"Something's been bugging me" -

Andy Rooney, the curmudgeon who used to make closing comments on 60 Minutes letting the world know what was on his mind in the smoothest of ways, commonly used this phrase. And those words pop up in my mind regularly. Particularly in regard to computer things. Many years ago when I was working with my Apple II Plus, I wrote my own software so when something went wrong I knew it was my fault and I knew that with enough effort I could dig into the lines of code and find the 'O' that was supposed to be '0'. Now I have no idea what my computer is doing unless the software chooses to function flawlessly. I want to know what my computer is doing when it is spinning some kind of wheel on the screen. (It used to be a flipping hour glass. Guess it's gone digital now. Wonder who made that decision?) But why can't it give me a running dialog of what it is doing? Doesn't it know what it's doing?

What particularly bugs me is when I get a message like:
Your account does not meet the necessary requirements. Please review the requirements and update your account.

And then it sends me off to a massive page of gibberish and rules without telling me which requirements I have failed to meet! It's like the software is laughing, "I know, but I'm not going to tell you." How about this? "Nope, hah, hah, hah." If it laughed, that would be more entertaining.

I'm sure that Andy would have a lot to say about the remote controls for mini-split air conditioners. There was a massive learning curve with programmable thermostats. Can we really expect people to understand the DRY mode in a mini-split operation? And what if you have multiple distribution heads in different rooms? Can I have heat in the living room and AC in the bedroom? Nope. If it actually said that, it would be helpful.

I won't go on. One of Andy's consummate skills was knowing when to stop and leave us thinking. But I suggest that we don't need Andy to point out that we need to improve our customer education.

Let me know what's bugging you and we can commiserate!

Stay well,
Paul
Paul H. Raymer
P.S there's more to this newsletter - please keep reading.

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. J. Henry Waugh Prop. Robert Coover

I confess that I am a fan of Robert Coover's writing. I would say that he is a writer's writer. He is the author of ten novels, tons of short stories and novellas. He is not a writer that I can plug into any particular genre - he just dances among the words.

This was his second novel written in 1968, long before computerized Fantasy Leagues. Henry Waugh, the protagonist, invents a baseball league. No, way more than that. He has created a world in which the Universal Baseball Association exists - all the players, all their histories and their families, the teams, the reporters, everything. Coover creates Waugh's tension in the outcome of the games and the success or failure of the players with such mastery that I carried the feelings of the players that moved on throws of the protagonist's dice in my head for days. Think about it: Coover created a character that created characters that imbued feelings in me as a distant reader.

In his most recent book Huck Out West published in 2017 Coover moved Huckleberry Finn west and managed to carry the character's unique way of speaking enticingly throughout the book. An exceptional feat.

Robert Coover's writing is a tribute to imagination and to writers and should be celebrated for his extraordinary skill.

Mini-Split Heat Pumps

It's a fact that ductwork is expensive and bulky. It's difficult to retrofit - add to a house that is already built and heats with hot water or steam. And a window air conditioner is a pain to put in the window in the summer and take out and store away in the fall.

A mini-split heat pump can provide both heating and cooling and they are relatively simple to add to an existing room because there is no ducting - the beast just hangs there on the wall staring down and pushing out warm or cold air. And they can work extremely well.

There are advantages to ductwork. One is that the conditioned air is distributed all over the house. (You're not likely to put a mini-split head in the bathroom.) Mini-splits have poor filters. The promotional materials talk about nano-platinum and electrostatic anti-allergy enzyme filters but these don't compare to two or three inch filters that can be slid into the air flow in ducted systems.

Another thing is adding or removing moisture from the air. Most mini-splits have a DRY mode. This is a manually selected mode of operation that, in the majority of systems, does not operate on a measurement of Relative Humidity (RH). In this mode the fan slows down allowing the air to pass more slowly across the coil to extract more moisture from the air. But at the same time the air flow is cooling. To take it out of DRY mode if the room gets too cool, the occupant has to select cooling on the remote control. Selecting cooling if the occupant is too cool seems counterintuitive to me.

This is a product that requires careful design, sizing, and installation and reading/studying the manual.

Memorable Bookstores

The remarkable Paco Underhill, author of Why we Buy and the Call of the Mall and other perceptive tomes, and who worked for the Independent Booksellers Association off and on for almost 20 years suggested three of his favorite bookstores.

The Strand in New York City "Landmark shop specializing in new, used & rare books from philosophy to finance, plus bookish gifts."
Bookpeople in Austin, Texas "Large, locally owned bookstore with regular readings plus coffee bar & quirky gift items for sale."
RJJulia in Madison, Connecticut, a comprehensive, customer focused independent bookstore.

Some Bits for Benjamin Bunny and the Rabbit Hole

Gold Touch - Totally adjustable to fit the body's particular preferences. This company has ergonomic keyboards and mice and a bunch of other interesting tools to make working with the computer more comfortable.

Reedsy - A writing and formatting tool for authors. The Reedsy Book Editor is a book production tool that allows you to effortlessly write and format a piece of writing for publishing.

Affinity - Does everything that Adobe can with professional results at a tiny fraction of the price. "Affinity Publisher is the next generation of professional publishing software. From books, magazines and marketing materials, to social media templates, website mock-ups and more, this incredibly smooth, intuitive app gives you the power to combine your images, graphics and text to make beautiful layouts ready for publication."

Newsletters & Blogs worth looking at:
Jane Friedman's Electric Speed Newsletter - This is a simple, clean, bi-weekly newsletter about a variety of interesting topics that goes out to 35,000 subscribers.

The Creative Penn Blog - Joanna Penn has a pile of useful stuff in her blog.

And a recommendation from subscriber Peter Hubbe: Amanda Maffei's Musings - These are short . . . musings. Ideas and commentary about the life around us.

Feel free to send me recommendations about newsletter, blogs, software that will be useful for all of us.

The Alliance of Independent Authors - Author Member

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