FlatPress

For the last six months I have felt well. I’ve been writing, working on my tube amps, and doing some light programming. I have finally achieved balance of life that allows me to get some things done.
I found out that my move to a New Hampshire CCRC was limited severely due to not having enough accumulated wealth. I am about $300,000 short. I decided that I could work a few years as a programmer and make up that difference, so off went the resumes.
I have an interview this afternoon and I could not sleep from worry. My problem is that I have been programming from time to time, but not everyday. I can still do it just fine, but I have to stop and look things up fairly often. I am not sure that I can ace an interview. Now I am tired and I have a headache and have to talk to a group of people on Zoom and still be smart, engaging and a nice person. I see little chance of getting this job, but I need the practice.
I have had a few other responses asking for my resume or other information. I expect that one or all of them will be getting back to me.
Wish me luck.

DNS=Domain Name Server
When you wand to go to a URL in you web browser, the browser needs to convert the WWW type name into a numeric IP address. It does this with a DNS lookup.
By default your PC is configured to use your cable company’s DNS through a process called DHCP.
The problem with this is that your cable company has a slow DNS that also keeps track of the web sites that you visit so it can sell you customized ads.
There are several free and fast DNS providers including Google. I have been using the Google DNS for years.
Recently I found out that Cloudflare, company that I really like, has a super fast DNS that is easy to use.
There are simple instructions for setting up the CloudFlare DNS on your PC on their website. It is pretty simple to do. Basically you turn off DHCP and type in the new DNS address. They are 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. It took me about a minute to do. If you haven’t done anything like that the instructions are on their website which simply is https://1.1.1.1
There is a link on the top right hand to get the DNS setup instructions for Windows or Mac.
The main page has the app links so you can use the fast DNS with you cell phone. There is a free version, but they want to sell you a fancy version for $4.95 a month. Go with the free version for now. It is very fast.

I have been paying $10 a month to the cable company to rent our cable modem for 30 years. I never got around to replacing the old modem and returning it and I feel stupid.
Today I finally replaced the modem. I bought a $50 replacement for my modem from Amazon. I got the same brand and model number in order to prevent any problems, but that isn’t really necessary. I could have upgrade to a faster more modern modem, but that might have caused issues. I do not play online games where modem speed is an issue. I simply browse the web.
I received the new modem a few days ago and today I went into the cellar and unplugged the old modem and plugged all of them into the new modem.
Problems:
I did not get any internet. I read the instructions on the cable company’s website carefully and wrote down my account number and other information. I was supposed to type in a special URL that would let me register the new modem.
It turns out that you have to wait 10 minutes for the cable company to realize that you have a new modem plugged in.
Once I waited, the URL popped up, I plugged in my account number and then after another long wait, the system told me that it had found me. I pressed a continue button and then the new modem initialized and I had a new modem working.
Things to know:
The modem is not your cable box. It is a smaller box that is connected to cable coming into the house. It is connected to your WiFi router via a yellow (usually yellow, anyway) network cable.
In my case I have what is known as a “telephony” modem where I plug my telephone cable into. Some people don’t use their cable company for telephone access and won’t have this kind of modem.
Usually the cable signal comes into the house on a COAX cable. If you have a cable box for TV then you have a splitter that sends part of the signal to the cable box and half to the modem. This should have been done when the cable was installed, but be aware of it.
I have 30 days to return the old modem to the cable company so I won’t be charged rent for it. I will hold on to the old cable box for a week or so, just to be sure that everything works.

Erica had a problem with her phone. It wouldn’t hold a charge. A Google search indicates it’s a bad battery. YouTube convinced me that changing a battery in an iPhone is more than I am willing to attempt.
I’ve got a guy in Westwood, NJ that fixes mobile phones cheap and guarantees his work, but Erica wanted to go with the Apple Genius Bar.
This would be my first experience with the Genius Bar.
My first impression is that it was packed. There were lots of people in khaki pants moving around and helping people. There was a crowd of people waiting for their shot at a genius. We must have looked overwhelmed because someone walked up to us almost as soon as we had entered and we told him that we had made an appointment online. We were ushered to a special table and five minutes later we were explaining our problem.
We needed a new battery was the immediate verdict, although that’s how I started the conversation. I wanted to know if this was rare, but then I noticed that there was a pre-printed form that had a checkbox for “replace battery”, so I guess it happens all the time.
We signed the forms and gave up the iPhone and had an appointment to come back in a couple of hours.
The new battery cost us about $55. The phone now works well.
At one time I thought about getting a part time job nearby to fill my afternoons. I had looked up Apple Genius and found that it paid about $20 per hour. I felt that that was cheap for a man of my diverse and extensive talents and thought nothing more of it. Now that I’ve seen them in action I am glad that I did not fill out the application. Geniuses don’t seem very smart and the job looks to be very boring. I have more fun working on Amplifiers or typing in short stories.
The title of this entry is “At the Genius Bar”, but now I am thinking that it would make a great title for a short story!

The reason I started reading science fiction again after a long rest is a kind of of SF called cyberpunk. I read Vernor Vinge’s novel “True Names”, John Shirley’s novel “Eclipse”, and William Gibson’s novel “Neuromancer”. These books made me love Science Fiction again.
When I started writing science fiction stories I found it easiest to write cyberpunk. I wrote about 30 cyberpunk style stories. I wrote lots of horror, fantasy and traditional SF stories, but I enjoyed writing cyberpunk.
That was 30 years ago. I have had problems in my life since, and I find it difficult to write at all. I do write short stories from time to time, and I usually write cyberpunk.
The problem with writing cyberpunk is that it has gone in and then out of style. There are not many venues that buy cyberpunk stories anymore.
I just wrote a nice little story called “Two Annies”. I sent it out to four or five magazines and got nothing but form responses. I doubt that they ever read much beyond the first paragraph.
I sent the story over to Shaun Lawton who runs a cool little zine which is internet slang for web magazine. He is the editor of the “Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction”. I don’t know how I got involved with Shaun’s Freezine, but it has a kind of appeal that keeps me coming back. If I write a “Weird Tale” style story I always know where it can find a home. The trouble is that Shaun prefers horror and there have not been may cyberpunk stories in Freezine.
Shaun has “Two Annies” now and I hope he wants to include it. I guess I could sell it somewhere if I waited, but I’ve had a few cyberpunk stories out for submission for three years without a sale.