rostasi

OMG!

OK, as long as you’re not going all Norm Crosby on me…

Does this mean that he could scan a big room?

Here, you can see Smothers doubling Lennon on acoustic guitar; he’s sitting in a chair just to Lennon's right (advance to 3:35 for a particularly clear view or just look at the still view here): Is this a “fuck everywhere” attitude?

“…The Who, meanwhile, had a regular bit of stagecraft wherein they would put an explosive charge in Keith Moon's bass drum and light it off at the end of their performances. Due to some miscommunication and a desire to really bring down the house, unbeknownst to everyone, the drum kit ended up with a triple charge on the night the band appeared on the Smothers brothers' show … cymbal shrapnel hit Moon in the arm (see him grab his shoulder), and the explosion singed Pete Townshend's hair while also giving him permanent hearing loss…”

You wouldn't believe how much I've found... ...and inside record covers too!

In just about any book, I look for money.

Cut From the Reed Bed: Instrumental Classical Music in Cairo ca. 1910-23 Tarab Vocal Art in Cairo vol. 3, 1915-24

She's still around tho…

simultaneously with...

I love how your socks match the colors on the drum machine. 😄 A nice twist on retro-Christmas. Did you find that machine online and had it updated or was it really in that shape when you got it? Christmas breakfast with a well-worn "THEO" glass:

Sorry, I took the phrase, "I thought I was going to figure it out..." as not being able to figure it out. Yeah, the oven. Thank god I don't have to dig deep and swipe over, under, sideways, down to start pre-heating it! Did Texas seem to feel that hearing aids were a disability warranting an iPad?

It's not a technologically overwhelming thing. It's a niggling thing. It's like someone writing you a note that can only be read if you heat the letter or add red cabbage juice to it. Baking pies can be fun, but I don't always want to put a pie together when I want one. I want to, more often than not, pick up something that's already made well: Marie Callender. I don't want to assemble it - even if I'm given "choices." I don't want someone to give me some partial ingredients so as to figure out how to put the pie together. You can't work an iPad. I don't like cell phones. Neither one of us will be seen at the next Tech-Fest.

Well, I can't say much more about the phone basics because I've used one a total of about three times - 2 were directly pandemic related and yesterday's was partially pandemic related. Yes, HEIC is used to save space with the same visual quality (you just easily change it in the camera settings under "format" by just ticking the box - no big deal). Also, maybe the audio is AIFF because it's better quality than an mp3? But, you know, you have a dozen formats available on an iPhone and you can listen to the crappiest to the best and anything in-between at a flick of a finger if you want to geek out. Apple haters love to think they're being "forced" by the company - that something is (watch for the bad word): "proprietary" - the sole purpose of which is to be enslaved by them. Well, I'm just furious that Tom's Toothpaste has the gall to actually make something different than Crest! I mean, who do they think they are trying to give us something different and actually thinking it might be a better alternative. A couple of days ago, we were laughing at the fact that everytime I try to type the word "I've" on my iPad, it always fills in "Ivermectin." THAT's something that drives me cRaZy when it comes to Apple - auto-filling in while I type, so, yes, I have the exact opposite problem when it comes to auto-fill. I looked up some videos on answering calls on a Samsung phone. People complain about this swiping motion you have to do. I'm sure that somewhere there's a way to change that, but if we're gonna complain about default settings, then let's be consistent. Comments about answering or rejecting calls on a Samsung phone: Swiping? What the hell? On the iPhone, I pressed the "home" button on the bottom when it rang - that's it. It worked that way out of the box. My wife says it perfectly when she says that some geeks love those kinds of phones because they can get down and dirty with all of those special settings - but she (and I) and apparently the late Steve Jobs agree that if you can't open up a box with the product in it and start using it immediately, then why would you even want it?

Actually, I remember the Samsung conversation we had about all of the things you need to do in order to phone and “be phoned” before she handed it to me to go to the vet. Stunned that one needs to know all that, but it was a constant form of frustration for her for years (pretty much cementing my dislike for cellphones).“Security” was/is not a thing with either one of those phones. It usually sits around in some out-of-the-way area until it gets some use 3 or 4 times a month, so it’s not a locked-up problem. Also, I’ll remind you that my wife has been an engineer for over 40 years, so computers are something she knows something about: having installed huge ones for NASA and NOAA and other government agencies. Also, only about a half-hour went by before the vet call. No kind of “security” settings for something used so infrequently. Maybe a code, maybe not, but I just remember: IT WAS A PROCESS! If I did, then, OK, one (other) step, but this wasn’t a single extra process. Also, it wasn’t that I couldn’t use the phone at all (I wasn’t locked out), it was that it took me multiple steps to actually answer it. By the time I got to the other end, the call was over … but I did get to the other end. Today, she said, “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but maybe you should take the phone with you. This one is much easier.” (She doesn’t scream at it now). I drove around for nearly two hours before I got the call from the doctor’s office, so the inactivity thing doesn’t hold in these instances. Also, I know her password, so if needed it would be a snap and there aren’t secrets around here. When a phone is open and available, you shouldn’t have to go thru layers. As for security settings: I don’t know about cell phones, but to have a piece of equipment that you have to adjust for security reasons because the product is incapable of handling it on its own is just a cRaZy additional step. In the end, I know what it’s like to own an AMC (American Motors Corporation) car: bits and bobs from various companies holding the “system” together. I’d rather have the fully functioning automobile that’s been pre-tested and works like a charm.

An example: in 2020, when I had to stay outside of a vet’s office in the car (because of the pandemic) waiting while they looked at the cat, they tried to call me on my wife’s Samsung. The fumbling I had to do (put in a code, swipe this way and that, and so on…) in order to just take the call was so much that I kept missing the call. In the end, they walked out of the office and walked to my car to give me the message. Today: My wife gave me her iPhone just in case the doctor’s office called to come pick her up. They did. While at a red light, I reached down and pressed one button that immediately answered and pressed one button to shut it off. Again, the idea is to make things simple enough for those who have seldom (or not at all) used the technology.

I actually wrote "big-ass SUVs", but decided against saying it. I've just learned that lots of folks go with what they've become accustomed to. For me, If I'm shown something that streamlines the process and gets me closer to what I want, then I naturally gravitate towards that. The amazing thing is that Apple and Amiga were both systems that not only did that, but actually showed me that there were smarter and more innovative things that could be done that I wasn't finding in the years I was always battling PCs after the ease of the Amiga. The amount of money wasted trying to find the right matchups to a PC was huge! Software of various kinds that sometimes worked (even then, usually very poorly) or didn't work at all ... when I could actually have the stuff I needed not only there for me to use, but was not just basic, but exceptional in that it pointed me in the direction of showing me what more you could do with the software. In 2001, the things that, for example, iTunes showed what could be done with a music library was extraordinary at the time and I use the multi-facets that it still provides now. I prefer not having the hillbilly car that the owner is always tinkering with to get it to do the thing that another, better, car already has installed and works even better than you expected. Phones? Holy hell! My wife couldn't take it anymore with this Samsung doorstop of hers. Why do you have to do these intermediate steps just to answer the damn thing? Push this, swipe that, stand on your head. A cruel game of "Simon Says" methinks. Anyway, people go with what's "them".