LILEKS (James) :: The Bleat for Monday

Despair. Misery! I upgrade my OS to the latest, and it introduced a new feature (which Windows had since, oh, 1927, probably) that lets you snap windows into certain locations. Mac has had 3d party apps that do this for years, but now it’s native to the OS.

I do not want it. Good thing you can turn it off!

<annikin_padme_right?.gif>

I have a two-monitor setup. The second monitor is a nice Dell I got for gaming, 60hz refresh rate, except it’s not. Two OS upgrades ago, compatibility was busted, and Dell can't be arsed to update monitor drivers for a small portion of the market, because, you know, why would they? Who cares? Go away. Buy it and go away. So the refresh rate is 30hz tops, and leads to jittery jumpy cursor issues for reasons I couldn’t fix. So I moved it to the secondary monitor position, on the left. This is not optimal for PC gaming and that’s why I haven’t PC gamed for a while, because it’s too much of a bother moving the monitors around.

Anyway. Window snapping is turned off. Yet any window dragged to the second monitor snaps. It either fills half the left side or half the right. It will not go in the middle, unless you hover over the green button in the top left of the window and press OPTION to get the “center” choice, OR, press control-C-FN. Any attempt to move the window, and it’s slammed up against the wall on the right or the left, pinned by the implacable dictates of the code.

Widgets? Once they all lined up nicely. I made the mistake of seeing if the time widget could be rearranged. It snapped, so it was about 1/8th an inch out of true.

<dr_smith_the_pain.gif>

I wonder if there is a gif for that. Googling . . . well, yes. But the first one comes back to a Pinterest page and I wouldn't do that to you. Oh, you say, just phrase the search so it doesn't give Pinterest results. This is our internet today: extra work so you don't get junk.

I spent an hour troubleshooting this, turning off and on all the crufty additions to the Finder - the Mission Control, the Command Center, Spaces, all that stuff I never use - and nothing works. I searched online to see if anyone else is plagued by this, and I appear to be the Last Man on Earth when it comes to second monitor unkillable window snapping. No one else anywhere in the world has the problem with this particular monitor. But it can't be the monitor.

My wife, upon hearing my lamentations, asked if I had tried turning it off and on again. Thanks, Roy. Yes, I did.

Next step: Mac technical chat, which may or may not be a human being. You hate to ask. It seems impolite. We had to go through the usual Q&A about what I had and had not done, and now I have to do that 1993 thing where you turn off all your “extensions” and reboot and add them one by one. Well, let’s see how that goes.

LATER: I removed them all and put them all back and now it works.

Anything else for the weekend? Yes! I have a new drone. The last one, which was cheap, ended up in the trees, where it stayed for a long time. This one has automatic modes that do not require manual control - it will take off from your palm, circle, follow you around. Cool. Also, unnerving. It took me a while to get used to the whining sound and the hovering insect-like creature studying me impassively with its empty glass eye, and the dog wanted nothing to do with it from the start.

I like it, even though the battery life is about 3 minutes. It will be good for vacation videos. Bet you just can't wait.

After I had been playing with it for a while, Wife came home from tennis, and I steeled myself for the Call of Duty. Surely something had to be done, something I would never think about in a million years. The wheel spun, clicked, slowed, and landed on CLEAN THE WINDOWS. So that was 3 1/2 hours, ending with two windows that refused to go back in. They are custom jobs from the airport insulation program however many years ago, and I don't think they were ever removed. They are now out.

But hey, they're clean.

I love the little medals, as if it was actually awarded something at a Belgium competition.

I wonder if there was a dime's worth of difference between them.

First, the Seal of Approval of a Government Program, Put Up Here Because They Knew What Was Good For Them:

The great profile.

Feels like a stage play. The reason I’m doing it here: some snappy camera work and lively editing. It’s an early talkie. The first time I tried to watch it, I drifted; the second time, for some reason, I found it riveting. It’s breakneck all the way, and Barrymore explodes with energy.

The sets are large and interesting. Quite the office: