CE Wills

     Hey, everyone. My wife and I, like millions of people, enjoy feeding birds. You can make or buy a feeder, sprinkle in some bird seed, or fruit, or bread crumbs and watch as birds come to snack. Some are attracted to the crowd of other birds, as their nature is to follow a leader. On a cold winter day, the birds stand out against the snow and you can get some cool photos of colorful plumage to show your friends. I know folks who have photos blown up and decorate their homes with these pictures. Others may blog about the richly colored cardinals or even participate in the scientific studies of migratory habits.     Heck, you don't even have to have a feeder. Just sprinkle food on the ground. Of course, ants and other undesirables might invite themselves to supper. Squirrels are the worst interlopers. I have seen these voracious rascals chew through a plastic bucket to get at the bird seed inside. Sort of like a hacker. Ha, ha. They will walk a support...

   Talk about odd things to spend a few hours on. Yesterday, for no apparent reason, I studied the quagmire that is the End User License Agreement. As you know, this is the thing you sign for many downloadable games, software and the like. They would have had a tough time inserting this stuff down the throats of Americans many years ago but now most of us are sadly amenable to clicking the "I agree" box.       I read a lot about the agreements over on the terrific site called Wikipedia. The Eula is a device which is intended to form a contract with the user. Its intent is to give the owner of the software more power in copyright than the law allows for. It is many things, including a salve to company insecurities. Many times a court of law will rule them 'unconscionable'. That is, a judge, in good conscious, can't rule for a company that manipulates a customer's young age, ignorance or careless disregard of reading a long boring document, to sc...

        Hey, everyone. I was just thinking about phones. A useful tool with a long history of service. I can remember days when I actually dared to go somewhere without one.      When I was a kid, we didn't have a phone. Most people didn't. Maybe, there was a store nearby that one could go to, in an emergency, to use a phone. Then there were the days when there were"party lines". No, this did not indicate nights of wild revelry with nicely shaped phones. Rather, it meant that a certain number of households would have a common line and number, so that a call would ring perhaps 6 or 7 houses. Believe it or not, some people used this primitive tech to eavesdrop on their neighbors discussions. Today we do this and call it a conference call.      I remember the days when a phone was never carried on one's person. There was a line that attached them to the wall and they were massive and heavy. They were even used to ki...

    Hey, everyone. I stopped by Best Buy the other day and had a nice chat with a rep from Samsung. He was a pleasant bloke and he had his own display there at the store, devoted mostly to tablets. He had a thick piece of magic glass there on the counter and told me that if he hooked an I-Pad to it, that the device would sense the apps contained on the I-Pad and install the Android equivalent on a Samsung tablet, free of charge.     This is brilliant marketing by Samsung, because many people believe themselves locked into the Apple system once they have the gear and the attendant apps, music and games. Apple is King of tablets, but the competition grows more fierce as each day passes.     I walked down the tablet isle at Best Buy and marveled at the variety and prices. There were tablets as low as $47. I started to buy a new tablet myself, just for something new to mess with. My son has been showing me his new tablet ...

    Hey, everyone. Yesterday I had an odd day. I had I-Pad trouble with my I-Pad Air. Let me tell you about it. I'll have to give you the "Reader's Digest Version". Ha, ha. This is an old saying, common during the dark ages. At that time Reader's Digest put abbreviated novels out for consumption by those who didn't really have a lot of time. They were quite good, usually.      So, a weird thing was going on with my Padster. To wit, I would buy a game and it would not appear on my I-Pad. The store would indicate that the game had downloaded but alas, there was no icon. Distressing. How could I possibly save Duke Nukem in The Manhattan Project ?      I bought other games, like Alpha 9, and they didn't appear either. I just chilled out for a while and meditated on the problem, hoping it would go away or a flash of genius might overtake me. I plugged the Padster into my PC and added some of my old games. They didn't appear either...

   Hey, everyone. So, what's up? Today is a pretty day with sunshine and a temperature in the forties. I was thinking about raking and burning leaves. I wasn't thinking about it very seriously, just thinking about it. Ha, ha.      I had a cool burger last night. If you ever get a chance to try this one you should consider it. It was a huge rascal, so big that even my mouth had difficulty wrapping around it. It was a bacon and egg burger with all the trimmings. I must say that it was perhaps the best burger I ever ate. The leaky egg made it so moist and tasty. Of course, I like eggs with steak for breakfast on rare occasion and I really like beer with that dish as well, or champagne.     Hey, did you see where they are getting on the James Bond character for his boozing? Yeah. They already made it socially unacceptable for him to smoke. Next will be his womanizing, no doubt. Soon, all literature, games, movies, T.V. and print media will ...

   Hey, everyone. For the last few weeks I have been investigating the high-stakes, live on the razor's edge world of gaming. It happened on this wise.     I have been just a tad aggravated with I-Pad gaming for reasons that I have talked about at length on these pages. So, I borrowed an X-Box 360 for the purpose of ascertaining if it would be a feasible source of amusement for a guy with 60 plus years under his belt. I had tried it once before but the controls seemed difficult compared to my Padster. In fact, the tech seemed, dare I say it?) shrouded in the mists of the past compared to touch screen controls on my I-Pad Air.     This time around, I was determined to give it a fair try and play it for a few days or weeks until I decided whether or not to invest in a PS4, a PS3, an X-Box One or an X-Box 360. True to form, I exhaustively read reviews and sought counseling about the matter. My gaming mentor, the doughty Trevor, said tha...

     Hey, everyone. I don't consider myself as a tech blogger but I'd like to talk about Apple's latest iteration of the I-Pad. I'll give you more of a common man's perspective, I hope. All you folks in Cupertino can use this to get a feel for mainstreet USA. I've owned I-Pads since the original came out and have owned the #1, #2, and #3. I have to say, as I've said before, that of all the things I've bought in my life, these devices are the best. So, here are some thoughts on the new one. 1) I like the idea that they have developed an I-Pad Smart Case , as opposed to the Smart Cover . You can still buy the latter, and it's cheaper, but why not protect both sides? We like to say, "Cover Your ***" here in the States. Besides, since the new device is thinner and all, it might be good to have the extra protection. (The new Case is to be $79, I think.) 2) Twice the Wi-Fi performance. It has two inlet channels and two outlet channels. This i...

    Hey, everyone. Yesterday I was at Best Buy and I was looking at the display for the new I-Phones; 5s and 5c. The sales girl was nice and we talked to her a while. She said that they still had the 5s in stock, which surprised me. According to her, they had the 64 Gig model of the 5s in the Silver and the Space Grey. This really surprised me as I'd read all the stories on line about their unavailability. Now, I don't remotely need 64 Gigs of space, grey or otherwise. Ha, ha. So, I didn't buy it.      The sales lady also said that they had plenty of the 5c in stock, except for the yellow one. If I was going to buy one, I'd want the yellow one, I think, because it is a macho color, but I hear that the 5c is basically a 5 with the plastic body. (Insert joke here?)      My phone (I-Phone 4s) is not all that important to me and is not my life as it is with teens. I use it mostly for phone calls and to check e-mail. I think I have t...

     Hey, everyone. Check out this weird mushroom I found. Looks edible, not. Ha, ha.    Hey, I noticed that EA Games has taken the liberty of putting game adds on their paid game called Mass Effect Infiltrator. Irritating. Maybe it's time for some rules on the app store about adds being placed in games after the initial buy. Evidently they can do this without me downloading an update, which begs the question: are they talking back and forth to my I-Pad at liberty, and without my knowledge? I don't know this, just wondering.      I just bought the newest novel by John Locke. It's about a psycho doctor who decides he is going to try out an on-line dating service. He has issues in dealing with social interaction. He is not a 'people' person. Moreover, he sometimes kills other doctors' patients and breaks into people's homes. Should be different, at least. I have yet to read one of Locke's books which I didn't enjoy. I bought this one as ...

    Hey, everyone. Yes, you were right. My stomach was upset yesterday after that midnight snack. That is not the purpose of this post, however.       A few days ago I read a terrific article by a lady named Alexandra Alter. I read it as an excerpt on Zite, I think, but when I wanted to reread it, I had to do a search and found it on the Wall Street Journal. The title is Your E-Book Is Watching You . It is excellent and I thought I'd share the link. online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304870304577490950051438304.html       Let me say that I love the creepy picture of the eyes on the printed page. I do hope that you read the article calmly. Like most technical things it is not as bad as it seems but could certainly be abused by governments and others. Here's the gist of the article for those gamers who popped into the site and really have no interest in ebooks.      Evidently, several of the big on-line boo...

    Hey, everyone. Recently I bought the new game by Polarbit Studios called Reckless Racing 2. I really don't intend to review the game but I do want to talk about a brilliant innovation in the controls.    In the picture above, notice the silver bar and just above it the box you can check for Dynamic Difficulty. The studio people explain that dynamic difficulty is the practice in the gaming community of making a game get harder as you progress and have success in it. This is the instrument that ruins gaming for the casual gamers because they get stuck at levels and can't progress and enjoy the game they have paid for.     As you know, I have constantly griped about this, even threatening to give one star reviews for games I get stuck on when I have selected the easy level. (see my post entitled The Shadowgun Manifesto). The gaming industry has catered to the hardcore gamers who want games to be super hard so that they can prove something o...

    Hey, everyone. It's no secret that I am an Apple fan. I love gaming on the I-Pad and the whole thing. I was proud of Apple the other day when they stopped Big Fish Games from initiating the subscription gaming deal on the app store.     However, it seems that I can see a bit of a change in the general spirit of the company. I read a quote from Steve Jobs biography to the effect that Steve was not thrilled with the direction he foresaw the company moving under some of the people at the top.     Since Steve has left us it seems that there are quite a few of the developers on the store taking little liberties with app updates and in-app purchases. Things that, while not dishonest or illegal, are a bit unsavory. With the former regime, the customer always was a factor in the decision making process. Apple really 'got it' about how to treat people.    Forgetting the app store for the moment, let me talk about the I-Cloud. Are they trying to...

    Hey, everyone. I have always been fascinated by animals. I have, however, quit going to the zoo. I used to go pretty regularly. One day I noticed how the animals would get behind any small projection of rock or vegetation, however minute an amount of cover it might be, trying to get just a smidgen of privacy. Being stared at all the time would literally drive some animals, or people, over the edge.       One of the needs of creatures the world over is to simply have a moment to themselves. Many times I have sat in a public place and felt sorry for an attractive woman who drew the insolent stares of nearby males. I try to make it a point, at times, just to look the other way. Just as a matter of good manners, you know? Is it possible that beauty can be a curse?      But the point of this post is to talk about the proliferation of cameras, hidden and otherwise. Several years ago, I saw an article that stated that the averag...

     Hey, everyone.Carley and I have hung around the house today and we performed mundane duties. For instance, we raked leaves. What a huge job that is here at the green retreat. It is good exercise, however. I thought I would show you a short video of how bare the woods are now. In the valley there are still plenty of leaves, but there are not a lot of them here in the mountains.      My problem is that I really stink at any thing concerning photography so my video is turned sideways. Funny.     Hey. Try an app called 7 Billion by National Geographic, which deals with climate change and the number of humans on earth reaching the total of ...7 billion. Then try a cute little freebie game called Running Wild , which is free for today. It is a running type of game, with a puzzle style. Not my type of game but it is pretty cute. Carley likes it.    Today I finally tried something which I have been intending to do for mon...

    Hey, everyone. Let me start by thanking Steve for his comment on yesterday's post about the U.S. Open. Feel free to comment at any time.     This evening I saw an article on Google News about the new policy for web addresses.  This stuff is not my forte but I find it very interesting. ICANN, the Internet Governing Corporation, has changed their policy about domain names. In the past they only issued 22 different suffixes. (Stuff like .com and .org) Now they are going to expand that to include nearly every word in every language. For instance, if I wanted to brag on a favorite character from one of my novels, I could have a site that ended with .Centaur.     Here's the wild part. Some of these web addresses are going to cost a whopping $185,000. It is clear to me that there is a segment of society that has a level of wealth and privilege of which I have no comprehension. To have a business and be able to write something like this of...

    Hey, everyone. You may be like me and have a lot of fond memories about comic books. This genre is perhaps the earliest form of escape reading in many young lives. I remember stuff like Turok, Son Of Stone. Earlier today, a picture of a grotto on my PC reminded me of an old Batman comic where he battled a guy called Clayface. I was very young when Marvel Comics burst on the scene with Jack Kirby on illustrations and Stan Lee as the storyteller. Until that time DC and Dell ruled the roost. Marvel was a little less stuffy and a trifle cool and quickly grabbed a nice segment of the market. I had the Spiderman series from the start, as well as most of the other newcomers.        At one time I had about 10 or 12 subscriptions to titles like The Atom, Green Lantern, The Flash and Batman . Like everything else, when I'm into it, I'm absorbed with it. But all this is just a little background for my idea.      I'd like to...

    Hey, everyone. There was a time when I watched quite a bit of network news on TV. Dan Rather and folks like that. As the years went by and commercials became more numerous and odious I quit watching news. The right wing has since got their own news channel and most other news sources are left wingers. Seems like, in my dimmest memories, there was a time when news people prided themselves on objectivity. Perhaps I was just naive. I prefer to get just the news and put my own slant on it, thanks.    A couple of years ago I started reading Google News on my PC and really liked it. I find it extremely cool to actually choose the types of things that interest me. I leave the guilt-trip type of news for others to read. I don't like to read or watch news that centers on the tragedies of life, so that I feel more depressed than I was when I started. I read more sports, tech, I-Pad, e-book and Kindle news. I'm very interested in weather, also.     My ...