General Stupidity

General Stupidity

Computer Caches

CNET headline today - Don't Forget to Clear Your iPhone Cache.

Caches hold data that might be useful to have on hand in the future. The article explains that the web browser cache fills up and the data in the cache becomes stale, and a stale cache slows down internet access. It goes on to explain how to empty the cache.

When an Android app is not functioning correctly, the first fix to try, according to Google, is to empty that app's cache. This often fixes the problem for a while.

We have "artificial intelligence" that can understand human language, write articles and paint pictures that are "indistinguishable" from human works, and guide automobiles around roads that are full of terrible human drivers. But no one has figured out how to empty a cache once a month or every night? Or maybe (it might require an artificial intelligence to program this), whenever the cache hits 75% full, you could delete the oldest unused data in the cache until it is only 50% full.

Something is very wrong in the world of computer programming.

Closed Captions

Closed captions for television - captions are text of what is being said on the picture. They are needed by people with hearing problems. Closed refers to captions that can be turned on and off by the user. (Subtitles translate or clarify poor sound.)

I generally have closed captions turned on because I have trouble understanding television speech. But while watching a basketball game (I watch University of Kentucky games if they are on antenna television) the closed captions cover the basket. Very annoying to have to wait for the announcer to find out if the ball goes through the hoop. Can't they choose a better location, or use a transparent background?

Other

You might think that I could find a lot more examples of stupidity to complain about. I must be slipping. Or maybe it's just that I have done a good job of covering them in past posts.

But one more thing - shortages. No canned or jarred mushrooms in Kroger. No large dispensers of Original Wet-Naps (hand/face wipes, unscented, no alcohol).

No Gildan size 13-15 gray crew socks (other brands, styles, colors are inferior). And why are the black socks tighter than gray? Why are the ankle length socks tighter than crew length? I haven't tried white - I can't handle the bright white band between dark shoes and dark pants.

I Forgot

Two days later - I forgot - when a reporter says that a car was being driven at a "high rate of speed" he/she means the car was being driven at a high speed. The word "rate" is either completely meaningless or it changes the meaning to the car was accelerating abnormally. If you need to dramatize the speed, how about "high rate of travel". A small example of the high rate of poor journalism in the world today.