I've spent a couple of hours looking at a digital system for learning to play music. I watched all the free videos and thought about whether I would follow along with this system:
https://www.smartmusic.com/default.aspx
I've already downloaded one of their programs called Finale NotePad to writing music down. It is free and does a really good job of what it does. I can't imagine I'll ever need the features the for-money versions provides. I downloaded the SmartMusic system demo, but i haven't double-clicked the DMG file to install it on my computer yet. The documentation and videos continuously state that the system is designed to be used with a live teacher, and I can't afford that. Still, indulging my curiosity by looking at their free stuff has been interesting.
The upgrade Apple provided that allowed my cute little Bluetooth keyboard to operate correctly without a hitch has really pleased me. If it had worked this well right away I wouldn't have purchased the USB wired version, but it didn't work so well when i first bought into the Bluetooth hype, and I did buy the full-sized keyboard. I just switched back to the wired keyboard because of the additional features that make it easier to use for writing. I especially like having that second Delete key that deletes stuff to the right side of the cursor.
I had to buy a new mouse. The old one just reached it's ring-pass-me-not when the scroll wheel just stopped working. I have another USB wired mouse that doesn't move on the surface of my desk but has a big ball to move the cursor around. I got it out and hooked it up long enough to find out if the scroll wheel worked on it. It did just fine, but the other attributes of that type of mouse still irritated me, so I went to Radio Shack and bought a new one and paid way too much. Amazingly, the wired USB version costs more than the wireless ones. I don't like the wireless mice. They don't always work and the wired one always do. What's to figure?
I do not attempt to tell the God's own truth here because I don't know what the truth is or hardly ever. I try to capture the drifting thoughts that randomly appear in my imagination for reasons I may not understand. I don't know if the content I capture with these words is true or false. The Comments settings are turned off to prevent me from having to defend what amounts to little more than fanciful, sometime crude speculation. Great moments in our lives never return.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Operating System With A Default Button?
There is a keyboard shortcut symbol that I couldn't figure out. Yesterday I stumbled across it (acrostic?) and it indicates the "Control" button. So, to get the Dock off my desktop to allow me to see some sites like Wired.com full screen I push down Control+Command+D and to bring it back I just do it again. I'm still learning lots of little stuff about how Macs have changed since I switched back to using Apple products for the apparent security OSX offers. I don't think it will matter much longer.
I think there will be an internet device that will have a button on it that will check to see if only the default OS is on the storage part of the device and anything else will be removed. Then, you can download whatever the consumer desires to a clean machine, and transfer it over to an off-line computer on a flash drive to use in relative safety.
I've been reading about the ASUS machine that only has a 4 gig SSD flash drive for storage. Now, the HP Mini-Note has come out with a similar one that has a few more features. I'm in the market for an internet only machine for browsing and e-mail. I hardly ever get e-mail any more since nobody discusses anything anymore on the discussion groups. People are discovering that people after all, are altogether too human.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/blogs/fleishman_on_hardware/144293/the_bearable_lightness_of_hps_2133_mininote_pc.html
I've considered the concept of "future proofing" with every new digital equipment purchase I've made. I'm not as good as this as I could be if I had loads of disposable cash in order to stay ahead of the hackers. Just this morning I read this article about how security is not about viruses and trojan horses anymore, but about browsers and how they can be compromised by specially designed web sites that doesn't care what your OS is.
http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9914753-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
I think there will be an internet device that will have a button on it that will check to see if only the default OS is on the storage part of the device and anything else will be removed. Then, you can download whatever the consumer desires to a clean machine, and transfer it over to an off-line computer on a flash drive to use in relative safety.
I've been reading about the ASUS machine that only has a 4 gig SSD flash drive for storage. Now, the HP Mini-Note has come out with a similar one that has a few more features. I'm in the market for an internet only machine for browsing and e-mail. I hardly ever get e-mail any more since nobody discusses anything anymore on the discussion groups. People are discovering that people after all, are altogether too human.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/blogs/fleishman_on_hardware/144293/the_bearable_lightness_of_hps_2133_mininote_pc.html
I've considered the concept of "future proofing" with every new digital equipment purchase I've made. I'm not as good as this as I could be if I had loads of disposable cash in order to stay ahead of the hackers. Just this morning I read this article about how security is not about viruses and trojan horses anymore, but about browsers and how they can be compromised by specially designed web sites that doesn't care what your OS is.
http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9914753-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Saturday, March 29, 2008
My Bluetooth Heaven
I don't know what Apple did to debug the problems they were having with the new Bluetooth keyboard I bought from them in good faith, and I don't particularly care. The only emotional issue for me all along was that I felt gypped. I felt like a chump. I couldn't prove it, but I slowly embraced the distinct feeling they knew it wasn't a finished product, and didn't particularly care whether i was inconvenienced by their underhanded misdirection or not.
Another embarrassing dilemma was that I knew with some jaunty aforethought that I would really like the small footprint of the keyboard just by itself, and I truly did and do. That was the chief feature of the product I was drawn to originally. It is just enough, and yet all I need a input device for. The fact that it was wireless didn't mean much in my original assessment. I prefer wired peripherals.
I never realized what an inconvenience the numerical pad is to a right-handed person until I used the smaller keyboard that came without it. The full keyboard is nearly 12 inches (30 cm) wider than the Bluetooth model. With the abridged version, I don't have to reach out so far to work the mouse.
On the other hand, I was not all that unhappy with the USB wired version of the new aluminum keyboard i bought to replace it and get some stability in my writing time. The wired version has the same quick touch I like, and has a more stable feeling on the desk beneath my fingers. Both of the new aluminum keyboards are much easier for me to use. I'm a huge fan.
As wacky as this Bluetooth device was acting previously, it seems rock solid after two whole days of fairly continuous use. Not one hiccup. I'm surprised it could be fixed with a software upgrade (I knew they knew!!). I kinda figured it was some sort of hardware problem. I looked into a lot of external Bluetooth antennas and/or any other solution I might stumble across to get it to work. I didn't find a viable solution. No joy in Muddville. I turned Bluetooth off on my Mac Mini, put my Bluetooth wireless keyboard back in the box it came in, and half-heartedly prayed for rain.
This successful software upgrade might prove to be less than perfect down the road, but for now it seems satisfactorily debugged. It works as advertised. What else matters? I'm probably basing my optimism on how irritating it was before the upgrade.
Judging the future by the past might seem like an ill-advised yardstick for assessing digital woes. I was a liberal arts major in college and studied acting. Technically, I'm not all that clever. I don't care so much. I have other skills clever people seem willing to barter for.
I'm not invested in Apple's stock or any other stock. I just want the fairly expensive digital tools I pay through the nose for to work in the way I need for them to. In the end game, they're appliances of convenience like a microwave oven. I use them to cook with. I grew up using horse-drawn tools. I have certain unrealistic expectations. I appear to ken the big picture in an oddball sort of way. I was an early adopter in a plausible, but not very convincing way. I sorta know what I want to use some chosen technology for. But if it's broken, bring in the clowns,
I don't know how grateful I feel toward Apple for finally getting around to fixing something they sold me as a finished goods. I bought my first Mac in '88, this Mac Mini ain't my first rodeo, but I am glad they finally done the right thing in the long run. I bought into this cute little keyboard impulsively. I don't indulge many temptations like this. It makes me happy Apple has finally helped me to not regret my foolish nature.
Another embarrassing dilemma was that I knew with some jaunty aforethought that I would really like the small footprint of the keyboard just by itself, and I truly did and do. That was the chief feature of the product I was drawn to originally. It is just enough, and yet all I need a input device for. The fact that it was wireless didn't mean much in my original assessment. I prefer wired peripherals.
I never realized what an inconvenience the numerical pad is to a right-handed person until I used the smaller keyboard that came without it. The full keyboard is nearly 12 inches (30 cm) wider than the Bluetooth model. With the abridged version, I don't have to reach out so far to work the mouse.
On the other hand, I was not all that unhappy with the USB wired version of the new aluminum keyboard i bought to replace it and get some stability in my writing time. The wired version has the same quick touch I like, and has a more stable feeling on the desk beneath my fingers. Both of the new aluminum keyboards are much easier for me to use. I'm a huge fan.
As wacky as this Bluetooth device was acting previously, it seems rock solid after two whole days of fairly continuous use. Not one hiccup. I'm surprised it could be fixed with a software upgrade (I knew they knew!!). I kinda figured it was some sort of hardware problem. I looked into a lot of external Bluetooth antennas and/or any other solution I might stumble across to get it to work. I didn't find a viable solution. No joy in Muddville. I turned Bluetooth off on my Mac Mini, put my Bluetooth wireless keyboard back in the box it came in, and half-heartedly prayed for rain.
This successful software upgrade might prove to be less than perfect down the road, but for now it seems satisfactorily debugged. It works as advertised. What else matters? I'm probably basing my optimism on how irritating it was before the upgrade.
Judging the future by the past might seem like an ill-advised yardstick for assessing digital woes. I was a liberal arts major in college and studied acting. Technically, I'm not all that clever. I don't care so much. I have other skills clever people seem willing to barter for.
I'm not invested in Apple's stock or any other stock. I just want the fairly expensive digital tools I pay through the nose for to work in the way I need for them to. In the end game, they're appliances of convenience like a microwave oven. I use them to cook with. I grew up using horse-drawn tools. I have certain unrealistic expectations. I appear to ken the big picture in an oddball sort of way. I was an early adopter in a plausible, but not very convincing way. I sorta know what I want to use some chosen technology for. But if it's broken, bring in the clowns,
I don't know how grateful I feel toward Apple for finally getting around to fixing something they sold me as a finished goods. I bought my first Mac in '88, this Mac Mini ain't my first rodeo, but I am glad they finally done the right thing in the long run. I bought into this cute little keyboard impulsively. I don't indulge many temptations like this. It makes me happy Apple has finally helped me to not regret my foolish nature.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Apple put out a wi-fi update and I wondered if it helped with the Bluetooth. I got out my tiny little bluetooth keyboard and put the batteries back in it to see if it worked any better. So far, so good. The "Lost Connection" dialog box hasn't popped up once, but I gotta lotta anger in my heart about this expensive toy that hasn't worked out for me.
I don't know why I did it, but I found myself clicking on the Software Update button without seeing an announcement that it was available. Seems almost like kismet. I've only been connected for the duration of writing this post, so I'm expecting it to start screwing up anytime now.
I don't know why I did it, but I found myself clicking on the Software Update button without seeing an announcement that it was available. Seems almost like kismet. I've only been connected for the duration of writing this post, so I'm expecting it to start screwing up anytime now.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
As you will note if you keeping reading below, I set up this blog without a clear idea of what I would write about. It may not be that difficult. One of the biggest beefs I have with Apple is their new Bluetooth Keyboard. I bought it at the Apple Store in Raleigh, North Carolina. It works, but barely, and no matter what i do, it keeps interrupting my writing and most every other activity i attempt to perform on my Mac Mini with a constantly appearing dialog box that informs me the keyboard has lost connection.
I tried all the advice I could get on it on the internet including Apple's own support site before i took it back to the Apple Store and asked them to check it out. All they did was put a new set of batteries in it, and declared it worked perfectly. I didn't really believe them, but I didn't wanna start a fuss, so I drove sixty miles back home and gave it a go. Nothing had changed. Now I'm stuck with a product I can't use.
I bought and paid for the new wired keyboard. I needed a new keyboard. The original Apple keyboard technically worked, but it was the worst keyboard I've ever used, and the clacky mechanical action made it a lousy product. The new aluminum keyboard works okay, at least as well as the action on the Bluetooth keyboard, which I loved. The biggest problem with the wired keyboard is that I'm a right-hander, and the numerical keyboard makes me reach at least a foot further to the right side of my desk to use the mouse.
The small footprint of the Bluetooth keyboard was it's main attraction to me. As I just mentioned, I loved the action of the keys. It just don't work as advertised. It loses the bluetooth connection 10-20+ times an hours. I can't use it, and they won't take it back even under warranty. I'm just screwed I guess. $80 is a lot of money to throw away for a retired person who lives on less than $600 a month. Particularly when I had to spend another $60 to buy another one.
I tried all the advice I could get on it on the internet including Apple's own support site before i took it back to the Apple Store and asked them to check it out. All they did was put a new set of batteries in it, and declared it worked perfectly. I didn't really believe them, but I didn't wanna start a fuss, so I drove sixty miles back home and gave it a go. Nothing had changed. Now I'm stuck with a product I can't use.
I bought and paid for the new wired keyboard. I needed a new keyboard. The original Apple keyboard technically worked, but it was the worst keyboard I've ever used, and the clacky mechanical action made it a lousy product. The new aluminum keyboard works okay, at least as well as the action on the Bluetooth keyboard, which I loved. The biggest problem with the wired keyboard is that I'm a right-hander, and the numerical keyboard makes me reach at least a foot further to the right side of my desk to use the mouse.
The small footprint of the Bluetooth keyboard was it's main attraction to me. As I just mentioned, I loved the action of the keys. It just don't work as advertised. It loses the bluetooth connection 10-20+ times an hours. I can't use it, and they won't take it back even under warranty. I'm just screwed I guess. $80 is a lot of money to throw away for a retired person who lives on less than $600 a month. Particularly when I had to spend another $60 to buy another one.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The only thing I thought about Apple today was that I don't think much about Apple. I don't actively participate in the Apple fanatic's world. I just drove up to Raleigh one day, and shopped at the Apple store, but i can't exactly plead innocent to being an Apple fan. I'm not a boy for one thing. I don't own the gear required to call myself a fanboi. I have a Mac Mini and a 20" Cinema Display monitor, and that's about it. No Ipod or iPhone. How can anyone be an Apple fanboi without constantly buying Apple's latest gadgets?
It's not gadgets I don't like, it's telephones and recorded music in general. I've never owned a cell phone of any kind. It's not cell phones per se, I just don't like communicating that way. the only music CD I own, and it's not on my computer, is Barber's Adagio For Strings. It was a gift. I keep it in my car, and play it in honor of the person who gave it to me once a year or so. Listening to music to alleviate the histrionics of commuting ruined recorded music for me. I associated the music I played to distract myself with the tension of the traffic. I can't listen to Beethoven anymore without it jacking me up like being caught in an unending traffic jam, honking horns and all. Sorry, iTunes, other people's music just ain't my ticket to ride.
I play music. I spend hours every day playing or practicing on a digital keyboard that imitates a grand piano real good, and it never needs tuning (That's how I like my computers. They just work.). To me, it's just a matter of time. I only got so much of it to spend with music. i got other fish to fry. I can either listen to recordings of other people play music when I'm not there in first person, or play my own music when I am inside myself in first person.
Being online all the time is more about DSL than me constantly participating online. The MacIntosh writing instrument I'm using is connected to the internet by design, and it's connected to the internet whether I'm sitting at my new aluminum keyboard or no. My outrageously expensive internet account with my ISP is what keeps me connected 24/7, even if I'm not logged on. If I boot up my computer, I'm online, but all I'm really doing is using an instrument that's connected to the internet all the time whether I use it or not. It's just there. Sorta like my stove or microwave oven. When I wanna use them to cook something, they're plugged in, and ready to go.
My Mac Mini is not waiting for me to get through typing and hit the Publish button. Nothing's written in stone about exactly when I might do that. I actually enjoy editing my own compositions, although I probably do a piss poor job of it. Sometime it takes hours to get it just so. I don't realize it as it happens. Time flies. I dreamed of this coming true. As Sartre establishes in Being And Nothingness, waiting requires a fixed event to occur or your inactivity is called something else besides waiting.
My approach to participating online is a haphazardous affair. Back in the pre-digital days I sat at a type writer for hours just like i sit at my computer now. It's the computer that's online, and I'm using it in the same way I would if it were a typewriter. I use TextEdit straight outta the box. I'm addicted to writing, not to being to online. I have been using some composition tool or the other to capture drifting thoughts for sixty years. The biggest difference between when I used a typewriter to compose words and now, is having a choice of search engines to get the information I need to write without going to the Public Libraries and playing nice.
The Mac Classic was the first computer I owned, but it wasn't the first computer I used. My brother forced me to use a Radio Shack TS-80 he brought over and demanded that I realize the superiority of using a computer as a writing instrument. I'm not kidding. The only reason I bought a computer was to replace an electric typewriter. I hadn't had the typewriter long when my brother tricked me into finding out about computers. I bought a typewriter to replace my leaky fountain pens, and fountain pens to replace No.2 pencils. I capture drifting thoughts by using words to write them down. That way, my abstract ideations can't disappear like vaporware.
It's not gadgets I don't like, it's telephones and recorded music in general. I've never owned a cell phone of any kind. It's not cell phones per se, I just don't like communicating that way. the only music CD I own, and it's not on my computer, is Barber's Adagio For Strings. It was a gift. I keep it in my car, and play it in honor of the person who gave it to me once a year or so. Listening to music to alleviate the histrionics of commuting ruined recorded music for me. I associated the music I played to distract myself with the tension of the traffic. I can't listen to Beethoven anymore without it jacking me up like being caught in an unending traffic jam, honking horns and all. Sorry, iTunes, other people's music just ain't my ticket to ride.
I play music. I spend hours every day playing or practicing on a digital keyboard that imitates a grand piano real good, and it never needs tuning (That's how I like my computers. They just work.). To me, it's just a matter of time. I only got so much of it to spend with music. i got other fish to fry. I can either listen to recordings of other people play music when I'm not there in first person, or play my own music when I am inside myself in first person.
Being online all the time is more about DSL than me constantly participating online. The MacIntosh writing instrument I'm using is connected to the internet by design, and it's connected to the internet whether I'm sitting at my new aluminum keyboard or no. My outrageously expensive internet account with my ISP is what keeps me connected 24/7, even if I'm not logged on. If I boot up my computer, I'm online, but all I'm really doing is using an instrument that's connected to the internet all the time whether I use it or not. It's just there. Sorta like my stove or microwave oven. When I wanna use them to cook something, they're plugged in, and ready to go.
My Mac Mini is not waiting for me to get through typing and hit the Publish button. Nothing's written in stone about exactly when I might do that. I actually enjoy editing my own compositions, although I probably do a piss poor job of it. Sometime it takes hours to get it just so. I don't realize it as it happens. Time flies. I dreamed of this coming true. As Sartre establishes in Being And Nothingness, waiting requires a fixed event to occur or your inactivity is called something else besides waiting.
My approach to participating online is a haphazardous affair. Back in the pre-digital days I sat at a type writer for hours just like i sit at my computer now. It's the computer that's online, and I'm using it in the same way I would if it were a typewriter. I use TextEdit straight outta the box. I'm addicted to writing, not to being to online. I have been using some composition tool or the other to capture drifting thoughts for sixty years. The biggest difference between when I used a typewriter to compose words and now, is having a choice of search engines to get the information I need to write without going to the Public Libraries and playing nice.
The Mac Classic was the first computer I owned, but it wasn't the first computer I used. My brother forced me to use a Radio Shack TS-80 he brought over and demanded that I realize the superiority of using a computer as a writing instrument. I'm not kidding. The only reason I bought a computer was to replace an electric typewriter. I hadn't had the typewriter long when my brother tricked me into finding out about computers. I bought a typewriter to replace my leaky fountain pens, and fountain pens to replace No.2 pencils. I capture drifting thoughts by using words to write them down. That way, my abstract ideations can't disappear like vaporware.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Grand Opening
I have been tryig to think of a name for a blog that had the word "Apple" in it. I'm deliberately creating this blog in order to let Google place ads on it to see what happens with the click ad money thing, and to solicit helpful responses to the technical problems I encounter with Mac products from time to time.
I wrote an article in one of my other blogs about the second Delete key on the Apple keyboard, and how it deletes entries to the right of it. Whereas the regular Delete button deletes date to it's left. I didn't realize that until my brother pointed it out to me one day. Now i reach for it constantly. This is the sort of material I wanna write about in this particular blog.
I have two other blogs that are more like journals about my my daily realizations about how my life is going. I expect this one to be more about my experiences as a switcher. The first computer I bought was a Mac Classic in the late Eighties of the last century. When the WWW came around I couldn't use the Mac Classic to go online. I switched to a IBM computer and used Windows boxes until last year when i bought a Mac Mini with a 20" Cinema Display, and it's been a rewarding experience so far.
I wrote an article in one of my other blogs about the second Delete key on the Apple keyboard, and how it deletes entries to the right of it. Whereas the regular Delete button deletes date to it's left. I didn't realize that until my brother pointed it out to me one day. Now i reach for it constantly. This is the sort of material I wanna write about in this particular blog.
I have two other blogs that are more like journals about my my daily realizations about how my life is going. I expect this one to be more about my experiences as a switcher. The first computer I bought was a Mac Classic in the late Eighties of the last century. When the WWW came around I couldn't use the Mac Classic to go online. I switched to a IBM computer and used Windows boxes until last year when i bought a Mac Mini with a 20" Cinema Display, and it's been a rewarding experience so far.
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