google stats

ok, they are free, the google-blogger blogs and the stats they provide, so this is only a semi-complaint because, after all, we get a whole lot for free from google-blogger and if a feature is not working, well, many free features are... i just want to record my semi-complaint about the google stats on blogger, specifically, the "Don't count my own page views" feature... this is the feedback i sent to google:

The "Don't track your own page views" seems to have a very short term cookie and it is very annoying to have to reset this feature regularly. Even more annoying when it must be done blog by blog for multiple blogs. I know this is free, but the stats lose their meaning if they are constantly reset to count my page views when I do not want my page views counted. Why have the feature at all if it isn't going to stay "on"? So two feature requests:

No expiration date for the cookie that controls "Don't track your own page views"

and

an "all blogs" feature where a change in settings can be done across all blogs with one change.

Thanks for the free blogs, I hope these suggestions will be considered in your next update.

there are a whole lot of other ways they can improve their stats, like list more than the top ten of everything, but for as much as i use the stats (and as much as they mean to me), this is the one feature i wish they would get right... anyone who makes use of the stats on blogs here, feel free to enlighten me as to how you use them because other than amusement, i don't find much use... thanks and may all our complaints be this light :)

windows defender

excuse me, windows defender just interrupted my conversation with a friend and other computer usage for no apparent reason... it did not scan, perhaps because i was typing as it popped up... i never even used it, it was disabled when i installed my anti-virus software because it is not compatible... but recently when firefox crashed one time too many i opened internet explorer and suddenly windows defender is scheduled to run daily... it doesn't matter what i am doing, it interrupts... another unnecessary annoyance from the idiots at microsoft who can't seem to understand that my use of my computer should be the priority and microsoft software should not usurp control over my computer (unless they'd like to pay for it)... dang proprietary software codes, when will they ever learn they will never have satisfied customers unless they start respecting customers...

and they wonder why so many say microsoft sucks... like they care with their billions...

microsoft and so on

Adobe has yet another update it wants to install... and once again it failed... Java has yet another update it wants to install... and once again it failed too... Windows has thirteen, yes 13 "important" updates it wants to install... it's been trying to do that for five minutes... so far the software companies have oqned this computer for fifteen minutes... is it just windows vista that sucks or does adobe and java and all windows updates that suck, who knows (somebody must know, so feel free to suggest why updates fail and why they want to update so often and why they take so long to complete when they do update and yes, i turn everything off except for this notebook text box... and i am bored since i sat down here to use the computer but microsoft will not let me use this computer as i would like to... time to shut down the computer because microsoft wants me to...

so now forty minutes into this annoyance, update does not pop up again after the computer finally reboots... Adobe apparently succeeded once i went to the website after restart... so i open windows update and it tells me no important updates need to be installed... and yet, when i look at update history, four of the "important" updates failed... but there's no way to try to reinstall them... so i click on a few things and no help... i finally get to the microsoft website and it explains a "what if" scenario involving Office 2013 that i don't have and no help... so i send the error messages to microsoft and i am left with four failed "important" security updates... and an hour passed working for mocrosoft, adobe, and java... and adobe insists on installing google crome... and java insists on installing the ask toolbar... and microsoft, well, microsoft is in a category of inconvenience, annoyance, and intrusion all it's own... an hour of my life gone... i suppose that's my payment for their free software, but then, they should not get to advertise on software i pay for...

well, at least brighthouse is happy microsoft came along today (though the internet connection here continues to be more problemmatic than it was at the last location)... someday computers will actually work logically and reasonably like other products we own... wouldn't that be spacial...

Google Fail

yes, #GoogleFail and also #BloggerFail... I am hating on the new forced on users blogger format... i see less options on the page... more hidden options means more time to navigate and use the page... i do not see all of my blogs on my dashboard without clicking on the 'more blogs' link, extra clicking, wasted time... while every change has a learning curve and it takes time to develop a comfort level with every interface, immediate and obvious inconveniences should not be the first thing noticed...

and apparently all my preferences were reset to google blogger default as i am wasting more time setting up formats and options that i need to remember in order to maintain continuity in my blogs... and obviously the interface is developed for bloggers with fewer blogs than i have... more obviously i need to explore wordpress and other blog options...

it did not help that microsoft vista sucked royally and it's taken almost two hours to actually start blogging tonight...

NFL Fail

the nfl really sucks this year mostly due to the inexperienced officials losing control of games and making very bad calls that effect the momentum and the outcome of games... no amount of spin is going to convince me that this season's first two weeks would have had different outcomes of some games if the regular refs were out there...

it is apparent now that the nfl commissioner and bosses were lying over the last few years when they stated they were imposing fines and changing rules to protect players... they obviously do not care about players... say it again - the decision to let players play under these poorly officiated out of control conditions is proof the bosses do not care about player safety...

the commissioner is certainly a gambler... gambling fans will watch crap and gambling nobody will get hurt enough to permanently scar nfl football... i hope a superstar's career is not ended because the nfl is allowing this fiasco to continue because that would be a permanent scar and legacy for this current commissioner...

not brighthouse

so once again i sit here with a lost internet connection and a lost tv cable connection in the middle of working and right at the beginning of a show so watching brighthouse cable tv is pointless and the job search i was in the middle of is not just pointless, but possibly a waste of the last hour or more since websites might not let me continue filling out their pages when the connection finally returns... how many ways can brighthouse suck...

and what will wasting more time on the phone with the tech department or wasting even more time rearranging my schedule for home visits really do that has not been done in the dozens of hours i've already wasted, really... as i said in a previous entry

there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...

i have probably never been more ready for a sales pitch from dish or direct or u-verse or anyone but brighthouse...

... 18 MINUTES LATER... and now that the box FINALLY reset, i turn it back on (because it does not reset to the channel and show it interrupted, of course) and i return to the show i was watching and the box is blinking on and off, resetting every ten seconds or so... brighthouse decided i should not watch this show, obviously...

what kind of CRAP SERVICE is this - BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS...

.... and now a few minutes later after turning off the box and tv and waiting and turning both on again, there is no sound... this happens at least 80% of the time we turn on the box and tv and the solution is switching stations, sometimes a few times, sometimes using the FAV button on the remote... this usually bring sound on most of the time...

i don't even mention the no sound and don't come here to record every box reset or glitch in service because this is just the kind of crap service brighthouse provides, but at least i found a fix for the no-sound problem... perhaps brighhouse sucks needs a blog all it's own because brighthouse is definitely spoiling the tongue-in-cheek tone this blog was intended to maintain because BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS too much to laugh about it...

at least not all the time (though i should laugh at myself for capitalizations when i finally stop being angry at this latest brighthouse service failure...

sheesh...

news and weather

i am beginning to feel enough dislike (i really hate the word hate ya know) the news and weather media in the usa... it is madness and so very unhealthy, which is why i stay away from watching or reading it quite often... the fear-driven culture we live in has produced a society of adrenaline junkies afraid of everything and worse, unable to think for themselves... a clear sign of a failing culture...

what brings this meaningless complaint out today is the tropical storm isaac reports that have been pounding into millions of people's heads over the past week, especially the last few days as the news people are begging for the national weather service to call this storm a hurricane (in fact, the weather people have mistakenly called it a hurricane more than a few times, on the weather channel no less, where they are supposed to know what they are doing - and don't they?... they know scaring people gets more people to watch and rating and selling products is their first priority, not protecting people or providing fair and accurate reporting of the news... journalism is such a dead profession these days in the usa)...

and after hours of telling us that the 11am national weather service report should upgrade the storm to a hurricane (note, that's an upgrade - sick) again and again and the disappointment was obvious in the reporters voices and words, even questioning the national weather service making statements like "it would have been better if they upgraded to a hurricane"...

how shameful greed is so acceptable...

how irresponsible fear-mongering is so acceptable...

everybody be afraid, stop thinking, just be afraid and above all else - keep watching the news because we have very important commercial messages you need to see between all the fear-mongering reports we repeat over and over...

how ignorant will this culture get before it collapses?...

did i just fear-monger?

brighthouse service, not

once again the cable box brighthouse provides is resetting itself every ten seconds... turns off, turns on, just for whatever reasons...

so fed up with this crap brighthouse sucks service i don't even feel like a proper venting...

and they want to talk about it?

education in the USA

It is sad that leaders in the USA do not understand how important education to national security. Comparison scores declined for decades last century. Some improvement can be seen this century, but USA scores still fall shamefully behind other countries.

1995 results: "...tests showed U.S. fourth-graders performing poorly, middle school students worse. and high school students are unable to compete. By the same criteria used to say we were "average" in elementary school, "we appear to be "near the bottom" at the high school level. source

2003 comparison of more than 250,000 15-year old students from 41 countries. USA Ranks: Math: 27th, Reading: 18th, Science: 22nd. source

2010 Ranks show minor improvement, but when considering the wealth and resources available in the USA, these scores still show a sad disregard for education in the USA: Math: 25th, Reading: 14th, Science: 17th.
source

This does not address the unavailability of higher education for the majority of Americans who cannot afford $100,000+ for a basic college education and double that for an advanced degree. Government loans and long-term debt or bankruptcy is not the answer, but the only alternative for many young people.

Until Education is as high a priority as Defense, no amount of bombs/guns will protect us from the defenselessness of technological and intellectual inferiority.

brighthouse sucks, again

once again, in the middle of a program i am watching, the cable box is resetting on it's own... so i will miss ten or more minutes of the program i wanted to watch thanks to brighthouse sucks... they should just add the suck to their name... or put fail in their smiley face logo... i really do not want the horrible brighthouse service statistics i started keeping while waiting for service repairs to dominate this blog, in fact, i really don't want to be inspired to come to this blog in the first place, but i find that coming here and venting my immediate complaint, however meaningless, helps me deal with the frustration and anger i feel when my life and entertainment is interrupted or stopped by a corporate decision like right now... and it passes the time while i am waiting for the brighthouse service to return... i suppose it is just way too difficult (or simply a level of customer service that brighthouse does not wish to provide) to have a pop up on the screen ask me if this would be a good time to reboot the box or upgrade the software... especially since it also messes with my expensive plasma tv and the remote synch that is yet another frequent complaint... remotes could be so much more functional...

so the cable box is rebooting and the tv lost it's signal and is confused and thinks there was a power outage or hack attempt or virus or something as it went into emergency shut down mode... a smart tv knows when an unexpected shut down and signal change occurs, just like a computer does... but based on the poor service and products, it does not seem that the brighthouse people or software are up to speed with the latest tech... so the box is stuck on L-8 and has been since i started writing this comment... i mean, if the reboot reset upgrade or whatever is happening only took a minute, it would not be such a frustrating forget watching what you wanted to watch experience and probably wouldn't bring me to seek the distraction and venting of this complaint, but the box takes forever to do whatever it is doing without my consent... pathetic customer service...

almost any decent reliable software has a setting to "ask me before uploading updates" and "ask me before rebooting"... even microsoft in their all-powerful we-can-do-anything mindset finally understood that customer service... but not brighthouse...

not very bright, these people who make the big decisions at brighthouse...

and then of course when the box finally is rebooted, it defaults to off so i must turn it on which turns off the tv so i must get the tv remote to turn on the tv and of course the box returns to the start-up channel which comes on without sound as usual, just one more brighthouse fail i am ridiculously learning to live with... how much longer is getting shorter with each meaningless complaint (so maybe they are not as meaningless as they appear, aye?)...

and now i press the remote button to go to the next channel and i get a black screen partially burning into my plasma screen because it is a partial black screen and the box wants me to "please wait"... as if i have not waited enough...

no, i am not ready to spend a few hours and set up more appointments to try to fix things again... brighthouse wasted a lot of my time this year (and tonight( and giving them even more time just seems like getting screwed further... maybe next month...

UPDATE 3am = no, once was not enough tonight, another brighthouse interruption of service long enough to bring me here happens to ruin yet another hour of my viewing, that's three hours tonight of wasting my time paying for brighouse crappy service that is not providing what my contract says it will provide... and now the box decided to reboot yet again after another upgrade of some sort... so this is ridiculous... so yet another call to tech support to find out why my cable box is repeatingly rebooting tonight... one reboot ruining my viewing experience over two hours is not enough, another ruining a third show had to be done...

no warning, no prompt asking if this is a good time to shut down my tv enjoyment... just interrupt the shows and shut off the box after rebooting forcing me to deal with the crappy remote and the resetting of the sound because the box doesn't work right when it is turned on and resetting my tv and re-finding the channel i was watching... rub my nose in how crappy the brighthouse service really is...

it's ok, i can miss the first or last fifteen minutes of shows and still enjoy them... and adding insult to injury, the first thing i see is that bullshit brighthouse tv commercial... days are numbered for brighthouse getting my money if this keeps up...

the continuing saga of brighthouse suckage

so for the fourth time i leave work early this month to head home for the brighthouse roadrunner internet tech and for the second time the tech does not show... this time i was here a half hour before the scheduled time and i said yes three times to confirmation phone calls, the last one being a half hour before the scheduled time... brighthouse has a very dissatisfied customer... hello friend my ass...

it may be time to explore the alternatives...

and as i type the last dot of that ellipsis and pause a moment, there is a knock on the door and it is the cable guy... an hour late and no call to let me know (and i was so ready to nap three hours ago and fought to stay awake so i wouldn't miss the guy and so much for catching up on sleep as i am out at 5am tomorrow and am frustrated now (and i do not like going to sleep frustrated) and of course the internet is fine now... for the moment... he unplugged and tested and reset and reconnected and all is well, for the moment... yet the telephone tech couldn't get it fixed last time on the phone which is why they escalated to an advanced tech home visit again...

maybe they just cut off my service when i am online too constantly, especially on certain websites that continuously update ads or whatever... maybe it is the time of month for a bandwidth issue... maybe it's just crappy old wiring that worked fine for ten months and then started going out... maybe it's a crowded apartment complex with a lot more users pulling bandwidth... maybe it's a hacker... maybe it's just brighthouse sucks...

and then keep calling to sell me more product and i keep asking why should i pay more when the product isn't working consistently... business... they could placate me with a free month or a free upgrade but they seem not to care... like most businesses, charge more, get less... hello friend my ass...

hello friend is their new ad campaign, in case you were wondering... they lie...

so now he is outside checking on the main wiring... and the internet went out again, so he must have disconnected the whole building to check the main line... hopefully i will get to upload this and be online a bit tonight... and now the internet is local only again...

softball on my mind

ok, so this might belong in the more private ranting place(s), but i come here based on the futility of this particular meaningless complaint... i have verbalized it in many ways, more and less politely, to the people involved and it does not appear to make any difference to them, hence, the meaninglessness of this particular complaint (we can clarify the definition of complaint, which is rather different in my language than in the standard dictionary, another time... besides, this is not just about any particular people as a few different groups could easily be examples, though i do use a specific example of actions here... all that to say, this disclaimer is probably not necessary (but probably appropriate to have a meaningless disclaimer in front of yet another meaningless complaint, aye?... inappropriate laughter should follow lol lam laa)...

back to the meaningless complaint of the moment now... ah yes, softball... fundamental catch and throw errors are one thing... i don't expect everyone on the team to have perfect skills... but not practicing between and especially before games and getting the kinks out in the first two innings is annoying and not teamwork... as often as i suggested people do that, a few still will not do that and repeatedly make the same catch and throw errors in early innings... second and shortstop especially... and both play way too deep and give up at least two or three ground ball hits every game that are soft ground ball outs... and then they back away from (or don't bend and block) anything hit hard so a few times a game a ground out goes between their legs or past them as they step out of the way... when short and second are afraid of ground balls, it is tough to be a winning team...

but if that was all that was wrong with the team (teams, actually) i probably would not be waking the next day with softball on my mind... it is not just a weak and scared middle infield, even more, in fact, much more, it is simply not listening to coaching when it is obvious their head is not in the game... like getting picked off by leaving a base on a fly ball when the coach is yelling "come back" or "tag up"... or swinging at ball four when the coach just reminded you "3-1 count, a walk loads the bases" and grounding out or into a double play (why do the slow runners not listen to the fundamental 3-1 take a pitch philosophy more than anyone else?)... but i leap ahead of myself...

so we are playing the best team in the league (by far), a team of mostly the umpires for the league (which isn't really fair but that's besides the point and we can have fun with them anyway), and we are going into the bottom of the sixth inning tied 5-5 (and four of their five runs were gifts on infield errors)... they are up... a few choice errors by the shortstop, one easy ground ball he was playing too deep on and one low ground ball right between his legs, put runners at first and second and nobody out... a couple of bobbles in the outfield and a wild throw, a dropped ball at second, and another infield hit because the middle infielders play too deep and they are up 8-5...

we come up for out last at bat... first batter, #7 in the lineup, gets on, a walk on three pitches... their pitcher getting nervous and throws two balls to the next batter, #8 in the lineup (he usually bats #4 or #5 but was late to the game so doesn't warm up which is becoming a pattern)... i yell out for the whole field to hear "3-1 count, he hasn't thrown a strike yet, take one for the team, a walk loads the bases with no out and brings up the top of the order"... it is not the first time we've been through this... 31 or 3 and 1 is often called out in these situations to remind a batter... base runners are everything in the last inning when down by a few runs... a walk allows the girl behind the batter to walk as well, therein loading the bases and that would bring one of our best hitters to the play, the #1 hitter and top of the lineup... it is simple, fundamental, smart softball...

the batter swings at ball four, a ball dropping in front of the plate, and almost gets thrown out at first but we avoid a double play on an error... on the next play, he is caught off first base for the double play, game over... it is not the first time he did that, simply did not have his head in the game and refused to hear or listen to coaching to lose a game in the last inning... oh well, i keep the joking and positive cheering going on the outside, but inside i am frustrated by the lack of team support... everybody heads home and i go out to dinner with a few of the guys from the other team cuz i play with them on thursday nights... softball is a family kind of thing when you play for years and i know most of the players on the better teams from either playing with them or playing against them often in several different leagues or in tournaments... we enjoy dinner and talk world series and football and life cuz that is what is going on at the sports bar and i sure don't want to relive frustrating lack of obvious fundamentals and teamwork and neither do they...

and then home and watch the end of the world series and football and write some and browse some and respond to messages some and sleep some and here i am, waking at the usual work time on a day off, with softball on my mind... and pondering whether i want to pay for a team that does not play like a team (only seven players paid this season, which means i pay for four slots at $47 each and then pay for my slot as well... the others wanted to take a season off to watch more football so i find subs every week)... paying $200+ for the kind of frustration last night brings is definitely not worth it...

i am not sure why everyone else just accepts losing by fundamental mistakes and deliberate ignoring fundamental winning softball tenets (not to mention coaching), but they may need to find another pitcher next season if i find another team to play for... that would be uncomfortable, yes, but paying $200+ for people who don't listen and don't care is not healthy for me... and this team never goes out socially or practices, just shows up (often late) and rushing home after the game... not really into the social aspect of softball or the fundamentals or learning or teamwork or friendship... seems pretty obvious they are not into softball for the same reasons i am and so, perhaps it is time for a change... i will talk to the core members who are friends and see what they say...

feeling much better now that i thought it through :)