We Aren't Going to Make This Easy, Part II - or - More in the Ongoing Struggle With Bad Design

 

If you are looking for the serial number on the underside of a MacBook Pro, good luck.  The type is very light gray, and the size of an ant's foot.  This info can be called up on the screen, but if you're out of battery this would be the (useless) backup.  However, the box it came in is quite nice, so they got that right.

 There are hundreds of words, symbols and numbers on the back panel of our garage door opener, but the only thing you really need to know is where the "Learn" button is -- you will use it many times when the machine loses its programming from a power loss or several other mysterious reasons.  It is not labelled -- why not?

I rented a Chevrolet Cruze once, not by choice, but it was what they had available at an airport.  Instead of words, every control had only cryptic symbols.  I never did find the lights switch.  Car reviewers have said that even tech-savvy BMW drivers couldn't figure out their early touch screen controls.  Our Bush-era car has very few things anyone can't figure out intuitively.  You can even turn on the heat or cooling without taking your eyes off the road to scroll through menus.

  We had to accept a new "smart" thermostat along with the replacement heat pump.  The lettering is tiny with very low contrast (unlike the much better example above) and of course it has layers of useless functions which, if used, could ball up the system so badly you won't even be able to get the air conditioning going.  All those nighttime and vacation settings don't really do much of anything you couldn't just as easily acccomplish by turning the temperature setting up or down.  With a physical dial, as Nature intended.  

In a lot of homes, the clothes washer and dryer are crammed together in an opening that doesn't allow the dryer to be slid out for cleaning lint from the duct pipe, which must be done.  I used to have to disconnect the washer after removing the louvered doors, wrestle it out and then pull the dryer out part way (there wasn't room for more than that) and go to work, mostly upside down.   An added six inches or so more of opening width on either side would make this task so much more doable. 

That was the only one of these design messes I could fix.  The appliances went down to the basement, which is a better place for all that noise, too.  Makers of cars, thermostats, garage door openers and MacBooks, the rest is up to you.     

L'anno dei Turchi 1480

Otranto, on the southern tip of the Italian peninsula's "boot heel" today is a pleasant holiday resort noted for its massive fortifications and clear blue water.  One would hardly think it was once one of the hinges on which history turns.

Unfortunately those defenses were not in place when 128 ships with 25,000 soldiers of the Ottoman Empire appeared on the horizon in July 1480.  And they looked unstoppable after capturing Constantinople only 27 years earlier.  At the time, and as usual, the states of a disunited Italy were fighting each other or planning to; not favorable to a workable defensive strategy.  

It took only two weeks to finally take the citadel and drag the garrison commander and a bishop out to be sawn in half.  Twelve thousand residents lay dead as ten thousand were carried away into slavery.  The cathedral was used as a stable. Raids were begun on towns up the Adriatic coast as this conquest was only the beginning of a campaign to take Rome, on the pattern of absorbing the Balkans after extinguishing the remnants of the Byzantine Empire.

Florence, the Papal states and the Kingdom of Naples wisely put aside their feuding, and along with two battalions from Hungary marched to Otranto's rescue.  As they arrived to do what must have seemed to be very dubious battle, Fate intervened: Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II had just died in May 1481 and most of the Turkish troops, after negotiations, withdrew to Albania. 

Today's seaside getaway had saved eternal Rome.

                        Ottomans on the attack circa 1480

    

Between the Bookends

 

"I can quit any time."  That's what the addict says.  And I did today, when I left the bi-monthly local library sale with nothing in hand.  But there will probably be a relapse, as temptation is always lurking.

A few years ago I started scooping up old hardback books, attractive but mostly secondary or inexpensive reprinted works by well-known authors, and only a very few first editions or valuable rarities.  Some of the late 19th century ones are bound or illustrated with style you don't see anymore and just had to be saved.  

People have interests, avocations and pursuits that give a shine to daily life; often these can be more like obsessions than entertainments -- things like sports, religion, family. pets, video games or golf.  You have to keep an eye on yourself.   Eyeing those overflowing shelves, someone needs to heed his own advice.

Their history is usually unknown and one wonders...were they kept quietly in one home for decades or had they endured several moves or changes of ownership?  

Many look untouched and may have never been read.  Some have a little story hidden inside:  a bookmark made from the cover of a 1940 magazine, a review of the book from 1955, a short grocery list...the best one is a moving letter dated 1978 from a mother to an adult daughter giving her a beloved volume from 1930 which her husband had given as a wedding present.   From London, this edition of the Rubiayat is bound in tooled leather and beautifully illustrated by the great Willy Pognany.  Maybe a grandchild cleared out the daughter's home and that's how it ended up at the sale.  One book had a wedding announcement inside from 1946; the name written on the flyleaf was, according to the newspaper article, the flower girl with her age given as 14 and the address.  People you never knew you come to know a little; the books may be passed on and in time someone may wonder who and what you were.

The Pognany volume

   

Eerie, PA

 

The Appalachian mountain range is old and spooky, nowhere more so than in northern Pennsylvania, an area settled late and sparsely.  After the coal and timber booms petered out in the early 20th century, they left a dwindling population, deadly pollution, and streams clogged with lumbering waste.  And the ghosts of so many who died before their time in those mines and on those untamed streams.

Many tales were told over unnumbered years of tragic lives and deaths.  One such occurred in some village whose name has been forgotten or has, like so many, disappeared back into the wilds.  Far back in the hills there lived a clan they called the "witchy people."  They looked different and all had red hair.  Their crops and livestock were unusually good, and they also possessed the power to cure people and animals of all sorts of maladies by laying on their hands.  But they could do much damage also, if that was their intention; this power increased during the darkness of the new moon and at that time they were carefully avoided.  

An unknown and devastating illness passed through the village during a new moon one year, and as it worsened, claiming one life after another, the people set their minds on driving the witchy people out or killing them.  Arriving at their homesteads they found no one there, not even an animal.  Frightened and angry, they set all the houses and barns afire.  On their return home they saw one leave a home and shot at him, killing instead a woman who had come out at the same time shouting "Don't shoot!"  Another resident peered out and told the crowd, horrified, that the witchy had just finished curing every one of the family by his touch.

Shamed, they returned to the burnt-out homes of the witchy people to apologize and offer to rebuild.  But everything had disappeared as if it had never been there.  

                                    

      Hidden blessing found in a Pennsylvania barn

Ante Atari

 

It seems like Flintstones technology now, but the Atari console, despite what I thought were  clumsy controllers, was big entertainment and easy to use.  Then you could go to an arcade and play Pong or PacMan on a big noisy machine (but who has quarters in their pockets today?) and rack up those points.   We thought that was the first computer game machine, but the original one weighed over a metric ton, had only one game and its display screen was not the family television but a very small oscilloscope.

It was a hit, though.  Designed by nuclear physicist Edward Condon of Westinghouse, the Nimatron non-programmable computer went on public, interactive display at the 1939 World's Fair. No one saw its potential at the time.  Its game ("Nim") was based on an ancient strategy contest, probably from China, in which two players alternate removing one or more objects (i.e. beans, coins, pebbles, etc.) from different piles.  He who removes the last object is the winner,  or loser,  depending on the version played.   Sounds as simple as a child's card game,  but there is more skill and tactics involved than this short description indicates.

The Nimatron was made with four lines of seven light bulbs each.  The player takes a turn switching a light or two off, then the computer takes a turn (no pages of coding needed, just simple math).  One hundred thousand Fair visitors tried to win, but the primitive computer won 90% of the time!  As I remember with Atari, the Space Invaders won 100% of the time...

 A similar machine, the Nimrod, followed in the U.K. in 1951 and was a hit when it travelled to Germany.  A few years later in 1958, "Tennis for Two" was on public display at New York State's Brookhaven National Laboratory, but a video screen was still in the future as the oscilloscope, though larger than before, was again utilized.   The fun was in varying the gravitational effect by choosing to "play" on the Moon or on Jupiter.  You can see Pong coming -- was this its inspiration? 

                                                           The Nimrod

 Today, the Internet-based Twitch system has 15 million daily users enjoying live streaming of what is now called "e-sports."  Those quarters can stay in your pocket, if you still have them.

 

RING Cycle

 

No, not the four epic operas by Wagner; I'd spare you that.   But if you are thinking of, or have, installed a video RING doorbell, this is for you.  

We had all sorts of fun going around and around installing the first two, then returning them because they were just screwy.  The third one worked as it should, and we enjoyed seeing the chipmunk trigger alerts so we could keep up with his busy day.  And, I must compliment the RING people in their efforts to help.  But...the third one started making ominous grinding noises (always at night) followed by a single "ding."  I figured it was somehow feeding back small amounts of low-voltage electricity to the indoor chimes (why only at night, who knows).  

A lot of us are very grateful that we live in the You Tube age:  often you can benefit from the experience and knowledge of others to get yourself out of a perplexing problem situation.  A little help goes a long way, and often the solution to the snafu is just something little.

It sure was in this case.  The You Tube video explained what was needed to end the random noises was a tiny 1/2 watt, 10 Ohm resistor bridging the terminals inside the indoor chime box.  Had to get a pack of ten from Parts Express, but that was okay (and a lifetime supply!).

   And here it is in place, I hope resisting as it should (the tiny striped thing).  Time will tell.

  Now back to watching the chipmunk eating a raspberry.

 

The Sally Rovers

 

You probably know that the reference to "the shores of Tripoli"in the Marine Corps hymn refers to the naval expeditions sent to chastise the Barbary pirates of North Africa.  When you dig into piracy's long history, it seems that was one industry which always did well everywhere.  A fascinating part of that history is an unlikely combination of factors and peoples in the 17th century leading to the rise and fall of the Corsair Republic, based in Sale' across the bay from Rabat on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. 

The story begins in Spain around 1609.  The Moriscos were the Muslim population stranded in  that nation after the 700-year long reconquest by the Christian kingdoms.  At first they were treated with liberality, but as the advancing kingdoms grew in size, power and numbers they were encouraged to convert and finally required to.  Although many did to survive, they were not trusted, and the Inquisition was loosed on them until their expulsion from the Iberian peninsula altogether by Philip III -- and that was 4% of the population!  With the Jewish inhabitants forced out earlier, Spain thus lost many productive and skilled people.

The Moriscos went south to the port of Sale' and brought enough money with them to get reestablished, as well as a burning desire to exact revenge from Spain.  English and Dutch black marketeers, smugglers and pirates arrived, sensing an opportunity, bringing expertise in sailing and shipbuilding.   At first they paid the Sultan a tithe of 10%, but as he was embroiled in a civil war that would bring his dynasty down,  the motley band declared independence in 1624.  The rascal pictured above organized this small republic with a Council of 16 members and served as President.  A  Dutchman named Jan Janszoon, he adopted a new name, Murad Reis, and a dashing corsair mien.  They attacked Spanish ships for years, and anyone else too, even to the Channel coast of England (thus the Anglicized name Sally Rovers).

The pirates' defenses

Pirates did the same around the world in establishing successful full-freedom anarchist city-states:  in Jamaica, Madagascar and even the Breton port of St.Malo far back in 1144.  Sale' lasted longer than most, until 1668, when a strong new Sultan took control.  Turkish privateer Hayreddin Barbarossa was a powerful state unto himself -- a century before the Moriscos' exile, he raided Spain's east coast relentlessly and transported 70,000 muslims safely out -- quite a feat.

                                                               Barbarossa             
 

If you're feeling like taking to the seas for some adventure and treasure like these rogues, or just need an idea for next Halloween, you can order online and certainly look the part: