quite your cup of tea.  Find one of the stories told by the bumbling Bertie Wooster and watch while Jeeves performs his miracles with little more than a, "Very good, sir."

Pandemic Opus #1 (PO1)

 I just noticed that I have not written in this Blog for more than 2 years.

At the moment, I feel like an idiot, because for months I have been looking for an outlet for the frustrations of the Covid-19/Coronvirus Pandemic, and only this morning did it occur to me that I already have that place, even if the audience is not quite what I would like it to be.

At least the audience is larger than for my journal, which no one reads.

I may still try to write some pieces like the old ones that got so few views, but this time, I think that I am just going to let my inner rage at the Pandemic out from time to time and damn the consequences.

Part of it is that I just recovered from one of the worst weekends of my life.  Saturday, Sunday and Monday I was suffering from acute anxiety.  The walls seemed to be closing in around me and the air seemed stale.  I had a tight note in my chest, and I could not seem to fill my lungs.  

Now that last symptom, combined with a sore throat put the thought of something much worse into my head, which did not help the panic attacks.

In addition there was a real tragedy for my wife and I that concerned our dog, Abby.  On Friday, she fell while going down the steps into our backyard and she never recovered.  She came in to my room, and lay on the carpet.  On Saturday, we took her out into the front yard twice (no stairs) and while she did not seem completely fine, she seemed okay.  She was able to do her business, but then just came in and lay on the floor, almost not moving.  Sunday was worse, and we could not even get her outside, so Monday we took her to the vet, and after an exam, we made the decision to let her go.

Abby was a loving, sweet soul, and we miss her terribly, and I console with an image that I am almost embarrassed to admit to, but what the hell, here goes.

To preface this, I need to add that Abby had cancer, and several months back, the vet amputated her front right leg.  She had a large tumor on her elbow.  She recovered from that so well, adjusting perfectly that I was sure we had made the right choice, after a brief recovery, she was her bright, happy self again.

I am not really a believer in The Rainbow Bridge, but it brings me solace when I lose a beloved pet.  The thing that brings me solace at this moment is the image of Abby, with all four legs restored, running in that field that they cross the Rainbow Bridge to reach.  There she meets up with Serge, our old Golden Retriever that we lost a few years ago.  Maybe Serge introduced Abby to Medb, an even older dog of ours, and they run and play together.

I cry as I write this because I miss them all so much.  I won't bring my cat Sasha into this because then the crying may not stop for a while, but she waits nearby.  When Serge goes to lie down in the shade, Sasha appears to curl up with him.

Sorry for the rather long aside, but it is an important part of this hellish weekend.  On Monday, we put down Abby, and then I got an appointment with my doctor for Tuesday, a virtual visit.

Monday night was one of the worst of my life.  At 3am, I was so tired that I could no longer hold and focus on my book (Wodehouse) and yet I could not fall sleep.  The air seemed thick and everything smelt stale and the knot in my chest was...I cannot describe it.

I cannot say when I fell asleep, but I woke at 8:55 am and my appointment was for 9. I managed to make the appointment, but...well, I made the appointment.

Three days have passed since then.  The medication my doctor prescribed has allowed me three long restful nights of sleep and the world seems to regained much of its color.  I can breathe freely now.  The knot in my chest is gone.  My appetite has returned.

I thought I knew where this was going when I started.  It didn't go there, but I have a few final thoughts.

• A weather change coincided with my recovery.  Austin (Texas) had been going through a heat wave, with daily highs in the mid 100s and heat indexes near 110.  This did not help.  I could not really go outside for a breath of fresh air, at least not for long and the temperature and humidity made it seem more like drinking air than breathing it.
• On Tuesday, the temperature was only in the mid 90s.  This may not seem like much, but the nighttime lows were getting down into the 70s, and this meant that it was possible to be outside, usually after dark without feeling claustrophobic.
• The Pandemic did not help.  I feel like I cannot go anywhere, so I have no way to go somewhere fresh and try to relax.  Also, so much of the news is depressing.

I am going to bring this to a close and try to get back here sooner rather than later.  Sharing this seems to have helped a little.  Because of the Pandemic, I feel very cut off, separated from others and I hope this will.

Wear a mask, and stay safe.

Growing More Liberal

Winston Churchill is often misattributed for having said something to the effect that if you aren’t a liberal at 20 you have no heart, and if you aren’t a conservative at 40 you have no brains.

It’s not true, at least according to WinstonChurchill.org, but I am going to use it to make a start.

First, it should be said that if Churchill or anyone else every said that, then they were a moron…partially.

History shows us many liberals who remained staunch liberals until the day they died, and present history shows us many young conservatives.  Personally, I can never attribute brains to a conservative, especially not conservative politicians whose feet are found in their own mouths more often than not.

And, while I tend to think that young conservatives have no heart, I also believe that they have no brains…or general awareness of any sort.

But, aside from making for a good rant, that is not my point.  I actually do believe that when you are young you should want to change the world, and if you are completely satisfied, when you are young, with the world around you, then you have no heart, or perception, or brains. 

Then again, from what I can see, young conservatives want to change the world, they are just stupid enough to think that stepping backwards is a useful change.  But, in their hearts, their moronic hearts, they want change.

I also believe that it is natural as you grow older to grow somewhat more conservative.  You may want lots of change when you are young, but as you grow older, the status quo starts to seem more and more like a good idea.

I am a child of the 50s…well, at least I was born there.  I really consider myself a child of the 60s and 70s because I turned 13 in 1970.  I was there…yes, a bit too young, but I was alive when the Summer of Love happened.  I remember when the Beatles arrived in America.  I was only 7, but I had older sisters.

This was the era of Hippies, and thinking that regular people can force change, and they did.  Vietnam protests, and the resignation of a President.

I was a liberal, and tried to work for change…not enough that I am really proud of it, so let’s move on.

As I grew older, I did find myself turning slightly more conservative.  During the Clinton Administration, when things were good, I find myself agreeing occasionally with a friend of mine who is very conservative.

Then George W. Bush happened.  Now, remember that Dubya was elected in in 2000, and if you can remember that far back (4 paragraphs), you might remember that I said I turned 13 in 1970.  Dubya was elected when I was 43.  That is sort of the age where you should be turning conservative, and I couldn’t.

Do you get it yet?

I am more liberal than ever, because the Republican party is forcing me that way.  As the Republicans move further right, from merely conservative over into the moronic end of the spectrum.  And don’t try to tell me that liberals are the moronic end of the spectrum.  Liberals are not asking for religion (creationism) to be taught in science classes.  That is moronic, and that is at the conservative end of the spectrum.  Shut up and own it.

As Republicans get stupider, I have to move further left. 

Newt Gingrich….step left.

George W. Bush…step left…for eight years.

Sarah Palin…step left.

Mitt Romney…step left.

Paul Ryan…step left.

Donald Trump…RUN LEFT!!!  STUPID ALERT!!!

I might have been able to slide slowly to the right as I grew older, but the Republicans have seized the stupid ground, and I keep having to back away.

Blog Wednesday

On my calendar, I have a weekly appointment, every Wednesday from 6:00 to 7:00 PM.  It says Blog.  Its been there for years…in fact, it has been more than a decade, and it might be two decades.  I started this blog, and I wanted to come once a week and write something profound…or funny, or at least entertaining.  Based on the number of readers of the blog, I would have to say that I have failed in that last.

But, I am not really here to write about my blog.  I am here to write about that appointment.  When I check my calendar, I see it, and occasionally I think that I ought to try to keep that appointment, as I am actually doing today.  Well, I have to admit that I am rather late this Wednesday, it is almost 9pm as I write this.

Then again, at least I am here writing.  That appointment has largely been ignored since I placed on my calendar, and I definitely need to put it back a bit.  I now work till 5:30, and I pick up my wife at 6pm and were lucky if we are home by 6:30.

I have just been distracted by my wife, and a pussy cat.

So, good intentions and tradition be damned.  I think that I will move the appointment to 8pm and see if I can sit down and write a little more often.

Plus, I don't really need to write every Wednesday to post to this blog.  I have 9 blog posts sitting in the wings.  The problem is that they aren't finished…well, maybe one or two of them are, but some need a lot of work.

But today I wanted to write, and then move on.

Ingress, Part 3

Finally, in part 3 I will get to my very personal thoughts on Ingress.  The game is so big and complex that is has taken me close to 1500 words to give what I still think is a fairly basic impression of the game.

I used to play Ingress harder than I do now.  I was very gung-ho in the early days.  I progressed quickly, but I tend to do that in all the games I play.

I mentioned in part 2 that Ingress is a loner game.  I'm a bit of a loner.  I started off trying to meet up with other players, and even considered attending one of the game-wide Events, when Austin was a major site.  The problem is that I have a bad back and two bad knees, so lots of walking is hard, and the events tend to involve a lot of walking, from what I've been told.

And then I got a bit disillusioned with Ingress.

My biggest problem with Ingress is that there is no permanence.  You can spend hours hacking, capturing, linking, fielding, etc. and feel really good about what you have accomplished, then go back the next day, and it is all gone.

The proper way to look at it is that the other side has now given you the opportunity to do it all over again.  And I see that, but it is still a bit depressing.  Especially, when you have setup a good farming area, and someone has taken it down, and rebuilt nothing.

Ingress is a lot of repetitive actions.  You go to portals.  You hack portals.  You link portals.  You move on to another portal.  It gets boring at times

My favorite way to play Ingress is to collect many portal keys.  I have about 300 at any given time.  Then, you sometimes get lucky as you move around hacking portals and attempting to link them, and that can be fun.

You can also go out with a specific plan about what you want to link.  I used to go out in basically a big circle around where I live and try to field the entire area.  I do not do that as often anymore, after one day when I headed out on the circle and created field after field, linking back to a portal by my house.  I had spent weeks collecting keys for that portal, as well as others nearby.  In the middle of my circuit…maybe more like three quarters of the way around, I was suddenly unable to link back to my home portal.  I found that someone had come along behind me and taken down that central portal and destroyed most of my work.

Now, you need to understand that this really had little effect on me…game-wise.  I had still earned all the points for creating all those fields, but basically, after hours of work, I was left with nothing to show for it…well, except the AP.  It was frustrating.

The game giveth, and the enemy taketh away.

I still play, but not with the fervor of the past.

Why Aude Khatru?

The story starts more than 40 years ago.  In fact it was either 1973 or 1974.  The confusion is over the year in which the list was published.  What list?  A list of the best albums of 1973.  I think it was in Playboy, and the list was probably published in early 1974.  The top three on the list were…

1. Yessongs - Yes
2. Light as a Feather - Return to Forever
3. Chicago 6 - Chicago

Chicago 6 was one of my favorite albums at the time, and I had to find the two albums that beat it out.  I headed down to my local record store, The Wherehouse.

Now, a quick aside…back in 1974, most single LPs were $3.99 at the Wherehouse.  A lot of my present collection of LPs were bought around this time, and at this price.  In a moment you will see why this is important.

I did not find a copy of Light as a Feather, and it would be a couple more years before I heard Jazz Fusion Supergroup Return to Forever, but I did find a copy of Yessongs.  The problem is that Yessongs is a triple LP, and it cost $10.99.  That sounds like very little now, but for a 17 year old who worked for $1.90/hour, that was a lot of money.  A lot of money for something I had never heard before.

But, I bought Yessongs, and from the moment I heard the strains of the Firebird Suite, which Yes used as an intro to the concerts recorded for Yessongs, I was blown away.  I had never heard anything like it, and I loved it.

I want to say that it changed my life, but other than my taste in music, I am not sure that is really true.  What I can say is that I have never lost my love for the music of Yes.

Khatru comes from the Yes song Siberian Khatru.  I use it as a mark of my love for the music of Yes.

What does Khatru mean?  Hell if I know. 

Jon Anderson, the vocalist for Yes, who wrote the lyrics, said that it meant "as you wish" in Yemeni.  Yemeni isn't actually a language, at best it is an Arabic dialect, and Khatru does not seem to have a meaning anyone can pin down.

Many years ago, my wife found a website that said that Khatru meant Mongoose in Egyptian, or something like that.  I do not remember exactly, and I can no longer find the website.

So, back to the question, what does Khatru mean?  Khatru means, one who considers the group Yes to be important enough to his life to take a word from a song and use it as part of his online name.

That leaves us with Aude.

Aude is a department in southern France.  When I went to France in 1976, Carcassonne in Aude was the first city where I lived.  The river Aude flows north from the Pyrenees and turns east in Carcassonne before heading out to the Mediterranean.  I spent a month or two in the small town of Limoux, which is also on the Aude.

In latin, Aude means dare, as part of the phrase "Sapere Aude" from the First Book of Letters by the Roman poet Horace.  It is my understanding that this is the origin of the French word "audace"  and the English "audacity."

That isn't why I picked it, but I like it.

Then recently, I found that Aude is also a french feminine name.  I don't remember meeting anyone named Aude while I was in France, but I didn't meet more than a few hundred French during my two years, so I may have been unlucky, or it may have been more commonly used since.  This has nothing to do with why I picked it, and it doesn't matter to me now.

Oh, and Aude is pronounced "ode."  Just like the type of laudatory poem.

So, that is why Aude Khatru, or more commonly, AudeKhatru.

Ingress, Part 2

Okay, so previously I gave a primer on Ingress, and now it is time to go into a bit deeper detail.

If you get into Ingress, you will learn that there is a big story that goes with the game, and that has been playing out for the last five and half years.  Niantic has tried to engage the players by creating a story that is pushed forward by periodic videos that often look like News Reports.  During those five and half years many things have been added to game, both story and mechanics.  You will learn all about that if you play, and you won't care much if you don't

So, the game actually plays like this.  You drive around to different portals and hack them, and then attempt to link them to other portals.  Now, you do not do the hacking and linking while moving…at least  you shouldn't, and in Austin, Texas, where I live, it is actually against the law (no hand held devices while driving).

Portals are far enough apart that you will almost certainly have to drive to find more than a few.  The game really should play out by driving to an area, parking your car and then walking around to hack all the nearby portals. 

As an example, there are at least a dozen portals within a mile of my house.  However, there are only two  within 200 yards of my house, so it depends on how far you want to walk.  I find that most people drive into an area with a lot of portals, and then walk to hack those portals.  Some parks and churches will have several portals in a small area, so it becomes easy to hack many portals with minimal effort.

Ingress is largely a loner game, but not necessarily a lonely game.  You go out hacking when you have time, and that often means you do it alone.  You don't need other people to play the game.  However, there is a Comm function in the game that allows you to talk to other players.  It can be filtered to your Faction and a distance, so you can talk to local players on your side.  That means you can find other players near by and work together. 

The Austin Ingress community is pretty good, and the Austin Enlightened group even has a webpage, and they use Google+ and Slack to communicate outside the game.  This allows the local group to coordinate efforts and create local events.  There are also game wide events, which center on specific cities around the world, usually a few major sites, and then more minor sites.  Hundreds of people meet up and compete for the day.

Lastly, one of the things I like best is that while the Resistance and Enlightened are rivals, there is no real animosity between the factions.  Though the ingame story pits them as rivals struggling to control the destiny of mankind, the players are just playing a game and having fun.  That is probably the best thing about Ingress.

Five and a half years and still going strong.

Ingress

I've been playing Ingress for four years, and I suppose it is time that I said something about it.  If you want a less personal view on what Ingress is, head over to Wikipedia.  The article there pretty good though completely cold and impersonal.

Ingress is an Augmented Reality Science Fiction game.  Here's the story, more or less, as the game creators would tell it.

In 2012, along with finding the Higgs Boson, the scientists at CERN also found something called Exotic Matter (XM).  What Exotic Matter is, is hard to describe, but it is pouring in through portals, and it can be used to effect the minds of human beings.

A small company developed a scanner than runs on a smartphone that can detect XM.  The scanner can also be used to capture the portal, and to hack the portal.  Other information has come out slowly, about a mysterious alien race called the Shapers.

The Shapers said that they had come to help human kind take the next step in their evolution.  Some believed the Shapers and called themselves the Enlightened.  Others think that the Shapers are coming to conquer and called themselves the Resistance.

And that defines the choice you make when you enter the game.  You must choose a side, Resistance or Enlightened…Blue or Green?

As far as game play is concerned, it is that simple.  Either the portals you capture turn blue, or they turn green.

The game is actually scored by Mind Control Units…sounds ominous doesn't it?

After you capture portals, you try to link the portal to other portals.  Do I need to say that you can only link to portals of the same color? 

So, the process goes like this.  You use your scanner to hack a portal.  You have to be close to the portal to hack it or capture it.  When you hack the portal you get gear.  The two most important pieces of gear are resonators and portal keys.  You capture a portal by putting a resonator on the portal.  You use the portal key to link another portal to the one you have a key for.

So, restarting the process from the beginning, and assuming you found an unclaimed portal.  You hack the portal for gear.  Then you use the resonator you just got to capture the portal.  Actually, you have to put 8 resonators on the portal to fully activate it.  And, we will assume you got a portal key for it.  Then you travel to another portal, repeat the process and then you can link portal 2 back to portal 1.

Unfortunately, you still haven't made any points for your team, though you will have gained Agent Points (AP).  Quick aside, I have heard them called Access Points as well, but I would swear that they were called Agent Points when I joined.  The player is an Agent of either the Resistance or the Enlightened.  AP are basically the experience points of Ingress, and they work pretty much like XP in every other game ever created.  AP is how you level up, and there are perks as you level up to max at level 16.

Next, you would go to a third portal and claim that.  Now, if you have three portals and a key for each portal, you can now link them in a triangle.  This creates a field.  Technically, the name is a Mind Control Field.  That's right, this is where the Mind Control Units come from.  The field gets a value, Mind Units (MU), which, at least supposedly has to do with the number of people who might be affected by the field.  Larger areas have more MU, but more densely populated areas have more MU.  A field covering part of the inner city would have very high MU, while a much larger area out in the country would probably have fewer.

There is more to the game, but this is the basics.  You can work with other agents in your area to create larger fields, and to cover more of your city with fields.  You can even work with far away agents to cover whole states.  There have even been links across the Atlantic.

This post has gone on long enough, and I haven't really said anything about what I think about the game.  So, stay tuned for a future post with impressions, and maybe a little more about the reality of game play.

Never Trust Barbeque Sauce

That's right, never trust barbeque sauce.

And, if you have to trust barbeque sauce, wear a red shirt.

That is today's wisdom, and here in Texas, that's important wisdom, because if you do not know the wiliness of barbeque sauce, then you are lost.

And, never trust anyone who was born after the Beatles came to America, 1964.  If they weren't born by then they are too young to really understand the important things in life.  I may only have been seven, but I remember...well, I had older sisters.

There is only one Star Trek, the original.  It isn't Star Trek: TOS, it is just Star Trek, the first, the original, the one that doesn't have to have a subtitle.  I remember watching it first run, I was 9...at the start of the first season.  I had to beg my Mom and Dad to let me stay up late every Thursday, because it ran 30 minutes past my bedtime.

I remember the moon landing in 1969.

I didn't trust the president then, and I don't trust the president now.  Then it was Tricky Dick, and now it is Cadet Bone Spur.  One was a dishonest politician, and the other is...should I be nice, or use the "m" word?

In fact, it is a bad idea to trust any kind of sauce.  They sit there on your plate, looking longingly at your shirt.  I can just imagine the bits of sauce yelling up from the plate at the sauce on your fork...

"Jump!  Go on!  Do it!  Shirt! Shirt! Shirt!"

And then cheering when their fellow sauce bit hits your shirt.

Have I rambled on long enough?  No, let's keep going.

Remember to pet your dog and kick your cat.   No!  Wait!  Not kick, what's the word I am looking for...stroke, yes, that's it.  Start over.

Remember to pet your dog and stroke your cat.  It doesn't take red sauce stains off your shirt, but you'll smile and you won't care as much.

And now, take a deep breath.  And another...now cough, you know you want to, and now get up and get another soda from the kitchen.

And remember....

Never trust barbeque sauce.

HP Elite X2

My work gave me one of these a couple of weeks back, and so I thought I would give an early review.  In case you cannot tell from the picture, the Elite X2 is a lot like the Surface Pro...the latest one.  I'm not sure what number they are up to, and I don't care.

It's a tablet with a detachable keyboard.  The keyboard is much like the Surface, in that part of can cling (probably magnetically) to the lower edge of the tablet, the part below the actual screen.  This gives it that desired ergonomic, slanted keyboard.  

Now, I have tested a recent Surface with the slanted keyboard, and I did not really like it.  The keyboard is not supported between the screen and the front edge, and on the Surface, this makes the keyboard bounce in a way that I found...disconcerting.  I had an original Surface RT, where the keyboard rested flat on the table or desk, and I got used to the flat keyboard.  I did not really like the new Surface TypeCover for extended typing.

But, you should note the silver upper side (I keep having to avoid the word "surface" to avoid confusion), which is a bit sturdier than the plastic upper side of the Surface TypeCover.  I don't know if it is metal or what, but it is a bit stiffer than the TypeCover, and so typing this review on it is not disconcerting in the same way as the Surface TypeCover.

So, I like the keyboard.  It should be said that I really like laptop keyboards.  I love the feel of not having to move the key more than the tiniest bit.  I feel like I type faster, even though I have no objective proof to back that up.

The screen is very bright, and extremely sharp.  It is a 12 inch screen with 1920 x 1280 resolution, and that is the first problem...at least for me.  That is an extremely high resolution for a 12 inch screen.  That is the same as the resolution on my 24" monitor.  Everything is very small, and for a 61 year old man with less than perfect eyesight, that is a bit much.  And, as anyone who has used an LCD knows...well, at least the ones who have tried to lower the resolution, things can get a bit fuzzy if you lower the resolution.  There are other ways to effect changes in the size of text on the screen, but even they are less than ideal.

I feel like this resolution is a downside to this device.

I like the pen, but I have to admit that I have not used it much.  The kickstand works well, though I have not had a real need to adjust it from a single position.  The kickstand has a first position with what I would call a soft lock.  When you push it out, it goes out a bit and stops.  This position is good for typing.  There is no click at the stop, but the resistance gets stronger, and from that point it simply requires a little more pressure to move it along until the screen is nearly level with the desk surface.  This makes it very easy to snap the kickstand out for writing, and then you can adjust it for other things you might be doing with your Elite.

There is a tiny problem with the keyboard, but it is how close it sits to the bottom of the Windows desktop.  It makes it difficult to touch the icons on the Taskbar.  It is about the smallest of problems, but I am trying to be thorough. 

I have not had a chance to check out the Bang & Olufsen speakers.  Speakers can be a problem in a work environment, especially when you work in a cube with others in close proximity. 

I like the Elite X2.  A while back, I looked at the Spectre X2, which is the consumer version of the Elite.  Now, I want the Spectre, which should have most of the same features at a better price...at least I hope so.

I Have Lost my Voice

I have not done a great job with this blog, and I think I finally figured out why.

I have lost my voice.

Obviously…well, not obviously to my readers, but still obviously, I do not mean that literally.  My speaking voice is just fine.

25 years ago, I graduated from college, rather later than usual for getting a Bachelor’s degree, as I went to three different universities and in between #2 and #3, I spent about a decade working.  During my third set of school days I used to carry around paper notebooks and during breaks I would write in them on all sorts of topics.  I would call those topics philosophical in nature, but it was often about defining certain things, like intelligence.

I have also kept a journal for the last 43 years.  I have several bound volumes and the last decade or so is on computer.

I have done a lot of writing over the years, and yet I cannot seem to keep up with this blog.  I think that the problem is that I have too many distractions.  This ties in with the fact that I do not read as much as I used to.  I used to read between 50 and 75 books a year.  Some years ago, I set myself the goal of reading 100 books in a year and for three successive years I met that goal.  Lately, I have been lucky to top 25 books in a year.

I have games on my phone, games on my tablet, and games on my PC.  I have videos on my hard drive, Netflix, Amazon Prime, not to mention the length and breadth of the internet.  So, I have a vast array of things designed to help me avoid boredom, but it was that boredom that gave me time to think deeply, and then write.

One of the problems is that distraction does not really relieve boredom.  It just masks the boredom.  It delays the boredom.  Then the video ends, or you finish the game and the boredom rushes back in and fills the void.

The real question is what, if anything, I am going to do about it? 

I am not sure that I can eliminate the boredom with writing, but I think it might help, at least a little.

Reading "Good" Books

Has anyone ever reached adulthood without having been presented with a list of books that "everyone" should read?

Wait!!

Come on back, I'm not going to bore you with another such list.  Maybe later, but it will be well marked, and it is likely to be a list of favorite books, rather than ones that I think are important enough to deserve attention.

My first experience with a book I thought I should read was Moby Dick. I ended up with copy while I was in school, and I tried starting it several times.  I couldn't get past the first hundred pages.  It was just too boring.  It was only years later, when I downloaded a free copy for Kindle that I finally got through it.

In many ways, Moby Dick is almost more like a documentary essay on whaling than what I think of as a novel.  It is only towards the end that the story really takes off and moves quickly towards the end.  When you finish it, you may remember as an exciting story, but it is really only the last quarter of the book that is exciting.

Then, I thought that I ought to read some Dickens.  Back in school somewhere I read A Tale of Two Cities, and I thought I would move on to David Copperfield...especially since I had moved into the Copperfield neighbor and I was surrounded by streets with names taken from the book.

David Copperfield was even worse than Moby Dick.  I still have never finished it.  Eventually, I moved on to Bleak House.

I was watching QI, a BBC TV show, and they mentioned the case on which Bleak House is based...supposedly.

Now, Bleak House turned out to be much more up my alley.  Some of it told by the very modest Esther, who turns out to be the daughter of someone very famous.  If you haven't read it, go get it for free on Amazon and read it.  It is well worth the time.

At the moment, I have one of these "important" books on my tablet and another waiting in the wings.  What I cannot figure out is why I chose to read Walden first.  So far, it is not too bad, though it is rather slow, as one might expect from a book that is basically philosophy with a small bit of autobiography thrown in.

The one in the wings is important to me, and I am told important to America, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations.  From an early age, I have been told that this is the book that lays out the concepts of capitalism that are at the foundation of American business.

I believe that in the 21st Century capitalism has basically run off the rails, though I think that it started to stray from the true philosophy of capitalism with the first Robber Barons, the industrialists who amassed huge fortunes by exploiting their employees.

Unfortunately, I do not have the foundation to back up that thought, and that is why I mean to start with Adam Smith.  I want to know what his concepts were before I start really talking about how modern capitalism has strayed from the true faith.

One last thing...these types of books are often boring and hard to get through.  The books I have mentioned here were not written for a man born in the midst of the 20th Century and raised on TV.  I find I have to read something else to keep me sane.  At the moment that is a collection of short stories about Lord Peter Wimsey.  I love these stories and have read a fair number of them.  They come out of the same period as Agatha Christie's novels and the works of P.G. Wodehouse, another favorite of mine.

Kindle...apps

Today's rant is about Kindle Apps.  Maybe I should call it a ramble, though there will be a bit of ranting.

Today's subject is Kindle Apps.  I have never used the Kindle App for iOS…I don't do Apple.  So, I cannot comment on that.  I do have a fair amount of experience with the Kindle App for Android, and frankly, I like it.  My problem is that I don't really like Android.  I would prefer to use Windows 10 Mobile, but that is for a different rant.

So, I like the Kindle App for Android.  It has lots of nice customization settings, and I can make it look the way I like.  Now, it even connects with Goodreads, which is where I keep track of what I am reading from year to year.

The problem arises, because I prefer to use my Dell Venue 8 Pro for reading.  I don't read on my phone, which is Android.

Up until recently, there was a Kindle App for Windows that you could get through the Windows Store.  It worked a lot like the Android app, and I liked it.  When I did not like the Windows app was when it did not work the Android app. 

In the Windows app, there was a strange glitch where it would open, but in a tiny ribbon down the center of the screen.  If you rotate the tablet and let the app reconfigure itself in landscape mode, then the problem goes away, including when you rotate back to portrait mode.

Now, above you may have noted the "Up until recently," and yes, Amazon pulled the app from the store and you can no longer get it.  This leaves Windows PCs with only one choice, the Kindle for PC app.

The Kindle for PC app sucks.

There is no other way to say it.  It is terrible, and it lacks important features, like Collections and Documents.  But it's biggest failing is the simple fact that it is clearly designed for desktop PCs with monitors in landscape mode, which means…and this is important…at least to me…

It sucks hard when used on a tablet, especially an 8-9" tablet

This may sound odd, but one thing is clear to me.  The Android Kindle app is designed for reading.  Kindle for PC is not.  I should specify that when I say the Android Kindle app is designed for reading, I mean, not only that reading is its primary purpose, but that reading is the only thing that the app does well.  The app is terrible for managing your collection of books, though it does have the slightly useful feature called Collections.  Which as I stated, all Windows Kindle apps, both new and old do not have.

I am not sure exactly what the Kindle for PC app is intended for.  You can read in it, but it clearly was not designed for that, and yet it really isn't any better for managing your books.

I believe that the real problem is that Amazon doesn't care about PC users.  They do not see a PC as a good way to read books, and they have put no time into figuring out how to make reading on your PC an enjoyable experience.  If they had, the Kindle for PC app would be better.

However, I did find a solution to one problem.  Above I mentioned a feature called Documents.  The Kindle app can read several formats of documents.  If you have the Kindle for Android app, and you connect it to your Amazon account, you can go to amazon.com and you can manage your devices.  That is, you can look at a list of all the Kindle devices you have, whether they be actual Kindles, or a device with the Kindle app. 

I even have a couple extra devices, because Samsung installed Kindle on my phone, and I installed it as well.  Actually, I have 10 at this moment, and I have disabled a couple and plan to do a few more.  But, there's more…

Android Kindle devices get an email address.

Yep, usually your Amazon account name at kindle.com.  Now, here is the interesting part, and I do not know how many of you know this.  If you send an email to that address, and you attach a file, then that file gets added to your digital content under Documents, and assuming that the file is one that Kindle can read, you can use the app to open it…but only on the Android app (and maybe actual Kindle devices and iOS, not sure about those).

You cannot access Documents on Kindle for PC.  I have that directly from an Amazon Support Tech, after waiting a very long time while he checked.

That is the end of my Rant/Ramble about Kindle…apps.

Next, I am going to talk about something that Amazon left out of all the Kindle apps, management.

Whose Live Anyway?

I was a big fan of the show Whose Line is it Anyway?  Now, for those who do not remember, the show started off on BBC radio, and then moved to the TV.  Clive Anderson was the host of the British TV show, and there were a variety of guests, all of whom were improvisational comedians.  Clive would take suggestions from the audience and then the guests who improvise little scenes based on the suggestions.  The comedians were a mix of British and Americans.

When the British version went off the air, it was brought to the US by Drew Carey, who acted as the host, and again with a variety of guest comedians.

And now…..

Whose Live Anyway?

A travelling show, featuring two of the staples of the TV shows, Ryan Stiles and Greg Proops, and two other performers who, at least they claim, appeared on the show.  They didn't say which one.

However, who is in it is not really all that important, though the familiar faces make it easy to believe that the show will be good.

Was it, you ask?

Yes.

90 minutes of Improv, and good improv.

They did take audience suggestions, and one of the funnier things was the comedians trying to make out what the audience was shouting.  I think it got too much, because towards the end, Greg Proops came right out to the front of the stage and tried getting suggestions from specific audience members in the first few rows.  Greg had his anti-heckler hat on and while not being rude, at one point, after a man yelled something from the back of the audience, he looked up…

"I'm not talking to you Mr. White Male Privilege."

And he followed it up with a hand gesture of a mouth closing.

Probably the funniest bit was the pose-able comedian bit.  They brought up two audience members, and then improvised a scene about two artists at the Pecan Street Festival.  Few outside of Austin are going to know that the Pecan Street Festival is a local arts festival that happens on Sixth Street, which used to be named Pecan Street.  The two ladies had to move the comedians about, since they stood completely still unless their arms were moved…and their legs.  It led to lots of hilarious poses.

They did a piece where they made two audience members provide sound effects.  Jeff B. Davis improvised a song for an audience member whose son called her a demon unicorn.  They also did a bit called "New Choice" that I had never seen before, where two comedians did a scene and at random a third would say "New Choice" and that meant that the actor who said the previous line had to come up with a line with a different choice.  It worked very well.

Before the show, they gave about 20 people in the audience strips of paper and pens and asked them to write down a line of dialogue on the paper.  They then collected the paper, and improvised a skit, while randomly pulling out and reading a line from a strip.  This was hilarious, because in virtually all cases, the lines on the strips had nothing to do with what they had been improvising, which meant that the skit kept making abrupt turns.

Unfortunately, there are only two more dates in this Tour, and they are in Las Vegas next weekend, but if you get a chance, I can highly recommend Whose Live Anyway.

Two Convertibles

So, I have lured you in with a lie.  Okay, not really, but I will not be talking about cars.

And now it's time for....

Khatru's Education Corner

When the all knowing, all seeing, all bullshitting, Khatru explains....stuff.

Today's...that is, today in this post, not today, as in the modern day...convertible cars are still out there, but not today...you get the idea, let's move on.

One of the biggest segments of the computer industry is 2-in-1s.  Now, for anyone who does not know, a 2-in-1 is a lightweight PC that can be used as both a tablet and a laptop.  Every Microsoft Surface sold since the beginning of time is a 2-in-1.

No wait, that's not true either, because now you can buy the Surface Studio...and soon, the Surface laptop...but before that...

Wow, confusing isn't it?  But, I don't mind, so you shouldn't either.

Starting with the original Surface and Surface RT, and moving forward thru the Surface Book, they were all 2-in-1s.  In case you haven't seen a Surface or Surface Pro, they are tablets, but with a very thin keyboard that can be detached or folded around to the back of the keyboard.

Now, today that is one of the two types of 2-in-1s, what I would call a detachable.  They come with a keyboard that can be detached, so that you can use the screen as a tablet.  These tend to range from 10" to 13"

The other 2-in-1 cannot be detached, but the keyboard can be folded back behind the screen.  The Lenovo Yoga was one of the first, but Lenovo has muddied that water by using the Yoga name for a rather large series of devices running both Windows and Android.

A little over a year ago, I bought a detachable, an ASUS Transformer Book T200A.

As you can see, the screen comes off and the base has a full size keyboard, which is why I chose it.

I have been living with it for a year, and it is not too bad.  I can use the keyboard, which is always a problem on smaller devices.  I is a big Khatru, and the hands is big.  But the Asus does pretty well in that department and I can write on the Asus without any real problems.

It is only 64GB, with only about half that remaining at the moment with very little other than Windows and Office installed, but the Transformer Book has a surprise.  The keyboard unit has a slot for a 7mm hard drive, so at the moment, I have 500GB in the keyboard, and plenty of space for videos, etc.  This is really one of the big selling points for the T200A.

On the downside, the whole thing is plastic-ky and feels a bit cheap.  The keyboard unit has a fair amount of flex, though nothing has broken in a year.  Also, it is bit heavy, especially with a hard drive in it.

The tablet unit has a microUSB port, a miniHDMI port, and an SD slot, and the base has a network card, and a USB slot on each side.

Overall, I've been pretty happy with it.

A month or two back, my wife bought a Dell Inspiron 11 (3168).

The color is off in this picture (which is from the Dell website).  The blue is much darker and a lot less shiny.  This week, my wife decided she did not want it.  It has been frustrating her in various ways, including a WiFi problem that I cannot fix.

It will connect to any WiFi network, except the one in our house.  Every other device I own works on the network, but not this Inspiron.  So, for now it is powering my TV.

The Inspiron 11 is a contortionist, in that the screen folds back and will lie flat along the back of the screen.  In this mode it makes for a rather heavy large tablet.  I tried it out for a few days, and already found several problems, albeit minor ones.

The Inspiron 11 is hard to open, and virtually impossible to open one handed.  The keyboard base part of the unit is longer than the screen, so there is nothing to slip a finger under to get purchase to pry the sides apart.  It is a fairly sleek unit when closed, but each time you open it...annoyance.

The unit is very lightweight, which is good, but the keyboard base is light enough that any tap on the screen causes the whole unit to rock, which again is a small annoyance, but noticeable.

By comparison, my Asus, which is the same size, but a bit heavier is rock solid when I tap on the screen, and even more so since I added the hard drive in the base.

I have not tried out many ultraportables, so I am not sure if this is a problem with all very light laptops or 2-in-1s, so it is possible that the Asus is better than average, rather than the Inspiron being worse.

Immediately upon receiving it, my wife discovered the at the power button is in a very inconvenient place.  It is on the right side of the keyboard, just at the front corner.  Invariably, when you pick it up, you turn it on as well.  I have a similar problem with the placement of the power button on my Samsung S7 Edge smartphone, and I feel like neither Samsung nor Microsoft did enough testing before finalizing the design.

The only other problem with the Dell is that the blue plastic makes it look a little childish, sort of like it was a PC designed for 1st graders.  It isn't quite that bad, but I feel like they rather missed the mark if they were trying to make it hip and exciting.

So, there you have it, two 11.5" 2-in-1s.  Very different in design and execution, but that just shows off the diversity in the segment.

Good Intentions

Well, I had intended to write something today.

But, things don't always go as planned and I find myself wanting to write, but not having a subject for today.  Actually, I have a few things written, but they need editing before I post them.  I might have worked on that, but it got late.

So, this is just by way of saying that I haven't forgotten my blog again, but I have nothing profound to expound upon at this moment.

Hopefully, I will see all of my readers next week.

Returning to the Scene of the Crime

And what do I do now?

I have been gone so long that I wonder if anyone will remember me.  I even considered starting a new blog, but I decided that I did not want to lose the long history of posts that no one reads.  They may not mean much...well, anything...to anyone else, but they are important to me.

Dolt 45 is perched in the White House.

We have both The Grand Tour and Top Gear on the air at the same time.

Burgers are still being made and consumed...okay, that is more for Hold the Onions, but still.

Lately, I have been playing No Man's Sky and I am sure I can find a few things to say about that.

Today I watched a video...or at least part of it, of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but with the soundtrack replaced by the Daft Punk music for Tron: Legacy.  It actually worked, and so, tonight's movie selection is The Wrath of Khan, the best of the Star Trek movies, at least in my opinion.

So, if anyone is out there, welcome back.

Oh Jeremy, What have you done?

So, unless you live under a rock, you know that Jeremy Clarkson, one of the hosts of Top Gear was fired today.  What you may not know is that this is one of my favorite shows.  I have watched all of them.

I don't really like Jeremy Clarkson, but I love watching him act like an idiot.  I love watching someone who thinks they are always right, and is in fact almost always wrong.  Jeremy Clarkson is a little like Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. He has the same problem with separating his own opinion from the truth.

I will not defend Jeremy Clarkson.  If the personality he displays on the show is any indication, then he is an enormous ass.  He yelled at one of his producers.  Well, that surprises me not at all.  I have a feeling that he yells at a lot of people.  But, he crossed a line when he escalated it to physical violence.  That is unacceptable in a way that even the racial slurs…or at least supposed racial slurs are not.  He was justly fired and I applaud the BBC for firing the star of the biggest show in the world.  He deserved it, and you did the right thing.

But what now?

Over on Jalopnik there are about a dozen articles about Clarkson and Top Gear, and it all got me thinking.

First, a Bold Statement.

The more that the BBC or Jeremy Clarkson attempt to recreate Top Gear as it was, the more likely they are to fail.

Jeremy Clarkson carried Top Gear.  He wasn't the sole reason for its success, but he was vital to that success.  I cannot imagine that anyone can fill his shoes.  Now, I should be clear.  I mean that I do not think anyone can come in to Top Gear and play the role of Jeremy Clarkson.  If the host changes, the show changes.  If the BBC tries to plug in someone else and keep the show as it is, it will fail.

On the other hand, I do not think that Top Gear is going to work anywhere else.  Even if someone hires all three hosts, I think that there will need to be changes.  If they try to hire all three and try to do the same things, it will fail.

One of the things that brings me to that decision is that I think that Top Gear was getting old.  The three hosts have been more like caricatures of themselves for the last three or four series, with Jeremy really leading the pack.  The moment that Jeremy drove into the camp with a cow strapped to the top of his Camaro, I felt that Top Gear crossed a line, and it has kept pushing out from there. 

So, while this was an unfortunate way for Top Gear to change, I do not think that Top Gear would have gone on unchanged for long.

So, I have droned on long enough for now, but I leave you with two questions, which I shall try to answer in the near future.

What shall become of Top Gear?

What shall become of Jeremy Clarkson?

HTC One Max - A Review

I have been using the HTC One Max for some time now, and it seems that it might be time to provide a review.

I have been using it for about 11 months now and I have learned it's quirks.

First, HTC Sense is worthless.  Generic Android is much better and Sense only gets in the way of doing things.  So, first I turned it off and later I installed the Google Now Launcher which I actually like, though it is far from perfect.

I have my phone from Verizon, and between HTC and Verizon there is far too much bloatware on this phone for my taste.  There are a group of Verizon apps that cannot be uninstalled, which is really annoying, since I use only one Verizon app, the one that lets me check my data usage.

The screen is enormous, which I love and I have never once been sorry that I chose one of the largest phones on the market (5.9").  Unfortunately, HTC made some unfortunate choices which are rather annoying.  The HTC One Max has only two buttons, a home button and a back button.  They are backlit, but the lighting is so feeble that they can only be seen when the phone is off.  So, they can be seen when they cannot be used, and cannot see when they can.  Great work, HTC.  Couldn't you find anything stupider to do?  Oh wait, you did.

Because there are only two buttons, there is no dedicated button to view the list of running programs, so that you can switch between them.  No, you have to double tap the Home button to bring up a screen of the running apps, not a list, but a grid.  Actually, I suppose that makes two stupid choices.  More excellent work HTC.  Double tapping is not easy.  Single tap, home screen, double tab running apps grid.  Only about 40% of the time, my attempts to double tap bring up the Home screen.  The grid is not as good as a list, because when you have 4 or more apps open and want to close an app, you have to slide up through the app above the one you want to close.  About 5% of the time, that switches to the app on the lower line, or the one above it.  It isn't that often, just enough to be annoying.

So, each HTC change makes the phone worse. 

Also, the power button is in a perfect place, so that when you pick up your phone, it will either turn on or shut off, depending on what it was before you picked it up.  HTC, didn't anyone actually test the phone by picking it up?  It seems like a simple and obvious test, but obvious they did not perform that test.  Fortunately, a gel case fixed that.

One last thing, and probably the smallest of all.  The phone is white.  No one in their right mind wants a white phone, and yes, I am looking at all of you white iPhone users...you are NOT in your right mind.  Of course, you chose Apple, so you were mostly there already before proving it my buying a white phone.

So, what is my overall opinion of the HTC One Max?

I love it.

My problem is that I have owned three HTC phones, one of the first batch of Windows Phone 7 Phones (yea, that was a brilliant decision Microsoft), an HD7, and then an HTC Trophy 7.  I loved both of those phones, much more than the HTC One Max.

Hmmm, I wonder why?

Oh, it might be because Microsoft was smart enough to decide not to let OEMs modify the OS, and the hardware was set in stone, 3 buttons on the front, one camera/shutter button on the side.  No alterations.  No deciding that you know better and messing around with it.

The HTC One Max is a very good phone, but if they had left Android alone, and stuck with the standard button arrangement it would be a nearly perfect phone.

I wanted a big screen, and I got it, and that is why I love the HTC One Max.  If it were smaller, this would be an annoying phone.  I look at the HTC One remix on Verizon and notice that the extra hardware buttons are gone and it uses the onscreen buttons and it appears to have all three, so while a 4.5" screen is too small, at least they corrected one problem.