Just a test

Every once in a while a problem comes along that even a Google search can’t help with. Starting up iCal on my Mac was taking forever and I could see this little red dot at the top of the icon in the dock that was running up some numbers — well into the 200s — before it would even allow me to use my calendar. It took about 30 seconds and I’m not a patient man. I tried deleting calendars I was subscribing to. I tried deleting recurring events. I even went so far as to delete previous events that had passed. I knew it wasn’t to-do items, because I don’t use that feature.

Searches for things like “red dot ical dock” and “ical red slow dock” and so on didn’t bring back much except the never ending complaints about the date on the icon in the dock not reflecting the true date (fixed in 10.5, I believe). So I’m here to report on the solution. It’s unacknowledged / unconfirmed invitations. After taking several passes at this without success, I was desperate enough to go into a backup of the ical files and do some manual deleting, but decided to take one more look and I noticed that there was this little icon that looked like an inbox with an arrow pointing down into it and it had a red dot with an exclamation point — just the sort of obvious clue I’d been looking for all this time!

So, clicking on that icon brings up a list of all of the invitations you haven’t confirmed. Some I would click on and it would give me a warning at the email address the invite was sent to was not in my address book under the “me” entry (i.e., the entry in your address book that is identified as you). Some were from old jobs or contracts, so naturally I had deleted those addresses from my book. Once I added them back into “me” the notifications problem went away. The rest, I just delete the events since most were so long ago. Somehow all of the invitations had reset in my iCal at some point along the way making all this pain necessary. Go figure.

Be sure to watch until the end.

http://images2.jokaroo.net/videos/grandpajapan.wmv

Just had to post this. Not sure to whom credit goes, but it’s not me. Just passing it along.

I think if you look under the hood at the engine of suffering in this world, you will find that it is powered by a computer — at least the logical equivalent of one. People talk of inequality as if it is a disease that can be cured. That by simply redistributing resources (whether it’s money, food, power, etc.), the problem will be solved. In reality, unless you somehow also give folks the ability to acquire those things on their own, you’re doing little more than creating a new dependency; little more than giving the hungry fish instead of teaching them to fish.

This isn’t an plea for better education and better access to computers — though those things will arguably help — but they don’t solve the problem. What we need to do consciously reduce complexity and abstraction so that people can first understand and then take responsibility for the decisions they make in their life and finally accept the consequences of their actions.

There are many reasons why the world has become so complex, and the point is that if we continue to reward people for coming up with clever ways of taking things from others, our path forward is clear and horribly ugly. One only has to look at Wall Street for proof.

I believe that if the lawyers, bankers, brokers, managers, politicians and so on can’t adequately explain to the average person what they’re doing with their money, or what they’re being asked to sign and its consequences, those things shouldn’t be legal. This needs some more thought in order to codify it into my personal doctrine, but I think you get the idea.

In addition to that, I’m taking some steps to simplify my own life:

• Focus on my life, not “reality television” (including sports)
• Try to eliminate one decision from my day
• Spend at least 10 minutes a day in complete silence.

Seems simple enough, and I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I can only change me. Taking concrete and constructive steps in my life is the only way I truly have any hope of changing the world. I intend to take that seriously.

Do yourself a favor and watch the following video.

http://www.microclesia.com/?p=320

…but what I’m watching lately:

EpicFu
http://www.epicfu.com/

MobLogic.tv
http://www.moblogic.tv

Get you some.

Thanks to the hospitality of Matt Chambers and his lovely wife, Lesli, the band had a smashing good time entertaining new and old friends in Matt’s barn in Pownal, ME. It took forever to get there in what seemed like endless rain, sleet and ice. We started playing Friday night around 10pm and didn’t stop until around 3am Sunday morning. There was, I assume, sleep in there somewhere, but I can’t recall.

Unfortunately (or perhaps otherwise) we didn’t get any recordings of these sessions. There were some pictures, however and this is one of them. For more, see my Picasa page.

Here’s to another party there in the near future.

Not that it’s news anymore, but I personally believe that the IAU’s decision to demote Pluto is a triumph of science over common sense. Cast your vote for the petition and read some of the comments that folks have contributed. Far from being an unimportant issue, this impacts the study of science and how kids relate to it. Perhaps also tells kids something about the impermanence of life and being strong enough to admit mistakes and make amends? Who knows.

I, for one, will always believe in my heart that it’s a planet and would have rather recommended adding more planets to the solar system than taking them away. There’s plenty of love for all.

What about all the clever mnemonic devices that have been coined to help kids remember the order of the planets? So now, “My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” must become something like, “My Very Educated Mother Just Served us Nine Nachos”. I guess it’s alright, but let’s hope that it’s not going to change again very soon.

More Space Mnemonic Devices

It seems like we’re on the cusp of another computer date scare. This time it’s related to daylight savings time. Last year, Congress decided that they wanted DST to be 4 weeks longer going forward. Instead of providing a year or so to adjust and test, it’s happening this year. Hold on tight.

Read this article on the Daylight Savings Time Change from the Boston Globe

So, March 11th, we’ll be springing forward into what could be a series of disasters as some systems may automatically adjust and some may not. What happens when one system thinks it’s 9:00 am and another thinks it’s 10:00 am and a decision must be made that may put lives or fortunes in danger?
It’s always difficult to tell what the impact of something like this might be, but just stop to think of the impact that the Y2K bug had on our society and how many systems rely on clocks (all) and how many computer systems rely on dates (e.g., flight control, banking systems, etc.) to make critical decisions.

I think the most nefarious thing about the DST issue is that people may ignore it altogether, thinking that someone else will take care of it or that it’s a ‘false alarm’ like the Y2K bug. I personally would not schedule any travel for the 10th, 11th or 12th of March this year.