Languid Apple Bugs flourish on hydrant fire engine parade
“So,” I thought, “when Nazy is not here, nothing exciting happens. What will I write about? I’ll begin by filling the gaps with a family picture… and I'll include pictures of the grand(set)daughter all throughout the letter.
Realizing that the photo is from last week, I began to scramble for more recent events.
“A car hit the fire hydrant in front of the 7-11 store,” I thought. “Tiger was impressed.”
“Wait a minute!” A disgruntled reader interrrupts. “Where is Nazy?”
Please excuse the meandering narrative ‘flow’ of this issue. Nazy is in Bellingham, Washington where she is visiting Darius, Christiane and the Lovely Leandra. There is so much going on with Darius and Family — new job, new country, new baby, new home — we just wanted to help support the transition. And, Nazy is very good in the relevant arena: they are still buying things for the home and when it comes to buying things, no one can surpass Nazy’s shopping expertise.
While Nazy is away, I’ve been catching up on various Apple-related housekeeping issues. I’ve also become more than somewhat disgruntled with Apple. The overarching, general idea with Apple is that you buy into their closed eco-system in return for a high quality experience. However, the latest updates of the operating system have been problematic, eh, less than ideal well more accurately: “bug-riddled:”
Yesterday, December 2, my iPhone stopped working because of the December 2nd bug. This occurred directly after the security flaw that allowed people to access my information without a password. And, right before that they had an auto-correct bug that replaced ‘i’ with ‘A’ and a question mark in a box. And, although Apple refuses to believe it, the last “upgrade” of the operating system for my iPad made everything very dim.
Since the phone stopped working on December 2nd, I dropped into the Apple Store for consultations.
“Ah — I believe I’ve seen a few of these today. One of the guys in the back can fix it,” the greeter informed me.
“Thanks.”
“the next opening is in about an hour and a half.”
“How very convenient,” I responded.
“There is no need to wait, we’ll send you a text when it’s your turn.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “I believe I’ll head to dinner.”
I got a ‘new message ping’ as I walked out of the store. “That was quick,” I thought.
I turned around, let a Specialist know that I had arrived. I discovered that there was a substantial difference between “almost ready’ and ‘ready’: I spent 25 minutes in the ‘almost ready’ state. Then someone told me that I’d have to download the latest bug fix, eh, iOS update. They started the process, but it took a long time because the iPhone crashed every 30 or so seconds. Luckily, it remembered where it was when it crashed. It finally loaded and indicated that I should click on the “UPDATE NOW” button. Since ‘my’ Specialist was engaged elsewhere, I clicked — and the phone said that it wouldn’t update without either 50% battery charge or wired power. I walked out of the store and completed the task at home.
While Nazy was away, I took Tiger to see the Christmas Parade. When Nazy and I took him last year, he was not overwhelmec: he was also very unsure about this ‘Santa Claus’ fellow. It was different this year.
“Look at that fire truck with candy canes, Dan!” he exclaimed.
(The fire truck replied with a quick, but loud, burst of its horn and siren.)
“Did you see how big those two guys are, Dan?” He asked.
(The tall guys were on stilts.)
After the parade, as we were walking to dinner, we passed a “Take your photo with Santa Claus” stand.
“Would you like to sit on Santa’s lap and take a picture?” I asked.
“No.” Tiger responded. It was the only one-word sentence that I heard that evening. It seems that not everything had changed from the previous year.
For last week's letter, please click here
Santa Barbara's Old Mission
(my photo that appeared on the local weather)