Steven’s Blog

Taking an Extended Leave of Absence

Clickford, Steven M.

If emails and follow responses have taken time… well since November of last year, I’ve come to a blunt conclusion.

I am a “broken” person.

Things since then led up to this making me head to this decision.

I did this to myself. While I had discussed some of my personal thoughts back in 2015 and into 16, I realized that most of my twenties was my doing.

I rebelled, challenged the norms and now I am paying the worse price. I broke myself! Now I have to figure out how to to get past this so I can just basically add more content on the Resume page so I can contribute to society rather than obsessing about frivolous things like relationships, friendships, etc. I have acquaintances, why I was so naive and thinking my life would be more satisfied if I had more than that? I have no idea. I wanted things more meaningful in my life, but should’ve settled with work, eat and sleep.

But being the self accountable human being, I want to investigate why I got to here. Till then I won’t be around. I will be taking a mandatory self retreat in the coming weeks.

I will return sometime in the near future by the late summer at the earliest.

~S

And as a legal CYA, I do see a therapist, but it’s troubling with an experience professional who tells me “I think like you do [referencing logical, thought out plans of actions, black and white thinking] but I don’t have a clear answer”. This verifies the harsh reality that everything in life is so complex, that not even my mental health professional could do.

Exiting out of IT!

Clickford, Steven M.

(I meant “IT” as an acronym to be silly!)

Life is all about changes. Sometimes changes happen suddenly, not just technology, but people. I have changed over the last few months. I am no longer interested in technology. It’s not to say I am going off the grid, but I may not be purchasing more IT gear in the going forward. It’s not to say I don’t have interest tinkering around with a server or two it’s just that…

  • I do not like the direction Big Tech is going to.
  • I personally hate Microsoft’s roadmap post Win32 (this includes Windows XP/2003/2000 and some of the other pre NT Windows). I am tired of reteaching myself an entire new operating system with the same brand name. Windows 7 to this day makes me swear and get peeved off often figuring out why something can’t work because the thing is so damn secure, even a moderate genius can’t figure it out!
  • I personally am skiddish on Apple’s roadmap as well and how selling phones and internet connected computers will sustain product development. I do not like how Apple has abandoned servers, server appliances, the networking gear, and others alike.
  • I am skiddish on the cloud, and feel that leasing apps will cost me more than spending some apps refreshed every decade on a CapEx (savings account.) I don’t like the consumerization of IT, even in the business sense. Why would a company spend cash in the long run on operating expenditures and get half rate quality of applications only because people want to touch screens more than using a USB rodent and a keyboard?
  • The idea of perpetual upgrading because of “planned obsolesce” because breaking websites is the only way to keep “innovation” afloat by forcing users to upgrade operating systems or buy new hardware to “defend” the small growth the industry makes. 20 years ago it made sense that PCs had to be swapped out every 3 years.
  • AI, social media and other ethical concerns also make me skiddish of the future.
  • People are so happy about the future, but what about jobs?

I’m really tired of messing around with PCs, Macs and other stuff. It’s like a “job” and I do not like how the industry is going all apps, and other glorified garbage for pro-consumer solutions.

I just want to create things now…

*

In Memory of the Old SportsCenter

Clickford, Steven M.

I’ve been doing this stuff on Photoshop as of late

a Photoshop image of a reversed engineered graphic package of SportsCenter from the 1990s retrofitted for HD if they ever went back to their roots
Coming up next on SportsCenter: The Bruins got struck by Lightning in the Gahden
(Notice sexy graphics for the time meeting with gentle, amusing, one liner voice overs of context of hockey, if they kept with this format.)
This is a recreation of the 1 minute intro to the show at the time from 1994 to 1999 designed by me.

Once upon a time in Bristol, Connecticut from the studios of the once known Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, a 6 and 11PM news program called SportsCenter used to air the pre game stories, and a post game highlights on the respective time slots. In the beginning; the show was very stale because in the 1980s cable TV was not a profit making business. Like the Internet and dot-coms, they were loosing or hemorrhaging cash.  Continue reading →

Rick Santorum’s and the GOP’s Medical Emergency

Clickford, Steven M.

Ex Senator Rick Santorum is at it again. Suffering with yet another foot to mouth disease, he went on CNN’s State of the Union, the day after the March for Our Lives, the arrogant Republican from suggested the young people “take a CPR class” instead “looking to someone else to solve their problems.”

It’s widely assumed on social media he was referring to cardiopulmonary recusication, and not something like the tagline of the NYPD for Community, Professionalism and Respect.  This is the same nitwit who compared many years ago to same sex marriage as “man-on-dog-sex” and a boatload of other stupid statements.

The irony is that this looser is stuck in the 1980s when barely a fraction of people other than first responders, and medical professionals that were trained in such and in some districts, it’s a required lesson. In fact, there is probably more youngsters taught then he wants to believe.

The other irony is if there is a mass casualty attack from assault weapons, CPR won’t save them. Also, some recommend not to preform CPR in a mass causality event, because it could be insensitive to save one, but delay another. Maybe he forgets, that living in a civilian life, that you don’t pound on someones chest for revival if anyone goes down – like I dunno the military? Or at least that’s what I see on TV shows when anyone gets shot out there on the front lines, go to right to compressions, even if they barely have a pulse. Because in the military, CPR will save lives!

Continue reading →

How To: Build LEGO TV News Gathering Vehicles

Clickford, Steven M.

A lot of the Adult Fans of Lego community tend to mimic, but not fully replicate real life things. I’ve been to a few Lego conventions, and seen the AFOLs. I tend to get desensitized of the creations, and anything that has “Brick” to the name. Look at my vanity DNS, heheh?

This vehicle is based on most of the US workflow of local TV stations called Electronic News Gathering. ENG has been around since the days of the video cassette tape. This technology married with microwave and satellite transmission. (Most often the AFOLs build the vehicles on the latter, not the former. Even worse the Master Builder at Legoland in Boston even told to this writer about the mast to “satellite dish” was broken.)

Continue reading →

Kari’s Law – Screw Phone Systems!

Clickford, Steven M.

I have been a vocal opponent against Kari’s Law and I do not oppose for any regulation from government telling private business and citizens what to do.

Kari’s law is named after a deceased Texas woman who died from a brutal murder several years back while the daughter had called “9-1-1” and was unable to get through because of the trunk access code. The media and Avaya Incorporated (nee Nortel Networks) had sensationalized the story of “A little girl who was taught in school to call 9-1-1 for emergencies couldn’t do that in a motel room”

This sensationalized message was PBX systems kill not idiotic sysadmins who didn’t properly label sets to dial emergency services.

Continue reading →

Review of the Art and Ethics of TV Manipulation at the NH Telephone Museum

Clickford, Steven M.

So six months has gone by, and one of my drafts was a review of the New Hampshire Telephone Museum’s “Forth Phriday” event from last year. The wonderful people at the NHTM, Laura, Graham and Paul had speakers come in on the forth Friday of the summer months. The first one was from the infamous E9-1-1 department, and the last one was some guy out west in my state, and spoke for nearly an hour about the ethics of TV editing and manipulation.

Continue reading →

Howie Carr – Once a Funny Man

Clickford, Steven M.

Howie Carr, has been a legend in Boston media for longer than I have been alive. Depending on your cultural tolerance or political views, you love him or you wished Whitey Bulger’s accomplices got the right house address in Somerville with that basketball with some “See Fouahh” that should’ve gone four houses up not down. Kidding aside, Howie has really past his prime. Men in media tend to have a shelf life. If you watch men for looks and alleged credibility, they’ll age like fine wine, but sometimes their brains do not age well. Anger ensues, and they become a turnoff. If you want some fairness, Dan Kennedy from WGBH has really fallen off the rails in terms of intellectual stability where he’s been so bitter and on the Beat The Press’  “Rants and Raves” tends to be on the former more and more. And he’s a liberal.

Continue reading →

“911onWFXT”?

Clickford, Steven M.

My favorite Fox Show got a little distracting when the station ID ran on the bottom of the screen for a few seconds.

I don’t understand why I’m seeing this more and more on local stations. I am well aware of the FCC rules, despite the rules being strict, there is leniency such as a “natural break”. Like a promo where where a stations logo and ID shows at like :57 hour the hour. It’s not that complicated. WBZ -TV earlier in the fall used to have a large “CBS 4” bug with the WBZ – TV [CBS 4 logo]  Boston  on the bottom. But time went on, and the size shrunk.

But on WFXT the following is shown

“WFXT – Boston 25”

This is a continued trend by the new owners (of over 3 years) to continue on giving Fox the middle finger in branding only because the viewers they think who are watching hate the Fox News Channel. Cox Media Group plays dirty with the viewers. For gawd’s sakes alive, they don’t even use the Fox promotional graphics for time and night of the show. I didn’t see the snappy graphics Fox uses till I went to New York and saw them on WNYW. They overlay it with the news anchors of Boston 25 News . If they do this for promos, who knows the bug may say “#911onWFXT” with a Boston 25 bug. 

This station is a disgrace. I don’t get this superimposing station IDs and a station emphasizing a local identify that never was and taking half of the station’s visual makeup.

*