Computers posing as people

Ok, I know this is the up and coming thing but is anyone else really annoyed with the new automated response phone systems that pretend to be a real person talking to you? I hate these things. I hate talking to a machine. The better systems at least give you a choice of whether you want to talk to it or use the keypad. I always opt for the keypad if available.

I know that companies are trying to make their systems more "friendly" but to me it's just an insult to have to "talk" to a machine. I'm afraid "phone trees" are here to stay but I hope we're always given the option to use the keypad if we want.

ActiveSync: Why do they make it worse each revision?

I recently got a new PDA (Pocket PC) and of course the new version of Microsoft's ActiveSync. Of course, each new version touts better connection and syncing robustness so as I have for the past several years installed it. Of course the new version has problems - "features" I'm sure MS would tell you.

First, I noticed the status during the update is not as informative as in the past. Sometimes it tells you the number of items that it's updating and other times it does not. Second, I've not found a way to have it prompt me for conflicts when an item gets updated on both the desktop and the PDA. You can only choose to have one replace the other. The is totally unacceptable. Third, Pocket Quicken no longer gives me the option, when run in manual mode, to right click on the "information type" and choose to do an update. I now have to go find the Pocket Quicken Connect icon somewhere else and force the update with that.

In general, I've found updates to ActiveSync one step forward and two steps back but this time I would say it was 1/2 a step forward and 3 steps back. Can't you ever get it right MS?

Microwave ovens - How I wished they were made

Our first microwave oven we purchased from the Base Exchange (BX) in the Air Force circa 1975. It was one of the first ones with a variable cooking slider bar (called Cookmatic) and I loved this microwave. We used it for several years and after moving to California but as all appliances go, this one died one day also.

What I liked about this oven was the way the variable cooking worked. As you slid the Cookmatic slider
from full power to less power, the oven started an on/off cycle (similar to the way the ones work today) but cycle was much faster. The difference with the Amana was that its duty cycle was more like pulsing rather than todays models which just stay on full power for several seconds and then off for several seconds. With the Radarange the amount of time on and off was very short. this reduced the hot spots a great deal and made for a much more even cooking temperature.

I especially noticed a difference when we cooked grits. With the old Amana we could use 80% power for less time and the grits would not boil over in the oven. With my current GE microwave we have to reduce the power to 50% and cook it longer just to keep it from boiling over.

There were other things we cooked that worked better in the old oven as well. If anyone knows any brand of microwave which retains the similar duty cycle of the old Amana ovens, please let me know. My next oven will most likely be strongly influenced by this cycle. At least if I can find one that comes closer to the old Amana cycle.

First Entry

Hello world.

I don't expect a lot of traffic here but wanted to test this out for possible use in other feeds to websites - maybe even my own blog over on www.pottengerfamily.com so here goes.

Being a perfectionist I find lots of things wrong in the world and my wife, I'm sure, is getting tired of me telling her about them. :) So I thought this might be a good place to vent and who knows, maybe someone will actually do something about them some day.

OK, for my first complaint (and these will likely be mostly about technology as that is what I deal with so much of the time). This is a general observation and I could cite lots of examples (more to come in the future, I'm sure) but have you noticed that more often than not the newer version of things is not as good as, reliable as, work as well as, (you get the idea) the older versions? This is especially true for software but I've seen this principle as well in my microwave (subject for a future post).