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Technobabbles - Voyagerfan5761's Blog

I try to sound like I know what I'm talking about. Don't be fooled.

Hypothetical Google Voice Export FormatJune 2

Google Voice was released over a year ago, and I've been using it as my primary phone number since switching from its predecessor, GrandCentral, which I'd used since 2006 (also as my primary phone number).1 In the time since making the switch, I've seen the interface revised more than a little—the quality rating buttons for transcripts and calls are among my favorite enhancements—but despite all the new features introduced over the last 14 months, one has been distinctly lacking.

That one feature: Export.

Think about it. Google Docs lets one download all of one's documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in a ZIP archive. Gmail allows both IMAP and POP access to mail accounts, facilitating the complete backup of account data to a personal computer or server. Google Reader offers export of one's entire subscription list. Google Calendar offers export formats compatible with several desktop and Web competitors' products. Google Contacts can be downloaded and imported into Microsoft Outlook, Apple Address Book, and countless others.

I could go on.

Sneaky ATM Fees with US BankMay 25

OK, I've about had it with ATMs. It's bad enough that some of them charge ridiculous $2 and $3 (or more) fees for transactions, but at least when you're making a withdrawal they tell you about it. Always.1

So imagine my surprise when I logged into my bank's website today to find a $2 fee from US Bank for a transfer I made using one of their ATMs. When I made the transfer, no mention was made of a fee.

I'm more than a little irritated with this—I think justifiably so. Since when is it acceptable to charge a hidden fee? This is the kind of thing that gets customers angry enough to switch banks, and I'm very glad that I don't do business with US Bank.

Here's a note I wrote to Customer Service, in the hopes of resolving this particular situation:

I used a US Bank ATM last Friday to transfer funds between two of my accounts. On checking my transaction records today, I found a $2 ATM fee that had not been disclosed to me at the ATM.

It is extremely disappointing to me that US Bank would charge a fee without explicitly notifying the customer that a fee would apply and giving the option to cancel the transaction. When I attempted to withdraw cash, I was presented with an information screen noting that there woul

Goodbye, AlbertMay 20

The students of Saint Bernard's School put on a fine production last week. After starting a theatre program eleven years ago, the school is shutting down this year (like Folwell Middle School, where I played Cinderella) and I think the year's ending with a decent bang.

As with Carnival!, playing Bye Bye Birdie made for an intense week. Even more intense, in fact, since I had fewer rehearsals in which to learn the music. I joined the St. Bernard's pit at the last minute, following an eleventh-hour decision at Lion's Gate Christian Academy that cut out most of the pit orchestra for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat. I could have had four rehearsals before tech week, but I thought I was already booked this past weekend. Heh. Fortunately the Birdie score is a lot easier on the strings than Carnival!.

So, the Tuesday tech was my first rehearsal. I had to share music with another player, as the school only rented three scores. (Their original plans included only three violins, but looking back the orchestra's conductor was glad to have added another.) To say that I muddled through would be pushing it. Frankly, I sucked on Tuesday; I couldn't read half the notes, but it did get me familiar with the music. I took

Best Beware My Wrap-UpMay 12

So, all that studying of lines and mental review of songs and dances actually came to something. In our intense 80-minute performance, we also conclusively proved that more rehearsal makes for a better show. The three hours we spent before the show working through and fixing stuff was probably the most useful rehearsal of the last month.

Best Beware My Sting went off without a— Well, I can't say "without a hitch" because there were hitches, of two types (mistakes and marriages). Actually, three couples got hitched, and uncountable tiny errors crept into, well, everything. We had some bigger problems, too, and I had to cover the biggest one. (Don't worry about it, Nathan. It was fun. )

There were some people who had all their lines down pat—the ones who always do, the ones whose names I expect to see in lights someday—and the rest of us, well, didn't. But we covered each other and made the best of it.

I stick by the "learning lab" description of this particular production. We learned a lot of lessons, most importantly that it's very, very hard to pull off a very polished show with as little rehearsal time as we had. Best Beware My Sting was a longer script than usual, and it definitely showed in the frayed edges between scenes where the stitching couldn't be finished in time. But according to informal audience polling (a statistically insignifi

That was fun! Let’s do more!May 4

Three weekends of funny later, the Morris Park Players' production of Cinderella is over. Set strike for the show was Monday. Next on their agenda is packing up all their equipment; the school they've performed at for 25 years—Folwell Middle School—is closing at the end of the year, and so it's time to move everything to their new home, Edison High School.

Aside from having "Ten Minutes Ago" and "In My Own Little Corner" stuck in my head still, I have lots of good memories and a few annoyances. Why did the director (not the music director) want "The Search" to go on for so long that we had to play it about six times in each show—so much that we started calling it "El Searcho Unendo" and I wrote Da Capo ad nauseam in my score? Why is Cinderella (the character) such a wimp that she hides from the prince when he's looking for her to try the glass slipper on her foot?

Better than these annoyances are the jokes we constantly made at every show. "The Search" turned into the fun piece; several of us got into altering each repetition of the number so it wasn't so boring, and a couple musicians brought sound effects (like a "quacker" and a slide whistle) for the last two shows. We poked fun at practically all of the characters, especially Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters. It was awesome.

I even spent one show sightreading the first violin part