Ok…I’m writing about this weird problem I had tonight on Google Talk. Everyone could hear me. I could hear sounds on my computer and so could they. But I couldn’t hear them talk. They could hear me…but nothing on my end. Yes, I did have the voice and video plugin installed and I was using the gmail interface (don’t know why their client doesn’t support it but that is another story)
I looked, looked, and looked. I checked my control panel settings. I had them check their control panel settings. I couldn’t sort out what the problem was. Then, I came across this post in the google talk forums. Here’s what I did to fix this problem:
Login to gmail Go to settings (the gear in the middle-upper right) Go to chat When I verified my settings, I couldn’t hear the test sound (even though I could hear other sounds on my computer)
To solve this problem, I explicitly picked my speakers instead of the default. Once I saved it, it started working. Wow…that wasn’t obvious at all!
Spring has sprung here in the UK. Below are two pictures I took on my way to work. One is some low fog we had overnight and the second is a picture of some buds on a bush near the office. Enjoy!
I’ve read in several newspapers that the IRIS Scheme will soon be going away. The government here has already closed the terminals at 2 airports….leaving only the terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick open. From the Register:
Travellers apparently had a lot of trouble lining up their eyes with the iris recognition camera, resulting in the identification taking a lot longer than it was supposed to. Other passengers wouldn’t be recognised at all by the computer system and ended up having to be manually checked anyway.
I for one have never had those problems. Every time I re-enter the UK, I head straight for the IRIS queue. There’s usually 3 to 4 people waiting, I line my eyes up, and go through…. Less than 1 minute. I don’t even have to remove my glasses. I think it is an awesome scheme. Oh well….they told me when I registered that the scheme would be going away and replaced by one that uses biometric passports. We’ll see…..
Cyndi got me a SodaStream Genesis for Valentine’s day. I’ve been wanting one ever since we left the states. This thing is awesome….now, I don’t have to make my own CO2 for root beer. I can just mix it up, push a button a few times, and BAM…I’ve got carbonated rootbeer.
I’ve got some videos I’ll upload and link to of the unboxing and making my first root beer.
[Update 2012-04-06 16:12:59] Haven’t done the making my first root beer yet. Well, I’ve made it but I didn’t do pictures. Sorry. But, today, I did carbonate some green kool aid.
10) Snakes, turtles, and birds 9) A science project 8) An artfully concealed non-metallic martial arts weapon called a “Tactical Spike” 7) Inert landmines 6) A stun gun disguised as a smart phone 5) A flare gun with seven flares 4) Two throwing knives 3) Over 1,200 firearms 2) A loaded .380 pistol 1) Small chunks of C4 explosives
That’s right; not a single terrorist on the list. Mostly forgetful, and entirely innocent, people. Note that they fail to point out that the firearms and knives would have been just as easily caught by pre-9/11 screening procedures. And that the C4 — their #1 “good catch” — was on the return flight; they missed it the first time. So only 1 for 2 on that one.
When Lydia started school back in October, Cyndi would put her hair up every day. After about 2 months, Lydia started taking them out. Now, it has progressed to where Lydia wants to have her hair down all the time. She calls it her tangled hair (after Rapunzel in the Disney movie Tangled). I thought I’d post about so I took some pictures this morning. For now, Lydia consistently has her hair down and talks about how long it is. She really likes her tangled hair (but not literally tangles….she doesn’t like having it bruised out). Here are some pictures I took this morning to blog about this:
I know lots of people from Texas. Last week, all of them started moaning that The Dublin Bottling Works wasn’t going to make Dublin Dr. Pepper any more. Most of them were moaning and blaming Dr. Pepper. From what I understand, the problem lies solely with Dublin Dr. Pepper.
For those who don’t know, “Dublin” Dr. Pepper had continued to make (and market) Dr. Pepper made with 100% cane sugar (instead of HFCS). It was good and was really popular. As people moved away, they still wanted their fix of Dublin Dr. Pepper. Right there is the problem…..As you can see from the picture, they were marketing the Dr. Pepper not just as plain old Dr. Pepper but “Dublin” Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper stepped in to protect their trademark. That is why I think the problem was with the bottler.
If they had simply lapeled their product Dr. Pepper just like everything else there would have been no problem. People would have driven to Dublin Texas (or the surrounding counties), sought out the Dr. Pepper bottled by the Dublin Plant (it is on the cans), and everything would have been honkey dorey. But things weren’t. From the articles I’ve read, that is why Dr. Pepper took them to court in the first place.
BTW, no one is going to loose the taste of Dublin Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper has said they are going to continue marketing cane sweetened pop to the counties that should have been serviced by The Dublin Bottling Works.
Today on Sky News, there was a news report talking about the state of computer education in the UK. They had a computer teacher on (I believe he was the equivalent of a US high school teacher) who made the point that as it stands today, computer education in the UK is worthless. He went on to describe it as teaching kids how to download apps to accomplish a task. Wow! Unfortunately, I don’t have a link to that, but I’ve found a link where the government is making changes to computer education.
Now, I have a BS degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering. I think that most people don’t have a clue about computers because they have never been taught how to think. At Marshall, I had a teacher (who was not very good) but he loved to say there was a difference between education and training. I never knew what he meant until I graduated and was placed in the work world. I then discovered what he meant. I found a plethora of people who didn’t know how to do anything unless it was laid out step by step in front of them. Those people had been trained. If you forgot one small thing, the people couldn’t think and determine what to do next.
I think that is the problem with computer education in general. Having a class to teach a person how to use word and calling it computer education is a joke. Sure, they might come away knowing how to use word…but then they can’t use open office (even though the concepts are 75% or more the same). They’ve been trained how to use word but haven’t ever been taught how to think about a problem.
In my mind, 50% (or more) of working with computers is nothing but problem solving (perhaps more like 80%). You have a problem and you have to find a solution. Then you have to determine how to make that solution work. Then you have to determine how to implement it and fix problems because you did it wrong. You see where that goes….more and more problem solving.
Therefore, I think the solution lies in teaching kids less how to do simple tasks and more in teaching them to think. Sure, you’ve got to teach kids tasks (how to tie shoes, how to write, how to cypher, etc….) but there needs to be a way to make certain computer classes don’t focus on the ctrl+b bolds text in word (or similar concepts in other disciplines). As I learned from the Mythical Man Month, computer engineering/software engineering isn’t exactly like other disciplines. Well, it may be; however, software engineering has only been around less than 75 years….people have been building bridges since preRoman times.
Ok…I’m writing about this weird problem I had tonight on Google Talk. Everyone could hear me. I could hear sounds on my computer and so could they. But I couldn’t hear them talk. They could hear me…but nothing on my end. Yes, I did have the voice and video plugin installed and I was using the gmail interface (don’t know why their client doesn’t support it but that is another story)
