Waiting impatiently for Android “L” now… I just hope I won’t need another new phone to run it! My Galaxy S5 is plenty zippy for me! Here’s an article about the new Android “L” version, just announced today.
Mr. Mercedes
I just finished reading the Stephen King audiobook, Mr. Mercedes. It was awesome! Definitely a great audiobook that kept me in the car longer, Ingressing a lot more as a result, as I listened to it over the past couple weeks. During this time I found out that the anonymous chat site used extensively in the book by Mr Mercedes and Bill Hodges is actually a real site! Instead of writing my own description of what the book is about, I stole this from Google, who knows all:
In a mega-stakes, high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely and winning heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands.
In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.
In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.
Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.
Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.
Tired. Literally.
Last week was very busy. Wednesday, on my way to work I had a blowout. My right front tire blew as I was driving to work. I was in Kenosha county, so at least the tow wasn’t too bad. I couldn’t get the trunk open to get to the spare and the jack (darn it, I was SO looking forward to changing a tire, too!) so I called my insurance company’s roadside assistance hotline. They give you the option to locate you via GPS, so I went that route. As it turned out, they pinpointed me on the wrong road, sending the tow truck somewhere else. But the towing service call me back and I provided them with a mailbox number nearby, then they were able to find me.
My car was fixed by late that evening, and only took that long because they found other issues that also needed tending to, so I opted to have those done as well, as long as it was already in the shop. I ended up with new 4 new tires, new brakes, and some other undercarriage equipment that’s apparently important, but I don’t even know the terms or what they do. All I know is that my car rides much smoother and I no longer have “slicks” that sqeal when I turn corners, even at slow speeds. Nice and quiet.
Then, late Saturday evening, as I was leaving the house, I notice I had a FLAT TIRE! A brand new tire, and it’s almost completely flat. It looked like it still had SOME air in it, so I drove to the gas station a few blocks away and filled it up, then ran my errands and came back home. Sunday morning I checked it again and it was flat, this time completely. Ah, good times. I found a small electric air compressor in the garage–I think it was from my dad’s estate–it worked nicely, plugged into the cigarette lighter in the car. Once I started the car, the pump came on, and the tire was filled in a few minutes. The garage opened in a couple hours, so I figured it would still have enough air in it to get me to the garage by the time they opened. The garage found a two-inch sheetmetal screw embedded in the tire and showed it to me. Man, was it sharp! That car went fine on it’s original tires for 7 years with no problems at all (they were pretty bald though), then when I get new ones, within 3 days I run over a screw and puncture one! That’s my luck I guess. The shop just said “Yeah, that’s about how it goes.” Arrgh. It was covered though, so no big deal. Maybe I should have asked if I could have the four quarters back that I used to fill the tire back up…
A portal a day keeps the doctor away
I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday–just a 30-day checkup because he recently changed one of my meds. He saw that my test results looked pretty good and my weight is decreasing, so he congratulated me and asked what I’m doing differently. I said “I guess you could say I’m on a new diet that’s low in calories and high in XM and AP.” After a moment, he said “Excuse me, what was that again?” I repeated it, and based on his expression and head-tilt I went on to explain what Ingress is and how it’s helping me lose weight along with some changes in my diet. After that he understood a little more, and encouraged me to do even more of it. Watch out, toads…Now I have a prescription to take out MORE green portals!
When asked, 4 out of 5 doctors preferred blue skies to green skies, for patients who play Ingress. It’s just healthier.
Monday Night Features
Watched two things last night:
The Wil Wheaton Project: A wacky little talk show hosted by Wil that I enjoyed. Probably not for everyone though. Of course, I’m a TMZ fan as well, so I like the off-the-wall wacky humor, making light of current events. Wil’s new show is kinda like “TMZ for geeks”, in which he highlights everything current in the geek world–mostly in TV and movies this week, but I’m sure he’ll be all-inclusive, geek-wise, throughout the season. Yesterday was his first episode. I hope it does well. I’ve followed him for years, since he was in Stephen King’s “Stand By Me” in 1986.
Non-Stop: Very exciting movie that takes place in-flight as an unidentified terrorist threatens to kill a passenger every 20 minutes until $150 million is transferred to his bank account by the Air Marshal on the flight. They communicate through the entire movie by text messaging, with the texts appearing in popup bubbles on-screen as they are received. Unique approach. Especially when the air marshal ends up viewing a phone with a cracked screen–the on-screen text message bubbles were shown with cracks, I guess to show how difficult it was to read the screen. Some parts were a bit over-the-top, but it was still a great Monday-night feature for us.
Memorial Day Weekend
Had a nice Memorial Day weekend. The weather has been great, in the 60’s and very little wind. Got all the windows open in the house, and had a nice, comfortable breeze and fresh air in the house! I love it. I even turned the humidifier off for a change. Static is usually a huge issue at home most of the year, so I run a humidifier most of the time. Right now it’s on a break, and I hope it stays this way awhile. Very pleasant. I cut the grass while Kevin was on his movie shoot. He’s shooting a horror movie with a friend from school. He’s an extra I think, but he’s enjoying it.
Kevin had his “passage” at school last week. This is something new for us, we hadn’t heard of it before. It’s a presentation that I student gives to his family and teachers, explaining everything he has learned during the year–projects, field trips, what he likes about school, etc., and Kevin did an OK job with it. He had a hard time presenting, and I know exactly how that is. I had a hard time with the same stuff when I was in school as well. My most-dreaded class was Public Speaking in college. The entire class year all came down to 4 main speeches that had to be presented to the class and guests, one per quarter, which were basically like each quarter’s test. I passed, but it was really rough for me. As it turned out though, the easiest speech for me, by far, was the final, 5th
speech. We got to do that one on any subject we wanted, so we could basically present something we know well. This was way back in 1984, mind you, so mine was on “How to install telephone jacks”. This was when phone jacks were the huge, square, 4-prong jacks, if anyone else can even remember those… Wow, what a flashback! Anyway, I see a lot of myself in Kevin…poor kid. He seems to have a lot of the same difficulties I did, except for the way we’re opposite in the Math Department–I did pretty good in math, and used it extensively as I learned various computer programming languages. Kevin struggles a lot with math, and doesn’t seem to have any interest in it as I did. Maybe it’s just another reason he prefers art and drawing.
A Chihuahua’s Life
Socks, our chihuahua, is a great dog. Most people can’t tell though. It’s been said that Chihuahuas tend to favor one particular person and only that person. Everyone else is to be kept at arm’s (or paw’s) length, and is to be taken cautiously. And since I am the lucky one to have become Socks’ “master”, I get the royal treatment while everyone else–including the rest of our immediate family (Kevin and Sandy) get the cautious approach, get nipped at if they don’t do things “just right”, try to touch me in the slightest, or even hesitate when trying to pet him.
Chihuahuas also seem to be different than the typical description of a dog as in “man’s best friend” and “a dog’s love is unconditional”. At least with Socks it’s different. Socks can be very friendly to family members, cuddle and snuggle nicely, but only when it suits him or when he wants or needs something. If you have ice cream, you’re his best friend. When it’s gone, he’s gone as well. When he’s cold, he’ll snuggle up close to you…but only because your body temperature is a toasty 98.6, and he’s chilly. Once he gets warmed up, he’s outta there. He’s his own dog. Maybe he’s got a little cat in him. When he’s out of water, he’ll let you know by jumping up by you, seeking out your own drink and rudely having a taste of it for himself. Or, on occasion he’ll continuously knock his water dish against the wall until someone notices he’s being weird and figures out he’s out of water. He has his own way of “talking”.
His #1 fear in all the world is thunder and/or fireworks. If it’s very loud and shakes the house, he’s instantly terrified and begins to shiver uncontrollably. There’s no calming him down when this happens. Only the passing of time–about 20 to 30 minutes of no thunder or explosions–will calm him down. During storms, if he still hears the patter of rain on the windowsill he knows it’s still storming out, so the violent shivering continues. I think he needs a sedative. He shivers so violently, I’m afraid one day he’s just going to have a seizure or heart attack. He’s no spring chicken any more–he’s approaching 12 years old, and his hair is turning more and more gray all the time.
During his last checkup, the vet said he has to go on a diet, he’s too fat. So we stopped the snacks and always-full food dish and went to two scheduled “meals” a day and no treats. And I’m walking him every chance I get–usually once a day when the weather permits. I think it was a little rough for him at first–not being able to have food any any time of day, but he’s coming around. Also tough (on all of us) was not being able to give him a treat when he comes in after going out to go to the bathroom. We had him conditioned to go out easily, because he always knew there’d be a treat for him as soon as he came in. After we stopped that, he’d still go outside excitedly, but came in all wound up, staring sadly at us, waiting for a treat, but he didn’t get one. I found a replacement though. I know he loves snuggling up in a toasty blanket, and often fluffs his blanket up like a cat does, to get it just right, then circles and nestles himself into it to stay warm–so when he comes in now I get excited, grab his blanket, and use either “nest!” or “bundle!” as keywords, then lay that across a chair or the couch, he jumps in and lays down, and I proceed to wrap him tighly inside with just his head peeking out. He’ll lay there for hours sometimes, just toasty as can be. It’s also funny to watch him, if something startles him out of his nest before he’s actually ready (or perhaps still cold)–he’ll try to get back into it as snugly as he was before, sometimes by going in through the hole his head was sticking out of, but often really messing it up trying to fix it, or knocking it off the chair or couch completely, then looking at one of us sadly as if asking “can you help a dog out here?!”
His favorite thing in the whole world is his walks. He has a very nice yard to run in, but apparently he’s not satisfied enough or knows that area too well already, and just wants to get out more. He doesn’t want to escape though. We can leave the gate open, whether on accident or on purpose, and he stays in the yard. He has no desire to run away. But if given the chance, and the gate is left open and unattended, like any good dog he will get curious and wander out, so we try not to give him the opportunity. But, per doctor’s orders (both HIS and MINE), more exercise is needed, so I walk him as often as I can. He gets so excited when I grab the leash that he just looses control, jumping as high as he can and squealing with excitement, his tail wagging so furiously it waddles his whole body back and forth (I gave him the nickname “Mr. Waddles” because of this). All I do is hold the leash and stand next to a chair and he’s instantly up there, waiting to be attached. Sometimes he’s so excited he’ll jump into the chair, then back down, then up again, just too excited to stand still. I just wait, and eventually he’s ready to be tethered. He likes to tug a bit on his leash during walks, but using a retractable 15-foot leash helps a lot to control that habit. We try to walk a mile or more each time, and this is perfect for him. On occasion we’ll walk over 2 miles. When we do this, he’s usually completely exhausted the rest of the day, but still doesn’t mind it.
He “sings”, just as most dogs do, when he hears a loud siren from an ambulance or fire truck go by, and Sandy can even make the same pitch that sets him off, so she can make him sing at will very easily. The very first few minutes of the movie “Serpico” is also a perfect trigger that sets him off, singing loudly every time. We now refer to this as “his favorite movie” and I think he actually knows what the word “Serpico” means now… It means “It’s time to sing!”
He had an issue not too long ago with his “anal sacs”, which is gross, and was a new one on me. You’ll find a few more gross details in a previous blog entry, if you’re interested. But that was when he saw the vet and when his diet and our habits took a major turn. He’s getting used to his scheduled two meals a day now, and he REALLY enjoys the days when he gets wet food–this occurs two or three times a week when Sandy mixes in his prescribed diet supplements with canned dog food. He loves it!
I prefer chihuahuas over other dog types because of their smaller size (which also means less waste output!) and because everyone enjoys puppies, and chihuahuas are like “perpetual” puppies–they STAY puppies their entire lives. Socks still gets called a puppy by kids when I walk him. We just have to be a bit more careful with handling and activities than we would have to with a larger dog. Chihuahuas have more fragile limbs and can’t handle to cold like most other dog types. We haven’t “broken” ours yet, though we have thrown him in a snow bank or two, just to watch him hop out in his own unique way, but he’s never been left out in the cold long enough to do any damage. I (we?) did accidentally leave him locked out of the house once overnight, but it wasn’t cold enough out to have any lasting effect, and it certainly taught us (me?) a lesson, so it won’t happen again. He sleeps in our bed now, usually snugly tucked right between Sandy and I. He’s a good old boy, always guarding the house, ready to rip off the heels of any intruder who might are to enter–whether it’s family, friend, or stranger–he’s not picky about who he nibbles on.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, one of Beth and Tom’s dogs recently had an accident that ended up with them having to put him down. It was devastating to their whole family. This dog was a big part of their family for a long time, and we know how that is. It had to be very very hard indeed to have to say goodbye, just as with a human family member. So I just wanted to get this out there now, just to document it accurately, while everything comes to mind so clearly. I know Socks is getting old himself, but hopefully he’s got several more wonderful years left in him before we have to go through the same sorrow ourselves. All dogs go to heaven. Sammy’s fine.
Skokie Caterpillar
We had a good time, except it was a bit cold, and we thought it would warm up a bit throughout the day, so Kevin didn’t dress well enough to stay warm, and had a bit of a rough time of it. He still managed to take all the photos he could and did his part in the game though. I took the 147 photos in this album. He preferred to take his own photos, separately. We had a good time though, it’s a very nice park with a great walking path and lots to see. If you enjoy art, it’s a must-see.
American Horror Story
Sandy and I just started watching Season 1 of American Horror Story. We like it! It’s weird, but interesting and very well done. It’s the kind of show with the odd video effects mixed with horror to scare the crap out of you while it plays out. It does a lot of flashing back to different time periods, but it’s necessary to fill in the story. At least for season 1. This is a series that “resets” every season, with a different story and cast each time. I heard about it by reading a small article in Happenings that said Michael Chiklis (from The Commish and The Shield) was going to star in Season 4, currently in production. Season 4 is subtitled “Freak Show”, and is supposed to involve the weirdest freak show ever. Season 1 is about a single haunted house and it’s very bizarre history. I’m not sure what the subject is for seasons 2 and 3 yet, but it should be interesting!
The New Roku Stick…it up your arse!
The new Roku Stick just came out. The Roku 2 & 3 are better than the stick though, so I don’t get it. I guess it’s just for people that don’t want the extra little box, and don’t mind a sluggish Roku. Now, if it were as good or better than the Roku 3, I’d drool over it. I could plug it into any TV as easy as a flash drive and it’d be fairly portable! But it’s just not there yet. Plus, they hide the fact that it still needs POWER. You either have to run a wire from the Roku stick to a USB port on your TV (if your TV has USB ports) or run it to a USB-to-AC adapter and plug it into the wall. So, when you get right down to it, they just scrunched it down to a smaller package without the HDMI cable–sorta–you still need the same two connections to it–HDMI and power. It’s the same as gluing a sluggish “Roku 1” to the back of your TV! Yeah, now there’s an idea! Don’t get me wrong though, I love Roku–I have several. I just don’t see the point in releasing something NEW that’s–according to their own website–5 times slower than their best model!
Subscriptions. A rant.
I am so frustrated with how things are these days with tech, services, and just about everything else. For one example video games. Back in the day, you could buy a video game and that was it–you could play it normally, privately, or play it online, if the game offered that feature. There was no fee to play online, no “online pass” you had to own, and no other fees other than the purchase of the game itself. It was the same with movies. Buy a DVD, and you could play it anywhere, on any DVD player, on any TV.
Today, things are quickly changing. Luckily, you can still buy DVDs, but I know that’s going to go away eventually. The same with video games. Everything is “going digital” and you’ll eventually only be able to obtain games, movies, and music digitally. All of your purchases will only be for a “license to download” things, so you’ll never really “own” anything. Stop paying a subscription fee, and you lose access to everything you had access to with that subscription. We will soon “own” none of our media, and we’ll only have a temporary license to play it.
Whether that’s a good thing or bad, I guess, is up to you. Maybe I’m “old school”, but I prefer to have something physical for what I pay for. Whether that’s a DVD, a Blu-Ray, a Music CD, or a game disc. As far as I’m concerned, I own that disc, music, or game, and I can install or play it wherever and whenever I want, and not have to pay anything for it ever again. At this point in this “revolution”, however, I’m a bit stuck in the middle with this stuff. By that, I mean I now prefer the convenience that comes with having everything digital, but I hate the idea of having to pay a constant monthly fee for the right to access them. To this end, I have found an efficient way to extract–or, as they call it these days, “rip”–all of my CDs, DVDs, and BluRay discs to media files, so I have everything readily-available, all the time, from my computer, and I can move any of them to any of my portable devices as I want to, without having any extra fees to pay. Ever.
I took this convenience one step further recently after discovering “Plex”, an awesome media platform that allows me to have ALL of this media on a “server” of my own, then stream it, totally free, to any device or other computer I want–even to my TV. Plex works great, supports all the major formats for music and movies, has apps for all of the smartphone types, and even has apps for all of the set-top boxes like Roku, Google TV, etc.
The latest generation of game consoles (Playstation 4, X-Box One) recently took a very bold step into the fee-based cesspool: They released both systems as non-backward-compatible! This means that everyone who has a Playstation 3, or X-Box 360 (the generation of consoles that came out right before them) will no longer be able to play their previously-purchased games on the new consoles. All of the money that I–and hundreds of thousands of other people–spent buying great PS3 games before, will basically be wasted when our PS3 consoles eventually die or break down. If we’re lucky, when that happens we might be able to dig up an old, working PS3 somewhere just to keep our came collection viable. But we know, soon enough, it’ll all be gone.
Now, if a particular game you like was popular enough on the PS3, and the developer is still around and developing for the PS4, you might see a PS4 version of your game made available, but you can sure bet you’ll be paying for it again if you want to play it! It might have a “cheap $9.99 UPGRADE fee”, but you’ll be paying for it again, regardless. Games of this type can be found in the “PS3/PS4” section of the Playstation Store on the PS4…And this is a very small section. The titles here are games that are PS4 versions with equivalent PS3 titles. If you own one of the PS3 versions and upgraded to the PS4, you’re lucky enough to be allowed to pay for your game again! I guess we’re supposed to feel good about having to pay for our games a second time…? You bought the game once though, why should you have to pay ANYTHING for it again?!?! I know, I know, the developers worked hard to provide the new version, and they have to get paid, etc., etc., But don’t they get enough from the users who buy the game new, who obviously pay double or triple the price of the “upgrade”? Obviously, the “upgraders” are getting the same version of the game, so the developers can afford to sell a copy of the game for the lower price if they want to. Ah, but remember now, that “upgraded” copy of the game is now only a “license” to the game… it’s not a physical disc copy of the game. So you can never re-sell it to anyone else, and I’m sure, by the time the NEXT generation of consoles comes out, it’ll be completely worthless.
Movies are also moving quickly toward this path. Services like Netflix, Hulu and Redbox already off vast collections of thousands of great movies and TV shows, with everything they offer available to you all at once, for just a low monthly subscription fee. It’s like having your very own Plex server, except with thousands more movies (but no music–those would be another, completely different subscription service), except that, as soon as you stop paying the monthly fee, it’s snatched away from you completely, and you have nothing. You own nothing. I know, I’m old-school. I’m just ranting.
So these days, as we work hard to earn the money to pay down and eliminate all of our debt, finally getting financially stable, and able to pay our mortgage, gas & electric, cell phone and property taxes to keep living normally, we can add to that a half dozen or even a dozen perpetual subscription fees that will never end, for all kinds of things that we’ll never own. For me, I’m trying to get by with as few subscription services as I can, as most other people probably are, but as the new game consoles prove, it’s only going more and more–quickly– in that direction.
If you do the math for the subscription scenario, then compare it to the math to actually buy all of the DVD, BluRays, and Music CDs as well as the hardware required to build your own streaming server, sure, you’re going to find that paying the monthly subscription fee will end up costing you thousands of dollars less in the long run, and will take tons less time to build, maintain, and keep up than your own server would. But then again, I’m a geek who enjoys such things, so taking that time and extra effort is something I’d rather do with a chunk of my time instead of just being twice the couch potato and watch movies for two-thirds of my day.
Rant complete.
Influx – Audiobook
I just finished an awesome new audiobook by Daniel Suarez called “Influx“. It’s a story about a secret government agency known as the “BTC” – The Federal Bureau of Technology Control. This secret agency has been in existence since the 60’s, making sure that our civilization doesn’t create technology at a pace faster than we can handle. Basically, they “hoard” these technologies, keeping the public unaware of their existence. We’re talking about technologies like the cure for cancer, cold fusion, and gravity mirroring that would allow humans to fly. Much of which has been discovered for decades, but locked away (and perfected) by the BTC! I don’t want to spoil any more of the story in case you want to read/listen to it yourself, so I’ll keep it short. I thought it was great though, right up there with “Daemon“, another one of Daniel Suarez’ excellent books.
Facebook, G+, Twitter, Blog… Where should I post?
I’m torn. All these different places to post things in, with different people preferring different sites for posting… I would really love to stop using all but one. But which one? If I only post to my own website, I enjoy it, and it lives forever here, but very few people read it. If I post on Facebook or Google+, a ton more people see it and respond to it. I guess it all comes down to: Why do I post something? For me, or for others? Maybe I’ll just put my daily ramblings here (like this) and post the “good stuff” on Facebook and/or Google+, and/or Twitter. Nah, that doesn’t work. Either way, I end up with a partial record of history. And I hate the “post in one place and then link to that post on all the other sites” technique. But maybe if that could be somehow fully automated… I’ll have to look into a WordPress plugin or two or three that might just be able to do that…
Socks on a Mailbox
I think my dog is getting senile. Today, while we were walking, he lifted his leg to pee on someone’s mailbox post and he stood there and pooped. It was like he totally forgot which one he was doing. He just pooped as if he was peeing extra long, then lowered his leg and was ready to move on. No more squatting for him I guess…he’s beyond that. No more burnouts, kicking up the grass and dirt every time he’s finished…doggie CRS, I guess.
Doing PC work again
Ok, I’m back. Before the end of last year, I had “retired” from doing home PC work. My full-time job, along with my family and other activities was plenty to keep me busy. But very recently, my full-time employee forced everyone to go to a 32-hour work week. Everyone is being forced to take a day off every week. This hits me hard, especially after having stopped my side jobs completely! So, I’ve started taking side work again. If you know of anyone needing PC work (or if you do), I’m available. Still one of the cheapest prices around ($30/hr), and I have over 25 years of experience. Phone or Text: (262) 818-6376 – E-mail: service@jimtrottier.com. More details are in the right sidebar on this site.
Checking in
Today I finished reading/listening to Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” for the third time. I can’t get enough of this stuff. I think it’s all the nostalgia. Though the story takes place in the future, the book focuses on everything from the 80’s that I loved. The games, the movies, and everything else. From the videogame Joust & Pac-Man to the movies “WarGames” and “Monty Python & The Holy Grail”, it’s all there.
I’ve been playing Ingress lately, as usual, which is a blast, but unfortunately since any details I post here are fully public, and I hate to provide any “intel” that could (and always is) used against our faction, I can’t say much about my gameplay. Suffice it to say that I’m a member of the Resistance (Blue) faction. There are two factions in Ingress — The Enlightened (Green) and The Resistance (Blue). We “battle” for controlling areas of the real world using GPS and Google Maps by aquiring “portals”, which are usually landmarks, works of art, murals, statues, or other “places of interest” in the real world. Resist Greens are nicknamed “toads” or “frogs” and Blues are nicknamed “smurfs”. You aquire portals for your team by finding them on your Ingress “scanner” when you travel (preferably by walking) to them, attacking them if they’re owned by the opposite faction, and taking control of them for your team.
In our area (Kenosha) we are currently overrun, a.k.a “infested” with toads. Since I am a smurf, this provides a lot of options for attacks without having to travel far. There are hundreds of portals in Kenosha alone, not to mention the thousands all around the world. If there’s a landmark that isn’t a portal yet, you can submit it, and after it’s accepted (usually within a few weeks), the landmark then becomes a portal you can use in the game. So anyway, it’s very fun, but we could use more smurfs (BLUE). If you have an Android phone (soon it’ll be released for iPhone as well), please consider joining The Resistance and joining in on the fun. We could really use your help. And, if you join our faction, I’ll be glad to help you level up as quickly as possible, so you can help us “Keep Kenosha Blue”, instead of being covered in green toad slime, as it is now.
It’s Connor’s Birth Day!
Connor Krumm was born this morning at 4:36am! He’s 7 lbs, 10 oz., and 18.5″ tall. Matt called Sandy and I last night around 7:30pm. Matt said he was picking up Anna from a Christmas Party and then they were going to the hospital. He thinks she’s having the baby. I guess he called the doctor, and from the details he gave, they told him not to come to the hospital yet, it’s not time. At around midnight, Matt called us again and said she’s really having the baby this time! Sandy and I got dressed and headed to the hospital. At 4:36am Anna had Connor and he’s a cute little rug rat. I took some photos and added them to his photo album.
Ingress Portal Submissions
I recently found an “Ingress” subfolder on my phone in the “Pictures” folder. It contains every portal submission I’ve ever made, so I thought I’d post them here, in full resolution, just for others to enjoy. Some of them were rejected, however, but they’re still here. I am currently at 97 portals accepted, and climbing. If you’re not in the game yet, please sign up for the Resistance and join the fight! You no longer need an invitation from another player to join, and the game will soon be available for iPhone users too! And, if you join the Resistance, I’ll be glad to help you out with gear, tips, and assistance with leveling up!
Harborside Art Exhibit
Moved to Google Photos
I have recently moved all of my 29,000+ public photos from Flickr to Google Photos. Google has been making a lot of progress with their photo services recently, including integrating Picasa into Google Photos. With everything they now offer, and how easy everything just is to use, compared to Flickr and the difficulties I have had trying to stick with them, I decided to move everything.
I made the final decision a couple weeks ago, when I found this site: http://www.flickrtoplus.com/. It allows you to simply login to Flickr, then to G+, and it lists your albums and you just choose the ones you want to migrate from Flickr to Plus. It couldn’t have been easier. I tried a few albums at first, wondering how they can afford to devote all the processing required to to this for everyone for absolutely nothing–no ads on the site, nothing, it simply works. After a few albums came through just fine, I did a dozen more, then queued up dozens more after that, then the hundreds more after that. Within a week everything was done!
It uses your “Google Drive” space for storage and allows you to keep your photos at their original size & quality–a huge factor in my decision. I recently realized that Google will scale down large photos you upload to G+, so that was disappointing, but after looking into it, using Picasa I can upload photos at their original resolution without it re-sizing them, and the flickrtoplus site also gives me the option to migrate them in original size or “large” size, which is smaller. I chose “original” for everything I migrated, and I always upload my photos full-size.
With how simple Google’s search features work, it’s just so easy to find any photo or album I need now. And Google Photos even looks simpler than Flickr’s interface, even though there are many more features you don’t see, that Flickr isn’t capable of at all. There is one thing missing from Google Photos, however, that I liked in Flickr–and that’s “Collections”. Flickr called its photo albums “Sets” and “Collections” were groups of Sets you could group together, like “Birthdays”, “Vacations”, etc. to keep things more organized. Google Photos doesn’t offer an option for this, so all of my albums (402 of them right now, to be exact) are shown on one page. I thought this would make things difficult to locate, but since Google’s search is so fast–and page searching is also so fast (using CTRL-F) I can find anything I need in my albums very quickly.
As far as price and space, it does cost a little more to go with Google than Flickr. I was paying a flat $24.99 a year for unlimited space on Flickr, which is a really good price, especially for unlimited photos at full-size. On Google, there’s a limit depending on the plan you choose: $4.99/month for 100GB, $9.99 for 200GB, $19.99 for 400GB, etc. But–and this is a BIG BUT for me–this space is combined with Gmail, Google Drive, and Photos. Right now I’m using just over 60GB for everything with all of my 29,000+ photos and everything else, so I could get by with the $4.99 a month, but I’m on the 200GB plan instead, just to have some breathing room for future photos and all of my documents, which are backed up on Google Drive, and my e-mail. So, for me, that’s $120 per year now, instead of $24.99, but it’s more than just my photos, and I just trust Google more that Flickr.
So that’s that. I’ve changed the “Photos” link on my site to go to my Google Photos Albums now instead of Flickr, and some time in December my Flickr account will downgrade to a free account. This will make only 200 of my latest photos available there, the rest will be hidden. I’ll probably delete my Flickr account at that time anyway, just to avoid people adding comments to the 200 latest photos they can see.
JimTrottier.com 