Unrelated News – Page 38 – My Thought Spot

To drain or not to drain?

We talked a bit about draining our pool for the winter. We had a pool before that was in-ground, but it had a nice wall around it. Not too tall, but tall enough that if anyone fell in, it was their own stupid fault. But, the pool we have now just has a small lip around it to keep rain from pooling up and running in. It also keeps the trash that is blowing around in the back yard from getting in easily.

Even though we have days in the 90s throughout the winter, the water gets pretty cold in the swimming pool. We have not been in the pool in probably 2 months and won’t return to swimming in it until late February. Pool

If you don’t drain it, you still have to clean it. We have no filtration on the pool. You have to have a cleaning company come in with a pump and all the cleaning gear. It only costs $6 each time they come. But unless you pay for this service while the pool is not being used, it can start to look nasty.

If you drain it, there is not the clean up involved, but there is the risk that someone will accidentally fall in and get seriously hurt. We have a 2 year old daughter and an 8 (soon to be 9) year old son. Either of them falling in is a possibility. If you have water in the pool they don’t get hurt, except the possibility of drowning which is a risk factor year around. The 8 year old can swim without any problems. The 2 year old has to be watched each time she goes into the back yard.

Well, yesterday it finally happened. Our son fell in…twice!

He was riding his bike around the edge of the pool and lost his balance. He fell off right into the water. I looked up just in time to see him propelling himself out of the water with the claim “It’s not cold!” (I did not believe him). He quickly got out of his wet clothes and dried off.

Several hours later he was trying the same trick again and this time he and his bike went in. I got to him before he could get out and made him stay in to fish his bike off the bottom of the pool. It took him a while to get it because after just a few seconds he was so cold he could not function. When he finally got it up to me he did not have enough strength to pull himself out of the water.

He admitted it was cold the second time.

Uncensored speech

One of my pet peeves is the fact that people feel like they can use whatever language they want on the Internet or in podcasts without giving any thought to its appropriateness.

Last night I entered a discussion with other podcasters in which I linked to a previous post here at My Thought Spot. In that post I mention how I dislike the use of profanity in podcasts. One of the other podcasters in the discussion last night said that it would be hard to determine what is profanity across the board. What is offensive to one person may not be to another. And, though he did not say it, I think he insinuated that what is profanity in one area or country, may not be in another.

While I agree with his points on a general basis, I think we lose sight of something more basic. There are terms that are considered profanity by just about everyone who speaks English.

I think the problem comes in two areas. One is the fact that we have taken the idea of free speech to mean that we can say anything we want in any way we want. This is with a total disregard for the person to whom we are speaking. We have lost a sense of appropriateness in our speech and writing today. Along with this is the idea that many people don’t even know what is appropriate anymore.

I used to interpret for the Deaf in the public school system. I was shocked by the language used by some of the teachers in middle school in front of their classes. I would have had my mouth washed out with soap when I was a kid if I talked like that. Not even teachers (and I know this does not mean all teachers) feel the responsibility to model good speech in front of the students. If they are not to be seen as role models, then who will be the model for appropriateness in speech? The TV? Hardly!

Secondly, and this is the bigger problem I believe, is the idea of everything being non-personable. The thought that one can say or write anything on the Internet and not have to worry about their mother knowing how they talk. I hang around in some IRC channels where the guys say things in ways that they never would if I were standing there. There is a mutual respect for real people that just does not exist on the ‘net.

I think podcasts sink into the same problems.

Before you think I am a horrible prude (I am) realize that I am not talking about entertainment podcasts, websites or IRC channels. If your choice of entertainment is not what I want, then I can just leave. But my choice in podcast listening, website reading and IRC channel lurking is pretty much limited to informative content. I don’t listen to running podcasts or technology related podcasts for their entertainment value, I listen to them for useful information.

I certainly don’t think we need a government agency to police this content. That would be a step in a very bad direction. What I think we need is for people who know how to choose and use appropriate words take some time to teach others what good speech is all about. It really is a matter of appropriate speech, not a matter of stifling your right to free speech.

Talk however you want at home or among your friends. But it won’t take you long being around me before you realize that I don’t appreciate the fact that you are incapable of using anything longer than a single syllable four letter word. It really just shows you disrespect me as a person. And if that is the case, then I will respectfully excuse myself from your presence.

It’s Alive!

We had a computer that has done something odd for at least 3 years. Sometimes after being unplugged it would not start up again. You would have to keep trying to restart it until it just decided that it was ready. This problem has gotten much worse over the last 6 months or so. The problem came when the power would go out. Sometimes it would take close to a week before it would decide to start again.

This summer I got a new power supply for it thinking that was the problem. Did not help.

When the power went out this weekend, the computer acted completely dead. I pulled the motherboard and just tried a visual inspection. I saw that there were 5 capacitors that were bulging. None were leaky, but they were not right. I did some looking on the Internet and found a page that talked about restoring old radios. The man said the first thing he does is replace all the capacitors. If that does not solve whatever problem the radio had (which it almost always did) it would make the radio function much better. That told me capacitors are a likely device to fail.

I am handy with a soldering iron. I can cook my fingers on an iron with the best of them. The problem was in finding the replacement caps. I hit several stores yesterday looking for the size I needed. Finally I went to the man that has done some electronic repair for me before. He told me the reason for the difficulty in finding them was that it was an odd size. But, he told me how to combine caps to get the value I needed. We chatted just a bit and he said the key words: “That size capacitor is pretty common in computers, but not in a lot of other things.” Ah-ha! I have a motherboard at home in a computer that was pulled out of service a couple of months ago. I will look on that board.

Fortunately it had enough caps of the right value to do a pell-mell replacement of all the capacitors that I needed to replace. I popped them off while putting third degree burns on only one finger. I then I replaced the bad ones and put the computer back together.

It started up at the first try. Whew!

I would not try this with a new computer/motherboard that is still under warranty. But the machine that was failing was bought used in 2001. The motherboard that I pulled the caps from was bought off of my brother back in 2000 (or so) for $50. The reason I got such a deal is that the computer had already blown up once (sparks and smoke) and was pronounced dead by the computer experts in town. I bought it for parts and found out that it just needed a new power supply and some add on cards replaced. That old Pentium 350 had been in constant use up to about two months ago.

Someday I will own a new computer, but not likely.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Thanks for sticking with me each day. According to my logs, there are lots of people who read the blog with only a very small percentage who leave comments. Thanks to everyone who stops by.

I started the blog in February 2006. So this is my first Christmas with the blog.

I got some shirts and a wallet. We had a good time this morning with the family. Later today we are going to have our traditional Christmas dinner. We figure if you do it at least 2 years in a row, then it is tradition. Last year we had steak and shrimp. We are doing the same thing this year, so it is now officially tradition.

We also have a cold front coming through. The high is only supposed to be 84 today. Though it is not quite a white Christmas, it is cooler than the last several days which have been in the low 90s.

Merry Christmas!

Making a smart playlist in iTunes

My brother just got a new iPod nano for Christmas. This is somewhat written for him and all the others who need to know how to do a smart playlist in a smart way. This is just one example of what can be done. It will give you an idea of what is possible.

This is a playlist that will be for your podcasts. You really are not interested in most podcasts beyond one listen. If you are, you certainly can keep them around. But this will give you a playlist containing only podcasts that have not been completely listened to.

First off you will need to open iTunes. Then File | New Smart Playlist. “Match the following rule” is checked. Then you want to set it to: Genre is Podcast. Now click the “+” sign at the right and set the next line to: Play count is less than 1. Everything else can be left at its default values.

Another one you can do is to have a playlist that is: Genre is Christmas. And: Playcount is less than 1. That will give you only Christmas songs that you have not yet listened to. When you listen to them all, increase the number to 2.

A variation on that is: Genre is not Christmas. And: Playcount is less than 1. That will give you all songs that are not Christmas that you have not yet heard. This may need to be tweaked. If you have a certain genra that you don’t want to include like Speech, then set that like the Christmas genre.

You can build from there. Have fun. And Merry Christmas!