Disorderly Content

Yeah, I know; what's so newsworthy about that? But hear me out.

With the release of Adobe Photoshop CS3 for the Mac, virtually everything I run on my Mini is now native Intel code. This is a good thing, since as amazingly well as Rosetta did at emulating PowerPC on Intel processors, native code's bound to run faster and in less memory. So I was waiting for the last holdout, Microsoft Office, to show up in a native version. Which it did a few weeks ago. And which, I have to say, is totally craptacular by even Microsoft standards. And yes, I know a phrase like "Microsoft standards" is a punchline.

What's wrong with Office 2008? Not much, beyond the bugs, and the misbehaviors, and the crashing. Which it does. A lot. I have spreadsheets with graphs I dare not touch, knowing that they will crash Excel. Every. Damn. Time. And then there are the popup warnings about my exceeding the number of fonts in a spreadsheet. Except that I don't have more than a couple of fonts in my spreadsheet. And that when I dismiss the popup it comes right back. Up to a half dozen times before it finally shuts up about not doing something I'm already not doing.

For a second I thought I wasn't going to have to write this post. Microsoft's auto-updater told me it had something to install. Which turned out to be an update to the auto-updater. Funny; that's the one piece of Microsoft software that isn't total dreck.

Public service time, in case somebody else runs into the same problem I did.

I've been looking around for a good microphone for podcasting. I've been using a couple of headsets, one from Logitech and a better one from Plantronics. They're both USB and both convenient, except for their tendencies to pick up noises every time I move my head the wrong way. So, having done what I thought was adequate research, I put in an order for a Snowball from Blue Microphones. It's a self-contained USB mic that's substantial, cool looking and supposed to produce good recordings. It also has a minimalist aesthetic, with one slider switch to select between cardiod, omnidirectional a sort of compromise "cardioid with a little omni thrown in".

What it didn't have was enough gain; no matter what I tried, I couldn't get a loud enough recording to suit me. Going to the maker's discussion forum, I discovered I wasn't the only one who thought so. I also learned that there was an application that would adjust the mic's firmware between the default low gain (great perhaps for a loud concert) and a higher gain more suited to my dulcet tones. Unfortunately all the links led to the same place. Or, more precisely, to nowhere at all: the linked page was gone.

After some more searching I discovered lots more complaints about the lack of volume, but no solutions beyond the phantom firmware. So I sent a message to Blue's support line and waited for an answer.

Which just came. And included an explanation and a solution. The explanation is that the updater wasn't required any more, as Snowballs are now all going out with high gain firmware. Except of course for mine, and all the unsold inventory at all the dealers from before the change. (Which I pointed out in my reply to the service tech.) But that's moot, at least for me. The message included the updater, which did what I needed it to do.

So if you should happen to buy a Snowball, and it happens to suffer from a lack of volume, and you happen to Google for a solution and happen to encounter this page, now you know what to do: find the Contact Support page on Blue's website and let 'em know that they may have been premature in their deletion of that software from their site.

This weekend is Wondercon, San Francisco's answer to San Diego Comic Con, or at least the answer to the question, "What would Comic Con be like if it were a whole lot smaller, and five hundred miles or so to the north?" Since I won't make it to Comic Con this year, I decided to head to the city for a little wander among the dealer's tables at Wondercon. My walk down the aisles was going fine until I stopped at a costumer's stall, where they had the most beautiful replicas of Peacekeeper jackets from Farscape. The salescritter, resplendent in something either Victorian or fantasy-related or more likely both, tried to get me to try on one of the leather vests, a suggestion I resisted. I managed to escape, and to continue my journey. Had a nice conversation with the former host of the local Creature Feature program, which ended broadcast just a couple of years before I came to town. He was hawking his book, which I ended up buying. (They may not be my memories, but they're close enough.)

Reaching the end of the hall, I just knew I had to stop back and try on one of the Peacekeeper jackets. I figured I was safe; after all, I'm shorter and rounder than anybody who ever wore one on the show. But I didn't figure on the ingenuity of the designer. Turns out there was one in just my size. Okay, the sleeves were a tiny bit too long, or my arms are a tiny bit too short, but close enough. And after determining that yes, they did take plastic, and after ignoring the question of when I might ever actually wear such a thing, I became the proud owner of a really fine maroon and black leather jacket.

But that's not quite the end of the story. As we're dealing with the credit card machine, the designer said I sounded really familiar. Was I a member of the ScapeCast? I was and am, which led to a nice conversation about the podcast, and the show, and the cast, and conventions, and her purchase of several original costumes and all the costume patterns that had been offered for sale. Which is one heck of a small world story, except that it's not really so surprising. After all, who but a fanatic Scaper would go to the trouble of making perfect replicas of a PK uniform? And who but another fanatic would buy one?

In case it isn't obvious, those are rhetorical questions.

It's a fact of life that business is business, and to expect better than to be treated with contempt is to ask to be disappointed. We're almost proud of the lack of respect we receive from the business community, each new tale of outrage reminding us that we deserve no better. My daily reading of The Consumerist blog is a reminder that someone's always getting screwed; just be glad it's not you!

So, being the anxious consumer I am when things go wrong, I faced a leaky tire on my not yet two year old Camry Hybrid with something less than sangfroid. I didn't notice the problem; the car did. But, being at least a little prepared for such things, I determined which tire was low with my trusty digital pressure gauge (it was the right rear) and then pulled out my electric pump to reinflate it. And monitored the situation for a while, until time and complacency took its toll.

A few weeks later the warning light went on again. Same tire of course, which I duly inflated. A few weeks after that I brought my car in for service, which includes a tire rotation. So I guess I was waiting for the day that warning was set off by my now right front tire. Which happened Sunday morning, and which finally forced me to deal with the problem.

The car came with Michelins, so I went Googling for a Michelin dealer in my area. Found one too, but kept looking after I read a review that had absolutely nothing positive to say about them. A second one in nearby Los Altos sounded promising, and so I took a drive over this morning. I gave them the short version of the story (lucky them, I'm sure you're thinking), and wondered how much effort they'd put into finding such a tiny and slow leak. I'd read a bunch of customer reports, you see, and knew if they didn't find it quickly, they'd be after me to replace the tire. Or maybe they wouldn't even try...

I guess these guys didn't read consumer complaints like I did, because they spent 15 or 20 minutes inspecting the tire and applying soapy water and listening carefully, at which point they found the leak. Took the tire off the rim, repaired it, reassembled it all and charged me nothing. Zero. Zip. Okay, they did ask for my business when I need new tires. Which, in response to my question about how soon that would be, will likely be another fifteen or twenty thousand miles.

I hardly know what to think. Don't these guys know about the lack of courtesy we expect? Don't they talk to the people at Sears and all the other repair hells who cheat their customers every chance they get?

What's right with this picture? And why am I so shocked?

(Oh, and if you need a good place in the Bay Area for Michelin or Goodyear, I think I can make a recommendation...)

I watch the Hillary Clinton campaign with mixed feelings: largely bemusement mixed with disbelief and growing contempt. How can one so Democratic be so determinedly undemocratic? After everyone agreed that Michigan and Florida would be punished for moving their primaries up, Hillary and her advisors seem willing to leave no stone unturned (and we all know what's under those stones) to violate that agreement. The latest comes via Talking Points Memo, and concerns Harold Ickes' suggestion that by coopting a majority of the Credentials Committee at the convention, she could force through a rules change and get the delegates seated. This of course comes after remarks from her campaign staff that the will of the voters doesn't really matter; after all, what does winning primaries prove anyway?

My appreciation, and indeed my respect, for both Clintons has been withering away since this campaign started. As in a limbo contest, the chorus keeps repeating, "How low can you go?" And I keep wondering how much of a party will be left if Hillary has her way. I can't ever imagine voting for John McCain, but sitting the election out? Suddenly that's a real possibility.