stressedtechnician

[stressedtechnician]

It may be the summer solstice but there's a definite lack of summer sunshine!

[stressedtechnician]

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

I recently found myself in my local cinema watching the latest Fantastic Beasts film; The Secrets of Dumbledore. So, what did I think of it.

Ummm… as a stand-alone film involving the power struggle of good versus evil, of someone wanting to get to the top by any means regardless of the collateral damage; of friendship and loyalty, of rejection and deception, then it was not too bad. Add to that the twist that it’s set in a world of witches and wizards and you have a bit over two hours of not brilliant but OK cinema entertainment. You’ll also have to balance off between some excellent CGI and special effects against a rather stunted script and story-line with a bit too much ‘political drama’ and not enough ‘wizarding’, but there you go.

However, as a film that’s part of the Harry Potter universe, it did not do it for me. Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scmander worked well enough, but I was not particularly impressed with Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindelwald, to me he came across as far too mild compared to the Grindelwald we know from the books. As for Jude Law as Dumbledore, oh dear, I really could not relate to this portrayal as being even remotely connected to Headmaster Dumbledore of Hogwarts and Harry Potter. He just came across to me as a rather indifferent late Victorian-aged gentleman adventurer. Then the teenage gay relationship bit between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, that really just smacked of the film producers wanting to tick the box to say how ‘politically correct’ and inclusive they were.

So a film good for a Sunday afternoon television session where if you go away for 10 minutes to make a cup of tea or get distracted off for a bit you won’t miss too much, but for paying full price cinema costs, then a bit of a disappointment.

[stressedtechnician]

Damn those spots!

Happily spend an hour or so on the computer. All is well... until you see a tiny spot of dirt on the screen, probably tucked away in a corner.

However once you have seen it then you can’t un-see it, it just leaps out and grabs your attention.

So out with that spare microfibre cloth you have for your glasses and a little bit of (monitor screen compatible!) cleaning fluid and the spot has gone. Put cloth away & back to the computer... except that now you notice two more spots (that you’re sure were NOT there before).

Out with the cloth again, spots gone, except now there are a few more spots across on the other corner of the screen... where in the $%*X did they come from! and before you know it you are having to give the whole screen a shake-down.

Ahh, success!

Except now you’re left with an irritating streak mark across the screen where, through your annoyance, you used a little bit too much cleaning fluid. So that now needs to be sorted.

Eventually happiness, a nice clean screen at last. Need to chill down and go and get yourself a nice cup of tea.

However the Great God of Computers isn’t going to let you go that easily. Just as you finish your tea a small drop splashes out and hits your screen...

[stressedtechnician]

Glasgow’s mix of new and old.

[stressedtechnician]

I've enjoyed playing the app game Monument Valley, however recently it wanted to do an update. Nothing odd there but I did notice the permissions it wanted...

"Monument Valley by Pashley Peter requires access to the following to run... to access your pictures, music, documents and other files stored on your device, at a remote storage provider, on a media card or in the cloud."

Why should a simple puzzle-solving game require access to all my documents? What need does ustwogames​ have to access my files stored there?

Delete app time I think!

[stressedtechnician]

I have my eye on you.

[stressedtechnician]

Ant, prepare to meet thy doom.

[stressedtechnician]

Bright balls on Flickr.

[stressedtechnician]

Three on Flickr.

[stressedtechnician]

Apple value.

Looking on the Apple site I see they have a recycling program where you can get up to £220 towards the cost of a new phone if you recycle your old one through them.

Though I'd see what my (still in daily use) 3GS was worth...

50p.

Don't think I'll bother.

[stressedtechnician]

Spent a nice bank holiday Monday up at Castle Campbell.

[stressedtechnician]

Sometimes only a Greggs sausage roll will do. At least it's not as unhealthy as a Mars bar in batter.

[stressedtechnician]

Time to shift away from Google?

I've been using Google's word processing and spreadsheet functions for ages. Accessible anywhere there is an internet connection and more than powerful enough for my needs.

However the way Google is screwing up YouTube and forcing everybody to use Google+ (I actually don't mind G+ but I don't like it being forced onto me) I think it's time to look to alternatives.

I've had a Vimeo account for ages so for video dual uploading, Vimeo and YouTube, is not a problem. As for my document use, then perhaps SkyDrive working through Microsoft Office.

I had hoped Google's document and spreadsheet offerings would get me away from Office, and to a great extent they had. However it looks like Google has scored the proverbial own goal and now it's back to Word.

I don't want this, but right now Google is really pissing me off.

[stressedtechnician]

Please YouTube,

stop mucking around with the social side as you try to make it more commercial.

Us reading comments on videos and talking to each other through YouTube may not make the advertisers money, on the other hand the more times I visit YouTube and the greater length of time I spend there  does increase the chance of me seeing an ad.

If I just want to sit & watch I'll go to Vimeo. If I want to interact and watch I'll (at the moment) go to YouTube. Reduce my interaction level then I won't visit YouTube at all, then there's no change of seeing any ad.

[stressedtechnician]

How many e-mail addresses is it right to have active at any one moment?

[stressedtechnician]

Orange marches are not just for N. Ireland.

(Glasgow city centre.)

[stressedtechnician]

Just had that

sudden sinking feeling when you realise your hard drive is 99% full.