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Mon Nov 25 18:46

They used to broadcast 480i (not HD) on 9.2 (54.1), but it is 720p on Comcast channel 710. In 2015, it started airing twice as many pledge breaks. It’s a good thing that we can get another PBS station, KRCB channel 22.1 in Sonoma County.

KCSM 60.1 was a PBS affliate, but the College of San Mateo did not want to continue operating a TV station. KRCB purchased KCSM in mid 2018 and the programming changed to Native American content, due to KQED territorial rights. However toward the end of 2018, some PBS programming is being shown morning through early afternoon. All other times, Native American, First Nations programming, foreign movies, mysteries air. They are now a PBS affiliate, although they ought to stop doing pledge breaks because of their $72 million windfall. And because of this, I had to put back up the old VHF/UHF antenna.

TiVo - I finally filed a case for incorrect guide in December 2019 after many, many years of bad guide data. The guide data switched from Tribune to Rovi when Tivo was bought by them in mid 2016. Frequently, the episode, times, and even the program name is incorrect for the S.F. Bay Area. In 2020, Carlos had been calling weekly asking and telling me the guide had been fixed. To the contrary, it gets fixed for a couple of weeks, then breaks again. He stopped calling after 4 months. I told him as long as Rovi is the guide provider, nothing will be fixed - he understands that is the problem. I double-check guide accuracy by using the Comcast app, which is generally correct.

Google maps - This used to have the traditional 2D view for driving buried in the menus. Now it is gone and only available while walking. I do not know anyone who has been accustomed to a navigation unit 2D view who can use this on a smartphone.

Mozilla Thunderbird - This email program just does not work well. The popups do not highlight the latest receive emails. They ignore bugs and keep adding features. Evolution and SeaMonkey works for me. Back to Thunderbird as it runs on Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu. You can delete to bypass the trash, which Apple Mail cannot do.

Sony is infamous for its star eater problem. The software wipes out what is thinks are hot pixels (dim stars fit this mode) during a long exposure. So Sony RAW mode, unlike other cameras, alters the image capture. Unfortunately their engineers did not implement a menu item to turn off this cooked RAW mode. Let the user decide whether this enhancement is worthwhile. See photography for how Sony file naming sucks!

TD Ameritrade commercials - Would you show up for a job interview in a bikini? Of course not. One commercial shows a female basketball coach wearing a tight one piece dress with high heels. She makes the basket, but shoots like a girl. Not appropriate - look the part.

fuelly.com - This gas mileage website is ill-conceived. There is no differentiation between automatic and manual transmission. One must drill down among individual vehicles to figure out variances. The same engine can appear under different headings resulting in some skewed mileages.

Apple is planned obsolescence. There are no memory slots for iPod, iPhone, or iPad so profit margins are huge on memory and storage. There is no FM tuner either in most models or easily replaceable batteries. Features are omitted intentionally so the buyer gets to buy it again - think iPad. Third party parts or buy it over again. Macs can finally play play blu-ray movies with VLC as do PCs. You never question Apple’s prices. Their software has been degrading, constant fan running on my Macbook, more lockups than all the household PCs combined. With Yosemite, I just do not see what their vision of this OS is. The iPad auto brightness broke after iOS 7 update and still broken in iOS 11. And why move it from Display to Accessibiltiy? When there is enough room, they push the next upgrade software to your iPad - there is no option to stop this - waste of bandwidth and my resources.

From this point forward, after I bought a 5th gen iPad, I will not pay a premium to get Apple products. I need the iPad to run a single astronomy program tied to existing hardware. If it were not for this, I would have given up on iOS long ago.

The developers do not use the keyboard, as editing is painful with cursor placement and the magnifying glass - NOT USABLE. They finally improved the keyboard in iOS 11, which my iPad 3 cannot upgrade to. So I have several programs that simply will not run nn this tablet - TiVo, calculators, streaming apps, etc. that require require iOS 10 or newer.

As Seen on TV - Cheaply manufactured goods with the highest margins that don't work well. Tack on unreasonable shipping charges and you don’t get what you paid for. Horror stories abound! Nothing like paying $19.99 + 9.95 S/H + 9.99 processing for 2 cans of Flex Seal. Even when available at retail stores, they are overpriced. You can get its equivalent, Plasti Dip for $6-$7 in aerosol or brush on at home improvement stores. There are better products at lower prices in chain stores or try Amazon.

bitcoin - To those who wanted to avoid excessive currency exchange fees, you have succeeded, but the value of your holdings is probably less than when you bought it. The volatility got sucked out of it once it crashed. It’s like a momentum stock. Since there is no regulatory agency, you are on your own. Now you hear nothing about it.

Telemarketers - I’m registered on the Do Not Call list but continue to receive calls. This is another mismanaged government project that does not solve the problem. The callers have constantly changed spoofed phone numbers and caller IDs so they cannot be blocked by adding to your phone system or software.

Facebook - I do have an account, but it's not open to anyone. You cannot delete your account, but can only inactivate it, and the information stays on the site for you to reactivate at any time. Mark Zuckerberg once said

...if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard...
I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses...
...people just submitted it ...! don't know why
they "trust me" ...dumb fucks

I use Facebook for contests and discount coupons only. There is no Dislike button. I go in to check privacy settings every few months since Facebook likes to add and open this up as a default. Zuckerberg is not out to make money, but to rule the world.

Samsung tech support is poor. They do not understand my CLP620NP color laser problem of magenta and cyan toners not registering. There is magenta on the left and cyan on the right. They suggested changing out the toner cartridges - I told them it was new. They sent a local authorized repair depot tech over - he was clueless. Samsung would not replace but repair. I began to look over the options and changed one. The colors registered properly but I still don’t like how photos are not like the old Minolta 2300DL. Why would you have an option that can be turned off to misalignment the colors? Why wouldn’t the techs know about this? Why anger the customer by not allowing contact with the next tier of support? Buyer beware. Microcenter will allow me to exchange this, except there is no stock and no ETA. They graciously allowed me to keep this until one showed up. There is also a faint but noticeable impression from top to bottom 3 1/4" from the right.

After 3 years in use, the paper transfer belt ripped when the underlying metal teeth snagged it. It was rated for 50000 sheets but managed less than 5000. The replacement assembly is $160 which is over 1/2 the price of the printer. Bottom line is the poor design of this part.

Toyota The Prius v THREE (middle grade) navigation does not even have a compass - no indication which direction one is heading, although the upgraded nav in the FIVE does. Even our old Honda Odyssey 2000 nav system has that. Toyota tuned it for maximum gas mileage. There is no perform in performance. Putting in POWER mode actually makes it like a normal vehicle and slightly decreases fuel usage

Monster cables are vastly overpriced for what little improvement (no improvement if digital) you get beyond ordinary cables. $100 for a 2 meter cable is no bargain. Save your bills and buy some home theater gear. Monoprice was the place to buy home theater accessories, but eBay has better prices. There are only a few factories in China that produces this stuff. I got a 26 gauge 25 foot HDMI cable for $16. Fry’s normally sells a 10 foot HDMI cable for $1.99 on sale. More in Home Theater.

Bitcoin You have to lack common sense if you do anything with this digital currency.

Sony products of any type. I do not buy Sony anymore.

1. Generally wonderful design or function.

2. Usually proprietary so that they can charge more and license that technology to others, like Memory Stick.

3. Excellent performers but product lifetime is shorter than other brands. Every single Sony TV my family and I have owned has had either TV tuner, inputs, or power supply go bad within 6 years. Just after 5 years, a Sony 53” rear projection power supply blew out. My Sony ES (Elevated Series, prosumer) receiver’s transformer shorted out just after the 3 year warranty period. The part can be ordered but it was $180+tax+shipping or roughly half the price of the product.

4. Overpriced. Not much more value for money paid.

5. No online/offline User Manuals so you cannot look into the capabilities of the product prior to buying.

Toshiba I had too many of their products die. Their laptops have too many programs running in memory. Sigh, but most of them are needed and slow the machine down. I did buy a R835-P56x notebook and a Thrive tablet, but they were best in class.

Canon camera lenses are priced as if they are numbered limited edition items. Usability - their cameras seem to be designed by committee and get field tested? by photographers? But their CMOS sensors previously captured cleaner than CCDs. Nikon cameras are now CMOS and high ISO performance exceed Canon. And you thought a lens cap would like easy to design? Not with Canon. The tabs are inset (not raised above the curved part of the cap) so you have very little surface to squeeze. I glued something on to be able to grip. I had two of three lenses repaired for known problems - one of them twice. Repair costs are 1/5 to 1/4 the cost of the lenses.

Microsoft - this company always changes the standard a bit They produce supersets that add to existing standards and changes header info. XML is not standard XML. It’s too much trouble to code also for Internet Explorer, although each upgrade is better than the prior version.

HP physically centers the touchpad on their cheaper laptops. It should be below the ‘B’ key like other vendors. They put an on/off switch for the touchpad due to customers complaints of palms inadvertantly moving the cursor - almost no manufacturer does so. Only on their higher priced machines or 17” with number pad, do they position it correctly.

Best Buy is a place I will always avoid. I have only purchased from them one time in my lifetime. They always mark up memory prices among others. They will not necessarily price match, especially when Fry’s has loss leaders or just above cost items. Their sales prices are almost always more expensive than Fry’s as well. This applied to the defunct Circuit City as well.

Comcast and DirecTv DVRs (by Motorola) are not designed for usability nor capacity.

Gateway customer service - They just don’t care and not willing to help.

Comcast - They charge $2.50 for each change of service. It will cost you $5 to discontinue their box and replace it with a Tivo. $17 for each premium channel versus $12 for DirecTv. They always increase prices, then others follow.

Eureka does not stand behind their products. A redesign of the HF-9 (60285D) hepa filter has more air blowing at the top and bottom thereby rupturing it there after 6 uses. Three of them failed this way. Eureka customer service says mine was the first call on this problem, so it must be a vacuum cleaner malfunction.

Norton and McAfee antivirus programs uses too many resources and slow down the computer. Don’t let the FREE after rebate fool you. Avira AntiVir Personal (my choice) and AVG Free works fine - just turn off the files scan and leave the resident portion running.

Huell Howser - Even though he presents some wonderful information, as on California’s Gold, he needs to add a competent editing team to his production company. He spent the entire 2 minute segment describing a brush fire on the grounds of Mission Santa Ines. The cameras did not even go inside the mission. My daughter learned nothing for her 4th grade mission project. His interview skills also needs improvement - stop repeating the guests’ answers in the form of a question. He appears on camera too much. Take a look at Martin Yan or Rick Steves' production companies - those are professional outfits.

Fiona Bruce, Philip J. Marshall - Even though these two have better documentaries, they too are on camera often for no good reason. Show a grave inscription for 3 seconds, cut back to Marshall for a 10 second narration, and then cut back to grave for 2 seconds. Just terrible productions.

Airports - I have been through many airports and have been stationary on the tarmac on many. In Milan and Hong Kong, the old San Jose ‘C’, John Wayne Orange County, Burbank terminals, never were there delays because of the rolling staircases. Big busses haul you away from the planes to the terminals in Milan and Hong Kong. Not the norm, but I was on a people mover at Ronald Reagan National Airport. Simple fast inexpensive ways to get to the terminal, so where are the people movers in U.S. airports? They just don’t get it.

Websites that do not post the creation/last modification date on the pages. How many times have you found an article that was relevant two years ago?