A few technological observations

1. Once the wrong phone number gets in a record of any kind, it's permanent.

It doesn't matter how many times you tell the record keeper you gave them your wife's cell phone number by mistake. They aren't correcting it, ever.

And it doesn't matter that your old landline number that you never use is in the records, and you've tried to replace it with your cell phone number, they aren't going to.

2.  Once you give your cell phone number to somebody, even with a "use for official business this one time only", that's the number you are going to.  It doesn't matter if you have a receptionist employed full time to take calls, they'll bypass it.  Even if your cell phone voice message instructs the caller not to do this, they're going to do it anyway, leave a message there, and not call your office number.  Ever.

3.  Anyone you give a cell phone number to for work purposes will take up texting you at night and on weekends.

This add was entitled something like "The Future Of Work Sucks".

And while it is just an ad, it's pretty much right on the mark.

 

Tuesday, April 3, 1973. The beginning of the end of personal space and time.

Today In Wyoming's History: April 3:  1973  The T E Ranch Headquarters, near Cody, WY, which William F. Cody had owned, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The first handheld cellular phone call was made by Martin Cooper in a demonstration call by Motorola.

Would that this would never have occurred.

Montreal announced Canada's first lottery in an effort to help pay for the upcoming 1976 Olympics.

The USSR launched Salyut 2, it's second space station.  It would be a failure due to hitting fragments soon thereafter, and it would crash back to Earth on May 28.  Well, not crash.  It burned up before it hit.

The Kingdom of Sikkim within India experienced a large-scale revolt which would require Indian intervention, and result in eventual Indian annexation.

Seal of Sikkum, downright scary.

Something from Forbes magazine to remember every time Apple updates the Iphone

Apple, a company I dipise, but whose product the Iphone I'm compelled by fate to use, recently updated the Iphone.

Of course they did. The (expletive delted here) at Apple who work in the phone department are constantly updating it when it doesn't need to be. So it has a new camera? Big freakin' deal.  It's a phone, not a Hazleblad.

Steve Jobs Was A Jerk, You Shouldn't Be

David CourseyFormer Contributor 

Tech

I write about technology and people, trying to get along.

Steve Jobs was a major, world-class jerk. A friend who knows about these things -- but not Steve -- wonders if he wasn't at least a borderline sociopath.

If you define that as someone who does evil things and doesn't feel remorse, the picture of a smirking Steve Jobs does begin to emerge.

Jobs was busy changing the world and minor annoyances like people's feelings didn't fit into his plan. If you had something he wanted, Steve could be charming. But Steve did things his way, almost for himself, building the things he wanted and if we loved them, that was good too. If not, it took a long time for Steve to accept that customers were right and he was wrong.

Sociopath or mere megalomaniac, Steve Jobs was a one-off, a hugely successful genius who changed the world to be how he thought it should be. That is something only Steve could get away with and we are better off for it.

People rallied around his genius and accepted his demands and abuse because Jobs really was smarter than everyone else in the room and 99.98 percent of the planet. Steve delivered on his vision and if basking in his reflected glow required joining a company with a bizarre culture that reflected Steve's personality, people still flocked to him.

Apple's reputation as a "mean"  and obsessively secretive company is a reflection of Jobs, not the people who work there. Lots of nice people work at Apple, but that doesn't mean they could persuade Steve to bring back the corporate philanthropy program that he killed

Iphone voice recorder to computer transcription?

Is there an app for that?

I.e., is there anything for which I can record on my Iphone, jack it into my computer, download the audio file, and have the computer transcribe it?

Alone

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Blaise Pascal

I usually don't comment on these random snippets, but there's a lot to this one. Particularly now as so many people pack cell phones around with them constantly and choose to never actually be alone.

Lex Anteinternet: It's broken. Or at least its frustrating

A man, woman, their horse, and dog. Tanana, Alaska, prior to World War One.

I published this item last week:

Lex Anteinternet: It's broken.: A few weeks ago, as I've noted here, my dog was bitten by a rattlesnake. He's better now, except he lost a bunch of fur on one ...

So, since then, it's become clear that the thermostat on the 97 1500 isn't working.  I sort of ignored it, but on a really cold day it became impossible to ignore.  The truck's running great now, but a truck needs a heater.

So I still have the 97 1500 and the D3500, which needs work, remains in Laramie.  It's becoming a problem.

The 97 1500 is now fixed, however.  I was going to get the truck back today and run it to Laramie this afternoon as I had a light day.  Yesterday I was in Denver all day, boarding the plane here at 6:00 a.m. and getting back here at 8:30 p.m.  I have a telephonic hearing at 11:30, and then I was going to collect the 1500 and deliver it.

I thought my 11:30 was at 1:30 p.m. so I double checked that this morning.  Turns out it was earlier than I thought by my assistant put in an appointment at 4:00 p.m.

She didn't check with me when she did that.  Recently, in an effort to be proactive, which I fully appreciate, she's taken up doing that, which is a legal assistant's normal task.  It is very helpful, at least for those acclimated to it.  I'm really not, however, and am rather used to setting my schedule myself.  That't inefficient, but as in prior years I didn't always have an efficient legal assistant, I grew used to doing that.

Not only was an appointment scheduled then, it's on an extremely complicated legal matter that takes hours and hours and hours to prepare for.  Assuming that I'm incapable of time travel and cannot go back to last week, this is a bit of a problem.

This is my fault, as I hadn't blocked the afternoon out on my calendar, being used to my long running habits in this area.  I'm really bad about doing that as I often keep items of my personal calendar in my head and don't put them on the my calendar.  Long acclimation to doing that has accustomed me to it, so I don't use my computer calendar the way I should for such things.

So much for running to Laramie.

I used the 97 Jeep, I'd note, just back from the shop on the electrical problem, to go to the airport.  It's left blinker now works. . . but the right one doesn't and the dash lights no longer do. Back to the shop for it.

My Iphone, upon which I checked my calendar this morning, as noted, was fixed by our great IT guy.  But now its age is showing and while riding the A Train back to the airport the screen kept going out.  This isn't good.  It's particularly not good for somebody whose train transit is on his phone.

And his airplane boarding pass too. . . .

No matter, it started working again, and surely won't break, right?

So I got back to the airport and was able to update my boarding pass to the 7:00 flight.  As soon as I hit the tarmac back home I texted home for Long Suffering Spouse to turn on the oven and put some frozen egg rolls in.  It would take me 25 to 30 minutes to clear the airport and get home.  Just about the right time for them to be cooked.

"Can't you pick something up on the way home?" came back the text.

Getting out of the airport parking lot was tricky, as they're resurfacing it. The guy working the parking lot booth teased me about it, which I don't mind, as I'm grateful that the people who work that booth are always really friendly.

Anyhow, seriously, at 8:00 p.m. the last thing on earth I want to do is to divert my path home, which doesn't go through the local fast food belt, so I can attempt to speak to the employee in Reformed Hittite, order a Gyros at Arbuckles, with a side of onion rings (which I really don't need, caloric content at 8:00 at night wise), and get home to find that what I got was the Cheerio Cooler instead with a bushel of onion rings. Why this appeared easier to Long Suffering Spouse than just turning on our high tech oven (which I can't stand) and putting in the frozen delectables isn't clear to me, but once I came in the door without a bag from Blimpos, Arbuckles, or Dirty Ron's Steak House she immediately went to turn on the oven for the egg rolls and got them out of the freezer. I simply took over the process and took care of it myself.  Some failure to communicate there somewhere.  Eating a salad prior to the egg rolls took care of the cooking time anyhow.

Monday night I watched a television show about the small number of families who retain cabins in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.  It's just six.  Once the living members of those families pass on, as they're all leased cabins, that will end.  Some of them live year around in the out, out back of Alaska.  No 1997 Jeeps or Dodges.  No Cell Phones.  Wood ovens.  Moose meat.  When I was really young, say 16 to 19, more or less, something like that really appealed to me, although I didn't do it, rather obviously.

And that was before the cell phone. . .

Right about the time my cell phone screen went out for the second time that television show came back into my mind.

It's broken.

A few weeks ago, as I've noted here, my dog was bitten by a rattlesnake.

He's better now, except he lost a bunch of fur on one cheek which has expanded into a streak down his left side.  We now know that sometimes rattlesnake bits result in skin necrosis. That didn't happen, but his hair follicles were damages in the path that runs down his lymph system on that side.

The fur is now growing back.

Our dog, fwiw, is a "double doodle". That means he's 75% poodle, and in the remaining portion of his blood line he's mostly golden retriever and and a little lab.

Effectively, he's a standard poodle, and he thinks and behaves like one. Which makes him, I'll note, a really good hunting dog.

None of which keeps people from repeatedly pointing out to me the recent news story in which the guy who came up with "doodles" is quoted as hating the breed. The best comment about that is that he sounds like a "wackadoodle".

I don't know exactly what his problem is, and I don't care, but I will note that the creators of things who rapidly lose control of what they created often go on to be bitter about it and even hate the thing they created.  I think what they hate is the loss of control, quite frankly.  Anyhow, yes I've heard the comments about "did you hear that the guy who came up with. . . "

By the way, did you hear that the guy who came up with the telephone wouldn't have one in his house?

Yep.

The dog and I went out to jump ducks from prairie ponds in the late morning.  When I got to the first pond I went to load the pump shotgun with 3" shells and accidentally put a 3.5" shell in the chamber and one in the magazine.  It's not chambered for that.

Somehow that error, which could have been pretty bad, occurred to me before I shot at anything, but it necessitated a fifteen minute exercise in completely dismantling the shotgun there in the field.

None of which prevented me from repeated the chambering error, which I caught immediately, again a little later.  I know better than this, but I was really, really tired.  And for no good reason.

A little later, on the same trip, the dog barfed up yellow barf.  It turns out that he'd only eaten yellow leaves from the backyard for some weird reason that morning and refused to eat his dog food.

Anyhow, my Dodge D3500 has a rusting body above the wheel well and that needs to be fixed.  It also needs four new tires really badly.

I haven't fixed either of those but I need to.  I was pondering going to 35" wheels (comments please if you have done that) which would mean that I'd have to put a leveling kit on (comments please if you have done that), and I just haven't gotten around to it.

Part of the reason I haven't gotten around to is is that the D3500 went to Laramie with one of my students and has not returned.  It went to Laramie as the 97 Dodge 1500 broke down on the way to Laramie and I had to have it fixed, which took about a month given everything that was wrong with it.  I'd have swapped it out last weekend, and needed to do so as I had plans that fell through and I didn't want to drive the D3500.

I didn't make the swap, however, as my long suffering spouse didn't want me to make a day trip to Laramie she couldn't go on, and since the kids have left, I've noticed that she's oddly switched her parenting instincts on me.  I'm getting a lot of additional instructions on how to do things. . . as in everything, and back seat driving has increased exponentially.  I'm hoping this phase passes quickly.

Anyhow, the unsuitability of the 1500 for a long trip was pointed out to me when I hit black ice on the highway at 80 mph.  I was lucky to come out of that alive.

Meanwhile, my Jeep, which is my daily driver, has the heat stuck on, needs an oil change, and there's a short in the light system.  I might be able to take are of all of that stuff myself, if I had time, but I don't.  I noted these problems to long suffering spouse recently who blandly noted I should take it in to be fixed, so I scheduled an appointment to do that, for which I was rebuked last evening for failure to take into account expenses in light of the 1500, which actually had come in considerably under budget.

That was also accompanied by the comment that "my car needs an oil change".  It might, I have no idea, but it seems to be perpetually in need of an oil change.  While I normally suggest that this gets scheduled in a mild way, having a frustrating evening I simply replied "well call and schedule one then".  My wife drives the newest car in the house and she doesn't really want me to do it.

The problem here is that for some reason I'm supposed to schedule the oil change.  I don't drive the car, so I don't know when the oil needs changed.  The shop is right near work, so just schedule it and I'll drive it down.

Not the right thing to say.

The reason I was frustrated is that I got tired of the old radio in the 1500 and swapped it out for a new blue tooth one.  I'm driving it, I figured, and I'd like a better radio.  That went fine, except in the process I discovered that the prior radio, which was in it when we bought it  half a decade ago, but which was an aftermarket radio, was amazingly poorly installed.  The frame for it is no better now as that's the way they did it, which bothers me.  Anyhow, after getting it in, I went to test it and found that now that my Iphone has updated to IoS 13.1.2, the setting menu will not stay up and I can't use it.

I need to use it.  I get into my settings quite a bit.

So I asked long suffering spouse about where I should go to get it looked at (I had in mind that this was Best Buy, but wasn't sure). Long suffering spouse, however, gave me a long lecture on the advantages of Samsung phones over Apples.

I don't dispute that, I just don't care.  I need an Iphone as it syncs with work, and that's the lawyers oppressive phone of choice.  Truth be known, I'd treat Steve Jobs the way that following generations of Englishmen and Irishmen have treated Oliver Cromwell, if I had my choice, which I'll leave you, the reader, to look up, but its evidence of my disdain of Iphones and cell phones of all types.

After the Glory of Samsung oratory was over I tried again and eventually got the information that it was Best Buy where I needed to go.

That was cheery news as I had been at Best Buy just the day prior to look for the radio.  There, I experienced the opposite of what I recently did in my search for a wrench, the big national chain only had display models but "could order that for you" whereas the local store I went to the next day had one right in stock, complete with advice from the youthful clerk/installer.

So I went back to Best Buy and was referred to the guy manning the "Geek Squad" desk.  I ran through the problem with him and he recommended trying the hard shut off that I had already tried several times, after having looked it up on the net.  It didn't work for him either.

He then gave me an explanation of the problem in Reformed Hittite, that language spoken by all members of Generation Z.  I had to have him slow down and do it again in English, slowly.  Basically it needs to be reset, which may not work.

Great.

If it doesn't work he informed me that it could go back to Apple, but he didn't know the cost. To which I stated "I'm sure it's high enough that it'd be cheaper to replace this Iphone 7 with an Iphone 11", which he confirmed, and made a derogatory comment about Apple in Reformed Hittite.

So I'll have a guy whose really good with that stuff look at it.

Just before I went out to work on the 1500, I took the boots off I wore to work. They're a pair of what used to be called "paddock boots", but which are now called "lacers", the same way that "ropers" are what used to be called Wellingtons.  I don't really care for them but you can wear them to work in a semi formal sort of way, and they're a pair that my son had that he rapidly outgrew so they have low use on them.  Might as well use them up.

I noticed that the seam has separated at the welt so the outsole is separating from the shoe.

And so I type this entry early in the morning, as all these entries always are.

Just after I ate breakfast.

I don't always eat breakfast (no, this isn't turning into a Dos X advertisement parody), but the paper had come and I was hungry. Oh, I found out when I went out and picked up the paper that I'd left the dome lights on in the 1500 all night. . .   Anyhow, I poured myself some Quaker Oat Square cereal and put in a bunch of raisins.

The I poured the milk.

Yup, completely and totally spoiled milk.

And at least my internal clock is working. Sometime last night I looked at my wrist watch and saw it a 11:15.  It didn't feel like 11:15, but I new it was the middle of night and went back to sleep.  Then again, early this morning I woke up and looked at my watch.

11:15.

The battery was dead.

And that's the second watch battery, and the second time this week I've had that happen.  It was 4:00, which I pretty much knew, so I got up 30 minutes later.

Taking a second look at mental well being. A couple of thoughts...disabling the cell phone. Was, Lex Anteinternet: On taking and not taking vacations.

A week ago I published this item, based on something I'd heard about at a recent conference:

Lex Anteinternet: On taking and not taking vacations.: No travel?  Maybe you should. vacation (n.) late 14c., "freedom from obligations, leisure, release" (from some activity...

As noted, that was a conference on legal topics, but it touched on was a finding that taking vacations seemed to be the big key factor between lawyers being happy in their work, or not.

I can see that being a major factor, and something that lawyers (and all Americans) ought to really do. Other advanced economies don't see their workers skipping their vacations. It's a weirdly American thing.  Maybe its a weirdly lawyerly thing too, although I somewhat doubt that.

Anyhow, in terms of minor, or maybe major, things that people can do to improve their mental well being and improve their state of mind, another thing would be simply this.

Limit your cell phone use and turn off the email feature.

I've never use the email feature on my "smart", i.e,. oppressive, Iphone.  Never.  I know how to use it, but it's shut off.

The only exceptions to this is if I'm traveling in some context where I absolutely, absolutely, need to access my email.  On that extraordinarily rare occasion, I usually turn it on, get the email I need, and turn it right back off.

Now, I'm sure there are some who think the email feature on their cell phones is fantastic.  If they're lawyers they're the ones who are in the corner grinding their teeth and look like they haven't slept for a month. And the reason is, they never leave work.

I hate cell phones, while I'll acknowledge there are some good things about them.  All in all, and I'm not merely exaggerating my view in order to make a point, cell phones are a human disaster. They create all sorts of problems for us.  As a minor example, they've caused us to lose the ability to read maps in detrimental ways.  Just a couple of weeks ago I had an experience in which some complete idiot was obviously checking his Google Maps while on a state highway and actually nearly stopped his car on a busy lane of travel.  I was able to get around  him, but I was lucky. He's a moron who should have his cell phone taken away and his driver's license revoked.

But perhaps even more detrimental, on a society wide scale and at least in the field of law, is that people leave their email function on and here the "ding" that email has come in.  Most people will check it and they will respond.

Some time ago an older lawyer I know who has been very successful in the field of law told me that not once in his career had he worked at home.  I was amazed, as I will work from home, but frankly, only good internet connectivity allows me to do that.  As I'm nearly in my third decade of this line of work, I can recall a time in which this was not the case and I could't work from home.

Back in those days, when I had this situation occur, I went into the office, and that's still the norm for me.  I normally don't work from home, but I occasionally do. When I do, it usually means that I check my email for some reason from my home computer.  But to do that for work purposes there's certain distinct things I have to do in order to make that work.  I just don't automatically pick it up on my home computer.

And I don't want to.

I have built in some distance between my work and my home life in that fashion.  But it seems a majority of younger lawyers haven't.  And it shows.

March 5, 1919. Frightening and accurate predictions, Overreactions,

From the British newspaper, The Daily Mirror, on this day in 1919.  Scary, eh?

From the Cumberland Sentinel, a Tennessee newspaper:

The Sentinel reprinted an article from the New York Telegram about Alexander P. Watson, a Dickinson Law School graduate, being arrested for carrying a concealed gun he took as a souvenir from a German officer during World War I. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Watson was in Europe doing relief work for the YMCA when he was shot in the arm by the officer who was pretending to be wounded. Within 48 hours of returning stateside, Watson was taken into custody after he took the gun to a YMCA headquarters in New York City to put on display as a war souvenir.

We wrote earlier about the history of carrying concealed weapons in the United States, which is misunderstood, but the event relayed above is extraordinary and shows how early in the country's history New York state had taken a very restrictive view on something that was fairly unregulated elsewhere.  Indeed, at this point in history we'd note that the ownership of handguns in the United Kingdom was unregulated.

I'm not exactly sure what Watson's actual violation was, perhaps simply carrying the weapon concealed.  Hopefully he didn't suffer any long term consequences and was able to return to practicing law in Tennessee.  The souvenir handgun was likely a P08, although not necessarily so.

Artillery model, i.e., the long barreled model, of the P08.  Hope these guys didn't pack this around in New York City later.

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Oh no. . . .

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Oh no. . . .: Lex Anteinternet: Oh no. . . . : Apple has come out with the Iphone 8.  . . and now there's a major update for the Iphone 7. And an ...

Oh a second update already. . . .

Gee. . . that would suggest that the first one wasn't really fully worked out. . . .

Hmmmmm