Wu Wei

Finally got my scroll bars back

Some time ago, I noticed the scroll bars on the mailbox window of Apple Mail had disappeared.  One moment they were there and the next, so it seemed they weren't.  Sometimes they came back for a few moments and if you were quick with the mouse or the trackpad, you could grab them.  But sometimes they resisted appearing completely.  Now I have a lot of mailboxes in that window, collecting mail filtered by lots of rules.  It's supposed to make me read only the ones that relate to work, and leave the fun ones for distraction later.

But I never had time to search to find out what had changed, since it wasn't me.  Today, in my traditional New Year effort to fix all the computer things that are irritating me, I finally googled and found the solution.  It seems that the scroll bars have vanished on all the apps, because Apple decided we didn't need them all the time.  It's a setting in System Preferences under General.  If you set the scrolling to "always" they don't disappear.

But it seems Apple has decided we don't need arrows on the scroll bar.  I can live with that.

 

 

Technophobe about earphones

Despite having all the kit, I have never managed to get used to listening to music on earphones.  So I almost never use my iPhone or iPad for listening to music on a plane.  I have proper speakers with a dock at home and the sound is much better. 

For the same reason I can't really ever get on with podcasts.

I didn't realise why, until a friend said he didn't like stuff in his ears, and I have to say I feel the same.  I guess those big ear muffs might be better, but I don't like the idea of going round with boxing gloves on my head.  Nor do I like feeling it's a bit dangerous not to hear what's going on in the background.

Am I really missing something?

Tweetdeck support (lack of)

I had been operating fine with Tweetdeck, for about six months, with Facebook and LinkedIn columns.

Then I noticed some columns were not updating properly.

After checking on their website and reinstalling, including the Adobe Air patch, Tweetdeck wouldn't load at all.

I sent a support ticket asking for help.

In the meantime I decided to try Seesmic, and got on fine.  Forgot all about Tweetdeck until I saw a Tweet from them.

When I read the answer to my problem, there was no answer. They had abolished support tickets.  Too many required, huh?  Now you can only communicate with Tweetdeck using twitter if you want support.

Then Tweetdeck told me to change my browser to Chrome and use Tweetdeck there.  Why should I change my browser just to use Tweetdeck?  Seems a lot easier to stick with Seesmic. 

When I decided (politely) to DM them that I didn't think much of their attitude, it seems I couldn't DM because they weren't following me.

So tough luck Tweetdeck, my complaints will have to be public.

Get Flook

For some time I've been playing with my iPhone and Flook, a new location browser with photos cooked up by a blog friend (Enidd) from Kiev.  In fact I finally got the iPhone because of it.

Those of you with Twitter updates will already have noticed, but for those who don't know what I'm talking about, see the links to Flook on the righthand panel of the blog, or here (Vilnius) and here (Alaska) etc.

Somehow I would never bother to surf to look what a glacier looks like.  But if one is put in front of me by Flook, and there's a map of exactly where it is and an explanation of who took the photo and why, it's a lot of fun.

On the other hand, people who post a card with a photo of their room, are missing the point.  As Jane (alias Enidd) says:   My favourite flooks have a great photo and let me know a quirky secret or a little-known local restaurant: perfect for my style of blogging on the move.

iPhoto

I'm having a lot of fun with iPhoto.  Its "Names" feature is really cool.  If you attach a name to a face it ploughs through your photos finding matching faces.  It manages to find all the family likenesses at different ages, so it matches my older self with my childhood photos.  

It also managed to match my father's photos under his prewar name with his postwar name, sort of confirming that the prewar photos were really him.

On the other hand it makes some hilarious mismatches, some of which are only funny if you know the people concerned.  

Also if you pick an individual photo, it will try and guess who the people are, which can also be quite funny.

It pulls names out of your address book which saves a lot of typing and misspelling as well.

On the other hand it can't recognise a cat face.

Some of the faces it has found are:

• 5 photos of a guy whose name is on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember it (very frustrating)
• Colonel Sanders of KFC fame ???
• one face from a memorial to the Decembrists, at a station on the Trans-Siberian railway.

New book widget

Finally got round to using LibraryThing's new feature of collections to divide the books I have tagged "to read" (some of which have been there for a couple of years, either not started or put down and never finished) from those I am carrying around at the moment and intending to read soon.

So you can see my new "currently reading" widget on the left.  Looks impressive for summer reading doesn't it?  But what do I find in my suitcase, but a book I have already read, a book I have read but need to review and the Ivan Bunin, which I am saving for Cyprus.  So will have to find a bookshop in Podgorica and search for something to read as even my sudoku book won't last that long.

Or perhaps I can order some more summer reading for Bee to bring to Cyprus along with the winter boots and manicure sets that I have ordered on instructions from friends.

Feedburner RSS (update: thank you Google for losing all my feeds)

I just noticed my Feedburner RSS Subscriptions have dropped from the usual 90s to 4.  I was fiddling with Feedburner Newsletter.  I don't know whether that had anything to do with it. 

I apologise.  Please come back.

Update

It seems Google has taken over Feedburner and forced us all into Google accounts.  Although Google promises to transfer all the feeds, it has managed to lose all mine.

Thank you Google.  I am really looking forward to the wonderful new services you are offering, if they are all like this.