Published on
August 13, 2009 in
Arts and Life.
A couple of weeks ago I saw Wicked the musical at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco
I am not a big musical fan. In fact I can not remember the last time I saw one of the handful I have seen in my life. Possibly 20 years ago.
Wicked was fascinating, an excellent performance! with an engaging story.
The costumes, make-up, and set design were well done, not overly extreme but enough to grab and keep your attention through out the performance. There was not too much singing and only a few entire cast numbers. Wicked had a suitable blend of acting and singing to keep my full attention and enjoyment.
I went with my mother, who was able to get very good seats, row F.
If anyone is looking for an entertaining marvelous performance see Wicked, it has it all. The story, acting, singing, costumes, make-up, and set design are all first rate.
Recently, I was informed that I would need to get a cable box in order to view TV channels from Comcast that are now being transmitted digitally. So I picked 2 for that TVs in the house – one in the family room the other in a bedroom. The family room install was simple with no problems, everything works as it should.
The bedroom cable box has been trouble. First time install with other cable box, following given instructions, got no signal. Call #1, tech support. They resent programming data. No change. Call #2, reset power, resent programming data. Again no signal. Call #3, reset power, again no signal. It was determined that the cable box was bad. I went to the local Comcast office and got a new cable box. Connected new cable box initial no signal. The next day I was receiving a few stations, 2-13, 37 (TNT), 41 (TBS). Later that day lost all stations, no signal. Call #4, reset power, resent programming data. Tech support told me to call back later because that rep I had could not help me and he could not get additional help. A full day or two later Call #5, reset power, resent programming data. I could not fully understanding the tech due to language accent problem, but I believe it was determined that if the resent programming data did not take effect this time I have another bad cable box. I have not dealt with this any further yet.
During the entire process the family room TV is working with ALL stations. The bedroom TV works ok without the cable box but I only get SciFi (73) and Discovery (29) channels plus 2-13.
Comcast Customer Service rates a 2/5 only due the pleasant manner of the representatives, otherwise they have been completely unhelpful. They do not listen to the stated problem. They are unwilling to listen to any additional support information. For example, the fact that I have a currently working TV. The above problem seems to be beyond their understanding, so I have to wait even longer as they ask for assistance. The language accent issue can be frustrating.
Thank God for Hulu.
In a day or so I will check with my local Comcast office about getting a 3rd cable box and call customer service. The physical cable is new and there are no devices of any kind connected between the cable to cable box to TV. Except for a splitter that feeds the other TV and the bedroom one.
Checking to see if this post appears ok.
Typing on the virtual keyboard is a bit time consuming. Twitter is the only app that works for this type of posting. Keep it short and specfic.
Published on
August 7, 2009 in
Apple.
Tags: Apple.
Update went smooth and quick.
I have learned from the past two Mac OS X updates to NOT use ‘Software Update’. Instead I just download the Combo update. Then after first repairing permissions, I install the update. There was no major noticeable difference after restart in performance or appearance.
Get the Combo update from Apple’s downloads page > here < or these two great software sites.
Just search 'Apple Mac OS X – 10.5.8'
MacUpdate – specific page > here <
VersionTracker – specific page > here <
Well, It took awhile to get access to download the 3.0 software. This was not completely unexpected. All done as of 6 p.m. PST.
I searched last night to find out when the 3.0 software will be available. The only time mentioned on a few sites was 6 a.m. Cupertino time. At 6 a.m. PST the 3.0 software was not yet available through iTunes. Back to sleep.
Tried again at 3 p.m. PST with my iPod Touch. It took over an hour to get connected to the iTunes store in order to download the update. I kept press the update button like a irate monkey until I got through. Eventually, I got to the license agreement page. After accepting the agreement it took another 15 minutes to get to the actual downloading function with continual pressing of the update button or accept agreement button after first getting ‘can not connect try again later warning’.
Everything went o.k. updating my iPod Touch and iPhone 3G. All the apps that I use frequently seem to work.
Published on
June 5, 2009 in
Apple and Mac.
After another hang up when upgrading to the current Mac OS X using ‘Software Upgrade’. In the future, I will download the Combo update from Apple and install manually. This procedure work with the 10.5.6 upgrade that actually froze unfinished when using ‘Software Upgrade’.
After downloading the Combo update (729 MB), everything went smoothly. Additionally I have always repaired permissions after any software installation. My favorite maintenance program include Onyx and MainMenu, both free.
I am still using the K2 theme, now revision r791 with the current version of WordPress 2.7.1. I still need to adapt to widgets vs K2’s SBM (sidebar manager). I liked K2’s SBM much better than widgets due to the ease of use, flexibility, and customizability. I will need to hunt down more plugins or widgets to get back what I miss, mainly Pages display control.
For as often as I post, does this matter? A little. Time for some experimentation.
Published on
May 30, 2009 in
General.
I finally reached over a 1,000,000 credits using BOINC participating in 7 different projects using 5 different Apple Mac computers, old and new.
2 new iMacs
2 modified G4s
1 modified G3 + 1 HP laptop
My current blog set-up:
WordPress 2.7.1
theme K2 r764
Everything works great as expected. I stopped using the K2 Sidebar Manager (SBM), since it was being phased out. I prefer the SBM. The widgets manager does not give you enough options or settings for displaying individual widgets. Mainly, the lack of options with the Pages widget compared to the K2 SBM version.
There is supposed to be a K2 SBM to widget importer in the works. It will be interesting to see how they handle the reduced options.
Published on
January 21, 2009 in
Apple and Mac.
I finally bought an iPhone. I got the 8GB, since I already own a 32GB iPod Touch and numerous other iPods, I don’t need the larger 16GB iPhone with the higher price.
I have been reviewing the Apple iPhone and the ATT iPhone pages recently to refresh my knowledge on the purchase and activation procedures. On the ATT wireless website there is a pre-qualification procedure you can use to check your eligibility before you go to a store. I chose to do this. Afterwards I got a confirmation number to use when I go to an ATT store. The confirmation was good for 90 days.
I went to the closest ATT store an hour before they closed. There were four employees in the store and no customers. I was pleasantly greeted. I said I was interested in getting an 8GB iPhone. One of the employees immediately said she could help me. She verified I wanted the 8GB model and went in the back to get one. I gave her my confirmation, which she said she was pleased that I had done that part already. She asked me about what services I wanted and did I want a case. I chose the cheapest ATT plan at 450 minutes and no case yet. She then asked about text messaging, I told her none for me. Although the basic text messaging plan is only $5/month. I may consider it later.
After entering my personal data she gave me a choice of three phone numbers with the area code of my choice. I chose one. I greed to the 2-year contract. Then paid for the activated iPhone. That was it. I got my receipt, iPhone in pocket, and bag with iphone box, etc. The entire process was quick, easy, and pleasant. 10 minutes.
I had to use my new iPhone almost immediately after leaving the store. My car would not start. I took a couple of pictures while waiting.
After getting car started and returning home I plugged my iPhone into iTunes. I registered my iPhone and synced some of my apps, music, etc.
This was an extremely easy process. Now I need to find a case.
