Technology | Piss and Moan

Influencer tendencies

I am not totally sure how the whole “influencer” thing start or how you achieve “influencer” status. Is it something you aspire to or do you just fall into it by having something go viral? I guess it doesn’t matter as I haven’t much desire to be an influencer, though having money for seemingly doing nothing would be nice.

A couple things that I have noticed about influencers:

Female influencers tend to
- Post a lot of clothing “fit check” photos
- Post videos of their makeup/skincare/hair routines
- Show more skin to get more clicks/looks/views/likes/shares
- Share a lot of food videos/pictures
- Shopping “haul” videos
- Product reviews…solicited and unsolicited
Male influencers tend to
- Post a lot of car videos photos
- Post a lot of prank videos
- Post “fit check” photos
- Share food and alcohol videos/photos
- Generally are way shallow in content

Did I miss anything? Is this how you get to be an influencer?

Anyway, I don’t know why I wrote about this today. I guess it was just on my mind and was wondering what others thought about the trend of “influencers.” Do you foresee a future with this trend continuing or do you think it will eventually tire itself out?

Washer dryer

Posted on 29 Days Ago by backuphill

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

Laundry for most is a chore, one that needs to be done (typically) once a week. Most people hate it. I am most people. That being said, there is another laundry task that is hated even more than washing the clothes you wear each week….washing the sheets on the bed.

Now, I know there are a lot of people who this task on a fairly regular interval because the thought of sleeping in your own body filth grosses them out. However, I would also bet that those people are probably women. LOL In my experience, men can go far longer with unwashed sheets than women can. Generalization, yes. Truth? Yes.

Anyway, back to the hated task.

The first problem with washing the sheets is it takes so dang long and it is such a friggin’ hassle. Strip the bed. Wash. Dry. Make the bed. The problem with this whole thing is the washing and drying part. In the process of making this happen, something happens in those damn machines that makes the process that much more infuriating. The washing machine twists and tangles everything all together and pulling them out of the washer to put into the dryer is a long string, of seemingly never-ending, moist fabric. It’s like that magician that pulls the boxers out of his pants and the clothes just keep coming.

The second problem with washing the sheets is that you typically have to dry them twice, which makes the process even longer. Because the washer likes to twist them into “ropes” or tangle them into balls of fabric, the dryer doesn’t undo the difficulties it just exacerbates them. Again, as the sheets tumble around in the dryer the dryer likes to make this twisted and tangled and bundled into a mess that has to be unwound if you want everything to be dried. Thus, once the first cycle is done, you have to basically take everything out, check to see if it is dry and then throw it back in for another cycle if not yet dry. Plus, if you have any actual clothing in with the sheets they will almost always end up balled up in one of the fitted sheet’s corners and almost always will still be damp. How does it know to go to the corner? A mystery for sure! But one that just adds to this unpleasant chore.

So, inventers, my challege to you is to make a washer and dryer that will not bind up the sheets, tangle the clothing, knot up towels, or clump items together like a rubics cube puzzle that has to be solved. Just wash and dry the items contained within.

That is all.

Make work

Posted on March 28 by backuphill

My job as a software analyst sometimes can be a real pain. Software is designed to do certain things and do them well. But, there are times where a client will want the software to do something it wasn’t designed to do.

I have a school district that is trying to do parent-teacher conferences next month. The software has the ability to create time slots and then allow the parents to schedule their conferences with the teacher. But, the software has some limitiations and the way one of the schools has done conferences in the past doesn’t fit the way the software is designed (yet). This was a huge issue for them last fall, as they were unwilling to rethink the way they do the conferences when they were told it wouldn’t work the way they would like them to (after many hours of investigation and problem-solving).

So, now it is spring and they are still insistent on doing it the same way as always, even though it didn’t work for them in the fall and it nothing in the software has changed to allow for the way they would like to do it. There is one caviate to that statement though. There are some rather inconvenient and labor intensive work-arounds that can be done to make the software kind of work for what they want. In essence, someone at the district figured out a way to trick the software and kinda sorta make it work for their needs.

Here’s where my problem comes in…in doing their work around, it doesn’t work well and there are issues with how the software functions. It doesn’t know you are doing a work-around, it just functions as it should. So, issues arise that are a direct result of the work-around. The district then calls me (after telling them, again, that it won’t work) to try to solve their work-around problems. I wasn’t fully involved in their work-around setup. I haven’t tested their work-around since it was advised they not use it. But, they want me to solve the issues when it doesn’t work like they would like it to.

I am being asked to “make it work” for something that isn’t supposed to work that way in the first place.

I am not sure how many times I can tell them it isn’t advisable and won’t work like you really want it to. If they are patient, and adjust the way they do conferences in the interim, it might actually work like they want in the future as we have been told it is being worked on (we are Tier 1 support so we have no control).

Anyway, that is my rant today. I don’t want to even try with this people.

Customer chat

Posted on March 27 by backuphill

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

Don’t ya just love it when a major company won’t let you cancel a service without contacting them first? I fully expected to have to contact someone since I didn’t really want to cancel, but that is how you get movement. BUT, I found that when I tried to cancel online that their website magically had issues and you were forced to contact them.

The kicker here is that in the past you were able to go directly to a chat with a customer representative. This is apparently no longer a thing since there was nowhere on their website to access this help without getting the magical broken link.

When you get tot he information page for “additional help” there is a section that gives details about their chat feature and a button. Guess what? Button is greyed out (meaning not active) and unusable, even though the stated business hours are in full effect.

So, they actually force you to call them.

I was able to get what I want, but the fact that I have to go through this every year is stupid.

But, play the game I will.

Unnecessary apology #4

Posted on March 16 by backuphill

It was the 80s. What can I say? We all did things back then that we probably look back and cringe with disdain. 1986 was the transistion year between middle school and high school. It was awkward. Despite being fitting for the time, I look back at my former self and realize now that if I judge myself through the current “progressive” lens (even though I am not) that I really should be ashamed of myself. So, today’s unnecessary apology goes out to…

Egyptians.

Yes, Egyptians.

Why? Well, if you knew then what you know now, then today that the little dance you did in your bedroom or lockeroom or living room or bar would be prohibited. Why? Because of some kind of appropriation. I am not sure if it would be cultural or national or something else, but it is just so regretable now.

I am guilty. I am guilty of walking like an Egyptian.

Therefore, though I am not sure I really need to, I want to apologize to all the Egyptians (past, present, and into perpetuity) for doing this silly act.

I was young. I was impressionable.

I blame it on the Bangles. Their “Walk like an Egyptian” song is totally at fault. It was just such a catchy little tune. And, hey, if my silly and awkward movements might have caught Susanna Hoff’s attention somehow, well, that would have been just awesome.

So, yeah, sorry about that, Egyptians.

Just try not to get your groove (and appropriation) on when listening…

CD situation

Posted on March 10 by backuphill

CD. Compact Disc.

Do you remember those things called CDs? Remember when that was the next best technology and you were buying hundreds of those things? Remember when storage of those things became an issue?

Recently I was reminded of all those things…because I was cleaning out the entertainment cabinet and I had to remove FIVE folders that are capable of holding 100 discs at a time. All but one is full and the last one is 3/4s full.

Those folders hold all the discs I ever bought, plus the CD case art (from and back). Once upon a time it was difficult to store all those cases and moving them to the folders seemed like a great idea. Plus, those CD jewel cases were brittle as heck too, as soon as you dropped one it was inevitably broken and didn’t work correctly.

Well, now what the heck am I supposed too do with all those CDs?

Disc drives on computers are getting harder and hard to come by. Shoot, even cars don’t even really come with CD players any more. Converting them to digital takes time and storage (though I had already gone through every disc I had at one point and pulled all the songs off the discs I really wanted). So, now I am stuck…do I just trash them or do I donate them? Do I try to sell them?

UGH

There is a ton of money locked up in those and throwing them away seems like a waste since I purchased all the music, even if I don’t listen to it (well, all of it). Do you know what I mean? If I were to get rid of them, it feels like something would be lost but at the same time nothing would be.

What would you do?

Random application

Posted on March 8 by backuphill

Not really looking, but I am at the same time. Something happened the other day that kind of surprised me, about myself, and I have thought about it ever since.

As a little background, just over two years ago I was thinking I might lose my job. The organization I work for was being mandated by the state to require it’s employees get a poke in the arm for “immunization,” of…well, you know…. I was thinking I might lose my job because I was going to have to go through the process of basically applying for an exemption and there was some question about whether it would be granted since the process was set up to work against employees who claimed it. In the process of getting ready to lose my job, I started accounts at several online job search sites – LinkedIn and Indeed. After getting all that set up and getting alerts for job notifications set up I was granted my exemption and I have continues to work at my current place of employment.

But, in the meantime, I am still getting alerts about potential job opportunities because loyalty to employees really no longer exists in most cases so if the right opportunity came along, why not jump ship for something better? It’s a tad scary, the thought of starting over so I haven’t really payed much attention to the alerts I was getting. Well, until the other day…

I got a job notification that kinda stuck out. Basically, it would be doing the same thing I am doing but for a REALLY large company. I would be product support for customers, providing troubleshooting and documentation and creating self-help information at Netflix.

Now, I probably wouldn’t have even considered applying except that LinkedIn made it so easy. “Click this button to apply” was basically the instructions. So I did. After literally 10 clicks to verify my info, provide just a tiny bit more, and upload my resume I had applied for the job. It was so easy!

I have no illusion that I’ll get hired, or even an interview. But what surprised me was the easy for submitting an application.

Additionally, I was surprised that I even submitted one in the first place.

I am not really looking, as I said previously, but the thought of a job that would allow me to work fully remotely, for at least as much pay as I am currently receiving, was definitely attractive. And it only takes a few (or more) clickes? What is there to lose at that point?

Anyone else surprise themselves applying for a job they weren’t really looking for?

Hide forever

Posted on March 7 by backuphill

Anyone else having a hard time getting that ad for fiverr and logo creation on their My Home page to go away?

I have clicked the drop down to “Hide Forever” like 100 times and all that happens is that the spinny thing comes up and just spins and spins. The next time I go to the page, it’s still there and I try again.

It’s almost as if they don’t want you to be able to make it go away…

Phone books

Posted on February 13 by backuphill

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Pexels.com

Truly an amazing piece of publishing…it’s unfathomable how these things are still being dropped off at our doorsteps, isn’t it?

So, the end of last week brought a dude up the driveway to the front door of the house (this is unusual in and of itself since most years it never makes it past the garage door) and he dropped off a double wrapped (in plastic bags) phone book. A completely useless block of paper. Wait, ok, maybe not completely useless – maybe it could be used to start fires or a booster seat for a toddler, or doorstop or a block under a table leg or something…

At my house, it literally gets unwrapped and dropped straight into the recycle bin.

Anyway, it amazes me that these things are even produced any longer.

Imaging being a phone book ad salesperson. What kind of conversation do they have to have to be successful? “Look, I realize no one is going to open this thing and look at your ad, but if you could just spend a small piece of your advertising budget on this pointless square on page X that would be great and I can then try to feed my family.”

Do these things still get produced just for the “older people” because they can’t handle technology? Someone in my family suggested this when I mentioned we got the phone book brick. Maybe that is truly the case. It only takes seconds to find any of the information in the book when you use the internet and do a search. Perhaps that is just too much for an old person to handle.

Anyone else still get a phone book delived to them every year? Anyone actually use it?

Weather balloon

Posted on February 3 by backuphill

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

I don’t want to BLOW this out of proportion, but the story keeps EXPANDING. I think there are plenty of places to POKE HOLES in this story.

The Chinese, snickering to themselves, say it is a weather balloon and there is nothing to worry about.

Uh huh, sure it is. I don’t want to BURST their…balloon, but I am pretty sure no one is buying it.

What do you think? Does their story HOLD AIR?