Technology

Double

Posted on by backuphill

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Double. More than double. But not for your pleasure.

A new licensing fee appeared on the renewal form for the car I drive most, a hybrid. It wasn’t there last year, but appeared this year and it more than doubled the cost of registering my vehicle. There was no mention of this fee anywhere in the media, that I can find, until after the fact that it was applied to people’s licensing fees. Surprise! The cost of registering your vehicle more than doubled!

The biggest kicker, I am paying a fee for something I don’t use, an electric vehicle charging station (and those this fee is supposedly going to build). Thus the word HYBRID, meaning it powers itself by using two different types of fuel.

License fees rise for hybrid and electric cars in Washington

I tell you, bigger government means bigger fees. Always. There is never an exception to this. Ever. The problem is that many times the fees aren’t actually used for the stated purpose, nor do they totally justify the collection of the fee in the first place.

Why is the government in charge of building charging stations for electric vehicles? Why is it that those not driving plug-in cars are paying a fee to plug in a car that won’t plug in?

The epitome of what is wrong with government. I mean there is a LOT wrong with our government, at many different levels, but this is just another fine example of why so many people dislike and don’t trust the government.

I tried

Posted on by backuphill

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I tried. Yesterday. To write a blog post. It never happened. Didn’t get done.

Every time I started, I deleted what I had written.

Nope, can’t write that. Too mean.

Nope, can’t write that either. It will be misconstrued.

LOL. Seriously can’t write about that. People might take it seriously.

Then the day kind of got away as work was VERY busy. Well, is always busy, but more so than normal. A few times I got something started yesterday and then got buried and never got back to it. When I did I changed my mind about it.

That’s dumb. No one will read that.

Is that really the way I wanna address this topic?

Gosh, that’s a lame topic. A chimp could have tapped out this mess.

So, I bagged it. Ever have days like that? Got lots to say, but don’t know how to say it? Me too. Sometimes the ideas are plentiful and sometimes that leads to “writer’s block.” Other times, the ideas just don’t come together.

Got a topic you wanna know my thoughts on? I’ll open the floor up and take suggestions. Pop the ideas into the comment! Thanks!

Unknown

Posted on by backuphill

Photo by Pedro Figueras on Pexels.com

People at work are angry with you. Well, not really angry so much as irritated because you didn’t do a part of what you were supposed to.

I just learned that I was supposed to do part of a software configuration in the new software for a school district that just converted. It’s not a life or death issue and, yes, it is inconvenient but it isn’t something that keeps the district from doing what it is supposed to do.

The only problem is that I didn’t know I was supposed to do it.

The process is still pretty new and there are no manuals from the software company that says “Do this in this order to set up the software for district use after conversion…” so we are kind of feeling our way through the process. Stuff gets missed or falls through the cracks since we don’t know completely what needs to be done.

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.

– Donald Rumsfeld

So why the heck are you irritated with me if I didn’t know I was responsible? And why the heck are you irritated with me if I didn’t know what the heck I was supposed to do if I didn’t know I was supposed to do it?

Now that I know, I am aware of it and can take care of the next time, but for now:

BITE ME.

Categories and Tags

Posted on by backuphill

Blogging and all this stuff. I realize this is gonna be a first world problem, but it seems like a pretty easy fix and it’s hard to believe WordPress hasn’t already done it.

There is a process you go through to help drive traffic to your by using Categories and Tags. Then people who look for those specific topics are alerted, to some degree, that there is a blog post related to it. In the “old” version of getting ready to publish your blog out to the interwebs and make it public, you could select these things and it would tell you how many of each you were using on your blog.

As far as I can tell, this “new block editor” version of WordPress doesn’t do that. I have no quick way of telling how many Categories or Tags I’ve used unless I constantly scroll back and forth to count them.

This seems like a basic and easy fix to implement. Like seriously.

The picture above shows the Categories and Tags tabs. As of right now, I have Categories attached to this very blog I am writing, but you won’t know it until it is expanded.

So, why hasn’t it been set up that when the Categories or Tags is collapsed that it shows how many are under each tab without having to expand it? It could show up, right on the tab next to the tab title (like the image below – highlight added for emphasis).

So, when both the Categories and Tags tabs are collapsed, there is an easy way to see how many of each are being used.

Simple!

Too much to ask? Am I knit-picking? Am I easily irritated? (wait, don’t answer that…)

Or is this a function that they just didn’t think about? I find that hard to believe. I can’t believe they haven’t had feedback on this yet.

What do you all think? Did WordPress miss the boat on this feature?

Take out

Posted on by backuphill

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Frustrating.

Everything is take out. For lunch I want a burger. Not a big deal, I can do that fairly easily.

Frustrating part is many local places would like you to order ahead and do it online. Many of them have added this service to accommodate for the continuously stupid mandates from the state.

So, you go to order online and then the website doesn’t let you customize your order. You can only just order. If I want to add bacon? Tough. If I want to remove the tomato? SOL. But I can tell you what time I want to pick it up and you’ll have it ready for me. Helpful, but not really if I can’t order it the way I like it or want it.

As such, I am left with calling in the order – which is inconvenient for me and for them, as they are already likely busy with the lunch crowd.

I am sure there are websites out there that are better at this than some. And it really isn’t the restaurant’s fault as they probably had to scramble to get something up and running. BUT, with technology today, there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to submit an order with customized menu items the way you want it.

Just simply isn’t good.

Mandatory

Posted on by backuphill

turned on macbook

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There is (almost) nothing worse than mandatory training that has to be done yearly. Like seriously.

It takes time. It is the exact same thing every year. You have to be an idiot to not already know the stuff they are asking you to be trained on.

I don’t even pay attention to the video delivered training any more. I have done the same training for 15 years now. Sure, they mix up the questions at the end, but the info presented in these training videos almost never changes. Thus, the questions at the end are basic common sense info.

Ugh. I am on the “drug free workplace” module. Can I stab out my eyes and ear drums now?

It’s just that this stuff being mandatory after the first couple of years is a waste of time.

Anyone have mandatory training they have to do yearly that they dread? What is it?

Cool sculpting

Posted on by backuphill

photo of an old ice cube refrigerator

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I saw a commercial last night for a weight-loss process called, cool scuplting. Apparently this is a trend that is catching on. The way I understand it is that they freeze fat cells and then when they thaw out they magically break down and vanish. At least that is what I gathered from it.

When I did a quick Google search, there are places here locally that offer this interesting (and apparently safe?) weight loss technique/process. So, I guess I could go inquire about it if I was really interested.

Is it covered by insurance? I mean, if not being overweight is more healthy then I would think this should thing should be covered by insurance.

This pandemic thing has cause me to eat. Well, actually, I always eat. It didn’t just start because of the pandemic. But, what I mean, is that it feels like I am eating all the time since I work from home. The scale says I am maintaining, but when I look in the mirror it doesn’t appear as though I am maintaining. Maybe the weight just happens to appear where the mirror can see so I feel like I am gaining weight. Again, the scale says I haven’t. But I am definitely not losing any…

Anyway, I was thinking, since I have weight I could lose, that I could maybe try this cool sculpting thing. I really don’t want to pay for it though. That’s an issue.

I do, however, have a box freezer. A big one! If all you have to do is freeze fat cells then I am set! I don’t need to visit some clinic.

I’m gonna try to clean out some stuff from the box freezer so I can lay down in there. It should only take a couple hours. I’ll freeze all that extra fat around my belly, in my face and neck area, a little on my ass….this is gonna be epic!

Once those couple hours are done, I am gonna be back to the weight was was in high school. She will hardly recognize me.

Oh, I better get started. I don’t want her to find me in the freezer.

I wanna surprise her!

Unbalanced

Posted on by backuphill

Gov race

Local news media’s agenda is showing.

That screen shot above, taken straight from the king5.com website shows a serious and blatant example of bias. This shouldn’t and can’t be acceptable!

Bias? How so?

That pic on the left is actually an older (and younger) photo of the current governor, Jay Inslee. It isn’t his official state picture or campaign photo for this year. That pic on the right is the top Republican challenger, Loren Culp. He is the current police chief in Republic, WA. That pic also isn’t his official campaign photo either.

Why does it matter if neither pic is the official campaign photo? Ask yourself (and be honest) what message is given not so subtly by using the photos they used?

One is just a photo (the one of the left) and the other is playing into mainstream narrative: Republicans, cops, are bad. If he is identified as a cop, then he is bad, …and people won’t vote for him.

Election meddling? Maybe not, but maybe.

Purposeful message? Most likely.

Local news showing bias? Most definitely.

 

 

Balanced

Posted on by backuphill

BiasChartv2

If you haven’t yet checked out this source for news from AllSides, you need to.

It doesn’t claim to be perfect, but it gives you a chance to have balanced perspective by giving you access to news from the whole spectrum. The best part is that you know what you are getting before you read because the source has been rated for it’s bias.

If only you could get that kind of information about what you see on social media.

 

**I am not being paid for promotion of this website. I just like to know, and would like you to know, what I am reading so I can be better informed.**

Twitter twits

Posted on by backuphill

apps blur button close up

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I don’t use Twitter.

I’ll make that clear from the start, so I am not completely sure how exactly it works but familiar enough that it’s function and purpose are pretty clear. I have no desire to use Twitter (except maybe to complain about service from companies I have been a customer of since that seems to generate a response).

What I have seen as of late, because everyone who seems to use Twitter also has their other social media connected to it, is that Twitter is used to proffer a lot of unsubstantiated claims about a whole spectrum of subjects (yes, I am aware the President is also guilty of this too).

120 people have been killed by police since George Floyd. 20 days, 120 people.

Now, obviously the unsubstantiated statement above is going to trigger lots of people, considering the climate in the country right now.

That claim has been spread widely on social media. I have seen Twitter messages (shared via Instagram) and Instagram messages propagate this claim. It obviously fans the flames for fear or outright disdain, dare I say “hatred,” for law enforcement. It is meant to be inflammatory. A lot of things these days are purposefully being shared because it fits the narrative they want to believe.

This, of course, is unfortunate.

I am not a Twitter Twit.

I am not one to take something as fact without evaluating the information and it’s source. When I saw this shared by dozens of people I follow on Instagram my first thought wasn’t, “OMG! The police are outta control. Bastards. We should get rid of them all because they’re all bad!” Nope. Not even close. My first thought was, “What is the source of this claim? Where did they get this info? Is this true?”

I looked. I investigated.

Not a single person who shared this claim offered any sort of proof, source, data, etc. It was shared based on emotion and agenda – “Truth be damned!”

So I dug.

As it turns out, I could only find one article checking the accuracy of this claim. Conclusion of the article? It might be accurate, I might not be accurate. As usual, it depends on how you interpret the data…data that is incomplete and not “official,” and data that might be inaccurate or biased. Oh, and I would like to point out the site’s “About” page does offer a glimpse into WHO is doing the fact checking, but as all fact checking sites do, it claims to be bias free. Take that as a grain of salt, as the WHO have also been involved with traditionally liberal journalistic organizations.

Anyway, Twitter is filled with lots of twits who care nothing for the truth. Just that it generates a lot of likes and retweets, likes and shares, etc. etc. etc.

Conclusion: Twitter is mostly useless.

Tweet that, twits!