Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend

[austin_dern]

Among little changes immediately apparent on returning: Channel 5 has added the Olympic Rings to its channel bug. By one of those odd standards things channel bugs are generally on the top of the screen here; Channel 5 now has their opaque 5 on the right-hand top, and transparent rings on the left-hand top. Meanwhile Channel i (also a broadcast station) has moved their bug to the left-hand top; up to last month it was on the right top. Channel i's sister Mandarin (broadcast) station Channel u is still on the right top. Further details when one turns interesting.

Meanwhile on campus the wireless networking is being more difficult than it used to be. I don't know if they fiddled with something while I was away (they did put the local wireless antenna inside a security box) or if it was my upgrading to OS X 10.3.4 that did it. I can get my essential-to-work Internet services by ethernet cable, though not niceties like the American Council for the Blind's Old-Time Radio web broadcasts. In any case, I'm really, really tired of spending any part of my life playing stupid games to get a network to network, and today's extreme server slowness getting through to Livejournal isn't a funny little topper. Look, I know a bunch of my friends who read this are in Silicon Valley. So I'm telling you: get this stuff straightened out. I'll give you to the second of July, and if I miss the next installment of Gracie Allen's 1940 run for President (she ran on the Surprise Party ticket; their mascot was a kangaroo, and while she didn't win the Presidency she was named mayor of Menomonee, Michigan) I'll have very harsh words for you all.

Trivia: It's believed ice cream was first eaten in Martinique on March 6, 1806. Source: The Frozen-Water Trade, Gavin Weightman.

Currently Reading: The Sunless World, Neil R. Jones.

Comments

[chahala.livejournal.com]

*snugs*

Actually... the livejournal servers are in Beaverton OR... so you should complain to your silicon forest friends about it. The silicon vally people are a little far away.

Snugs!

Chahala

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Don't go making excuses for them, now. There's plenty of remote services available if they make just a little effort.

[blither.livejournal.com]

Vote Gracie!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The ``Vote for Gracie'' song is really quite catchy. I found what appears to be a copy of the campaign's ``How to Become President'' book, though it somehow overlooks sheet music. Features great observations, though, like, ``Times aren't what they used to be, especially with Daylight Saving.'' Great fun.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I trust that this lapse in including a link to said broadcasts was a matter of unavoidable necessity; we shall look kindly upon the matter. Although we reserve the right to wonder just what they may have been thinking, should RealAudio or WMA be the sole option(s).

What are the odds the new security measures are (a) not open, perhaps through a proprietary extension to an open standard, and as a result are (b) only accurately supported by one OS family?

(Optionally including (c), which permits for equal hassle for all, regardless of OS)

I wonder who'll be the first TV/PVR manufacturer to include a bug removal filter? Hardly the most taxing problem, if it's translucent - opaque would be rather more difficult, I imagine, though even some sort of intelligent blurring would probably be preferable to the deliberately obnoxious logos some stations seemingly opt for.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was just an oversight. The American Council for the Blind's old-time radio broadcasts are at http://acbradio.org/treasure-trove.html (http://acbradio.org/treasure-trove.html) -- although I never think of that, because they're one of the Talk stations under the iTunes menu. There are a few other old-time radio stations there as well.

The broadcast works from off-campus, so the problem is apparently some fussy thing with the on-campus networking. I'm inclined to blame the proxy, since in the past that's most often been the problem.

On-the-fly removing of bugs would be marvelous, but what it would really do is make networks start making the bugs opaque and bounce around so they can't be detected. They're evil enough (the Rocky and Bullwinkle DVD set, wonderful as it otherwise is, suffers from this), but that would be far worse.