YMUG Newsletter – 2015/05/22
OS X AND MAC STUFF
This last week Apple unveiled its new Macbook Pro and iMac:
http://www.apple.com/uk/pr/library/2015/05/19Apple-Introduces-15-inch-MacBook-Pro-with-Force-Touch-Trackpad-New-1-999-iMac-with-Retina-5K-Display.html
Apparently the new Macbook Pro has a screaming fast solid-state drive. I wonder how much it would cost to put one in my machine . . .
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/05/21/15-inch-retina-macbook-pro-2gbps-throughput/
And Apple announced its latest list of devices that will soon be classified as ‘vintage’ or ‘obsolete’ which means they’ll loose Apple repair support.
http://9to5mac.com/2015/05/15/iphones-macs-obsolete-june-apple-repair/
I didn’t notice a 7-hour problem with iCloud services yesterday but I wasn’t online much either. Anyway, I guess everything is hunky-dory now.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/05/21/apples-icloud-experiences-hours-long-global-outage-and-service-slowdowns
I haven’t started using the new Photos app yet but if you have and you’ve experienced some trouble here how to ‘repair’ your Photos library.
http://osxdaily.com/2015/05/21/repair-photos-library-photos-app-mac-os-x/
I didn’t know Photos kept copies of recently deleted images. Could be very handy.
http://osxdaily.com/2015/05/15/recover-deleted-photos-mac-os-x/
In case you didn’t know how to cancel print jobs here’s an article telling you how. I have to do that all the time. You don’t want to hear about it, trust me.
http://osxdaily.com/2015/05/18/cancel-printing-jobs-queue-mac-os-x/
Here’s a quick and easy way to switch search engines in Safari.
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/quickly-change-between-search-providers-in-safari-on-os-x/
You can get a copy of the e-book “How to Take Control of Security for Mac Users” for $10.50 by following this link:
http://tid.bl.it/tco-mac-security-mug-discount
iSTUFF
If you’ve got an Apple Watch there’s already a software update. Here’s something about it and some directions of how to install it. Has anyone in YMUG got an Apple Watch? I’m thinking not but maybe I just haven’t heard about it.
http://osxdaily.com/2015/05/19/apple-watch-os-1-0-1-update-released/
I use Wunderlist a lot and I have the Sunrise calendar app but I didn’t know they ‘talked’ to each other. Hmm . . . should I look into moving all my stuff over to another calendar . . . or just stay lazy and use what I’ve already set up?
http://9to5mac.com/2015/05/21/sunrise-calendar-wunderlist/
Kentucky Fried Chicken tried a little experiment in Germany, with your in-store order of lip-smackingly good chicken you got a free-to-use bluetooth keyboard in your tray so you could continue to use your iDevice without getting grease all over it. The trial only lasted about a week and all the keyboards were eventually taken home by the customers. No big surprise there.
http://www.cultofandroid.com/73550/kfcs-food-tray-keyboard-saves-your-smartphone-from-greasy-fingers/
WWW = WEIRD, WONDERFUL AND WHY
‘Ballistic wallpaper’ eh? Well, if it really does help bomb-proof places it’s a very good idea.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/21/ballistic-wallpaper-bombproofs-us-combat-shelters/
Yes I would like a TV/screen/monitor that’s only 0.04 inches thick. Absolutely.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/19/lg-oled-magnetic-mount/
Okay, these Star Trek themed garden gnomes are pretty cute.
http://www.cultofmac.com/323336/these-are-the-garden-gnomes-of-the-starship-enterprise/
I wonder if I got my son a rubbish bin that looks like R2D2 from Star Wars if he’d actually use it?
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2015/05/17/want-star-wars-r2-d2-trashcan/
Some engineering students at the University of Bristol have made a ‘lead balloon’ that floats.
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2015/05/20/lead-balloon-follows-chocolate-teapot-into-reality/
I’m not surprised that some 17-year old in Idaho wanted to take down his school’s internet access. I am surprised that he just paid someone else to do it. I thought these stories always showed how much smarter the kids are than the teachers?
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/20/teenager-idaho-ddos/
Some e-cigarette flavours may be toxic? Who wants flavoured e-smoke anyway?
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/18/some-e-cigarette-flavors-may-have-toxic-effects-on-lung-cells/
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to: Richard Wagner (b 1813, d 1883), Mary Cassatt (b 1844, d 1926), Arthur Conan Doyle (b 1859, d 1930), Sir Laurence Olivier (b 1907, d 1989), Vance Packard (b 1914, d 1996), T Boone Pickings who sounds like he should be a banjo player (b 1928), Kenny Ball (b 1930, d 2013), Harvey Milk (b 1930, d 1978), Richard Benjamin (b 1938), Susan Strasberg (b 1938, d 1999), Michael Sarrazin (b 1940, d 2011), Menzies Campbell (b 1941), Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber (b 1942), George Best (b 1946, d 2005), Bernie Taupin (b 1950), Dale Winton (b 1955), Morrissey (b 1959), Jon Sopel (b 1959), Naomi Campbell (b 1970), Tom Chambers (b 1977), Katie Price (b 1978),
Rest in peace these folks who died on May 22nd: Constantine the Great (b 272, d 337), Martha Washington (b 1731, d 1802), Victor Hugo (b 1802, d 1885), Tom Goddard (b 1900, d 1966), Cecil Day-Lewis (b 1904, d 1972), Margaret Rutherford (b 1892, d 1972), Rocky Graziano (b 1922, d 1990), Martin Gardner (b 1914, d 2010), Lee Rigby (b 1987, d 2013).
Some notable events that took place on May 22nd: Alexander the Great beats Darius III (334 BC), the first battle of The Wars of the Roses (1455), the Trevi Fountain in Rome is completed (1762), the HMS Beagle sets off on its first survey mission, sans Charles Darwin (1826), future President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for lifting boats over obstacles in rivers making him the only person who has held the office of US President to hold a patent (1849), the Blackwell Tunnel under the Thames is opened (1897), 227 people die in the Quintinshill train disaster near Gretna Green (1915), the most powerful earthquake ever recorded hits southern Chile (1960), the L’Innovation department store in Brussels burns down killing 323 people (1967), Ceylon becomes Sri Lanka (1972), Pac-Man is released . . . unfortunately (1980), the first Rugby World Cup begins in New Zealand (1987), MS releases Windows 3 . . . unfortunately (1990), Johnny Carson hosts his last Tonight Show after 30 years in the chair (1992).
May 22nd is the 142nd day of the year and is the International Day for Biological Diversity. Why do we need a day for biological diversity?
FUNNIES, ETC
“Nobody lives life backwards. At the time, reasonable people could disagree over whether to go to war in Iraq. It’s really a silly hypothetical, and the people who ask it should know better. You don’t get to relive history that way.”
— Eliot Cohen, former top aide to Condoleezza Rice and founding member of the Project For A New American Century, on asking presidential candidates if they would have invaded
“The simple fact is that mistakes were made. As they always are in life.” — Jeb Bush, on the invasion of Iraq
“It was not a mistake.” — Sen. Marco Rubio on Iraq invasion
“It was worse than a mistake, it was a crime.” — Paul Krugman on Iraq invasion
“I don’t think I’ve ever taken as many selfies as I did in Thailand. It’s one of the prettiest places I’ve ever traveled to!” — Kim Kardashian in Selfish
Rose McGrath was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and started a long, difficult fight against the disease. After lengthy treatment, she’s now recovering. “Even though she’s now done with her treatment you still have a very long recovery process because you’ve basically just put two and a half years of poison into your body,” says Rose’s mother Barbara McGrath. “You’re not recovering overnight.” Despite only attending St. Joseph Middle School in Battle Creek, Mich., for 32 days this year, 12-year-old Rose is on track to pass her core classes. The school, however, sent a letter dismissing her due to attendance and academic performance issues, despite accommodations for her medical problems. “These were extraordinary circumstances,” said a Fr. John Fleckenstein of Battle Creek Area Catholic Schools, “but so many accommodations were made we felt eventually it became a point where we really had to help Rose, by being able to make sure that she was getting the assistance that she needed and to learn.” After a massive public uproar over the dismissal, the school invited Rose back, but Barbara is putting her in public school instead. (MS/WWMT Kalamazoo)
North Palm Beach, Fla., police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked behind Mavericks High School, which is for “at-risk” students. When they arrived, Krista Morton, 45, told officers everything was OK, she was “just friends” with the other occupant of the vehicle in the back seat with her, an 18-year-old who she had picked up off the street because she “wanted to get to know him.” But he said no, he was a student at the school — and Morton was his principal. Officers observed that Morton’s shirt was unbuttoned enough that she was “exposing her shoulders and part of her chest,” and they smelled marijuana. Morton allegedly admitted that “marijuana had been smoked” in the car and, when marijuana was found on the seat, both occupants were arrested on drug charges. Morton was released quickly, but the boy was held because he was unable to post bail. (RC/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
“What exactly has been going on” at Serrano Middle School, asked Anita Wilson-Pringle, “because surely these two kids are not the first?” It wasn’t even the first time for her, her daughter told her — having to take off her jacket and shirt, pull off her bra, and shake her breasts for officials at the Highland, Calif., school. She and a friend, ages 13 and 15, had to put on the same display, Wilson-Pringle said; one protested and was allegedly told refusing could get her arrested. One of the officials watching was a man, Wilson-Pringle said. Pot was found in her daughter’s bag, but she denied owning it, and her mother said the bag was left unattended for 40 minutes. The girl got a ticket, a court date, and a way out of the school: her mother, who posted online about the incident and says she’s considering a lawsuit, said her daughter will now be home-schooled to avoid retaliation. A district spokeswoman said, “Our number one priority is to keep students safe and create an environment that is free from weapons and drugs.” (AC/San Bernardino Sun, KTLA Los Angeles)
“I’m an idiot,” Joseph T. Brennan Jr. told a witness after an explosion in his car in Quincy, Mass. “I lit a cigarette with the gunpowder in the front seat.” Brennan, 36, had been driving down the street at 11:30 p.m.with various powders and chemicals he got from a friend, intending “to tinker with” them. “I wasn’t going to do anything malicious,” he told police. The explosion threw him out of his car; the witness heard the explosion and rushed over, and helped Brennan up. Police bomb squad technicians searched Brennan’s car and apartment and impounded multiple items, they say. He was charged with three counts of possession of a destructive device, and one count of possession of components of a destructive device. Brennan was arraigned in his hospital bed, and objected to the media being present. “I don’t want to be on TV,” he told the judge. (RC/Boston Globe)
Last year I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven’t met yet.
The kids text me “plz” which is shorter than please. I text back “no” which is shorter than “yes”.
I’m going to retire and live off of my savings. Not sure what I’ll do the second week.
Anagrams: two words or phrases that contain the same letters
PRESBYTERIAN and BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER and MOON STARER
DESPERATION and A ROPE ENDS IT
THE EYES and THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH and HE BUGS GORE
THE MORSE CODE and HERE COME DOTS
DORMITORY and DIRTY ROOM
SLOT MACHINES and CASH LOST IN ME
ANIMOSITY and IS NO AMITY
ELECTION RESULTS and LIES – LET’S RECOUNT
SNOOZE ALARMS and ALAS! NO MORE Z ‘S
A DECIMAL POINT and I’M A DOT IN PLACE
THE EARTHQUAKES and THAT QUEER SHAKE
ELEVEN PLUS TWO and TWELVE PLUS ONE
(An oldie but a goody)
A tourist in Vienna is going through a graveyard and all of a sudden he hears music. No one is around, so he starts searching for the source.
He finally locates the origin and finds it is coming from a grave with a headstone that reads: “Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770- 1827.”
Then he realizes that the music is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and it is being played backward!
Puzzled, he leaves the graveyard and persuades a friend to return with him.
By the time they arrive back at the grave, the music has changed. This time it is the Seventh Symphony, but like the previous piece, it is being played backwards. Curious, the men agree to consult a music scholar. When they return with the expert, the Fifth Symphony is playing, again backwards. The expert notices that the symphonies are being played in the reverse order in which they were composed, the 9th, then the 7th, then the 5th.
By the next day the word has spread, and a crowd has gathered around the grave. They are all listening to the Second Symphony being played backward. Just then the graveyard’s caretaker ambles up to the group. Someone in the group asks him if he has an explanation for the music.
“I would have thought it was obvious,” the caretaker says: “He’s decomposing.”
To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers? Mechanical engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.
Three engineering students were gathered together discussing who must have designed the human body.
One said, “It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints.”
Another said, “No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections.”
The last one said, “No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?”
