It's been nine years since I
first started thinking about getting a “smart” phone, though it took until less than four years ago before I finally got one, and then mainly because it was
free. Looking back, my objections were the same from the very start, like here: hard to use, no keyboard, amongst other random objections. All that has
changed is that my hatred has increased.
On the positive side, I can now use it as a phone with relatively few problems. It almost
always rings when a call comes in, and almost always I can answer it.
What's wrong with this picture? Before “smart” phones I never had a problem with either.
By the time I got the first “smart” phone I had been using mobile phones for over 25 years
and normal phones for about 60 years. “Smart” phones are supposed to be an improvement.
What's the improvement in missing incoming calls?
Today it happened again. Call from Yvonne. Finger trouble
getting the thing out of my pocket, giving me a different screen. But then a display
“Incoming call. Decline? Accept?”. Pressed “Accept”, apparently not in an acceptable
manner. Another different, unrelated display. OK, select “phone”. Normal phone interface
display (in this case, a list of contacts) shows up. More messing around. Nothing to be
done. It carried on ringing without giving me another chance to answer it, until finally
Yvonne hung up and I had to call her back.
Why does this happen to me? Other people don't understand. Some suggest, apparently with
some justification, that “smart” phones don't like me. And maybe that's really the issue: I
am too impatient. The Decline/Accept window popped up after about 1 or 2 seconds (half an
eternity). And when I managed to lose it, I didn't leave the display inactive for that
length of time. Maybe it would have shown again if I had given it a chance to work at its
normal glacial speed.
And why does it lose its ring tones? That could be finger trouble too. From time to time I
take screen shots of the screen. How do you do that without a keyboard? Trick
17: Volume Down and Power. But woe betide you if you use Volume Up
and Power. That's “set silent mode”. I think. It depends on the Android release. After
checking several places, yes, this is one of the ways to shoot yourself in the foot with
Android. But it tells you. Here the difference:
No, not the contradictory and truncated messages about tomorrow's weather. The status
display at the top with the intuitive icons with no description:
It seems that this “sonic boom” icon tells you:
No, that doesn't mean “no ring tone”. It means “I will vibrate when a call comes in”,
leaving the rest to you to guess.
And how do you turn it off again? Same keystrokes? No, that doesn't change anything.
Press on the icon? I had no success with that. Until writing up this article, the only way
I could find was to go deep into the setup menu and manually increase the ring volume. But
it seems that you can press either volume button by itself and press on the icon, which
causes it to completely turn off any incoming call notification. But pressing it again
restores normal operation.
Aren't “smart” phones fun?
My “new” Nikon FM2 was sent off
last Thursday with Australia Post Express Post Platinum. That's a next day service!
But the fine print (OK, not fine print, but relatively easy to find) talks about “Coronavirus”
delays. That's understandable, and so I wasn't overly upset when I discovered that
the estimated delivery time was Tuesday to Thursday, especially since we're second class
citizens out in the sticks. Still, as they say,
You can track the progress of your Express Post Platinum satchel online. Enter your unique
item tracking number into our Track tool to see where it is during the delivery process.
OK, where is it? No tracking available! And then I discovered yes, Tuesday to Thursday,
but not this week. It could take up to two weeks for it to be delivered! That's really
surprising. Was it really sent Express? It could be a week before I find out.
I don't use my Voigtländer Nokton 25 mm f/0.95 lens very often, but I've come to terms with it.
Since it's a completely manual lens, I have to update the Exif data manually, and I have methods in place
for that. But yesterday I took another photo (full aperture, of course, the only time it
has any advantage) and got this:
That's clearly vignetted. OK, fix it in DxO PhotoLab and save
the profile, in the process running afoul of the horrible interface presented by DxO's
editor, and overwriting my default profile in the process. Run the
cursor over an image to compare it with its neighbour:
But it's only at full aperture. Later I took a couple of photos of the dogs at f/2.8
(because I was too lazy to change the lens), and there the vignetting (here without
correction) was gone:
Still, under normal circumstances I will only use it at full aperture.
Today the SARS-CoV-19 “lockdown” imposed in July finally finished. The number of COVID-19 cases has reduced
to levels where the government thinks it's possible to take such a step (“step 3”, which is
defined somewhere if you can face searching for it). We're allowed to move more freely, do
things we weren't allowed to do before.
That sounds vague, and for a good reason. On international news I have heard that the
lockdown in Victoria is the most draconian anywhere in non-authoritarian states. But I have barely noticed it.
All the services I need have been available throughout the time.
OK, we're not in Melbourne,
where different levels of infection and “lockdown” measures apply. But it seems to have
worked well. Despite the initial source of infections, things are back to sustainable
levels, and the infections have been offset by lower incidences of colds (including those
caused by coronaviruses) and
influenza. A far cry from the current situation in the USA: there the current 200,127
deaths correspond to 0.06% of the population. In Australia it's 0.0032%, and even in
Victoria it's “only” 0.0113%.
There are a number of things I've learnt about the matter:
-
The experts weren't in agreement about how to limit exposure. There have been many
contradictory claims, including the claim that normal surgical masks don't protect
against infection. I could never understand why: it's clear that anything between you
and the virus will have some effect, though clearly you can discuss how
significant it is. My guess is that the original claims were based on
the purpose of these masks (protecting the patient during surgery) rather than
their properties. And that would be sad.
-
Even the experts have been surprised by how the situation developed. This is the first
really serious pandemic in a century, and medicine has evolved greatly in that time.
But it seems that nobody had a good idea of how the disease can spread. Our “second
wave” appears to come from only one or two places.
-
Nobody was able to predict the topography of the spread. Why was there a hot spot in
Colac? It only takes
one person, so it was really almost completely random.
-
An amazing number of people are deniers: some don't even believe that SARS-CoV-2 even
exists. Others seem to think that they're immune. That didn't really surprise me at
some level, but the extent does. And the number of world leaders who preach this
nonsense (
Trump,
Bolsonaro, for
example) horrifies me.
-
In most countries, the legal framework to control the spread is too weak. There's no
doubt that China's swift and draconian response has helped it limit the spread there.
Other countries have difficulty even with things as simple as the requirement to wear
masks in public. Hopefully legislators will address this issue in the future: behaviour
likely to endanger others' health should be punishable with appropriately heavy
measures. That could also apply to vaccination deniers (“Yes, you don't have to
vaccinate your children, but then you can't let them out in public places, so you'll
have to employ private tutors”).
Finally a “You have Mail” (really!) slip in the letter box today. But it wasn't the
camera I'm waiting on: it was something for Yvonne. Sent
from Drouin on 19
August, 29 days ago! We could have walked the distance in 44 hours. Yvonne tells me that
the sender has been following the tracking, and that for some reason it had been sent from
Melbourne to Geelong, stored there for a while, sent back
to Melbourne again, and then finally on to Ballarat. But that's not what the tracking
information says now:
Awaiting collection at NAPOLEON CPA
Thu 17 Sep • 7:47am
NAPOLEONS VIC
In transit
Thu 17 Sep • 4:01am
SEBASTOPOL VIC
Unable to deliver - Item carded and transferred to post office for collection
Thu 17 Sep • 3:55am
SEBASTOPOL VIC
Delayed – waiting to be processed for delivery
Wed 26 Aug • 12:00pm
Item processed at facility
MELBOURNE VIC
Thu 20 Aug • 5:48pm
That's upside down, of course, just to make it harder to read, but it seems that they have rewritten
history. 3 weeks without a location, and then they sent it to the wrong post office
(Sebastopol).
It's beginning to look as if I will be lucky to get my camera by the end of next week. I
wonder how many piles of undelivered mail there are around Victoria.
