Ray's X-Blog

The constant chore: tracking the latest posts at a variety of blogs.  In the old days I bookmarked each blog and then went through the list, checking to see if a site had any new items. Then came along "push" technology, i.e., a site would tell me when recent posts were added.  RSS: Really Simple Syndication.  With Google Reader this system worked well.  I would log on to Reader and there would be a listing of new posts, all in one convenient spot.  It worked great with my Android tablet. Then Google hit the kill switch on Reader. I looked for a replacement service: Bloglines, Feedly, AOL Reader.  These RSS reader programs have one thing in common: they suck.  Clumsy interfaces, glitches and hang-ups. I needed something that worked efficiently, especially with my tablet. And I finally found it. Bookmarks. Like in the old days I go through the list and directly access each site.  Not as convenient as Google Reader but less snags ...

No more inkjet printer. I've tried three different brands and they all end up wasting my money.  Unless you use it once a week in a properly climate-controlled environment, the cartridges dry out to the point where they're unusable, even though there's plenty of ink left inside them. I do have a laser printer that works great for my paperzine but not so great when addressing envelopes.  The heat causes the envelopes to seal so instead I was making do with an inkjet printer — but, once again, when I tried using it to mail out the latest edition of my zine, the cartridges were plugged up as if blocked with superglue. I've tried cleaning the heads through the printer's program, using isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab, even invoking the Eldritch Name of Cthulhu, and they refuse to work.  I don't have time to baby inkjet cartridges. I hate addressing each envelope by hand.  I finally figured out a way to print envelopes with my laser printer. ...

In April 1925 Canadian inventor Ted Rogers introduced the first AC-powered radio to the world.  Before this innovation people had to make do with batteries.  Now someone could hook up a radio to the electrical system in their home and never worry about recharging again. This was before the adaptation to the two prong wall plug.  In olden times things were a bit screwy with appliances: everything used the same socket type invented for light bulbs.  Check out the accompanying illustration of a commemorative stamp recalling Roger's achievement.  To create the stamp part of an old ad was used, the image of a woman who has removed a light bulb and is connecting her Roger's Batteryless Radio.  But I wonder if there were at least a few homes with only one socket per room (maybe one socket in the whole house).  Someone had to decide whether to read or listen at night.  I wonder how many arguments that situation stirred up. "I don't want to rea...

During the course of a day I take a handful of meds.  I don't want to add another pill to the list and so refuse to use any sleep-inducing pharmaceuticals. One way to knock myself out is to read a boring book, usually something academic and turgid involving considerable concentration to figure out what the fug the author is talking about.  Someone like Noam Chomsky does the trick. I have a copy of Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies by the Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl G. Jung, translated by R.F.C. Hull.  With all due respect to the memory of Jung (he died in 1961) his writing does get to be Dense.  In Flying Saucers — a collection of Jung's writings dealing with UFOs — the author delves deeply into the symbology and psychological underpinnings of the subject.   Because he made his observations in the early days of Ufology, he usually referred to the mysterious skyborne objects as flying saucers, the popular term back...