The Night of … 1634
Frustrations
Once upon a time your humble vagabond was what was known as a “grease monkey” - construction mechanic to those in the know. As a result of that experience I compare vehicle maintenance to nearly every example given when shyt doesn’t work correctly. There are a whole lot of parts and processes that make the car go, [we’re not referring to E-vees here] between the time you turn the key, (or push the button) as the case may be, before your vehicle is ready to move.
Humans often compare the human body to the machinery of automobiles, but it’s quite the opposite. I used to make the same comparison, but now it annoys me when others do it. Ha ha.
The video editing app I’ve been using for the past five years to produce the Full Metal Ox series has gotten less and less reliable the more little extra blingy, frilly crap they add to it. Not to brag, but simply because of using the app so much I am probably at near expert level of basic editing – because I don’t use the “candy” (the extra memory-eating shish that only ten year olds, and tween-agers in the mind care about). I’ve also become near expert level of work-arounds & troubleshooting, which I wouldn’t have to do if the app worked as advertised. [Note – some of that learning curve is on yours truly. Who knew you had to empty cache and occasionally delete data?]
Fair enough.
There was the era of “broken projects” – when an “error message” would pop up; “broken project detected, press ‘ok’ to repair” or something like that. Now, the “help desk bots” is advising that I back up my projects in the cloud drive. Why? Because they know this shyt is happening and maybe, they can’t do anything about it.
Or maybe they can.
So here’s what’s happening now [This might be of interest to anyone that makes videos longer than ten seconds. Be fair … Ok, sixty seconds.]
One of the more handy options within the app is the ability to change the name of a project and duplicate a project. This way you can create a template and work on multiple projects at a time. This is great because we publish daily and we literally spend hours every day with the app for more than five years now. I should have a degree in this stuff. But I’m still a superficial user. Not very long ago we were making daily 30 minute episodes, but it stopped being worth the effort. Plus, during that era, the finishing process would just stop – “App cannot process this project” – then it gave options to contact customer service. The first few times the advice was helpful. I went through the steps, learning along the way. But after several “updates” those steps didn’t fix the problem. Every new update has all these moving little video screens withing the tools process. Unnecessary as far as I’m concerned, because in earlier versions those transition windows didn’t move. With the animated windows, when you scroll across to find your favorite transition, the device (a phone) would freeze up. Both frustrating and time consuming.
With this newest “update” (15.6. whatever) – the app is back to destroying the very projects I’ve been attempting to save. I call it “eating them up.” I hit the “rename” or “duplicate” option. The app responds, “Save Complete.” And what do I get? Blank windows, files that have been removed from the project, (not by yours truly).
So yeah, I’ve been looking at other options. I’ve tried a few but I can’t even get past five minutes. I don’t like the set up, (interface, is that what it’s called?) The app can’t seem to find the video files I want to use. (You can maybe imagine, there are lots of files.) So I’m like, “if I’m going to be pissed, annoyed and frustrated, I’ll be all of those emotions in a platform I can still manage. It’s like the damn app is working against me. I can’t be the only one.
So anyway – about comparing this shyt to motor vehicles. Because at some point there may be an even amount of E-vees & Mo-vees on the roads in the US. Both are likely to require operating systems that will have to be periodically updated?
Why?
Because they are vulnerable, of course.
Why are they vulnerable?
Because they’re designed that way?
Why are they designed that way? So they will require updates – which are actually down grades – especially in the case of this video app. They load it down with so much shyt it can barely function.
These cyber vehicles will be the same way.
I don’t own a car, a scooter, or a bike, so this stuff might already be out there. I know some people who have cameras on their cars that send videos to their phones, so maybe the bank account(s) is linked to the vehicle too. Maybe a satellite will be able to retard your vehicle speed if “it’s” breaking the speed limit and then take the fine right out of your bank account, or paycheck. I have driven and used those GPS apps, that let you know that they know where you are and how fast you’re traveling. (The apps have been phone apps, not built into the car.)
I’m off the original topic, but they connect. It’s about the control grid, but it’s also about the functionality of this software. If Google can’t develop apps that won’t malfunction and glitch, or can be vulnerable to maleficent actors – aka hackers – how are they going to protect software that’s supposed to keep you safe and rolin’ down the highway in your speeding vehicle?
This is probably a very twentieth century attitude, but I’m a twentieth century dude, who used to work on cars and have driven vehicles, including trucks, that didn’t have power steering.
It’s a good night for venting. More schizophrenic weather. Temps have dropped into the low 70’s. It’’s a bit gloomy. We travel tomorrow … maybe. My buddy is still stranded in Canada. Seems someone went on strike. No flights for 8 days. So far, I did not receive a phone call “advising me” of a “service interruption” so maybe I’m good to go back to the tropics and get used to my sanctuary oasis, and reset, rebuild and re-energize the vessel.
More on that in future posts.
Thank You and Welcome.
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