Category Archives: Thoughts

Thoughts

Java finally acknowledges upgrade issues

Not sure how many of you have been aware of this, but Java upgrades over the past several years have been problematic for Windows users. When a new version of Java came out, the installer would prompt you to upgrade, but would never prompt you to remove the old version, or do it for you. In my work, I’d see computers with as many as 10-12 different versions of Java on them. The user, unaware of the messiness built into the Java upgrade, would leave the old versions on their machine, and they’d keep piling up. You could see them in the Add/Remove Control Panel, but how many people know how to look there, and how many know that it’s okay to remove old versions of Java?

So I was heartened to see that Java is finally acknowledging the problem with old Java versions sitting on Windows machines, and is now prompting users to remove them after installing the new version. See the screenshot below.

Ideally, their upgrade engine ought to remove them for the user, but at least this is a step in the right direction. And to think that Java is being used everywhere these days (even where you don’t want it), and it took all this time for them to straighten out the upgrade issues. It’s a bit shameful if you ask me.

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Thoughts

Meet Zuzu

Zuzu is a very adorable kitten of unknown age — my guess at this point is 8-9 months — that we first saw on Facebook. She was recuperating after major hip surgery, and was up for adoption. She’d been found on a street in Bucharest, with both of her hips broken, possibly by a car, or a trap, or some deranged person. We fell in love right away with the little black furball, got in touch with the good folks who’d been treating her (Irina Pricop and Magda Radu), and arranged to adopt her. That’s also how we got to adopt two of our other cats (Bubu and Tira), but that’s a story for another day.

This is how the poor thing looked when they found her. Notice the broken and dislocated hips, pushing inside the abdominal cavity and pressing onto her organs.

And this is after the operations, recuperating at the vet’s office.

She’s now been with us for about 6 months, and has recovered very nicely. Her gait has never gotten back to normal, and I don’t think it ever will. She walks a little funny, and she runs a little funny too, but that’s what makes her even more endearing. She’s even learned to climb (and get down from) trees better than any other of our cats. She’s a very resilient cat. She’d have to be, to still be alive after an accident like the one she had.

This is how she looked last autumn, a few weeks after we brought her home.

Can you resist a face like that? Can anyone resist it? Not likely.

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Thoughts

My thoughts on the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan

We’ve all seen photos and videos of the 8.9 earthquake and tsunamis that have devastated Japan. My heart goes out to them. I hope as few people as possible died, and they recover as quickly as possible from this tragedy.

What bothers me more than the event itself is the unfeeling coverage of the event, exemplified by this video from CNN, which I can’t even embed here, because of their crass commercialism during a disaster.

There were people clearly dying under their very eyes, their cars engulfed by the tsunami wave, yet the two reporters covering it were blabbering on about how difficult it is to escape the wave, and what its speed might have been. This, more than anything, exemplifies what I hate about today’s news coverage, and why I seldom watch news on TV.

It’s that, and the endless pundit parade that goes on for days after something like this. All the old bags start foaming at the mouth thinking about appearance fees, dust off their suits, powder their rotten faces, and instruct their agents to start booking them anywhere they can go. Once on camera, they’ll spout off about anything, trying to look caring, slowly killing the viewers’ brain cells, one by one, with tripe and nonsense about what might happen or could happen. Meanwhile, the news stations will re-run the same clips, over and over, hour after hour, milking every second of coverage until it’s bone dry. It’s disgusting.

Want to read something worthwhile about the Japanese during this time of crisis? Don’t bother with the TV. Read this article by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, then imagine them at work, rebuilding their communities. It’ll be a far better image than what you’ll find on TV.

For example, you can see their “gaman” at work in this video. Even during the earthquake’s aftershocks are threatening to topple store shelves somewhere in Japan, they’re busy propping them up and have already started to clean up the store.

I’d like to wish them a heartfelt “ganbatte kudasai”!

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Thoughts

Set deja vu: The Addams Family and Mister Ed

I noticed something funny this morning, as I was watching “Feud in the Addams Family”, the second episode of the show’s third and final season (according to Netflix), or the eleventh episode of the show’s second season (according to IMDB). The set in one of the scenes looked awfully familiar — too familiar for my memory. As it turns out, the set was the living room from Mister Ed, another of my favorite classic TV shows, which at the time was in its fifth (or sixth) season, depending on which source you consult.

The original air date for this episode of “The Addams Family” was the 26th of November, 1965. It’s likely that when this show was filmed, they were also filming the 10th episode of the sixth season of “Mister Ed”, called “Ed the Bridegroom”.

Do you see it?

The Addams Family, Season 3, Episode 2: Feud in the Addams Family
Mister Ed, Episode 055: Wilbur, the Good Samaritan

I suppose it should come as no surprise. The same company produced both shows: Filmways, Inc. Its logo is included at the end of each episode of both shows, as seen below.

They needed a set for an incidental scene, and “borrowed” it from “Mister Ed”.

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Last week and this week, Mitzi, Trixie and Sasha were featured on Good Morning Kitten, a lovely blog about cute kitties. I’d like to thank Andrea, who runs the blog, for being so nice to me, and for sharing the beauty of our little cats with the world.

Three of our cats featured on Good Morning Kitten

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