Missing Features

Missing Features

Many systems are very handy, but could be a much handier if the implementers had given some thought to extending them a little. I have complained about a number of these issues in the past, but the goal here is to highlight them as unfinished implementations of good ideas.

When I started working at IBM, long ago, the second-system effect had recently been described by Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month. This is the tendency to take small, useful systems and add features that sound good but add so much complexity that the system become worse, not better. 

But some new features are very useful and worth some complexity. It's a line to cross carefully.

Phones - clocks

The time on a phone clock is generally given in the local time zone. If you don't know what time zone you are in, that is not enough information. The phone knows what time zone it's using, but this information is generally not displayed.

And a phone clock should include the next alarm time. I need to know at a glance when the alarm will sound.

Phones - always on lock screens

My comments on clocks apply to always on lock screen clocks too.

And the always on lock screen should be visible in any light. But with my Samsung phones, the display text is often too dark read. I guess they are trying to increase battery life. But what is the point of the always on screen if I can't read it?

My Google phones (from years ago) handled these issues. Why not Samsung?

And Apple still hasn't figured out that an always on lock screen is an important feature.

Cars - sticky switches for driving modes

Car manufacturers have apparently forgotten the value of sticky switches - switches that keep their contents when the car is turned off. Most notably on my Subaru Crosstrek, auto stop/start and sport/"intelligent" driving mode. Why can't it leave my settings alone instead of going back to default every time I start the car?

Cars - wake up - the line is moving

The Crosstrek has a neat feature that beeps for you when you are stopped and the car in front of you moves forward. That's in case you fall asleep in line at a stoplight. But it is not helpful if you are at the front of the line. With all the image processing in the automatic cruise control system (Subaru uses a pair of cameras, not radar), you would think that the car could tell you if the stoplight turns green. Or maybe this is crosses into the second-system effect.

Cars - backup cameras

Backup cameras in cars are great. I often would like to see the backup camera display when not in reverse. For example when going forward while parallel parking. That should be trivial, just a screen button.

Cars - daytime running lights

Daytime running lights seem like a good idea. But why only on the front of the car. Especially in fog, I want all four corners lit.

(My solution - I leave the headlights on all the time. This includes the corner lights. I have LED lights that don't use much power and last a long time.)

Cars - automatic headlights

Automatic headlights - another great idea except - they need to turn on at dusk, not when it is dark. And they need to turn on in the rain and fog. The light sensor could be adjustable so that it catches dim/cloudy/rainy conditions. And the car could turn on the lights whenever the windshield wipers are on.

Also, if you need to turn on the headlights when in automatic mode (because the car doesn't) - how about a separate button for that instead of having to change the mode? That way it could change back to automatic automatically.

As noted above, I just leave the headlights on all the time.

Cars - turn signals

Turn signals - how do you signal a U turn? A simple addition would be another blinking sequence - short, off, long, off, ... could signal a U turn. A bit more difficult would be the driver's switch for this.

Computer Mice

Mice would be much better if they could be put in horizontal or vertical only mode. On Amazon, I see a lot of mice with variable resolution. This sounds very useful. I will have to try one.

Stereos - tone controls

I guess my usage of stereo dates me. But I have found no point in having more channels for my sound system. And as my hearing deteriorates, high fidelity seems pointless. But as my hearing deteriorates, I need better tone controls. Specifically, more important than bass and treble is upper midrange, also known as presence. It adds clarity to speech (consonants) and timbre (the sound of an instrument that makes it unique). But this is seldom found on home stereos. I could add an external equalizer, but just a presence knob would handle most issues.

Incidentally, you could probably get rid of the treble control. Adding or subtracting with a 10 KHz shelf filter is completely pointless to me, and probably the vast majority of people that spend their life in the noise pollution of America. (This morning I did a one mile walk underneath a circling helicopter. It's hard to express the anxiety and frustration this causes.)

More On Sports

More On Sports

The Chess Clock

The chess clock was a brilliant invention. This is two stopwatches, each with a flag that falls after a set interval. Only one clock runs at a time. To start the game, the clocks are zeroed and the first clock is started. The first player makes a move and hits a button that stops the first clock and starts the second. The second player makes a move and hits a button that stops the second clock and starts the first. And so on until either the game is won or a flag falls. If your flag falls, you have exceeded your allotted time - you lose.

It should be used for more than just chess. Scrabble and similar games would be improved. You might need more than two timers, but that's easy with a phone app.

How about using it in debates to ensure equal talk time? Your microphone would be turned on only while your clock is running. Perhaps after your flag falls, the interval would be set for just 10 seconds to allow for short responses.

How about group discussions? An enhancement might be a "waiting" button to get in line to talk. And a "go to the front of the waiting line" button to get priority to talk - but this should probably cost you by reducing your time allotment.

Frisbee Golf

Frisbee golf looks fun. I've never tried it. But I wonder, why just Frisbees? What other object would be fun? Baseball, golf ball, dart? Corn hole bag, horseshoe, nunchucks? Paper airplane? Maybe punted football golf would be interesting.

How about any object golf? I wonder what would dominate - Frisbee, baseball, golf ball, dart? Certainly not a basketball, football, or shot (as in shot put).

Volleyball

Volleyball - why six players on a side? Beach volleyball games get by with two players on a side. Maybe part of the game is coordinating traffic.

I was going to ask why only the serving team get points for winning a rally. I investigated and found that there are now two types of scoring in use. In "side out" scoring only the serving side gets a point for winning a rally. In "rally" scoring, introduced around 2000, either side wins a point for winning the rally. Rally scoring makes a lot more sense to me.

Auto Racing

My favorite automobile racing was the Can-Am series from 1966 to 1974. Almost anything goes cars. Two seats, wheels enclosed by the body. This made it a technology race and the cars were very interesting. Unfortunately, each year, usually, one team had a technology advantage that led to domination. Can-Am saw wings (driver adjustable, attached directly to the suspension until they realized how dangerous that was), active ground effects aerodynamics, turbocharging, titanium. Now we have NASCAR with fake family cars, Indy cars are all the same car with a couple of engine choices. Formula 1 allows a lot of innovation, but tends to outlaw things that are too good. One change that I would like to see for all open wheel race cars is to reduce the allowed width significantly to make passing easier.

A New Class of Auto Racing

How about a new sport? Auto racing with self driving cars. The cars should be standardized to emphasize the driving. And probably be restricted to low enough power that aerodynamics is not a major issue. Maybe with standardized sensors - cameras, maybe radar. And maybe a standardized computer. Download each team's software into random, nominally identical cars right before the race.

This would be a great way to speed development of self driving cars. The goal of the cars would not be quite the same as an on the road self driving car, but pretty close. Drive a number of laps on a road course. Do not crash.

An interesting possibility would be alternate routes. The cars could track the current traffic conditions on the different routes and choose the best. Roundabouts would be another interesting addition.

I wonder if you could get a human driver to compete with the self driving cars?

The End of Streaming TV

The End of Streaming TV

For many years, I have used TV streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Peacock, HBO) on a rotating basis. (Actually Prime is part of Amazon Prime so I always have it). I like finding a long series and watching it start to finish. I have seen some great shows that captured my interest quickly (some slow starts) and kept it for the entire series. In alphabetical order -

  1883
  1923
  After Life
  As We See It
  Atypical
  Better Call Saul
  Bosch
  Breaking Bad
  Dead to Me
  Deadwood
  Enlightened
  Firefly (old antenna TV)
  Game of Thrones
  Hell on Wheels
  Justified (Lexington KY connection!)
  Longmire
  Mad Men (slow start)
  Nurse Jackie
  Orange is the New Black (slow start)
  Ozark
  Peaky Blinders
  The Queen's Gambit (Lexington KY connection!)
  The Sopranos
  Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
  Yellowstone (slow start)

Some other shows have kept me going - let's say good, not great -

  Disenchanted
  The Good Fight
  The Good Place (old antenna TV)
  The Handmaid's Tale (great book, The Testaments too, okay TV)
  House (old antenna TV)
  Monk (old antenna TV)

But now, there is nothing. I've tried an uncounted number of Star Trek series, Wheel of Time, The Man in the High Castle, Russian Doll, Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Witcher, The Mandalorian, Carnival Row, The Rings of Power, The Boys, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, The Expanse, Sneaky Pete, Mozart in the Jungle, The Flight Attendant. Highly rated shows - blech, boring or stupid.

Ten to fifteen dollars each month was good value for relaxing entertainment. No more.

Three Useful Products

Three Useful Products

Inmaker shoe laces

These are very short silicone laces, each one binds one side of the lace holes to the other side. They come in sets of stepped length, two sets to a package. There are several brands - they all look alike to me. The neat aspect of these laces, other than not needing to tie them, is that you can get a different tension at each position.

My goal was to tighten the front-most hole pairs to prevent my foot from sliding to the outside of the shoe, but keep the rest loose and comfortable. There were no pieces that were long enough for second part of the goal, so I have three Inmaker laces and a shortened regular lace for the rest. (I'm working on a way to splice two laces.)

These work well, although I don't know how long they will last.

Amazon search on "inmaker no tie shoelaces" on Amazon.

Roller blade desk chair wheels

The are soft rubber wheels mounted on standard desk chair hardware, easy to substitute on most desk chairs. They are quiet, smooth, and work well on hard surfaces with no mat. Most are three inch diameter and noticeably raise the chair - probably good for carpets but not probably not good for people under 5 ft 8 in. Hirate makes 2 inch wheels that have a robust looking steel mount with swivel ball bearings. Amazon search on "hirate office chair caster". Other 2 inch soft wheels are double wheels on plastic mounts with no ball bearings on the swivel - these might be great, I don't know.

Symple Stuff Aliceville Office Chair from Wayfair.com

A simple desk chair with one hard to find feature - knee tilt. By tilting "at the knee", really about eight inches in front of the seat mount strut, when you tilt, your feet stay on the floor, pretty much. Otherwise a pretty standard desk chair - cushion bottom, mesh back, height adjust, tilt, tilt tension adjust, lumbar support, lumbar height adjust, arm rests with height, angle, and width adjust. The arm rest angle adjust is annoying - it needs to lock in place. The chair works very nicely for me (5 ft 7 in). Except - the lumbar support angle lets it bite into my back. I used two zip ties around the lumbar mount (two oval plastic loops that let the support slide up and down). These squash the top of the oval loop to get the support angle where I need it - no more biting. This chair is way better than anything I could find locally.

I did not want to buy a chair without sitting in it first. At Office Depot, Staples, and a local office supply store, I found one chair that felt good. I bought it, assembled it, sat in it. After about ten minutes it hurt badly. A couple of days later it was worse. I disassembled it (a major pain) and returned it.

Wayfair was easy and shipped quickly. And I got lucky that it works for me.

Investing - Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF

Investing - Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF

I am trying to organize a bunch of stray thoughts into a coherent presentation here. I hope this makes sense.

Since well before I retired in 2016 I was concerned about what to do with my retirement portfolio. I had enough money to retire but how could I protect it in case of a stock market crash. I took a pretty standard and conservative path - primarily 60/40 stock/bond mutual funds.

As retirement moved along, I knew there was a problem with this. Interest rates had been falling for many years, giving bond funds a nice boost. But rates were approaching 0. And it was obvious that something would happen eventually to restart inflation and force interest rates to rise. Not only would the stocks crash but bond values would drop as interest on new bonds went up.

Not knowing what else to do, I stuck with my strategy.

Covid came and set off a chain of events that crashed the stock market and induced inflation. The Fed pushed up interest rates and bond funds dropped. But bond funds dropped far more than predictions based on their average duration. Eventually stocks rose and my portfolio was not a complete disaster. But looking back, if everything was in an S&P 500 fund (not considered a particularly safe place for money in retirement), I would have done much better.

So back to the big question. Where should I put my retirement money so that I get regular income, the income rises with inflation, and economic events don't crush my strategy?

The graph below shows total return, NOT adjusted for inflation, since 2019, VOO (S&P 500 index ETF), SCHD (dividend index ETF), VBIAX (60/40 index fund), AGG (aggregate bond index ETF).  

Https://stockcharts.com/h-perf/ui?symbol=voo+schd+vbiax+agg 

if you want to play with the data. My graph can be replicated with Range - Select Start/End and Start YYYY-MM-DD - 2019-01-01.

 

Bonds (AGG in the graph) -

Bonds take two hits on inflation. The principal and interest lose buying power by the inflation rate. And the Fed raises interest rates to try to reduce the inflation, so new bonds issue with a higher rate, which devalues current bonds.

In the graph, bonds are dead flat over this period due to rising interest rates. And that assumes no withdrawals.

In better times, the interest rate is little better than the inflation rate. And the principal does not grow so there is no adjustment for inflation.

CDs -

CDs act just like bonds, at a lower interest rate in return for FDIC insurance (up to $250,000 per owner, per bank).

These will likely lose to inflation. If you distribute them properly you can get FDIC insurance on all of your assets. But will the FDIC survive an economic collapse? Well, it better or you can expect collapse of the banking system and our society.

60/40 or 40/60 Funds (VBIAX in the graph) -

In the graph, stocks crash and bonds don't grow. The bond portion contributed nothing to the total return.

Bonds do reduce the volatility of the investment. But in the graph example, after three years, the pure stock asset is so far ahead of the 60/40 fund that it covers any typical stock market crash.

Annuities -

These have big management fees, you lose control of your assets, you have nothing to leave to heirs. And in a severe economic collapse, the managing company may fail and the insurance may fail.

I looked up a typical distribution for an immediate annuity. 7% - about twice the distribution of SCHD. But it never increases. With inflation at 4%, a 7% distribution becomes, effectively, 5.1% in the eleventh year. For SCHD, at a growth rate of 10% minus 4% inflation, a 3.5% distribution becomes, effectively, 5.5% at eleven years. After that SCHD keeps going up and the annuity keeps going down. It is easy to manipulate the results by adjusting the inflation and growth rate.

Dividend Stocks (SCHD in the graph) -

So how about dividend stocks? ETFs for minimal effort, but some people prefer to choose individual stocks.

SCHD ETF seeks to match the S&P Dow Jones US Dividend 100 index, which screens for quality stock dividends (stocks only - no REITs). The expense ratio is .06% - that's $600 on a $1000,000 investment. (A typical expense ratio for a mutual fund might be .75%. That's $7,500 on a $1000,000 investment.) Historically, this is the best of the dividend ETFs.

SCHD pays about 3.5% in qualified dividends. That's income for you, taxed at the long term capital gains rate (after a short period of ownership). The payout ratio (dividends divided by earnings) is about 50% (as best I can find). That's 3.5% for the corporations to reinvest in growth, which helped the total return come close to the S&P 500. The dividend growth rate has been about 15% so the dividends grow faster than inflation. That's history, not prediction.

So this looks like a nice place to invest, especially for a tax unadvantaged account for people that need to get income from their investment. But is it safe?

It is certainly more volatile that CDs, bonds, and annuities. But it is somewhat less volatile than stocks in general because the dividends support the stock price. In the event of major economic problems, the money is (hopefully) in productive businesses. If money making businesses fail en mass, the whole economic system will collapse.

Compare the total return of SCHD versus AGG (aggregate bond ETF), starting 1,2,.. years ago, and then look forward. In every such period, after five years, SCHD is far ahead of AGG. Short term volatility can hurt, but long term, you are way ahead with SCHD. Furthermore, the dividends keep coming even when the stock price is down. That's history, not prediction.

So when looking at safety, I will take an investment that has a good record of beating inflation over a non-volatile investment that has little chance of keeping up with inflation. And I like the idea of owning productive businesses rather than debt.

So most of my portfolio is now in dividend stock ETFs, and most of that is SCHD. Does this sound risky? Maybe. But looking back over my past investments, risky would have paid off nicely.

If stocks totally collapse, I have Social Security to keep me going. But if stocks totally collapse, I doubt that Social Security will be far behind.

For dividend stock ETFs look at SCHD, SPYD, VYM, DGRO, VIG, and there are many more.

Cheers and Sighs

Cheers and Sighs

Sigh -

I was at a dance, in a hurry, and needed to get a phone number from someone so that I could text them. They texted me their VCard contact and I imported it. But when I tried to start a text, it wasn't there. Checking in my contact app, there it was, but sorted by first name. The last name was part of the first name instead of a separate value. Fixed, back to text - not there. I verified that it was in my contact list. Restarted my text app, hoping it would import the changed contact list. No. Gave up. The next day I investigated again. Ah - the phone was listed as a home phone, not mobile. So the text app ignored it. Sigh. I can't trust my phone when I'm in a panic. I hope I remember how to dial 911 when the time comes.

Yay -

The new Toyota Prius is a huge step forward. It's a 2023 model, 5th generation, I saw one on the road for the first time a few days ago. By far Toyota's prettiest car. No monster grill. Six inches of ground clearance. 0-60 mph in under 8 seconds. 52 mpg. 10.6 gallons gas tank - with the typical 2 gallon reserve, that's over 400 miles - good enough. Nice - except I really like my Crosstrek's 8.7 inch ground clearance.

Yay -

The Kroger near me has been stocking Dip t-shirts. Nice cotton and unusual, nice colors. About twice the price of t-shirts that I used to get at Walmart. But no-one was selling good t-shirts any more - undersized, polyester blends, boring colors (black, navy blue, red, white), until I found Dip.

Sigh -

What is the fascination with shark attacks? Any shark attack in the world is on NBC, CBS, ABC, and NPR evening news. A few people get mangled or killed every year. That's maybe .0000002% of the world's human population.

Sigh -

My favorite pants - L.L.Bean's Lakewashed, 5 pocket, cotton pants. Cut like jeans, with front pockets that don't promote pick-pocketing, and half the weight of jeans. Great for dancing. GONE.

Yay, Sigh -

I received a new pair of glasses from Zenni Optical today - $50 total with frame, bifocal, anti-reflective coating. Nice, inexpensive. But - The temple pieces are flex titanium. And unfortunately, one side has a lot more curve than the other. How do you change the curve on flex titanium? I can bend it 90 degrees and it unbends to it's original shape.

Fortunately, this is the third "identical" pair that I have purchased. I replaced the pieces with the pieces from my first pair - just a year of use with no noticeable wear. But this seems to be a fundamental problem with flex titanium. You can't accidentally bend your frame, but you also can't bend it intentionally.

My Web Pages and Android Apps

My Web Pages and Android Apps

Web Pages

I have posted many web pages that might be of interest. They are all linked to my home page. I thought descriptions might be useful.

Cary Ravitz - Home Page -  www.ravitz.us

Contra Dance Links - www.cdl.ravitz.us - My links into the world of contra dance. With links for dancers, callers, choreographers, musicians, sound techs.

Contra Dances by Cary Ravitz - www.dance.ravitz.us - All of my dance stuff - contra dances, contra tunes, waltz tunes, robot dancers, notes on choreography, calling, and dancing.

Ravitz Chess - www.chess.ravitz.us - My stacking/nesting chess piece design. STL files for printing on 3D resin printers.

Ravitz Software - www.rs.ravitz.us - My software, including Android apps, Windows text editor, and old printer graphics software.

Ravitz Violin Shoulder Rest - www.vsr.ravitz.us - My violin shoulder rest. A significant departure from other shoulder rests. I'm am not selling these any longer - too much work.

Contra Dances by Mike Boerschig - www.mike.ravitz.us - Mike's contra dances, including the classic Happy as a Cold Pig in Warm Mud.

Dance Trance Reel by David Atcher - www.atcher.ravitz.us - David Atcher's book of tunes for contra dances (print ready PDF). I edited this for David, 2018, and was given permission to post the PDF when he died, 2020.

Darlene Underwood - Home Page - www.darlene.ravitz.us - Darlene's dance caller home page.

Miscellaneous Contra Dances - www.miscdances.ravitz.us - Contra dances with no other good home. Some nice dances, including the classic Cows Are Watching.

Notes on Composing Contras by Al Olson - www.olson.ravitz.us - Al's handwritten notes for a 1988 workshop, a PDF of scanned pages.

Paintings by Ruth Ravitz - www.ruthpaint.ravitz.us - Scans of mostly water color paintings by my mother. Many beautiful pictures.

Kelly Wilhoit's Hand-Me-Downs PDF - www.ravitz.us/hmd.pdf - A memoir by my mother's sisters of growing up in Atlanta, Georgia starting around 1925.

Android Apps

I wrote four Android phone apps a few years ago. They are seldom used by others - I obviously have no concept of what other people like. But I thought it would be useful to describe what makes them different from other apps that have the same primary function. And I added some technical information about fitting the function into Android, because I think it is interesting.

These apps are completely free, have no advertising, and do not sell or give away any data about you (the weather app accesses your current location but keeps only the most recent location). You can find all four in the Google Play Store by searching on "ravitz" (it's handy to have an uncommon name).

RPN/Postfix Calculator

For a long time, I used Free42, an excellent and free Hewlett Packard 42 emulator. It has two problems - low resolution number display and a cluttered keyboard with function that I don't need (primarily programming - it's easier to program a desktop computer or spreadsheet than a calculator).

So my calculator has no programming function. I added cursor left and right for improved number editing, display of the full stack, plus undo, help, last key display, and some button configuration flexibility.

The finished app looks good. Numbers are presented in a high resolution font. The button response isn't as good as it should be, I think largely because I check for a valid number after each keystroke - maybe not a good choice.

Tech paragraph - I wrote the calculator in JavaScript/HTML and used Android's Webview to turn it into an app. Android has a simple way of communicating between the Android Java and Webview JavaScript. You can turn any web page into an Android app pretty easily, or there is an app that does the job with almost no programming.

Clock Widget

I wanted a simple clock widget that displayed the time and day/ And I wanted the time zone displayed. When traveling and on two late nights every year, it is not always obvious what time zone you are in. Why not have the complete time displayed?

In addition, the next alarm time is very useful. I use my phone as an alarm clock. Before going to sleep I would like an easy verification that the alarm is set correctly.

Plus size and color flexibility. I think this is a great clock widget.

Interesting that my clock widget and car sometimes differ on the time zone, notably on the western edge of Kansas. The car changes the time at the border. The clock widget (Android) knows that is not where the time zone changes.

Tech paragraph - This requires setting up a widget that sleeps until awaken by a system message, such as next alarm changed. Then it changes the display and goes back to sleep. Time updates are automatic and trivial to program.

MP3 Player

I don't care to subscribe to a music service. I am happy buying MP3 music files from Amazon or copying music from my CD collection. I was very upset once when flying across the country and my music player quit because it couldn't verify that I had paid for it. I want a self contained music system.

And music players do not handle tracks with different volume levels very well. My player lets you add a volume bump to each track or track list.

And it tells you how much time is left in the current track list, so I know if an album will finish before the evening news starts.

Plus optional bass, upper midrange, treble controls instead of Android's separate graphic equalizer.

I'm very happy with the result. I use it often.

Tech paragraph - The user interface is via Webview. Turning MP3 and other music files into music is a simple system function. Keeping the music going while other software is running or the phone goes to sleep requires using an Android foreground service - not simple.

Weather Widget

It's nice to glance at the phone screen and get an overview of the weather. A lot of weather widgets do this, but they tend to be huge (screen area). And are more concerned with being pretty than being informative. After finding a free weather service, maybe not the best forecasts, and navigating Android's background issues, I put together a reliable widget. I added a one page pop up 36 hour hourly forecast to it because that gives you a lot of useful information. And I added a location and forecast update verification line so you know that you are getting timely and location relevant information (not always the case when you are traveling or have a poor internet signal).

This is much more useful than the typical small weather icon. And much smaller than the typical large weather widget. No pretty pictures - after much work, it became apparent that words were a much more compact way to communicate.

Tech paragraph - This uses the sleeping widget concept, like the clock widget. It is awakened via system message, requests a new location, and goes to sleep. Then it is awakened by a location response, gets a new forecast from an internet weather service, updates the display, and goes back to sleep. Not fun - preparing a Google approved procedure to get user permission to access location services in the background.

Words Worth

Words Worth

So a picture is worth 1000 words. What are other communication devices worth in word currency?

Icons and emojis are simple pictures. You might expect them to be worth 100 words. No - the value is one word plus or minus one word. Why the plus or minus? Some icons are worth less than a word.For example the "hamburger" icon (three horizontal lines) that Google uses for "menu". How does that imply "menu"? I was test driving a BMW long ago and needed the air conditioner - could not find it. After almost melting in the heat, in desperation, I tried the button with a snowflake. Yes - snowflake means cool air! I had assumed it would initiate a mode for driving in snow. Sigh. (Is there an emoji for "sigh"?) And some emojis are just small pictures that cover multiple languages - I'll give them a plus one.

Acronyms have, in the past, been worth a word each for letter in the acronym. But now they are so overloaded (i.e. used for multiple meanings) that they are getting close to useless. They are worth one word per letter only when their context is apparent. Otherwise one half word per letter.

Logos are simple pictures representing an organization. In isolation not worth much, but by associating with an organization they evoke images of the organization, its goals and ideals. 100 words, assuming the viewer is familiar with the organization.

Diagrams are pictures that are created specifically to impart information. Even simple diagrams can provide clarity that 1000 words cannot. I'm going to give them 2000 words.

Poems are carefully chosen words that evoke feeling or imagination beyond the elemental reading of the words. Certainly good poetry is worth far more than the sum of the words. 2000 words.

Paintings, like poems, should evoke feeling or imagination. So although they might not have the detail of a photograph, I will give them 2000 words.

Songs, a merging of poetry and music, can evoke feeling and imagination through their poetry and their music. It's rare to find a great combination of both, but if found - 4000 words. And maybe another 1000 words because the synergistic combination makes both elements more memorable.

Photoshopped photographs, 1000 words? But they are lies. 0.

Photographs timed or aimed to mislead. More lies. 0.

And writers of computer code documentation take note. Documenting each element of an API (application programming interface) is not enough. I need to know how they fit together. And good EXAMPLE is worth 2000 words.

Of course, there are worthless poems, songs, painting, icons/emojis, diagrams. The above assigned values assume excellence in construction of the communication devices.

Under 500 words - I could have just found the right photograph.

Getting Tech to Do What You Want

Getting Tech to Do What You Want

We repeatedly get great hardware these days. It can do all sorts of useful things. But the associated software is awful. I have complained about most these issues before, but it's interesting to collect them.

For phone issues, I can only address Android. And I can't say anything about Android Auto - it was too unreliable when I tried it.

First a hardware issue. On laptop computers, why can't I get a touchpad on the right side (or left). Why does the horrible compromise of in the middle completely dominate the market?

Back to software.

Time Zone

When I'm traveling, I need my clock to show me what time zone I'm in. I don't know the time if I don't know the time zone. But do phone clocks display the time zone? No. My solution - Ravitz Software Clock Widget. This is my software, free, for Android only.

No solution for iPhone based on my limited experience with an iPhone 12.

Linux desktop - just format the time display to include the time zone.

Poor Control of USB Music

I like to use a USB drive in my car to play music. I can fit a huge library of music on one drive with no need to deal with radio, satellite radio, disks. The user interface is typically awful since they are pushing satellite radio and car touch screens are difficult to use, but I can live with that. But. When I want the songs played in random order - select "Random". But that selects the next song by selecting at random from the songs on the list. That is not the same as playing the songs in random order. By the the time you are halfway through the list, there is a 50% chance that the next song will have already been played.

The software people could select at random from the songs that have not yet been played. Or there is a simple algorithm to randomly order the list. But the programmers have never used the software so they don't know that there is an issue (speculation). And anyone higher in the chain of command at the manufacturer is selling cars, not software, and knows that the music software cannot rise to the level of preventing you from buying the car. The solution is a long and winding road. Here goes.

Set up your phone to automatically connect to the car. A USB cable connects music and power, but this is a pain. A Bluetooth music connection and cordless charger/phone mount is better. Now you can play music from your phone (and take phone calls) via the car sound system.

But what if you are using Maps on your phone. Now the navigation instructions come through your car sound system, at a MUCH higher volume than the music (in my car). Maps has an option to not send its voice through Bluetooth. But it often doesn't implement this immediately after starting a route. So the first instruction is played very loudly through the car sound system. But Android has the ability to let the sound output of one app go to a specific output device. Look for "separate app sound". Set up Maps to output to the phone (instead of Bluetooth). Now music goes to the car sound system, Maps always goes to the phone speaker. But Maps doesn't silence phone music while talking. So, set up Maps to not talk via Bluetooth AND set up Maps to always output to the phone. Now Maps interrupts the music, so no conflict. It works pretty well.

Phone Gestures

I dislike phone gestures. They are invisible so you must work to find the gesture to function association. And they wear on my fingertips, making my fingertips annoyingly touch sensitive. Fortunately Google kept the navigation bar as an option when they switched to gesture navigation. Settings - Display - Navigation bar.

Many apps let you turn off gestures. But it can take some effort to set up.

Digital Assistants

I hate digital assistants (starting with Microsoft's Clippy). By not configuring the Android assistant or Bixby (Samsung), I thought I had suppressed it, until the home button popped it up. Search the Android settings for device assistance app, digital assistant app, or try Settings - Apps - Default apps - Digital assistant app and set it to none.

Names

When I'm looking in a list of names, I want distinctive names - that would be last names. And I often need to look for myself - my name, not "me". Android FairEmail gets this right. Desktop Gmail does not and has no configuration to fix it. I haven't used Android Gmail in a long time and don't remember its usage.

Always On Screen

On my Samsung S23 the always on screen is too dim in low light. There is an adjustment, but that removes the automatic aspect of it and it still doesn't get bright enough. This appears to be a case of save the battery at the expense of useful function. Why not let me make that choice?

And the next alarm is not displayed. When using the phone as an alarm clock, the next alarm is important.

Both of these issues were handled well on my Pixel 4A. Samsung was a leader in always on displays. Now they are way behind.

Phone Call Volume

Sometimes the phone is too loud. On every mobile phone that I have owned. You can adjust the volume, but not low enough. Why is this a hard thing to handle?

Mice

Mice have been around for decades. I often want to move the mouse only horizontally or vertically. Why is there no software that recognizes motion in only one direction. I often want to move the mouse a very small distance, but the scaling factor that controls mouse ticks to cursor motion can't be easily changed. Why not?

This could be done in the operating system software. Dedicate two buttons for horizontal and vertical control. The buttons would rotate the scale between 0, 1, 1/10 times the nominal scaling factor.

A Good Use for Artificial Intelligence

Why not use AI for automatic expansion of acronyms. Imagine how much time it would save, when reading a news article, to not have to look up and scan a hundred possible expansions of an acronym to find the one that the article is referring to.

Meanwhile

A headline from Android Police - "Android is changing its brand identity once again". They are capitalizing the A and changing the font. Are they taking a cue from politics? Distract people from the problems that they do not address. But it would be so easy to fix most of these issues. I don't understand.

Good Things, Almost Forgotten and More

Good Things, Almost Forgotten and More

Good Things, Almost Forgotten 

• Phones that didn't get constant, buggy software updates and didn't need to be rebooted, ever
• Highways that aren't under constant reconstruction
• Buttons and knobs for controlling cars and electronics
• IBM/Lexmark buckle spring keyboards
• The Beverly Hillbillies - now on MeTV every weekday
• Butter Rum Lifesavers - still available but not on my diet
• Altoids sugar free cinnamon chewing gum
• Dentyne Pure sugar free chewing gum

Great Novelists Gone

• Terry Pratchett - don't miss anything - early, Discworld, and more
• Isaac Asimov
• Michael Crichton
• Kurt Vonnegut
• David Gemmell - maybe not great but fun (MNGBF)
• David Eddings - MNGBF - ignore anything after The Belgariad/Malloreon series

Great Novelists, No Longer - Over ten years to write a sequel?

• George RR Martin
  
• Patrick Rothfuss - meanwhile publish the most boring book of all time

Great Novelists, No Longer - After reading many of the books by these authors, I couldn't get through the Kindle free sample of their latest.

• Christopher Moore - Noir
• Orson Scott Card - The Hive
• Joe Abercrombie - The Trouble with Peace

Great Novelists, Where Are You?

• Margaret Atwood
• Michael Sullivan - MNGBF

Old Songs From People That I Otherwise Rarely Listen To

• American Girl - Tom Petty
• Authority Song - John Mellencamp
• I Was Made to Love Her - Stevie Wonder
• Little Bit of Soul - The Music Explosion
• Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
• Pretty Flamingo - Manfred Mann
• Standing in the Shadows of Love - The Four Tops

Some Things Have Gotten Better

• Dishwashers with pod detergents
• Unscented and dye free liquid clothes washer detergent
• Memory foam mattresses
• Crosscut paper shredders
• Carbon fiber and titanium for mechanical things
• Computer and TV displays: CRT -> flat screen CRT -> LCD -> OLED
• Cordless (battery powered) vacuum cleaners and power tools

Best Forgotten

• Checking account balance books - all my stuff is in a spreadsheet now
• Compact fluorescent light bulbs, and soon, hopefully, all fluorescent lights
• Paperback books - impossible to read while using your hands for other things
• Full size American sedans, with minimal shock absorbers
• Fins and wings on street cars
• Typewriters
• "Rechargeable" Nickel Cadmium batteries

And a Few Things That Should Disappear

• Air blower hand dryers
• Automobile sunroofs, mandatory with other options that are important
• Scented detergents and air fresheners
• Internal combustion engine powered lawn mowers, string trimmers, and leaf blowers

Samsung Galaxy S23

Samsung Galaxy S23

Rather than risk total insanity trying to use the fingerprint reader on my Samsung S22, and having read a review of the S23 that said it had a much improved fingerprint reader, I switched to an S23. I had also tried facial recognition on the S22, but found it failed about as often as the fingerprint reader.

So the S23, after just a few days of use - much better fingerprint reader - larger area of operation, faster, more reliable.

The internet seems faster with the S23. Maybe the new processor or maybe the 5G radio works better. I Heart Radio seems to run much better when I'm out walking - much shorter dropouts.

The S23 is very close to the same size as the S22. In a thin case, it fits nicely into my Turtleback belt case. I have used this case for years with a Pixel 4A and the S22. It's getting a bit ragged around the corners, but still works very nicely. By far, the best phone case that I have owned. And the long life and real leather justifies the price (currently $40 on sale, usually $65).

MagSafe covers are now available for Android phones. I tried a Torras. In addition to the magnet ring, it has a ridge around the back edge that lets the phone lie flat on a table. The ridge adds a bit of thickness but it still fits in my Turtleback belt case.

Samsung Android has an app called Game Booster that puts a settings icon on the screen that is quite annoying. To my knowledge, you cannot disable it on the S23, despite many internet posts that tell you how to disable it on other phones. You get either the settings icon, a gray bar that expands into a settings menu, or notifications that complain that Game Booster is not allowed to be on top of other apps.

The always on lock screen is too dark in dim places and doesn't update quickly after removing it from a case. You have the option of automatic brightness control or a specific brightness setting. Neither of these work well. It needs to be automatic, adjusted by a base brightness. This seems to be a case of save the battery at the expense of useful function. Samsung - please let me choose that compromise. And as with the S22, no next alarm display.

Moving to the S23 was not too bad. Samsung has an automated app to copy everything from your old phone. A few settings don't get passed along. Nova Prime and File Manager Plus didn't copy - easily fixed.

So the S23 is a big improvement over the S22. I feel sorry for people who are stuck with an S22 for two years.

2023-07-21 - after a month - the fingerprint reader on the S23 is far superior to the S22. It works almost every time. A clumsy location compared to the back of the phone on the Pixel 4a, but I can take it off my list of life's annoyances.

Stupid Ideas that Succeeded

Stupid Ideas that Succeeded

Stupid things often succeed in becoming commonplace, but are no less stupid for it.

The Windows Registry

The Microsoft Windows registry - an idiotic concept of grouping an incredible amount of important setup information in one place, subject to corruption and causing nightmarish software updates.

Dynamic Menus

Menus that change with usage - let's move the most used options to the top. But I've already learned where they are - not at the top. Couldn't you at least offer an option to make it not change?

Tree Menus

Menus organized in a tree instead of a single list - searching a tree is like a solving a maze. Choose the wrong branch in your search and you will not find what you are looking for. Then you have to try again and guess where you took the wrong turn. Searching a list is just scanning down the list. It may be longer, but the answer is on your path. And there are no decisions to make along the way.

How hard would it be to optionally change a tree view to a list view? Pretty simple. But I have never seen it done.

I have no problem with a single level branch in a menu such as the menu line at the top of old Windows programs, File - Edit - View - Help, for example. If you choose the wrong branch it's pretty simple to start over on a new branch. But a second branch would be hidden and often the choice is not obvious.

Icons and Emojis

Icons - congratulations to whoever invented the icon (was it the ancient Egyptians?) - you have invented a picture that is worth just ONE word. If a normal picture is worth a thousand words, the efficiency of an icon is one tenth of one percent.

Emojis - what a waste. Do emojis add anything to a conversation? Emoticons can be an add, expressing emotion or sentiment. But emojis are mostly just pictures with no associated feelings. They seem to be used to add to a word, but how does, for example, a picture of a dog added after the word dog clarify anything?

Various Hardware

Under screen fingerprint readers - THEY DON'T WORK. At least not with dry fingers on my Samsung S22.

Flying cars - not commonplace yet. Hopefully never. Noise, nasty downdrafts, litter falling out of the sky, cars falling out of the sky. And imagine the light pollution after dark.

Automobile touch screen control - you must move your hand to the correct position without touching the screen, then touch. It requires you to look at the screen not the road. And it requires you to maintain your finger position while touching. If you hit a bump and touch the wrong hotspot you have to undo what you just did and start over. I pity the left hander who needs to use a touch screen with their right hand. And imagine when the steering wheel and brake pedal have been moved onto the touch screen. That will be a worse disaster then flying cars.

Tanning beds - why do people think they look better tanned? And why would you increase your chances for skin cancer to change your skin color?

Regulation of Artificial Intelligence

The US trying to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) - so we will have hands tied while the rest of the world develops AI without restrictions. Or we can convince the western governments to join us. What about our enemies, governments and crooks - what will stop them from using advanced AI to attack us?

Space Tourism

Space tourism - a waste that must add considerable pollution to the environment. I can think of only one use for space tourism - showing "flat earthers" that the earth is a sphere. Of course, in spherical coordinates, the earth IS flat - r=constant (within a reasonable tolerance).

More

Today (as is usual) I walked the 1/2 mile loop around the apartment complex near me. My ears were assaulted by lawn mower, string trimmer, dumpster pickup - crashing dumpster and backup beeping, commercial carpet cleaner, and police siren. Thankfully, today, no motorcycles or helicopters.

Motels, Phone Bezels, Samsung S22, Brooks Adrenaline, Bonanza

Motels, Phone Bezels, Samsung S22, Brooks Adrenaline, Bonanza

Motels

Why do motel breakfasts end before I wake up. Of course a lot of them are not good enough to care. But some expensive motels have decent breakfasts that end way too early.

And then there is the checkout time. On a long trip, I may stop at a motel after midnight. Then I have to be up and out by 11am? Not fair.

Phone Bezels

I just read an article about the iPhone15 having even thinner bezels than the iPhone 14. The writer concluded that it really doesn't make that much difference.

But the problem with thin bezels is that it makes it too easy to accidentally touch the screen. On any high end phone now, the only way to avoid accidental touches is to use a phone cover that projects above the screen. The cover is somewhat thicker than the bezel. Of course they could write software to make the touchable area smaller than the full screen area, but then they might not have enough people designing new emojis.

Samsung S22 Issues

I've used my Samsung S22 for about 8 months now. The single worst issue is that the next alarm is not on the lock screen. I need to know when the next alarm is - why should I have to unlock the phone to check.

Issue two - the on screen fingerprint read is useless if your skin is dry. Facial recognition unlock works only about half the time. Google HAD a fingerprint reader on the back of the phone that worked over 95% off the time. Why did the state of the art regress so badly?

Issue three - the lock screen is too dark to read in sunlight and sometimes in my living room. It doesn't adjust properly to the ambient light.

Not nearly as important - when on a phone call, the hang up button is about an inch wide. About a quarter of an inch above the center is the speakerphone button, a circle about a quarter inch diameter. It is way too easy to accidentally hangup when in a hurry to turn on the speakerphone. Android has had its 13th yearly update. It has thousands of celebrated emojis (I haven't figured out their purpose). But a really stupid layout for the phone buttons.

Why do none of the reviews note these important problems. I have no expectation of them ever being fixed.

Brooks Adrenaline GTS Running Shoes

I bought my first pair of these shoes, model 20, in 2020. Very nice shoes. "Stability and support" but a flexible toe that I require. Available in wide (2E), extra wide (4E). Many colors and patterns available, but solid black and blue or black trimmed gray are the only colors that I will wear. These are the only shoes that I wear, so black when I need to dress up (can't remember the last time). The shoe (wide) can hit my toe, despite the length and width being good - I take an xacto knife and cut a vertical slit at the corner of my toe (toe not in shoe at the time!). This fixes the problem without going to an oversized shoe.

The top/back of the shoe is convex. Shoes that have a U shaped cutout tend to grab my loose socks and pull them down into the shoe. No sock grabbing with these shoes.

Model 22 added elastic pieces on each side of the tongue attached to the bottom. This keeps the tongue centered. But I hate being squeezed by shoes or socks. I cut the outside elastic piece. Problem solved.

Model 21 and 22 are just as good as model 20. Three years of good shoes. I wonder how long this will last. I guess I should stock up on them.

Bonanza, Season 3, Episode 26

I lucked into this TV show from 1962 that put Albert Michelson into the Bonanza world and got him past a bigoted teacher and into Annapolis Naval Academy. Other than being in Virginia City at approximately the right time and getting a presidential appointment to the Naval Academy, this is fantasy. But nice to see a physicist celebrated on popular TV.

Healthy Food at a Restaurant?

Healthy Food at a Restaurant?

I try for a healthy diet. And I like to (and often must) eat at a restaurant. But they tend to serve food that is lacking in vegetables, salty, un-nutricious (iceberg lettuce, potatoes, white bread, corn), and in huge servings. So - what to do?

First, let me define veggie - any healthy vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, mushrooms. Not included is corn, wheat, iceberg lettuce, potatoes. I try for five servings every day.

I have a big Omega 3 dish every week - salmon, mackerel, sometimes other fish. Grouper, red snapper, halibut, mahi-mahi are great but I worry about mercury.

Whole wheat pasta is preferred to the usual - there is no taste hit, but on thick pasta like penne the texture of whole wheat is not good. Whole wheat bread is preferred to white bread if it doesn't ruin the taste/texture. I'm happy with whole wheat bread on many sandwiches, toast, French toast, but not pizza, subs, appetizer breads.

Minimal salt. Too much and I get dry mouth.

Iced tea, no sugar, no lemon for me. Nice slightly bitter flavor. No calories, some good antioxidants.

So where and how do I get these difficult to find foods? First, big chains that are located near me, then local places, and a note on pizza places in general.

Olive Garden - as COVID related staffing problems killed my favorite local and nearby Italian restaurant, Olive Garden rebuilt/replaced a burned down Cheddar's. So I started experimenting. After a few tries, I found acceptable food. First, on the salad, instead of iceberg lettuce, ask for mostly spinach with a little iceberg. The iceberg lettuce adds some crispy texture. And my usual salad modification - extra tomatoes, dressing on the side. The standard purple onions, black olives, pepperoncini peppers are nice taste adds. I request to finish the salad before the main course order is entered.

The bread sticks are tasteless white bread, but brushed with garlic butter. I ask if the waiter can find crispy pieces for a nice crust.

The lunch cheese ravioli, lasagna, chicken parmesan are tolerable, but too salty. The fettuccine alfredo is good but too peppery. No whole wheat pasta.

Not on the menu, but readily available - broccoli with inconsistent cooking. I add cheese to make it edible.

Total three or four veggie servings, depending on how much salad I eat.

Chili's -

I always start with a cup of black beans (in a salsa flavored sauce, no meat) with corn tortilla chips - delicious. Ask for a small saucer of chips with no salsa - usually no charge.

Ancho salmon and broccoli with a side of white queso sauce (required to make the broccoli edible). The salmon is sometimes badly overcooked.

Very good hamburgers but 1/3 pound is too much. (Their thin patties, used in double deckers, are not as good.) Add avocado for a partial veggie serving.

Two veggies plus high Omega 3s with the salmon.

Golden Corral - tolerable food with many veggie options. I don't trust the salad bar - too many people have no comprehension of safe buffet habits.

The cooked stuff should be less prone to food poisoning. The cooking is very inconsistent. Look over the veggie options before starting. You might find edible cauliflower, broccoli, peas, carrots, squash, zucchini, cabbage, stewed okra, grilled jalapenos. A little cheese sauce helps with broccoli, cauliflower.

Good fried chicken, not so good other meat choices, many very salty. Okay white wheat rolls.

Total many veggie servings - today I had two servings each of squash, cabbage, peas, and a couple of jalapenos. A very small serving of strawberry cobbler didn't count as a veggie, but was enjoyable.

Subway (on the road with no other veggies to be found) - unlike other sub shop chains, Subway will add spinach and green peppers to your sub (or salad). Add bacon, onions, and (likely unripe) tomatoes for a nice sandwich. One or two veggies.

Arirang Korean - family run, local. I love the side dishes and they give you all that you want. Bok choy, spinach, soy sprouts, cabbage kimchi, turnip kimchi, cucumber, papaya, pickled radishes. I avoid the fried and tofu based side dishes. I ask the waiter to hold up the main course until I have finished these veggie delights.

Then many options, but lately I have been getting mackerel - strongly flavored fish, high in Omega 3s. Watch out for bones.

I count this as two or three veggies, depending on how many of the (small) side dishes that I eat - six at least, sometime a couple more.

Jasmine Rice Thai - a locally owned place, run by the owner. They are very good about adjusting their dishes as requested. For a long time, my order was fried rice with crab (not very much) and cashews, maximum broccoli. With the cashews and broccoli, and miscellaneous other (carrots, onions), I counted three veggie servings, but a lot of salt, calories, white rice.

For a while now, I have been getting the Thai curries, mostly green and red. Add cashews and scallops, maximum veggies. This is full of zucchini, bamboo shoots, cabbage, broccoli, green pepper, in a spicy coconut milk. White rice on the side - sigh. Delicious, maybe three veggie servings. Too salty, in part due to salted cashews. I started bringing my own unsalted, roasted cashews - noticeably less salty. Coconut milk is caloric and high in saturated fat, but still has many health benefits. Three veggies.

Puccini's Italian - local with two locations (three before COVID related staffing problems).

I asked if they would cook whole wheat pasta if I brought it - yes! Spaghetti with one meatball, marinara sauce.

On the Greek salad, I asked for spinach and spring mix instead of spinach and iceberg lettuce - yes. Plus extra tomatoes, a couple of artichoke hearts, gorgonzola cheese instead of feta (but not too much). Wonderful salad.

Consumer's Reports says tomato sauce counts as a veggie! I count three veggies plus whole wheat pasta - nice.

Tandoor Indian - a local place with Saturday, Sunday buffet -

Fish curry (tastes like tilapia to me), red beans (a bit like Cajun red beans but no sausage). Sometimes chick peas or lentils instead of red beans - good, but not as good as the beans. Sometimes cabbage or cauliflower with potato. I do my best to avoid the potato. Occasionally okra - wonderful, and no potato. Just a little white rice. White naan bread - delicious and I eat too much of it. 

Delicious lightly spiced ice tea. (Don't ruin it with sugar or lemon.)

Five veggies and too many calories. Very small dinner that evening - sometimes an apple with peanut butter, maybe a small tuna on whole wheat sandwich.

Pepe's Mexican - a local chain.

Pablano pepper quesadilla - browned white wheat tortilla, folded over grilled pablano pepper (not hot), mushrooms, onions, and melted cheese, with an unknown green sauce on top. A side of guacamole with nice avocado chunks. Grilled jalapenos. Very tasty. Two, maybe three veggies if I get the jalapenos down.

Nice salsa and chips - I wish I would avoid them, but I the love tomato, cilantro, and onion flavors in the salsa.

At other Mexican places look for black beans.

Pizza - no specific place in this review.

My new order is double mushrooms. On very thin crust (New York style). That's hopefully one veggie, but the "double" tends to be ignored except on the bill. Of course you can add various good stuff at different places - broccoli, spinach, green peppers, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes - but usually not in significant quantities.

Local places tend to be much better than the chains. But where I live nothing is consistently good.

For All of the Above - bring a jacket in the summer to combat hyper air conditioning, a baseball hat to shield your eyes from unshaded lights, glare off of parked cars, and direct sunlight, and ear plugs. The ear plugs help prevent anxiety induced by fancy coffee machines, blenders, kitchen beepers, loud peaky music, and jazz, rap, and swing.

Memory Habits, Good and Bad

Memory Habits, Good and Bad

Bad - Asking a person's name then forgetting it immediately.

Bad - Deciding that I need to do a task then deciding to do something else first. Then forgetting the task.

Bad - Finding a good way to solve a problem and not writing it down. It is important because I will run into the same problem again, but the next time I might not be able to figure out the solution or find the web page with the answer.

Good - I have a tips file full of useful bits of information. It includes a lot of Linux command line programs and parameters, lots of system file names that might need modifying. This has saved me many hours of finding the information on the web.

Looking through it just now I noticed one of my favorites

  sudo cp /home/r/Downloads/silent.ogg /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg

This kills the obnoxiously loud system startup sound. You have to download silent.ogg, but it's not hard to find. I've only done this once, but I'm sure it will be handy when I am forced to update my operating system.

One day my phone was not making any sound on notifications. I scoured the settings and did not see anything to help. After a while I noticed that the Bluetooth icon was displayed. Not that this is unusual, but I couldn't think of why. Ah - I used my Airpods and needed to take them off to talk to someone, so I put them in my pocket and forgot about them. The notification sounds were going through the Airpods. I put them back in their case, the Bluetooth icon disappeared, my notification sounds came back. A few months later, the same thing happened. Including the search for the problem and the eventual solution. Sigh.

Good - check for keys, wallet, phone whenever I get in the car or step outside. I always lock my car with the key so I don't have a problem locking myself out.

Bad - writing code (computer program, 3D shape) with absolutely no documentation. Possibly the worst habit that I have.

Good - using Google Calendar for all appointments and events. I'm not recommending Google Calendar specifically other than saying that it works for me. Except for the sporting event calendar - teams should be designated as home city or school not mascot - this Saturday it's the Wildcats vs the Wildcats - thanks Google. (Same with GMail - yay, I got an email from Tom.)

Good, Bad - using a phone todo/shopping list, not looking at it while in the grocery store.

Bad - letting distractions get in the way of my good habits.

Investing - Fun Retirement Tables

Investing - Fun Retirement Tables

These three tables are important for retirement planning. They are subject to change and I might have entered them incorrectly, so when it comes to detailed planning or payment, check a more reliable source than me.

These are for 2023.

Also see  

• Investing
  
• Investing - More Fun with Investing
  
• Investing - How to Choose a Mutual Fund
  
• Investing - Things I Have Learned in Retirement
  
• Investing - The Basics of US Income Taxes
  
• Investing - Retirement Money Tips
  
• Investing - Index Funds, ETFs, Advisors
  
• Investing - Fun Retirement Tables

Social Security Taxable Fraction

The taxable fraction of your Social Security income is based on I = Social_Security_income/2 + income from pensions, wages, interest, dividends, and capital gains. If married, filing jointly, add the I for both people.

If I is $25,000-$34,000 for single people or $32,000-$44,000 for married and filing jointly, 50% of your Social Security will be taxable.

Above these intervals, 85% of your Social Security will be taxable.

Social Security documents all say up to 50% or up to 85%, but as near as I can tell that means 50% or 85%. 

(2023-09-14 - I am told that the "up to" is resolved by filling out the tax forms. Apparently the algorithm is too complex to document any other way. This reminds me of the HTML spec - HTML is defined by whatever the web browsers do.)


Medicare Surcharge - income related monthly adjusted amount (IRMAA)

For Medicare part B and D -

If your earnings are over $97,000 ($194,000 if married) in any given year, two years later your Medicare premium will have a surcharge. This is recalculated annually.

By earnings they mean your adjusted gross income, modified by obscure things that I am not going to include here.

Table of Monthly Premium for Part B+D

single		married		premium
$0 - $97,000		$0 - $194,000		$160.90
$97,000 - $123,000		$194,000 - $246,000		$230.80 + $12.20
$123,000 - $153,000		$246,000 - $306,000		$329.70 + $31.50
$153,000 - $183,000		$306,000 - $366,000		$428.60 + $50.70
$183,000 - $500,000		$366,000 - $750,000		$527.50 + $70.00
$500,000 -		$750,000 -		$560.50 + $76.40

Watch out for this when converting assets from IRA to Roth IRA.


IRA Required Minimum Distribution

RMDs are required, now starting at age 73. For each age, there is a fraction of your IRA that you must withdraw, expressed as a number of years (Y) to empty it. The amount to withdraw is the total value of the IRA at the end of the prior year divided by Y. This applies to all pretax retirement accounts (IRA, 401K, 403B, etc.).

You must withdraw total_value/Y and include that as part of your taxable income. You cannot transfer it to a Roth.

Table of Required Minimum Distributions

Age	Y		%		Age	Y		%		Age	Y		%
					90	12.2		8.2%		110	3.5		28.6%
					91	11.5		8.7%		111	3.4		29.5%
72	27.4		3.7%		92	10.8		9.3%		112	3.3		30.4%
73	26.5		3.8%		93	10.1		10.0%		113	3.1		32.3%
74	25.5		4.0%		94	9.5		10.6%		114	3.0		33.4%
75	24.6		4.1%		95	8.9		11.3%		115	2.9		34.5%
76	23.7		4.3%		96	8.4		12.0%		116	2.8		35.8%
77	22.9		4.4%		97	7.8		12.9%		117	2.7		37.1%
78	22.0		4.6%		98	7.3		13.7%		118	2.5		40.0%
79	21.1		4.8%		99	6.8		14.8%		119	2.3		43.5%
80	20.2		5.0%		100	6.4		15.7%		120+	2		50.0%
81	19.4		5.2%		101	6.0		16.7%
82	18.5		5.5%		102	5.6		17.9%
83	17.7		5.7%		103	5.2		19.3%
84	16.8		6.0%		104	4.9		20.5%
85	16.0		6.3%		105	4.6		21.8%
86	15.2		6.6%		106	4.3		23.3%
87	14.4		7.0%		107	4.1		24.4%
88	13.7		7.3%		108	3.9		25.7%
89	12.9		7.8%		109	3.7		27.1%

If you are more than 10 years older that your spouse and your spouse is the sole beneficiary on the IRA then you get a new table. The table has your age  horizontally and your spouse's age vertically and each entry is (as in the table above) your expected years of life (the inverse of the fractional withdrawal). Too much to document here, TIAA has the complete table - https://www.tiaa.org/public/pdf/rmd-joint-life-expect-table.pdf . (Thanks Gwyn P. Williams.)

If you do not take out the full RMD, you will be taxed 50% of the undistributed part.

Smell

Smell

Many people like new car smell, associating it with new cars, I assume. It is caused by the outgassing of new plastic. It stinks. I assume it is toxic. When I get a new car, I make a point of leaving it in the sun with the windows closed to heat the interior and drive the outgassing so that the car becomes livable sooner. The outgassing also causes a hazy film to build up on the inside of the glass. I use Armor All Glass Cleaner which works well on this.

Restaurants need to keep water in their drain traps. Sewer smell does not make dining more pleasant.

New neoprene products - I leave them in the garage for a month before I use them.

My latest mattress, a big chunk of memory foam, came rolled and vacuum packed in plastic wrap. It had no chance to outgas until I unpacked it. It took weeks to not smell. Incidentally, I love memory foam mattresses after the odor goes away.

Cascade dishwasher pods work very nicely. I was shocked when I saw how clean they got my unrinsed dishes. I tried Platinum first. I never tried Platinum Plus - no need. But my dishes started to stink. Drinking fresh iced tea while smelling an unknown chemical is not to my liking. I backed off to Complete. This worked just as well as Platinum for me, but my dishes still smelled. I backed off again, to Original. Still works great, much less smell. I just saw Cascade Free and Clear on Amazon, but it has lemon essence. Blech. I don't even like real lemon in my iced tea.

I've been using All Free and Clear for washing clothes for many years. I can't understand why anyone would want a fake scent in their clothes.

A side note on clothes - if you work with heating oil, trash the clothing that you wore. It will never be free of heating oil smell and it will spread the smell to your other clothes. And your hair will need multiple washings to become normal.

Air fresheners - spray, plugins, hanging things for cars - they are all horrible. Why would anyone would want chemical scents in their homes or cars. And why are shampoo and soap scented? Does everything need to smell?

Micro Annoyances

Micro Annoyances

None of these issues rise to the level of pain or damage. But they sure cause mental anguish for me. Not because they are terribly bad, but because they could have been so easily avoided with a little thought by the perpetrators.

Pocket Dials

I regularly get phone calls that are clearly pocket dials. I have traced this to iPhones that I have called. It appears that it is very easy to provoke iPhones to call back the most recently received call. Why is it so hard to prevent this?

Tap Cards

My credit card has a chip (I assume they all do at this point). It's a pain to use compared to the magnetic strip, failing often. But that's not my topic. The card also has a tap feature - tap the card on the sensor, watch the four lights on the sensor light up. That's it. When it works - great. For me it worked about half the time. Until a friend said - tap it on the chip side of the card. What? The tap symbol is on the right hand side of the card, the chip is on the left. Well, it hasn't failed since I started using the chip side. There seems to be a major ergonomic mistake here. Also, you don't need to tap anything - just hold the chip near the sensor.

The other problem with tap - where on the card reader is the sensor? Sometimes it's separate from the screen and obvious. But if not, is it under the screen? Probably, if the software isn't lying to you that it has a tap card reader. But where under the screen?

Snowflakes

Elementary schools get this right - snowflakes have six arms. All of them. But looking at depictions of snowflakes on posters and flyers (generally from clip art, I think), a lot of people missed that lesson.

I'm not sure what happens if you break off one arm of a snowflake. Does it immediately grow back? Does the snowflake disintegrate? Maybe some damaged snowflakes have less than six arms. But eight armed snowflakes are definitely fake news.

Rate of Speed

When a reporter says that a car was being driven at a "high rate of speed" that means the car was being driven at a high speed. The word rate is completely meaningless (or perhaps it changes the meaning to the car was accelerating quickly, but I doubt it). PLEASE stop offending my brain with this phrase.

Also, if a measured value, say 100, is reduced by one half, that is 50. It is not two times lower - that would be negative 100. If something is reduced to 1/5 of its original value, that is 80% lower. It is NOT five times lower.

If news reporters don't use correct terminology, how can I trust anything that is reported? Maybe I should just take the hint instead of being offended by it.

Surveys, Polls, and Other Interruptions

Surveys, Polls, and Other Interruptions

Email Surveys

I get a constant stream of email surveys from businesses that I have used. The surveys usually start with something like "would you recommend this business to a friend?". That indicates to me is that all that they care about is sales, not improving their product. Furthermore, what I want is not necessarily what my friends want. Delete.

If still going, I will start answering the questions, each one rating some aspect of their product/service. These aspects rarely get to the things that I care about. After about ten - Delete.

If still going, maybe they offer me the option to write something. If not - Delete.

So now I can give them some useful information. If I still care about the business, I will take some time to answer. I wonder if they will read my answer.

Phone Polls

I get calls regularly that are polls. My answer - "I don't do polls" and hang up.

To politicians who use these polls - tell me your positions and I will vote for you or not. Don't choose your positions based on polls. My big issue with politicians is that when they say something to me, it is them telling me what they think I want to hear. I want to know what they really think. Well, another big issue is stupidity.

To news services that use polls that are biased with leading questions to push a narrative - I'm not participating.

Twitter

And on a related topic. To news services that use Twitter to judge public opinion - I don't use Twitter and I don't care what people who do use Twitter think.

Spam Phone Calls

I am not selling my house to you. And I do not want you to turn my web page into the kind of garbage that most web pages have become.

Web Pages

And speaking of web pages - if I am looking at your web page on my phone, that likely means that I do not want to use your app. Please stop annoying me with nag screens that ask me to use your app.

And to the European Union - your requirement that web pages nag me about whether to allow cookies is far more annoying than the cookies. Why couldn't you have requested a small browser switch that lets people choose to allow or disallow cookies, saved for each URL. My search for relief found this Firefox browser add-on - "I Still Don't Care About Cookies". It doesn't look optimal but it might lower my stress level a bit.

Television Tech

Television Tech

In a previous post, I complained about the difficulty of turning closed captions on and off on my television. This was primarily so that I could watch a basketball game without captions covering the hoop. It led me to think that maybe I could find a TV that had closed captions on/off on the remote control. And a friend suggested that soundbars offer TV speech enhancement. So I set out to get a new and better system.

I have room for a 32 inch TV and 26 inches for a sound bar. (Not that I need or want anything bigger.) This shuts me out of high end TVs.

A few TVs have "CC" on the remote. Smart TVs abound - these have internal handling of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. I use, on a rotating basis, Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock, and Hulu. Many smart TVs have voice control, for which I have little use.

Soundbars replace a TV's speakers with a bar shaped package that sits in front of or below the TV. They have a several speakers, built in amplification, sound processing, and multiple interfaces to TVs. Not being limited to the thin packaging of modern TVs, and with signal processing, they can put out better sound than a typical TV.

I would have liked to get a soundbar to use on my old TV before getting a new TV. But you need a compatible audio interface - optical or HDMI-ARC (ARC is audio return channel). These isolate the audio signal and send it to the soundbar. HDMI-ARC is newer and has the bandwidth needed for seven channel audio. Only five channels for optical. Two channels is enough for me.

So a Samsung 1080p smart TV and Sonos Ray seemed like they would get the job done. After some work, the Sonos is doing pretty good. Default, it has boomy bass that ruins the sound. I set the bass way down and the treble way up. Then the sound was okay. I had to look online to figure out how to make the soundbar volume adjustable from the TV remote, but it was easy. Then I found speech enhancement. A huge improvement. And it works well with neutral tone controls.

Then I was looking through the Sonos phone app (required to set up the soundbar) and wanted to figure out how do turn speech enhancement on and off. It was not there. I did an exhaustive search of the menus. Finally a web search. You must have the TV turned on and sending sound. Then you just look in System and choose your device and the option appears. Sigh. Couldn't they have put a note in the app explaining that little detail.

On to the TV. Very small captions. And "enlarge" didn't do anything. Very confusing controls and very small text. The "smart" channels included Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock, but NOT Paramount+. I couldn't see any way to download an app for Paramount+. I put my Roku stick into HDMI 1. Works well but I have to use two remotes. I was hoping to get it down to one.

Anyway, the captions are useless and I will return the TV tomorrow. Insignia makes a dumb (i.e. not "smart") TV with a remote that looks useful (has a CC button). 720p resolution. Two remotes required, but that's my current situation. I should get easy caption on/off and enhanced sound. Maybe not enough to justify the price of the Sonos Ray.

The Next Day

Best Buy makes it very easy to return things. I returned the Samsung and got the Insignia in 15 minutes.

YES! The Insignia dumb TV is great. Reasonable captions with easy caption on/off. Easy to configure. Easy to set up with the soundbar. The picture is as good as my old TV.

Of course basketball season is about over. This year's UK team is wildly inconsistent - not good for doing well in tournaments. Likely won't need the CC button for nine months.

Lessons Learned

Getting a smart TV means giving up useful buttons on the remote. If that's okay, make sure that the smart TV has all of the streaming services that you want. Otherwise you will have to add an external device anyway.

If you want a high quality, high resolution TV, it will likely be smart. And you will likely get a stupid remote control with it. Perhaps voice control will make up for the stupid remote. But I find voice control to be annoying.

You can't win.

I wonder if there is some accessibility option that helps people who have lost their voice use voice control. Maybe a lip reading TV or a TV that understands sign language.

Tomorrow

Oh no - boxes, packing material, old hardware scattered about my living room. Cleanup day.

 A Tip for Streaming Services (2023-03-16)

I just signed up for Netflix. The menu showed three options - 720p with ads ($6.99), 1080p ($15.99), and 4k ($19.99). My TV is 720p, so there's no point in paying for any higher resolution. But I'm willing to pay to avoid ads. Ah - a button at the bottom - show all options. This displayed the above three options plus one more. 720p without ads - $9.99. I'll take it. The higher resolution options allow watching on multiple devices simultaneously, but I have no use for that feature.

I have also purchased episodes of shows on Amazon Prime Video. If you look carefully you can find (at least in some cases) 720p versions for a significantly lower price than 4k or 1080p versions.