neverforgetI’ve been watching reruns of Quincy M.E. on local TV and tuned in to an episode from 1982 called Stolen Tears, where Martin Balsam plays a Holocaust survivor fighting a Holocaust denier, played by Norman Lloyd. Somewhat ironically, Norman Lloyd(born Norman Perlmutter) is also Jewish. I was a fan of his work on St. Elsewhere.

It put me in mind of the 1991 TV movie, Never Forget, starring the late Leonard Nimoy as Mel Mermelstein, and directed by the late Joseph Sargent. Sargent, also director of the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three(which starred Martin Balsam), died a year ago tomorrow. So I bought a copy of the movie on Amazon’s video streaming service, which I haven’t seen since the 90s, and watched it.

In the movie, based on the actual story, Mel Mermelstein is a Holocaust survivor who has a small exhibit at his place of business, and goes to schools and other groups to talk about his experiences. He attracts attention from a Holocaust denying organization and feels the need to challenge them, despite  the fact that most Jewish organizations tell him to simply ignore it and not give the hate group any further ammunition. There are people who consider Nimoy’s portrayal of Mermelstein to be one of, if not his best dramatic performances.

Replied to Lessons from trying to help with Android/iOS transfer (tommorris.org)

This weekend, I have been helping an Android user I know switch over to iOS.

What a fucking mess. The tech industry really ought to feel collective shame for the horror movie that is trying to switch from one platform to another…

Few things here. As an Android enthusiast, I recognize people prefer Apple, even if I don’t. I do hate everyone looking at my devices and automatically assuming anything nice must be made by Apple. But good for them for building that rep.

It isn’t as if iOS hasn’t had its share of scandals recently, including their recent app usage of restricted functions…functions Apple thought they could restrict by scanning for them in the code. But, either way…

The MTP issue isn’t a Samsung one. It was thought a security issue to allow direct access to the filesystem of the device by USB cable. The old solution was partitioning, but it meant a hard limit on app installs. So, MTP allows a single filesystem, but the media coming out securely and easily(well, not in your case). The MTP experience on a computer is definitely a problem though.

WhatsApp no making it easy to work with their data is a symptom of the bigger data portability problem. I really think your problem isn’t Android and iOS and the bad transfer experience. The issue is that few companies makes it easy to take data out of their siloed systems. Most people will give up on the effort.

Post Kinds Improvements

For those who have been following my Indieweb activities, I have for a little over a year been developing a WordPress plugin called Post Kinds.  The plugin is based on the built-in Post Formats feature, but focuses on different types of specialized post types or kinds. I figured I would motivate myself by writing out some of the improvements under development.

Picking the right icons to represent the kinds has always been a challenge, because they were part of an icon font. Icon fonts are ‘fake’ fonts that are actually composed of symbols. The latest version of Post Kinds under development switches to SVG. SVG is a text format that defines a complex shape. As it is text, it can be embedded directly in the page. You can compare the two below.

 

newpostkinds
New Post Kind Icons
Old Post Kind Icon Font
Old Post Kind Icon Font

Version 2.3.0

  • Enable the Jam post type. A Jam is used to share a particularly meaningful song you are listening to. distinguished from the existing Listen type, which is a more passive type designed to store songs you have listened to.
  • Support for start and end date, which will be used to enhance activity kinds. This will prepare for support for events, travel, and exercise in a future version. I really want to build travel in soon, but I have a lot to put in before all the pieces come together.
  • Improvements in parsing to bring in better and more consistent data from URLs provided.
  • Help within the plugin. This will be the first version to add built-in help.

This version will not go out until the above, as well as improved presentation(which I’m currently building) are complete. I’ve been working on the presentation rewrite for over a week now, trying to make it a significant improvement over the previous incarnation.

Tim
Time

The 1986 Kennedy Space Center Mystery

I have had this tendency of late to produce trip reports. I visited the Kennedy Space Center for the first time since 1986. So, even though I’m away from home, and my archives are a bit disorganized, I figured I’d reflect on my first visit, for a moment.

p_v13ahgrq2q20505_g

Untitled-69

I was able to locate these images from that visit.

 

 

 

 

 

Untitled-62

I also apparently saw an IMAX movie. The dream is alive was released in June of 1985 and prominently featured the Challenger. I do not remember much of that trip clearly.

Attempts to narrow down when I was there exactly have intrigued me, because January of 1986 also marked the Challenger disaster. I wonder how close I was to one of the sad chapters in American Space Exploration.

The Challenger was scheduled to depart the 22nd of January, but it ultimately didn’t happen till the 28th due to a combination of factors including a prediction of inclimate weather for January 26th. In the pictures, I am carrying an umbrella.

Martin Luther King Day was observed nationally for the first time on Monday January 20th, 1986. From recollections of the other parties, we left Florida after that and were back in New York when the disaster occurred.

That would put the trip sometime in the range between Monday, January 6 and Friday, January 17th.  We know the previous mission, STS-61C, operated by the Columbia, had an aborted launch on the 6th, and was cancelled on the 7th due bad weather at the contingency landing sites in Senegal and Spain. There was a mechanical problem on the 9th, and  on the 10th there was heavy rainfall at the launch area at KSC. It finally launched on the 12th and it later didn’t land at Kennedy Space Center on January 18th due to inclimate weather, ultimately landing at Edwards Airforce Base.

If there had been a launch attempt any day we were there, it would be something that would likely stick in our minds. There is a vague recollection of the shuttle being on the launch pad. But it was most likely the Columbia, not the Challenger as suggested. But who knows?

The final clue is a trip to Disney, taken as part of the same trip, which shows a sunny day. So, we need two days together, one inclimate, one nice…not hard in Florida weather. But lacking concrete historical weather data for 1986(anyone have access to that information?), or more clues, it seems unlikely I can narrow is down further.

The Columbia, which operated STS-61C, disintegrated on February 1, 2003 on reentry. The two shuttle disasters claimed the lives of 14 dedicated men and women.

The search is ongoing for additional visuals from this trip. The mystery remains.

 

Liked Hanukkah – Lift Yourself Up – music video by Jewish a cappella group Shir Soul – Happy Hanukkah! (YouTube)

Happy Hanukkah from Shir Soul!

After mentioning Chanukah Music, at least one acapella group, and giving one plug to Scott Eckers, I’m sure someone in his family would comment if I didn’t link to Shir Soul’s Chanukah song, as Scott appears in it(he’s the guy in the red shirt).