A newspaper’s takeover of subscribers’ computers

Given the increasing complexity of software and its decreasing user-friendliness, I think 1984 has arrived.  We are supposed to follow robotically through the latest commands of the software designer, aka Big Brother.  And like in 1984, we have no idea what we are doing or should be doing.

I have almost 59 years of computer experience.  I started with a summer job in which I used a textbook to learn to program an IBM 650.  That was a set of large refrigerator size boxes with punched cards in and punched cards out.

Over the next twenty-plus years I went on to program and debug larger and larger computers.  I was often an advocate of newer techniques, like using compilers instead of machine code or using email instead of typed memos.

Then personal computers appeared on the scene.  Some of them easy to use, some of them opaque to use.  In 1984, the Macintosh appeared.  It was a real break-through in ease of use.  Many laughed at WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pictures).  They preferred the complex set of coding that had to be done for the simplest tasks.

I was hooked and became a Certified Macintosh Developer.  I was eager to get the latest Mac with many great features: color, faster and smaller storage devices, and more.

Then OS-X (operating system 10) appeared.  It had many nifty features except ease of transferring older programs to it.  I never got around to rewriting my genealogy program and have lost all that data (except that which I had printed out).  On the other hand, there were many new features that were a delight to use.

But as one OS X after another followed, the Mac started being persnickety.  Printers that were easy to use became a nightmare.  Where is the setting to print an envelope.  Why does the scanner work well with an old OS but gives dark blobs on a newer OS?

Then sin of sins, without asking me, Apple decided I should install the latest operating system just because I was using wi-fi at a coffee shop.  Not only did Apple decide that I should upgrade, it decided that all my files in the Document folder should go to iCloud.  But that was more data than my free 5GB.  It asked me to upgrade my account to 50GB.  The extra $0.99 a month was no big deal, but I still haven’t completely reorganized my Document file so that I don’t need be hooked up to the web to use those files.

The same increasing difficulty has struck many web-sites.  I now subscribe to four newspapers.  Most of them generally work well with only a few quirks that take awhile to figure out.  Just like the print versions, the newspapers are filled with ads.  Generally you can just scroll past them.

But sometime last year, the Star Tribune began to have intrusive ads.  They would take over the computer with no obvious way out.  Not only would the ad page take over the tab slot on a browser, there was no way to get out of it except close the tab or follow it on to other pages in the ad chain.

A similar annoyance is a side-bar ad with a misleading message: “Log In”.  It is not a log in to the newspaper, but an ad for using a Google product for signing in to web sites.

A friendly guy at Star Tribune’s support department helped me try to clear things up.  But it was drastic, including resetting my iPad.  Guess what that did?  It wiped out all my cookies so that I had to enter saved passwords all over again.  Good thing I have the passwords stored in an obscure place.

Rather than making my life simple by easily accessing my bank accounts, reading the latest news, and sending email to friends, I seem to have gone into standby debug mode.

Unfortunately, one of those pop-ups appeared again this morning.  That’s it.  I asked the Star Tribune to cancel my subscription.  Bye to “The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee” and many other comics that are not in the Duluth News Tribune.  Good-bye to many in-depth state stories and editorials.

I do have relatives who spend a small fortune calling Geek Squad every time time they need to make some software change.  Do you think the Star Tribune would pay me for all my efforts?  Do you think your phone will run forever without re-charging?

P.S.  Well, maybe I'll keep the Star Tribune subscription for a few more days.  It worked fine this morning.

I am an Olive grinch

How readable do you think the following is?

Yet some parameters endure. Phi losopher George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Not precisely, perhaps, but human history, both personally and collec tively, is definitely thematic. And you didn’t record it, you either won’ recall it, or your memory of it will faulty. Historian Barbara Tuchman wrote, “The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree the primeval forest which fell with out being heard.” Perhaps that’s why launched the log — it made me seem more real. Or maybe the record is akin to scratches on the wall of a prisoner’ cell, tallying the days until release.

What kind of editor would let this text see print, what with dropped letters/punctuation and split words?  Other examples have bold subtitles moved into the text and many other distracting errors.

This is an example of “To err is human; to really screw up it takes a computer”.  The above is from “The snares and lairs of memory” by Peter M. Leschack in the Star Tribune, 4 May 2014, as displayed when expanding an article from the facsimile page of the Olive edition.

The actual printed text is:

Yet some parameters endure. Philosopher George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Not precisely, perhaps, but human history, both personally and collectively, is definitely thematic. And if you didn’t record it, you either won’t recall it, or your memory of it will be faulty. Historian Barbara Tuchman wrote, “The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard.” Perhaps that’s why I launched the log — it made me seem more real. Or maybe the record is akin to scratches on the wall of a prisoner’s cell, tallying the days until release.

The human editor didn’t make any mistakes, but the computer editor really screwed up.  This happens all the time in the Olive edition of both the Duluth News Tribune and the Star Tribune.  The Olive edition displays a facsimile of the printed newspaper.  You can easily “flip” the pages or jump to a section.  You can click on an article to expand it.

The expanded view has the advantage of bringing together segments printed on different pages and of having larger text.  But all the “translation” errors are distracting.  Did the author really write that?  Why is that unrelated bold text doing in this section?  And on and on.

This computer-induced garble is present in both the iPad and the laptop/desktop versions of the software.

Isn’t this a wonderful example of “business efficiency”?

Oh, well!  It still beats going to the corner with the right change in all kinds of weather or calling up to cancel when we’re out of town.  And I can easily make clippings of things on which I want to base another one of these whining entries.

Good service news

Geek Squad sent me email the other day with a link to a status page for the repair of the laptop that I spilled coffee on.  I saw that it was shipped on Saturday.  Today I saw from the UPS tracking number that it had been delivered to a loading dock in Kentucky this morning at about 8:30.  Later the status page said it had been received at 10:57

I think there may be a discrepancy between the UPS time and the Geek Squad time.  The first is using local time and the latter is using customer's time.

Anyhow, as the afternoon progressed, the messages were needed a part at 1:42, part in stock at 1:43, and work completed at 3:16.  I supposed I'll get a status tomorrow that it was shipped, and I will probably be able to pick it up Friday, maybe Saturday.

This incident has sold me on comprehensive coverage for more expensive items.  I don't know what the repair would have cost me without the coverage.  And as I get older and more clumsy, this kind of coverage seems like a very good idea.

Computer withdrawal resolution continued

I sent the following as part of the Geek Squad customer survey:

Malcolm was very courteous and cheerful throughout his explanation of the tests made.

However, I think the Geek Squad didn't have an odd bit of information to explain the problem of my keyboard/trackpad being unresponsive.  These worked fine yesterday evening after I brought my Mac Book Pro home.  But this morning, it started going dead again.  I wondered if Outlook, which was acting slow and squirrelly might be the problem.  I quit Outlook, and maybe rebooted, and I haven't had a problem since.  I also duplicated the Main Identity and reorganized it.  Outlook now runs much faster and I'm still using the keyboard and trackpad without problem.

There always seems to be one crucial piece of information a customer doesn't supply.  See http://www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree/tech_shortage_1999-10-14.htm.  Outlook was the missing program that none of us thought of.  At least this problem didn't take months to solve, if indeed it is solved (crossed-fingers).  Also, if I hadn't brought my laptop in to the Geek Squad, would I have thought of this solution???

Thanks, folks, for your help!

See also
Computer withdrawal symptoms
Good news about a large corporation
Computer withdrawal resolution

Computer withdrawal resolution

This is a follow-up to "Computer withdrawal symptoms" and "Good news about a large corporation".

I picked up my Mac Book Pro at Best Buy this morning.  The repair comments from the Geek Squad were:

"Unit passed all hardware testing, including trackpad diagnostic.  Unit did not display any issues with the trackpad or keyboard.  Mission complete!"

So, wha' happened?  Did I inadvertently make some preference reset?  Did my Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad get too close to my laptop?  That shouldn't be a problem because Bluetooth is turned off.  Did I accidentally turn it on and somehow turn it off again?

Maybe the problem was cured by the laptop being off for an hour or so.  Maybe it was cured when we ran it on battery at Best Buy.  Maybe the twists and turns of carrying it jiggled something just right.  Maybe my computer withdrawal anguish made the computer feel sorry for me.

As I wrote a few days ago "Magic really works!"  Taking your computer to a technician makes the problem go away.

Good news about a large corporation

Yesterday I wrote about my problems with the keyboard on my Mac Book Pro.  See "Computer withdrawal symptoms",  I didn't expect to see my computer again until tomorrow.

A few minutes ago I got around to checking my email.  Best Buy had sent me an email that my computer was ready for pickup.  The message was sent at 6:15.  I looked at the message after store closing!  I guess I'll hightail up there tomorrow after we run all our morning errands.

I have this strange feeling that the Geek Squad found nothing wrong.  That my moving it from home to the store jiggled something into place.  We shall see.

I have always had respect for The Geek Squad, ever since they started at Washington and Plymouth in Minneapolis a couple of decades ago.  After they fixed one problem with my Apple whatever that handheld was called, I should have taken it back to retrieve data when it bit the dust sometime later.  All those wonderful notes of wisdom that were lost:)

Computer withdrawal symptoms

Come on, Mel, how can you have computer withdrawal symptoms when you obviously are posting something to the web.  You can't do that without a computer!

True!  I am using a "computer" but it is not my very familiar laptop.  I'm using my iPad to write this and I'll probably use it to post this.

But it is not the same as using a laptop with hundreds of applications and many gigabytes of storage. Plus, even with my Logitech compact keyboard, my fingers are challenged even more to hit the right keys at the same time.

This morning, my Mac Book Pro suddenly decided not to move the cursor.  Nor accept any keystrokes on the keyboard.  I could reboot it and get some reaction for awhile.  I don't remember whether it was through my iPad or one of the few times the keyboard worked, but I found that one supposed fix was to mangle your fingers on reboot on the option, command, R, P, and turn on keys.  This, according to some advice in one of the Apple Support Communities, would reset the PRAM (Programmable Random Access Memory) and put things right.

This worked for one or two times for about fifteen minutes.  Then there was no way I could put things right.  I could use the USB mouse from my wife's computer to have some access.  But then she wouldn't be able to use her computer.

After awhile, my system kept looking for a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse.  I wasn't using one, and I could find no way in System Preferences to change this "demand".

So, off I go to Geek Squad at Best Buy where I bought the laptop less than two years ago.  I was unable to find my receipt, but Best Buy had the record and I had a three-year warranty.

When I get there, guess what?  The touchpad worked, the keyboard worked, and everything seemed hunky-dory.

The Geek Squad guy was very helpful in the sense of courtesy and understanding.  We agreed that it would be best to leave my laptop with them to more thoroughly check what may be going on.  He said that would take a day or two, but they might have to send it to their repair center if there were more serious problems.

I feel like the local priest in "Babette's Feast" turning away suitors for his two daughters.  They were his right hand and his left hand.  I have the feeling that I've lost my "right hand".

P.S.  Google on an iPad has made me feel like I've lost my "left hand".  Google just would not respond properly to Safari on my iPad.  When I went to my wife's iMac and used FireFox, I saw about six copies of this entry.  I've deleted all but this copy, and now I'll see if I can open it up to my loyal reader.

For the rest of the story and its resolution see
"Good news about a large corporation", "Computer withdrawal resolution", and "Computer withdrawal resolution continued".