Sunday, December 29, 2013

Popular Science, September 1958



Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Popular Mechanics, August 1945


Popular Mechanics, July 1945


Popular Mechanics, May 1945


Thursday, October 24, 2013

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Monday, April 8, 2013

The Chili

Chimp-1: Chimp-3, does the refrigerator get cleaned out on Friday?

Chimp-3: No...

Chimp-1: Somebody ate the vegetarian chili I had in there and took the Tupperware it was in!

Chimp-3: Weird, that's unusual around here.

Chimp-1:  I need that Tupperware back...

Chimp-3: [walking down the hall] Well, send out a note...  That doesn't really happen...

Chimp-3: [walking past Chimp-2's office] It was probably Chimp-2, I saw some chili in his beard!

Chimp-2: What?

Chimp-1: Someone ate the chili I left in the fridge on Friday!

Chimp-2: Oh ya that was me.

Chimp-1: What?

Chimp-3: It was you?

Chimp-2: Oh ya, it looked just like some chili I made, and we have the same Tupperware...  I couldn't believe I had left it in there for days and days.

Chimp-1: That's my girlfriend's Tupperware!

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Blahtest!

When you post something with Google+ mobile, it comes up with a screen that shows your location, a vague, general and broad location.  

You can remove the location, or select it to get some choices of more specific addresses and businesses.

In NW Portland today, I got the initial location shown in this screen shot.  Just a couple blocks away, it worked fine.  But at this one corner, NW 18th and Lovejoy, it always placed at in "blahtest, Portland, Oregon".

Awesome!

Monday, March 18, 2013

This Phone Number has Already Been Used

Well this is interesting...

It turns out there's a limit to how many times you can use the same phone number for a text message from +Google to verify a login.

Who knew?!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Popular Science, April 1958



Our Pictures and Google

1. A user on Google+ can post a photo from Google Drive.  When you do this, it creates an album with a date title at the top level, rather than a sub-album under "Photos from posts".

2. A Google+ Page can not post a photo from the Page owner's Google Drive.

3. Google+ can not add a photo to an album from the Page owner's Google Drive.

4. A Google+ Page can upload photos in a "Photos from posts" sub-album, or create an album and upload to it.

5. Google+ Page albums are not accessible from Picasa Web Albums, nor from the Picasa application, when logged in as the Page owner.  The albums created by a Page are owned by the Page and not accessible, even by the owner of the Page.

6. Google Drive folders can be shared with individuals, from Google Drive, but can not be shared with Circles, Google+ Pages, nor Google+ Communities from Google Drive (note that an object shared with a Community is actually public).

7. From Google+, Google Drive folders can not be shared.

8. When viewing an album in Google+, under the "More" drop down, the "Share album via link" gives a URL that can be shared in a Google+ post, including sharing with a Google+ Page.  However, the Page can not re-share the post to a Community.

9. However, a Page can share the URL (obtained via #8) of an album with a Google+ Community.

10. Google+ can not provide a URL for an individual image in an album,.  Picasa Web Albums can.

11. Picasa Web Albums can not create sub-albums, even though Google+ does this when images are added to "Photos from posts".

12. When uploading to, or moving an image to, an album through the Google+ tool (the "Upload New Photos" button", the albums are selected through an impossibly long, unordered and unsearchable drop down.  In this drop down, the sub albums are all listed, along with the top level albums.  This is stunningly unusable.

13. The same interface, with the same problem, in #12 is used in Picasa Web Albums, on selecting the "Upload" button.

14. Google Blogger can insert images from Picasa albums owned by a user but not by a Google+ Page.

15. Google Blogger can not access Google Drive.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Couldn't Load Plug-in

Chrome 24.0.1312.52 on Ubuntu (latest and greatest) has starting failing to load videos.

I tried how-tos, news features, movie clips, kittens, all manner of amusing sketch comedy and satire.  Nothing works.


I couple quick Googles seem to imply that this is some sort of known issue and that I should update Chrome. 

'K.

The Update Manage does in fact show an update for Chrome.

Changes for the versions:
Installed version: 24.0.1312.52-r175374
Available version: 24.0.1312.68-r180326

Does this work?  Well depends on your definition of "work".

404

I'm not sure a 404 error counts as working...
So I installed Chromium.  Problem solved.  For now.




Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Sorry, Can't Share

"There was an error in fetching photos in an album.  Please try again."

I get these sorts of mysterious errors quite a bit from +Google+.  I'm here trying to share a photo from Instant Upload.  It can see the photo, show the photo, scan the photo for faces...  but it can't or won't or doesn't like my picture maybe and won't post it.  I can't say why.

At any rate, this is from Chrome.  I opened up Firefox and shared the photo without incident.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Mounting a Samsung Galaxy SIII on Ubuntu

Ok...  So it turns out that at some point Google changed Android so that mounting a phone as USB mass storage is no longer an option!

WTF?!
Really!!?

Yep.  Really.
As in really astonishing.

The phones now only offer MTP and PTP.  MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) is the default, and, out of the box, this doesn't even work on Windows XP much less Linux.  For Windows the drivers are, get this, carrier specific (did I already say WTF?  Yes, I did?  Good, but it may be worth saying again).

So, in a nutshell, a completely bullet proof, near universal, and dead simple method of getting files on and off a device like a Samgung Galaxy, has been replaced by a propitiatory method, available only on selected operating systems, certain versions, no Linux, and only then with some extra tinkering that your Mom can't do.
Well that's just awesome!

Here's an easy work around that resolves this for later Ubuntu releases and similar, without installing anything.

With the phone plugged in, drop down the notifications, on the device, and look for the USB connection item.  Select it.  Next you get a couple of check boxes for selecting either MTP or PTP.  Change it to PTP.  Nautilus loves PTP.

You can now browse around the mounted phone and drag and drop files as it should be in any sane version of this world.  The computer thinks it's a camera.  Whatever computer...

Other good choices include various FTP servers for Android.  They work fine of course, and I also tried a program called WiFi File Explorer, or something, that is essentially an HTTP server that can manage get and put requests.  It worked fine, and has a web based browse.

Have fun.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

What's My IMEI Number?

I have have deeply engaged lately in trying to get a promised rebate out of T-Mobile.  This is a whole other story...

The point of this post is an interesting fact that I have learned along this journey; how to get your IMEI or MAC number from your phone.  The IMEI number is the International Mobile Equipment Identifier, it is a 15 digit number that uniquely identifies every phone.

So here it is:

Open the keypad on your phone, any phone, and type *#06# and the phone will display the IMEI.

The IMEI is 15 digits.  Sometimes this number will be displayed with slash something at the end.  The slash, or other character, and what follows it is not part of the IMEI, it's just the 15 number.  Later I noticed that this code appears as "device serial number" on the label on the box the phone came in.

After civilization has produced 999,999,999,999,999 mobile devices, no one can have anymore.

Good luck.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

4.1.1

Today on a whim I hit "update" in settings on my Samsung Galaxy SIII (from T-Mobile).  To my surprise, it started downing something!  Something big!

...Another stealth, please-don't-crash-our-network-by-upgrading-all-at-once, update from T-Mobile!  What could it be?

Minutes pasted like days...  But an eternity and a couple reboots later later...

Jelly Bean!

With Butters!  And Google Cow!
Awesome!