Category: Miscellaneous

SiriusXM continues to amaze …

… with their stupidity, I mean.

I have a SiriusXM account.  I want to “listen online”.  I reset my password, ’cause I couldn’t be bothered to look it up in the other room.  I try to log in with the password that I just reset.  It doesn’t work.  I reset it again.  I try to log in again.  It still doesn’t work.  I look it up in the other room and try that.  The old one still works.

I don’t know if they have some latency between resetting the password and when it becomes valid (which is dumb), or if they have different credentials for you “SiriusXM account” vs. your “listen online” account (which is dumb).  But if the latter, what is ESPECIALLY dumb, is that the “reset your password” link on the “listen online” login page RESETS THE WRONG PASSWORD.

Did I mention that this was especially dumb?

Random tidbits

  • VirtualBox’s “seamless” mode is really cool.  Make sure your guest additions are installed and working correctly.
  • EPUBReader for FireFox is my favorite ePub reader on my Mac (and the only ePub reader on the Linux VM running on my Mac :).  Prefer it highly over Stanza Desktop or Sony’s ebook reader.  Stanza on the iPhone rocks, though.
  • Land of Lisp is cool, as is Modern Perl
  • The airport at Detroit is really big.  Or maybe it’s not.  But certainly my plane taxied for what seemed like a very long time before takeoff.

Keeping track of it all

Sure, I write an article like “Full power on takeoff” and then go on vacation for a week.  ðŸ™‚

Here are some tools I use to keep track of everything, both as Secretary and Wannabe President:
  • Remember The Milk, http://www.rememberthemilk.com.  Web-based todo lists.  Works on smartphones too.  Faster than many desktop apps.
  • Evernote, http://www.evernote.com.  Notes, web clipping, saving documents — there’s a very good chance that if you can store it on a computer, you can clip it to Evernote and take it with you wherever you go.  Windows, Mac, smartphone, web clients.  Windows client works acceptably on Linux under Wine.  (Evernote version 3.1, I think; haven’t tried 3.5 or 4.0.  Just discovered 4.0 for Windows today, in fact, and haven’t had a chance to put it onto my Linux box.)
  • Groupanizer.  The Society recommends it, too.  My chapter is just getting started with it, so I can’t cite too many specifics.
  • Google Mail, Google Calendar.  Get your mail and etc from anywhere.
All these tools have good documentation and active and helpful forums.

Ask (Google) and ye shall receive

I’ve (re)discovered AutoHotKey and used it to solve a tremendously annoying Windows “feature” — you can’t move maximized windows.  I downloaded Easy Window Dragging — KDE Style and hacked it to un-maximize a window before it moves it.

I also thought, Hey, you could implement a virtual window manager in AutoHotKey with not too much difficulty.  Some Googling leads me to an actual virtual window manager (VirtuaWin) and it’s free and so far (all of 10 minutes in) I’m quite happy with it.  I wish I’d found it four years ago.

It’s all way better than the LiteStep configuration I wasted, oh, two days on.  *shudder*  Suffice to say, run away.

An interesting practical tutorial on states of alertness.

If you should find yourself faced with a life-threatening attack by a criminal, as a typical normal person, you will be faced by three enormous difficulties. They are:

1. Recognizing the presence of the predator in time;

2. Realizing, internalizing, and accepting that THAT MAN, RIGHT THERE, is about to kill you for reasons you do not understand; if you don’t stop him; and

3. Overcoming your reluctance to do lethal violence against a fellow human being.

Read the rest here.

Continue reading An interesting practical tutorial on states of alertness.

Judging a “tablet”(?) by its cover

Apple anounced the iPad recently.  The response of one corner of the Internet: http://i.imgur.com/oRffH.jpg.

Skimming
through Apple’s iPad page makes it clear that they do not consider it a
stand-alone device like other tablets, but an adjunct to some other
system.  What other fully fledged computer has requirements listed for
other computers (http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/, “Mac system requirements” / “Windows system requirements”)?

To be sure, form factor matters, and I suspect that there’re a
bunch of people out there that’d like something like an iPhone only
larger, and now they can get one.  Except that apparently the iPad
doesn’t do voice (the 3G section of the specs says “data only”). 
*sigh*  Way to miss the boat, Apple.

It doesn’t hurt that it can run iPhone apps and there’re thousands
of iPhone app developers waiting in the wings.  It has a pre-built
developer community and approximately zero learning curve if you’re
already an experienced iPhone developer.

My basic reaction: Meh.  Sorry, Apple.  🙂  I guess I’ll stick to my Mac Pro and my iPhone.

Update 5/11/11: I got an iPad2 last month.  🙂

The Psychopath Next Door

http://www.robertmatthews.org/psychopath_articles.html

Not all psychopaths are criminals, some are just Grade-A Bastards. Reading these articles, I inevitably thought of people I know or used to know, and basically crossed them all off the list of “possible psychopaths”. (I’m sure you’re all pleased. 🙂 But one name did stay on the list. Happily, I don’t really “know” him, as he’s fictional: Greg House.