Effing electronics devices.

So, for a goodly bit of time, I've been noticing some problems with this Samsung Galaxy S4 that I acquired towards the end of January - not just the problem of diddling around on the device excessively, either. Often, when I would plug it into my computer, it wouldn't register with the Android File Transfer software, or was flaky and required lots of plugging and unplugging, and eventually this devolved into a situation where the phone would tell me all kinds of interesting tales about being plugged into a dock whenever I tried to plug it into a charger to charge. Kind of problematic. Also, it wouldn't charge properly. For a little while, I could fool it into charging by turning it off, but last night when I tried to charge it, it appears I drained the battery instead, despite the appearance of the little charging icon.

Brief googling around the internet suggested that many of these phones have hardware problems with the USB connection failing, so as a preventative measure I ordered a used replacement USB board off of iFixit (they didn't have any brand-new ones available). While things might be a bit on the expensive side on that website, I see good reasons to help keep the site alive. I did not grow up taking apart computer bits and reassembling them, so their step-by-step guides are a huge comfort, and they've allowed me to do a whole bunch of basic computer repairs in recent times (thinking back to the previous laptop, where I had to replace the wifi card, for instance).

With the replacement USB board in place, things are looking better now, but I'm not holding my breath because it's a used USB board.

It sucks that any "convenience" associated with lumping various computing functionalities together (phone, GPS device, camera) is so easily offset by device failure. I wonder if there's a Panasonic Toughbook analogue in the smartphone universe.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Samsung+Galaxy+S4+USB+Board+Replacement/16542

Menial labor

Rearing crickets for experiments is a labor-intensive project. While washing only a third of a huge stack of aquariums this morning, I couldn't help thinking back to my undergraduate days, where one of my three campus jobs was as a weekend care provider for the mice and monkeys in the facility where I did my research. The weekend care provider job paid handsomely for an undergraduate job - $60 for what was usually about three hours of work, changing out the mouse cages and washing down the monkey rooms. Hot, smelly, dirty, tiring work, usually on Friday nights or Saturday mornings. So that's basically what I did instead of relaxing or having fun on weekends in college.

The graduate student who I worked most closely with in those days, and who got me the cage-cleaning job, once remarked to me that he thought that the people who made the best scientists overall were those who had done some form of menial labor at some point in the past.

I've always been inclined to agree with him.

Belle and Sebastian

I have tried, multiple times, to like Belle and Sebastian. I know people who fervently adore Belle and Sebastian.

I tried again last night.

I just...don't. I am ambivalent about the sounds that are generated and come out of the speakers.

Farewell, copies of Belle and Sebastian CDs.

Cut pages

The main thing I remember from reading The Great Gatsby in high school was about "cut pages." If a person bought a book during that period, often the pages would still be attached together at the top, due to the printing methods that were used. So you could tell whether the book had been read if it had cut pages.

This is related to a quotation by John Waters, about making books cool again.

Back to working on Godel, Escher, Bach. Grimly.