rich-text.net

pocket translator ✅

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Walked into the DMV and the check-in line was backing up - the woman at the counter was getting louder and louder, "what. is. your. NAME?" and the guy at the front of the line just kept pointing at something on his phone. Trading on stereotypes and his deep sunburn, I assumed he was a Spanish-speaking laborer. I used Google Translate to convert "she needs your name" into Spanish, and pardoned my way up to stand next to him. "Oh!" he said, pulling out a laminated card (from a stack of maybe 50 little laminated cards. Strange. To me.)

The woman said, "Ok, Pedro, you're signed in. Take a seat," and gestured at the waiting room. She checked in two more people, then me. Pedro waited for me and sat down next to me. He pulled out an iPhone (nicer than mine, the no button/no bezel kind. Pretty neat.) and opened the translator app, set to speech mode. "Muchas gracias [and much more]," he said, and the app produced a bunch of Cyrillic. He laughed and went to swap the language - he had Russian and English installed. (Strange. To me.)

Then he pointed at the SOS at the top. Fortunately, I'd read the news before I left home. I typed a whole thing about the cell phone networks being down across the country. He typed back, "But yours is working?" I typed, "I can't explain why, but yes." He typed, "Can you give me some wifi for a moment?"

Smart!

I actually just got dinged for a big data overage, so I've been being really frugal the last few days with my data plan, but what the hell. I turned on the hot spot and he found it in his wifi settings. (Watching him do that, I learned that you can jump straight to the network picker from the wifi toggle on the slide-y uppy screen.) All of a sudden his Gmail and Whatsapp alerts started binging and bonging. He transacted for a while.

Then he typed to me, "How do I know when to go? Which window?" I typed back that they'll call his name and a number, and pointed out that the windows have small numbers next to them. We were next to the first, so I pointed at the first few, "Uno dos tres..." He said in English, "You speak Spanish!"

LOL. Just that, not much more. I can maybe get to ten.

Then he got called (to 12, I had to type "12" for him. He thought they said 3), then I got called 30 seconds later. I was only at the counter (8) for a minute or two, I hope he didn't need my hotspot while he was at 12. I completely forgot about it while I was asking my title-transfer questions, or I would've (maybe) stuck around. Oops.

(It's the Russian thing that I'm still thinking about. Down here in America's taint, the Russians?)

(No, I'm also thinking about that check-in lady. Surely she sees Spanish speakers daily, if not hourly. Why isn't there a "Name, please," sign in a variety av språk? The offical DMV forms are in like 6 languages, incl. Spanish and a creole of some flavor, why wouldn't a simple check-in kiosk follow along?)

Anyway. I'm not their lawyer anymore, I guess it's not my problem.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 10:43:36 -0500

Woke up with three notes repeating in my head, "deet DEET dee, deet DEET dee." Took a few minutes to realize it was, "what she said, what she said," a backing vocal from Melissa Manchester's "You Should Hear How She Talks About You." Ended up on the wikipedia entry, to discover that Late Night's Will Lee is one of the bg vocalists.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 22:22:46 -0500

delivered '24 on Wednesday, started '25 today. (These years get more and more improbable.)

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 13:36:32 -0500

...and then while I was griping about COMputers, a shelf in the living room just randomly collapsed after sitting quietly by the window for 15 years? What is this day?!

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:23:41 -0500

#Spotify desktop app playing. Open the iOS app and the desktop volume drops. The phone's volume is controlling, despite the app(s) being set to play on desktop. This never used to happen.

Everything's falling apart. 👎

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 13:21:26 -0500

If you're going to hold fast to your "leftovers for lunch" philosophy, some days lunch is just a bowl of cole... slaw.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 22:10:54 -0500

Several years ago we bought some Frigidaire kitchen appliances - definitely in the "premium mediocre" price range. Not long after, the icemaker could be heard making terrible groaning and metalic-grinding noises. One day I found a spiral of newly sheared-off plastic in my glass.

So it goes.

Tonight I saw a news article about a recall. I usually skip these - they never apply to us - but this one did. Gee. Fun.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 16:14:28 -0500

I'm gonna quit you unexpectedly, one of these days. #macos

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 22:49:56 -0500

If you don’t got Mojo Nixon then your store could use some fixin.

RIP.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 10:34:39 -0500

My new favorite response to this common (irritating) interviewee response:

Interviewee: “that’s a really good question.”

Rob Brydon: “it’s a really good podcast!”

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:50:35 -0500

I just discovered that The Storygraph allows you to leave zero-star reviews. 📚 ⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

another macos notification weirdsie

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 10:07:17 -0500

I downloaded Zoom years after everyone else. Never needed it but eventually used it to lurk in a few informal web-dev get-togethers. Deleted it… two months ago? Six?

This morning, checking the weather using Firefox… system notification: “Zoom Incorporated (or whatever) has added a Background Item…”

Eh? It’s not even installed, my M1 friend.

But at least there’s a FacePad now.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 13:25:07 -0500

I pay nearly no attention to the order of apps on my #iOS screen and have no idea how I managed this double #Twitch situation.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 17:51:32 -0500

I've been using #Tailscale for at least a year, and only just discovered the file transfer. Holy moly. So much more reliable than any other solution (esp. AirDrop). Neat.

Four years late to the Apple Card...

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 13:15:43 -0500

I bought an M1 iMac when it was new, and after charging it on my AmEx I thought "maybe we should've applied for an Apple Card, just for the cash back on this purchase?" I'm not big on anything requiring a credit check, and I don't need another cc. But a few percent of a big purchase like that? I regretted it mildly.

Two years later (ish?) I needed to upgrade my phone. Bought an SE 3rd gen. Not super-expensive but the same thought about their cc nagged at me. This past xmas Terri wanted replacement earpods. Same thought a 3rd time.

Now she needs a new phone, and while we're not going top-of-the-line it's still going to cost us $700+. I decided it was time to sign up. Pretty slick, the whole process. And it served as the impetus for Terri to finally set up Apple Pay on her phone.

I wish Apple would stick to this sort of polished service instead of nausea-inducing FacePads.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:34:16 -0500

"Oh, well if it's for quality, sure..."

(Mildly astonished that Windows keeps working on this antiquated 2012 Mac mini. Although the window manager thingie hangs and reloads anytime you right click on a file. (I forget my Windows terms -- it's the equivalent of relaunching the Finder.))

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 11:57:00 -0500

My DW playlist this morning kicks off with a song by The Quivers that reminds me of Kitchens of Distinction, so I check out the artist bio. They covered the entirety of REM's Out of Time a few years ago, so I have to check that out... they turned S.H.P. into something like a dirge; I like it.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 20:51:54 -0500

Funny little age-difference thing, watching ACL. T didn’t recognize “All Fired Up” (‘88) which was all over Rock 103 when I was a sophomore/junior in HS.

Then I had no idea about “…Promises in the Dark” (‘81) when T was a sophomore/junior in HS.

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:19:04 -0500

Eating leftovers at my desk and accidentally splashed a tiny bit of Szechuan sauce on my Macbook. I tidied it up with a paper towel and thought no more about it. Hours later I'm playing music and realizing the left speaker is half-dead. 拉屎！

"AppleCare would like to view your screen"

rich@pineandvine.com (RL Brown) — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:06:00 -0500

What?!?

Looks like a legit popup, not a browser image scam. I don't think it's a "real" notification from a browser tab either; I keep them turned off universally. I google that phrase and find... less than expected. Confused forum chat, blame the OP, etc.

I figured it was something to do with the call I'd had earlier with Mom, trying to fix her passwords. Ultimately I logged in as her, changed her Apple PW and logged her out of everything... then she couldn't get back into anything (where she'd started, but at least her phone Messages app worked before. I just made things worse.)

So I said "call AppleCare, tell them X, Y, Z. It works at my house but not yours. Weird."

10 minutes later I got "AppleCare would like to view your screen," on both laptop and iMac. Stupidly, I clicked ok! A shaky red arrow appeared, and seemed to attempt to wiggle itself over the "Start an online support chat," button (I had left the Apple support page open, after reading the 800-number to Mom). I grabbed focus of a terminal session that was also on the screen and typed "I dont need help but I just told my mother to call AppleCare. Maybe this is somehow related?" Then I rebooted the machine in an abundance of caution.

An hour later Mom texts me (that's good, she's somehow gotten back into her Apple account on something.) She talked to a nice support person who pretty quickly asked for the iMac's serial number. She told Mom, "Oh, that belongs to Rich B."

"Oh, that's my son who was helping me."

I bought that machine for them, 5 or 6 years ago. Hand-delivered, all set up and ready to go. It has always been connected (or whatever) to her Apple account - Find My shows it in her devices, etc. But we have also always seemed to have weird account problems with it.

Perhaps now solved? The support person is still walking her through some upgrades, apparently (didn't I just do that at xmas, though?) Anyway. If you get this message, it means AppleCare is troubleshooting someone, somewhere out there, on a box they think is yours.