Neat Computer Thing

I can't touch-type, and my hunt&peck is very "poundy".  So my keys wear out fast.  I had about a dozen that were impossible to read anymore.  Well, maybe I can't touch-type, but I do basically know where each letter is.   

But out of curiousity, I went looking for replacement keys.  A bit expensive.  But what I also found were press-on decals.  

They seem to be very good.  The print matches most black keyboards (there might be white/cream/gray decals too), the vinyl backing is sturdy, and they seem to stick well.   I got mine at Amazon ($6), and there are 2 full sets of key decals.

It looks like a new keyboard!  

More Random Stuff

Some good news:  My newest Mac Mini has mostly really tiny ports I am not familar with.  I looked them up, but I can't find the notes on what they are called.  Most of my stuff has USB plugs.

I bought a 4-multiplug device months ago, and it works but I needed 6 ports.  Hey, I discovered there were 2 more on the new keyboard!  I have "enough".  But I would rather plug stuff directly into the Mac Mini (seems  more direct).  But at least I don't have to keep switching the printer cord and camera cord.

The new keyboard is a bit weird.  It wants 2 ports.  It works on one port, but every few days it fails to communicate and I have to restart the computer.  The discovery of the extra ports on the keyboard means I can plug the 2nd keyboard plug in.  So far, no fails.

And I like the new keyboard (dasKeyboard).  The keys are slightly engraved, not stenciled, so they aren't wearing off like most have.  And there are the 2 USB ports.  It's black with white letters, which I prefer.  But it has an odd reflection that keeps making me think I have cat furs on my fingers.  Nothing is perfect, LOL!

I got my vegetable and flower seedlings outside several days ago to get them used to actual sunlight.  The area was dappled.  I carried the lettuce trays onto the deck for easy harvesting.  The seedlings stayed down for another day.  Later tomorrow, I will plant the tomatoes and peppers in full sun.  They will have had 3 days of partial direct sunlight.

Watered them thoroughly yesterday.  Had to change nozzles 3 times to find the most appropriate one for delicate lettuce leaves.  In fact, I went to a soaker nozzle for "next time".

The flower seedling need more growing time.  They look a bit weak.  A few days of dappled then full sunlight should improve them.  Besides, the place I want to put them has grass growing. so I need to dig that out or at least damage it a lot tomorrow. 

Every day my Federal tax form DOESN"T come back "insufficient postage" is good.  The State owes my a small amount, so I don't worry about that.  They don't penalize you about a refund.

The Mews are doing well.  Laz hardly bothers Ayla at all these days.  She is actually the hissy one.  And I don't worry about it.  Each of them lick foreheads mutually these days, so it can't be too bad.  Yeah, it took Laz a full year (nearly to the day) to " settle".  

A hiss is not the claw/tooth fight.  I'll accept a hiss.  Next challenge is the Tonkinese female kitten due for pickup in early August.  I so much hope The Mews accept her immediately.  Marley is definite, being so calm; Ayla has always gotten along "OK" with any female cat; Laz is so much calmer now and has 2 months more "calm" to experience.  It should be OK.

Yeah 4 cats is more than I expected.  Maybe I should have just gone with Marley and Ayla.  They like each other.  But Laz was a rescue.  Not the normal rescue.  But the breeder I've dealt with in the past DID literally reascue Laz from a bad home and was looking for a Forever Home.

I sure almost gave up on him a few times.  But on his Gotcha Day here, he changed rather suddenly.  Maybe memories fade or he finally realized it was a safe place.  Whatever.   Who knows with cats?  He is only 3.5 and I think mostly he just wants to play.  Laz an Marley wrassle happily and gently often.  So I think "now" he just wants to do that with Ayla.  

His attacks on her ended months ago.  Maybe it was status-seeking in his new home.  Ayla doesn't forget (and I don't blame her).  But lately, they meet, sniff noses, and lick foreheads.  I'll accept the peace as a good sign for the future.

My car made "hot metal noises" when I came back from shopping last week.  I noted there were drips under the car.  After it sat for a day, I opened the hood and set up a lamp under it.  I'm not a mechanic and Dad never taught me stuff about cars.  But I understand enough to know what basic parts are.

The stuff that dripped was water.  Yeah it could have been air-conditioning condensation except for all the hot metal.  So I checked all the fluids.  

Oil level was fine.  Windshield washer lever was low so I refilled it, but that stuff being low doesn't heat the engine.  The coolant reservoir was empty.  I opened the radiator cap (it was cold after a day).  It was filled.  So I added water.  Not coolant; I didn't have any.  But that should las a trip until I schedule maintenance work at the dealer.

You are going to laugh.  I bought the car in July 2020.  It has 500 miles on it now.  But you should have a maintenance visit after the 1st 500 miles and I was planning it for next week.  The manual said I should expect "greater than usual" oil usage, but it was the coolant that was low.  

I'll let the dealership figure that out.

Time to go to bed...

A Good Day

Yesterday...  Last night... 

First, I got my new iPhone XR working.  Not that it was EASY getting to Apple help, but once there, the assistance was great!  The agent I spoke to (on my old cordless phone) was patient, helpful and knowledgeable.  I also need Verizon help and got it.  5 hold minutes each is nothing to complain about.  I called my neighbor friend Deb to try it, and my sister later.  It worked.

HURRAY!

Apps and contacts come later.  Knowing the iPhone worked was the major event.  I do miss having a printed manual though.  Looking stuff up in print is "sometimes" easier than visiting a help site that makes you figure out even the QUESTION to ask.

Second, I cooked outside the first time this year.  The Boston Butt was cut into 2 slabs for greater dry rub exposure and smoked for 2 hours.  Well, quite frankly, after 2 hours the surface is sealed and it is easier to complete the cooking in the oven at 225F.

Third, removing the pork allowed space for 12 chicken boneless skinless thighs to get smoked for an hour.  They finished in the oven just as the pork came out.   

The pork was SO GREAT I just noshed on cut parts all night.  Best pork butt I ever cooked.  BTW to those with other names for parts of pork "butt" is not actually "butt".  Its' a shoulder part.   Sorry, sometimes I get "eww" when mentioning "butt" LOL!

I drowned the meat in dry rub overnight, and it really pain off.  I bet the chicken thighs are the same (dinner tonight).  

Sometimes I get lucky, and the pork was IT.  Maybe the chicken too. 

I walked better yesterday.  It comes and goes.  Yesterday was better than average.  Maybe going out to the smoker helped distract me.  Any port in a storm, as they say.

New seeds arrived in the mail.  I better get busy with some of them as I'm behind schedule with some early ones.  I've been spending more time in the basement lately (laundry, litter-boxes and some seedling tray platform tray repairs).  

Had to "glue&screw" some of the platforms.  The drill was "heavier than I remembered it".  I got by carefully.  It's funny how slight differences in strength make big differences in handling tools.  Took both hands to hold the drill straight, and also to move things around.

But I couldn't have done that at all 2 weeks ago.  

Next project is to get all sites listed in my password manager so that I don't depend on old lists and marked-out scribbles.  It's a pain to change everything, but I can see the ones I've done make life easier. The hardest part was figuring out how to add passwords to start.  It is easier after the first few.  

At least it seems to work.  And I have wicked long and complicated password manager password.  Takes minutes to type it, but I don't have to do it often.

I only wish everything went that easy...

A New Thing For Me

I've been listening to old music on the computer all night by themes and answering gardening questions on a forum.  But I suddenly had a thought.

I did something neat this morning.  It might be routine for some people even "duh", but it was new to me.

I like sci-fi.  I like Marvel movies and characters.  One of my favorite scenes in a Marvel Movie is in X-men:  Apocolypse where Quicksilver is saving the people in the exploding Xavier College.  And one of my favorite songs is The Eurythmics 'Sweet Dreams' and they were together in the scene.

So I searched the scene and found it.  But no music.  So I opened 2 windows on Firefox.  One held the scene, the other had the song.  I got them open up close enough for them to nearly match!

For me, that is seriously good stuff.  I don't normally figure out how to do things like that that.  Sort of a "one thing at a time person".

I'm gonna go do that again now...


...



Later, OK 5 more times, actually.

And he MOONWALKED  It was amazing to me.  Its like the Rubik Cube.  I can't do it even with instructions...

I haven't figured out what the brief dart thing meant but it was so quick even in slo-mo.

Computer Problems 2

I think I actually solved the photos import!  After trying to import photos from the OLD mac to the NEW one  and letting it process for 3 days (!), I gave up and clicked on "stop importing".  It obviously wasn't working.

So I shut down both computers and looked at the possible cable connections.  HDMI cables give the faster connections, but each has only one and the new monitor I bought only uses HDMI.  So I couldn't connect the 2 macs that way. 

And trying to import the OLD photo folder to the 4TBMy Passport external drive wasn't working.

So I had the thought of just COPYING the OLD iPhoto folder to it.  Took 10 minutes!  Then I ejected and unplugged the My Passport external drive and plugged it into the NEW mac.  And restarted the NEW mac.  (Always a good idea to restart after attached a new device)

Then I went to iPhotos and tried to import from the My Passport.  Nothing...  Gloom...  The iPhoto Library folder stayed "greyed out"  (not recognized) on My Passport.  But I went back to Finder, and opened the file there.  It opened there just fine! 

So leaving it open, I went back to the NEW mac and opened iPhoto, chose "import", and moved my mouse to My Passport.  The iPhoto folder was BLACK (recognized.  I clicked OK (import)

AND IT STARTED IMMEDIATELY COPYING THE PHOTOS!

I can see the photos flashing by on the screen.  Apparently there are 65,000 files.  After an hour, there are 30,000 remaining, but IT IS WORKING!  As the Scarecrow said in 'The Wizard Of Oz'  "Oh Joy! Rapture!

 

I Surrender, Almost

Mac and Windows have finally won.  They've beaten me.  They have sent my computer life out of my control.  I don't say that lightly.

A month ago, I confidently downloaded the lastest version of the Mac O/S.  Catalina.  But it prevented me from using my Mac version of MS Office Word and Excel.  Huh!  Well, OK, I'll revert to the previous Mac O/S.  I can't.  It doesn't want me to.  There are suggestions on how to do that on some sites, but I can't make them work.  Catalina really wants to stay active.

I've spent hours on and off for the past week trying to get rid of it.  No luck.  So last night I sat down determined to restore the entire computer to a November version. 

Macs have that capability through something called "Time Machine".  I've done it before.  You go to a timeline of external drive backups, choose the one you want, hit the "restore" button, and you have the old version from that day.

Guess what won't work anymore?  Time Machine.  I spent several hours trying to do the "restore".  On the few occasions I even got the restore button to be active (most times it was greyed out), my password wouldn't work.  Catalina is actively thwarting my attempts...

Mac has moved from 32 bit to 64 bit and it wants you to stay there!  THEY KNOW BEST, after all...  They are creating a consistent world of users that suits their conception of the  future. 

So, while persistence in the past has usually worked, there is evidently a wall I can't get around now.  I've tried everything I can (with an exception I will get to later).

So, I suppose I have with Mac O/S Catalina.  And if you haven't, don't.  Unless you love buying new apps.

One of the things I lose on Catalina is my old MS For Mac Office.  MS Word and Excel are much better than Mac's iWorks Page and Numbers apps.  I do a lot in both Word and Excel that Page and Numbers won't.

So, I said I surrendered.  That means upgrading to MS For Mac 365.  And that means a yearly subscription fee of $70 rather than just buying the program.  I hate that.  The previous version was Office 2008 for a reason.  Lasted 11 years, no problems, cost about $40.  Until I find something really better, I'm perfectly happy with basic programs tat do the simle things I want them to do.

So, I went to the Mac App store to but MS For Mac 365.  It sends me to Microsoft.  Microsoft wanted me to set up an account.  OK.  I was kind of pissed off, so my password wasn't really "friendly".  Nothing "nasty" but It violated some rule.  

So the site said I had to send them my phone number so they could text me a temp password so I could get into my new account and change it.  Guess who doesn't have a smart phone?  And guess who didn't offer me any options to contact them?

THEY (MS) WON'T EVEN LET ME BUY THEIR DAMN SOFTWARE!

And apparently, even if I can figure out how to buy MS Office For Mac 365, it is in "the cloud".

Mac and MS are doing their uttermost to take the least bit of control I had away.

Now, given ALL THAT, I may have an "out".  I have a new mac mini I bought last year because I misunderstood how much RAM I had left on the current one.  And I have the previous one too.  The newer one might not have Catalina.  And I know the older one does NOT!

I'm going to set both up offline tomorrow.  See what O/S the new one is on first.  If it is Catalina, I will set it aside (it may have MS For Mac Office 365 on it and some other good programs).  And if so, I will check the older Mac Mini and hook up the Time Machine external drive to see if it will do the "restore" function.

If it does, maybe I can migrate the old computer  to the current one (not the new one) and keep going from there as I've been doing.

I'm not a computer geek.  For me, many changes are like beating away a crocodile with a baseball bat.  I don't even understand why some changes are made.  Mac Photos is probably an improvement over Mac iPhotos for some people, but I was perfectly happy with iPhotos. 

Photos just keeps saying it is rearranging things (anticipating my desires, I suppose) but I don't WANT it to do that.  If I want rearrangements, give me the option to tell it to do that.  Don't force it on me.  Ah but Mac knows best...  And so does Windows. 

When I was younger, I used to read a lot of science fiction.  Some of the stories "predicted" dystopias where Government or Business would force people to do things a certain way or act a certain way, or people would just learn to all act the same. in the "future".

The "future" is now.

I bet I can get around Mac and MS for a few more years.    But there will come a time when I just plain CAN'T. 

DAMN!

Bad Day

I'm not sure if I sure mention this, lest you all think I'm a crazy person.  But I'll type it out and decide whether to post it afterwards.

I get frustrated sometimes by inanimate objects.  The computer develops a problem that takes time to solve, the car doesn't want to start, old equipment doesn't want to work,  doors suddenly stick, etc.  I'm tenacious about solving problems, but that doesn't mean I don't get angry about them sometimes.

Recently, I'm been trying to download software that claims to let you play old games on modern computers.  By which, I mean that some old games programmed to work on old computers don't work on new ones.  Its usually that old games are in 16 bit processors and new ones work at 64 bit so the old ones just can't can't work fast enough.

My favorite game of all time is Civilization 2.  I understand the game.  There are versions up to Civ6 now that work on new computers.  I don't like them.  Why I don't like them doesn't really matter.

I would just like to play Civ2 again.  There are sites that claim to "upspeed" the old program to 64 bit compatibility.  I can follow instructions, but I have never been able to make those work.  There are some that claim to make it work on a Mac.  I can't get those to work.  And there are sites that discuss how to partion a part of a modern Windows computer to operate in older Windows versions to play old games like Civ2.  I can't get those to work.  Some of the suggestions involved connecting a Windows computer to my Mac (or vice versa) and those didn't work either. 

And apparently, I'm not alone.  While some posters at thge sites claimed to have made the changes work, most said they couldn't in spite of having a decent level on computer experience.

But I made a 2 day try at following the various instructions this past weekend.  I discovered that the options mentioned in the instructions didn't exist or that the options did exist and had no affect or that the downloads (loaded into partition files) were not accessible, etc.

The people who write the instructions might actually be correct, but leave out steps that they consider "obvious".  Or they might be just making stuff up to look smart on a site and never visit there again.  Who knows?

The best suggestion was from a Gen Xer who said he just bought a cheap old Windows laptop that matched the Civ 2 requirements and his Dad was successfully and happily playing Civ2 every few nights.  I'm the age of that guy's Dad...

After several years of fighting about this with the modern computers (because I would really rather not have more computers), I think I will visit the local Windows computer store and see if they have an old one that will play Civ2.  I thought of that a year ago and never followed up on that.

So what does all of this have to do with my anger?  Well, with all the rewiring I had to do connecting and changing connections between my Mac and Windows computers and an old Windows (but not old "enough"), I had this telephone cable that kept getting in the way.

Given the level of frustration I was feeling at the time, I suddenly started yanking on it to get it loose.

It eventually came loose and I lost my telephone signal!  I didn't realize that immediately, of course.  It was only 2 days later when I tried to place a call that I discovered a problem.  I tried to track it down another day.  Then I looked at the end of the ripped-out wire and saw a dozen small frayed wires all tangled.

I was getting ready to email my ISP and request a service visit.  But then a took a pair of scissors and snipped the cord clean.  My telephone service worked again immediately.

It was SO EMBARRASSING!  I'd shorted my wires...

Quite a Day!

Most people keep regular hours waking and sleeping.  I managed that for 35 years of regular office work, but since I retired in 2006, that went totally out the window.  For example, I got up at 11 am Thursday and stayed up til 1 PM  Friday.  I did some yardwork in daylight and stayed on the computer from after dinner to 1 PM Friday and crashed for 4 hours sleep.  Got up at 5PM, fed the Mews 1st and 2nd breakfast then let them out for the brief daylight left.

Stay with me here...

Made dinner at 8 PM.  I had lots of "refrigerator-fodder" and a packaged 1/2" slice of uncooked ham.  Tghat ham slice is large.  I pulled out my 2 burned Lodge cast iron flat griddle and heated tht baby up for 15 minutes.  Talk about sizzle! 

Then I went to the basement and harvested a dozen leaves of the baby bok choy  and celery I'm growing there.  Destrung (destringed?) a dozen snow peas, cut strips of red and green bell peppers, sliced up a jalepeno pepper, sliced a 1/2 onion and 4 cremini mushrooms and went to work with the wok. 

The celery chunks . peppers, and mushrooms went into the wok first.  Followed by the onions, then the celery leaves, sliced bok choy, and shredded garlic and ginger.  Then, before they were "almost crisp", I added a 1/4 cup cornstarch and chicken broth mix and let it bubble for slightly over a minute.

My friends, it was the most perfect stir-fry I have ever made!

I did not eat it with a salad,
I did not eat it with a side.
I just put the bowl on table
And I put it all inside!

Even the TV choices were great (I eat watching TV).  There was a show about the Broadway hit 'Hamilton', a good Nature show, and MSNBC  commentary about the days political events.

I NEEDED THAT!  These last 2 weeks have been frustrating.  And I haven't even resolved all the email issues yet.  But the new computer is up and running except for that, my backup program is working, and I CAN get to each of my 3 email accounts by logging in and out for each one whenever I want to check.  I'll solve that one soon.

Cavebear

New Mac Computer

Well, the new Mac Mini arrived Wensday, but I was tired.  I had to do errands most on yesterday, but got at it in the late afternoon.  Macs have something called Migration assistant that helps you transfer important files from a Mac to a PC, a PC to a Mac, or a Mac to Mac (from new to old or old to new).

That sounds really great, but unless you have about every cable and/or adaptor in existence, it can be an adventure.  I don't, and it was!

The most direct way of migrating from one Mac to another is too simply have them both up and running with an HDMI cable between them.  Which requires 2 sets of monitors/keyboards/mouses, all of which I actually have!

But Mac Minis have only one HDMI port.  My monitors plug into HDMI ports.  But so does the recommended Mac to Mac. No amount of searching through my box of odd cables and adaptors would make that work. 

I could have gone to a local store and bought the one adaptor I needed, but NOOOOOO, I had to make it work with what I had.  Well, sometimes half the fun in life is the challenge...

And one thing I had was a brand new Western Digital (WD) 4Tb backup drive (my old Seagate 500Gb drive just wasn't able to backup all my files anymore) that I ordered at the same time as the new Mac.

So, I didn't have the right cables to go direct Mac to Mac.  But the Mac Migration Assistant said it was perfectly happy using a Time Machine backup.  So I set up the old Mac to the new WD backup disk and set it to backup the old Mac.  Took 3 hours!  It was an initial backup (copying everything).

I was just finishing a late dinner when the backup completed.  I moved the WD backup and all the other cables to the new Mac and opened Migration Assistant there.  I had to register the new Mac slightly (language, location, User ID, Password, etc.  The user name and password set me back for a while.  In spite of it being a new computer, somewhere, the Mac Universe knows who I am and disagreed with my name.  I finally discovered that my old password on Capital letters and some numbers NOW required a lower case letter also.  Got THAT straightened out, and went through a bunch of stuff about using the Cloud.  Sorry, not yet for that for me. 

They were insistent, so I had to go through a bunch of "Are you SURE?" questions.  But I finally got to the NEW Mac Migration Assistant, and it searched for an external drive.  Found it and started downloading files. 

I was really worried at first.  The progress bar stayed at 1% for 30 minutes.  But then it suddenly progressed faster and only took another hour. 

I amused myself during the wait by changing the water for my 2 Siamese Fighting fish (separate containers of course),  doing a load of laundry, tossing toys to the Mews, and listening to MSNBC commentary in the background.

But even massive file transfers through slow cables do come to an end and the new Mac reported it had completed the file download.  A quick check suggests that all my files are saved, are saved in familiar folders, and my Firefox and Safari browsers have my bookmarks.  I checked iPhoto next for all my photos.

Its not the same.  Nothing I couldn't figure out, but more on THAT soon as there are changes I don't like and may ask questions about to fellow Mac users.

Everything ELSE seems to work pretty much the same, but I checked iPhotos first as it matters more to my blogs than word or spreadsheet programs do.

The important thing is that I am up and running on a Mac with more memory, processing speed and backup.  I understand the programs (generally, given some changes)

It doesn't solve my unhappiness with the transfer of my Verizon email (which I was utterly happy with) to AOL (which seems restrictive, user-unfriendly, and overflowing with ads).  THAT is a problem to solve in a few days.  I can LIVE with AOL for right now, just won't STAY with them for long.  They want to "nickle and dime" me to death for every service to avoid what I don't want them to provide in the first place.  And I have 3 email addresses (for which they charge a monthly fee each).  And I can't simply switch from one to another as I could on Verizon, I have to log out and then back in each time. 

But the migration is complete, my new computer runs faster, and I'm back on line.  For today, that's is enough.

Cmputer Updates

Well, I defeated Apple.  Sort of...  One of the good thing I have is called 'Time Machine'. I may not use it the way Apple intended.  I have it set up as an external drive.  I'm sure I'm not the only one.  But it does mean that I can restore my Mac to previously saved times.  I did that last night and today.  It took about 7 hours and I'm glad I did it.

Everything works the way it did before and the way I liked it.  iPhotos shows the file names again, the graphics aren't annoying-looking, and the help bar actually answers questions.

I may have to upgrade to the newest Apple OSX someday, but it will not be this day. 

I will not go to the iCloud this day, I will not be forced onto Facetime this day, I will not accept the loss of features I valued on this day.  Apple can be slipped around on its plans again on this day!

I have taken back my computer to when it worked for me, and that is all that matters to me.

And I will hope that when my last program will no longer function, that Apple or Microsoft will have finally solved their problems and made things that are user-friendlyagain. 

Because if they don't, someone else will.

A Mystery Computer Reception

OK, this is going to be a bit weird, so please forgive any confusion in advance.

30 minutes ago, a short story flashed onto my screen in Word.  I do not know why or how.  I do not recognize the story, I have not used Word recently, and I cannot find any email with any such attachment.  It appears to be a short story about Ayla from Clan Of The Cave Bear about her days before the books began.

I certainly did not write it myself any time because it uses letters I cannot create "Çocukdünya". it is not in my writing style , It mentions "Iza" who is a character later in the COTCB book, and an original name for Ayla (Nefeyli) that has never crossed my mind.  A Google search for Nefeyli, Iza, and Grub (another character in the received short story) yields nothing.  I am baffled.  But interested...  

If you are the person who somehow sent it to me, or know anything about this short story or author, please contact me more directly at cavebear2118 AT verizon DOT net, post on my blog, or do anything you please to contact me further.

For now, I don't care how or why it suddenly popped up on my screen, I just want to more about the story's origin and why I received it.  And anything you want to tell.  I've saved the story adding a note to the top that it is not mine so that I won't get too confused seeing it again years from now and wondering about the origin of it.

But, whoever you are, I really do want to hear from you again...

Mark 

Update:  Never mind, mystery solved.  It was an attachment I did not see in an April email .  Why it suddenly opened now I don't know, but everything is OK.

Mark

An Interesting Week

I don't do well in the shortest darkest days of the year, but with the lengthening days, I have gotten more active.  It's nice to start accomplishing things again.

1.  I got The Salvation Army out here to pick up stuff I never used or no longer needed.  Mainly, I had a dining room table and chairs that I bought at their local showcase store 8 years ago.  It had some dings and scrapes, and I intended to completely refinish it as a Winter project.  Realizing I would never get around to doing that, I wanted to give it back.  I was also cleaning out closets and accumulated 8 boxes of miscellaneous household goods in good condition, a telescope (I have a newer better one now), an unopened flat screen wall mount (I decided to use a TV table instead), a nearly unused upright vacuum cleaner (I have wood floors now), etc.

It was all picked up last Wensday (I have decided to change the spelling; "Wednesday" is just medieval).  The new open space in my basement workshop is appreciated.

2.  I decided my cooking habits were in a rut.  20 years ago, I used to make pizzas from scratch.  I relearned how.  The first was bad.  The 2nd and 3rd were very good.  A pizza stone helps.  So does a bread machine with a pizza dough setting.  And leaving the dough sit overnight in a covered bowl helps.  I made my own sauce from crushed canned tomatoes too.  I do that for my spaghetti sauce anyway, just let it get a bit thicker.  Sliced commercial pepperoni, hot italian sausage, green bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions.

And I made chicken cordon blue, my own breaded chicken nuggets, ground hamburger from top sirloin (I have a manual grinder), pancakes from scratch, and egg rolls.

My efforts to make decent hamburger buns continue to fail, though.

3.  Rearranged and vacuumed the entire basement wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling.  The guys who filled the walls with insulation last September left such a mess (even though they did a lot of cleaning).  But I moved EVERYTHING and vacuumed.  I vacuumed some spots that may have never been vacuumed in 28 years.  When's the last time you pulled out the washer and dryer and cleaned behind there?  LOL!

4.  Reorganized all the stuff from the attic that I had to move down into the cats' room and stored them for returning to the attic when I replace the flooring up there.  The cats are thrilled to have more space for toys, exploring, and scratchers.

5.  Took almost everything out of the computer room, threw away lots of old stuff, and returned little.  And there is more to get rid of.  Why should I keep the boxes and disks from the apps from Windows 98?

6.  Emptied out 3 closets and most of the stuff went to a new pile of stuff to go to charity.  It is amazing how much unneeded "stuff" ends up on closet floors.  "Out of sight, out of mind".  For example, 30 years ago, I became the manager of an office softball team.  I had bases, gloves and balls in a box.  I'm keeping the ball and gloves, but the bases can go.  One thing charities can't say is that I have boring stuff to give.

7.  I had boxes of newspaper articles clipped out for "information".  Computer articles, gardening articles, cooking articles.  That stuff is all on the internet now.  So those are going into the recycling bin.

8.  One box was half full on fanfold perforated-edge computer paper!  That goes back to the days of dot-matrix printers.  But I'm not recycling THAT.  I now have a lifetime supply of note-taking paper!  Some old stuff is worth keeping.

9.  The weather today was GREAT.  It reached 67F!  I went outside to do some gardening work.  Mostly, I needed to dig level spots for the 6th of 6 framed garden beds.  Unfortunately, the ground was still frozen 2' down, so I did some work, but not as much as I hoped.  Still I did some work and the next warm day I can get another 2' deep.  That will be enough to build that 6th bed before Spring arrives.

10.  Haircut time!  Ever 2 months.  And I love the feel of heated shaving cream around my ears and neck when the barber does that razor cut!

11.  Visited the bank.  Got 6x higher interest rates on my savings with some creative transfers.   3% interest is better than .5%

I may have had a more productive week sometime, but I can't recall when exactly.  LOL!

Camera Troubles Fixed!

 On Sept 21st, I used a program called MacKeeper.  It cleans, defrags, and checks for viruses, but the main feature I was interested in was finding duplicate files, foreign language options, and leftover bits of deleted programs.  It found quite a lot of them.  Of course, it doesn't just go and delete them.  You have to check of a box for each file.  I examined the first dozen or so carefully and it seemed accurate, so I just started checking all the boxes of files it offerred and clicking submit.

Apparently, it moved seamlessly in my applications folder, and none of the names I saw at first seemed relevant to me (seeming like leftover bits of deleted programs) and I continued checking boxes and deleting them.  On one page, after I hit delete but before the screen cleared, I saw one was iPhoto (an Apple program for processing camera pictures).  I realized it was deleting programs and stopped.

Well, I went to my backup program, Time Machine, but I couldn't restore the program.  Actually, I couldn't get it to work at all on even small test files.  After messing around with that for a couple of days, I reread the instructions an discovered I was doing part of it exactly backwards.

So I restored iPhoto.  It was back in my applications folder, but I still couldn't upload pictures from the camera.  It worked for looking at old pictures and other functions, just wouldn't upload new ones, saying "camera not found".  I tried everything for another couple of days, until I noticed it was an old version of iPhoto.

So I went to the Apple store online to upgrade it.  Can't do that.  The old version was TOO old.  OK, I bought the new version.  That didn't work either!  I tried restoring the camera software.  That didn't solve the problem.  I went to the Canon site and downloaded the camera drivers and software.  That didn't solve the problem either.

I was (correctly) positive it wasn't the cameras.  Too unlikely both would good bad at the same time, and I had used a new cable AND tried different ports in the computer.

I gave up and got on live chat with Apple.  After 2 hours, the problem remained.  The technician said there were some more complicated things to try but I would have to call the Apple store in the morning because there were some things he could not access (it was late night).  So, I scheduled a call from Apple for 1 PM Thursday.  At 2 PM Thursday with no call, I went grocery shopping.  Naturally, I discovered they had called 5 minutes after I left.  They sent me an email saying I could reschedule online or just call a number.

I called the number Saturday and had a tech on the phone in 2 minutes.  We spent a merry 30 minutes searching various screens and programs until one said "camera device present", whereupon he said "Aha, you've lost a piece of your operating system"!  Somewhere apparently (a partition on the hard drive I surmise) hidden and protected, is a copy of the operating system.  It took a few minutes to navigate there, and then it said 50 minutes to restore, so the tech gave me a direct number to him in case it didn't work, and I hung up.

It worked!

I'll be a LOT more careful with MacKeeper in the future.  And I'm going to have to study Time Machine preferences/options because for some reason, the only application program it backed up since Jan 2012 was iTunes!

Computer Happiness

I dragged the old PC to a local PC repair shop.  I mainly want to use it to play Civilization2.  Its a 90's game.  My Mac is too modern to play even the old Mac versions and my attempts at downloading Mac-to-PC crossover platforms failed utterly.  So I brought my old PC in for cleaning and rebooting.  They said they could do that, though getting a Windows 98 reboot might take some research.

Fine.

But then I casually asked them if they could clean a Mac.  Not work on it, just clean it enough so that the evil Apple Store (who considers a little cigarette smoke a "toxic violation of OSHA working conditions") would repair one.  And I'm not defending smoking here, I hate it myself.  Lets not get into that.

But OMG, OMG, OMG, they will work on Macs too.  They even have "a Mac guy"!  So after I returned home to retreive the Civ2 CD I meant to bring at the start, I brought them the old $3,500 Mac Pro that has been a doorstop for some years.

They said "sure, we can clean and fix that".

THUD!  I'm not kidding.  "THUD!!!"

I think there are the old pictures of Skeeter and LC on that hard drive.  There are old letters to Mom and Dad.  There are old family pictures.  There are old games of Civ2.  There is stuff I don't even know is on there!

And when I pick up the old PC and the original Mac, I will bring them the previous Mac Mini to clean.  I'll sell the old (working) Mac Pro (minus the hard drive) and will add the newly working Mac Mini with a wireless connection (I hope) so that I can visit our cat friends away from the desktop.

Assuming they can really fix Macs.

You have to understand that the nearest Apple Store is almost an hour drive away, AND you need an appointment you dare not miss by a minute (or you stand in a long line), AND its in the middle of a BIG CONFUSING MALL so you have to carry a 20 pound Mac Pro around for an hour, etc...

Man, if these local guys will actually clean and work on Macs, they have a customer for LIFE!!!

But we'll see...

Playing Risk Online

After practicing by myself for a few weeks, I rejoined online play.  It was weird.  The first 4 games I tried to join were apparently started by people who only start games to have inactive games.  Those games never actually start.  But the 5th game was weirder.

There were 4 other players, all who had many more game points than I did.  And I had a terrible position (scattered around Central Asia, which is about the worst place to be).  But 2 of the players had some sort of personal feud and I got Australia (barely).

Then they went to war over North and South America, so I took over Asia (while they also killed the other 2 players).  It may have helped that I had just watched 2 hours of US Civil War battles because I would have made a general proud with enclosing moves and attacks on weak places.

So there were the 2 "strong" players still fussing with each other in North America and FOR ONCE I kept my forces carefully organized and only attacked with strength slowly and had Australia, Asia, Africa, and finally, Europe.  And they both went "Hey wait, whats he doing?"

It was too late for both of them.  LOL!  Most satisfying game in quite a while.  I wiped them both out while they were trading incriminations about each other's poor play. 

The race may usually go to the swift and the battle to the best generals, and that's the way to bet.  But the quiet and the sly also win sometimes.  LOL!

Almost Entirely Back!

It is funny now, after all the problems are solved.  But it wasn't before that.

I was frustrated when I first hooked up the new Mac Mini.  No monitor picture...  And that was the same problem I had a week ago.  Not knowing the cable lingo made it hard.  The old Mac Mini had two ports labeled with a "monitor" symbol.  The new one didn't.  Just one labeled HDMI (which I understand, having an HDMI TV) and one I didn't labeled "Thunderbolt".  Thunderbolt did match the plug I had on the VGA-to-monitor cable, so I tried it.  Nothing. 

Why does this sort of thing only happen after business hours when I can't call anyone?  And please don't say just go online; the monitor wasn't working, LOL!  So I struggled with things all night.  And I mean "all night"  I went to bed at 9 am.

Who knew that the FOURTH time I re-plugged the monitor cable in it would work just fine?  I try things over and over again because I really don't know what else to do.  And sometimes it works.

So there I was at 4 am with a working computer.  I tried to play a game of cribbage at pogo.com.  No luck, just endless "loading".  After that, I did what any annoyed and frustrated person would do who smokes and drinks.  I went out ant bought a pack of cigs from the all-night 7-11 and poured myself a glass of wine when I got back.  Surely the problems would resolve themselves after my punishing myself with drugs...

No.

This morning, I called the computer repair shop and asked for help.  The guy who answered the phone seemed knowledgeable.  He directed me to the "About The Mac" click and asked me to read what it said.  When I got to memory (not RAM) it said 512 MB.  Yes, "512 MB".  He said, "well there's your problem, you didn't get enough storage".  I said the Mac Mini ONLY comes in 512 GB or 1 TB.  He said I should have gotten the 512 GB drive and I could come in for an upgrade.

I was annoyed by that, but thought for a minute and decided that was preposterous.  NOBODY offers a 512 MB drive any more!  So I told him so and asked if there was someone more knowledgeable I could speak to.  He got all huffy about THAT and said he would have someone call me back.

Two hours later, I got a call back.  The guy said the 512 MB was just the graphics memory and I had a full 512 GB hard drive.  So we proceeded to go through the system to prove it.  I really DO have 512GBs.  Which is fine because I had only used 100GB on the old computer.

It turned out that I didn't have the new Java script needed.  I HAD downloaded that at the computer's request the night before, but nothing had happened.  OK, usually, you have to download those files and then install them.  But since there was no file to open in the downloads folder, I assumed it self-opened (which seemed a process improvement).

No.

It saved to my documents folder for some reason.  With the computer guys help, I found it and installed it.  Problem solved.  I asked who the previous guy (the idiot) was and the person I was talking to wouldn't say.  But, as the problems were solved I let it go.  I assume the first guy is a relative of the owner of the shop, LOL!

I had 200 emails to read...  I think I'll go watch TV for an hour (Rachel Maddow on MSNBC) and come back later to start visiting the cats' friends...

Computers are maddening.  I know enough to use them and figure out some problems, but not enough to solve the weird problems.

Back Online!

I'm back, but don't tell the cats.  I want the Golden Oldies Week to use up the preset posts. 

But the computer problem was serious.  In spite of my taking the cover off the old Mac Mini and looking for any sign of wine spill damage (none visible), there was some on the hard drive and some port according to the repair guys.  Enough so that the Mac Repair Shop said it needed more work than a new one would cost.  I have some doubts, but I don't have the expertise to argue with them or repair it myself.

Well, 3 years for computer isn't TOO bad ...

I talked to the repair guys and am not much more knowledgeable than when I started.  They were able to transfer my old hard drive to the new computer (so why wasn't it able to work in my Mini Mac)?  But there are times to surrender.  I now have a replacement (essentially identical to the old one).  That's OK.  The old one had 500GB and I only used 100, so the same is just fine.

The interesting thing is that I was using the old Mac DeskPro and found iPhoto pictures on it that I had deleted on the Mac Mini in 2010.  I copied them over to the new computer with a flash drive in a new-named file.

I copied them to the new computer to a new file named  "iPhoto2", but I can't seem to merge the files.  I'm afraid to just copy the old file into the new one in case it just overwrites the new file and overwrites all the new photos.  Any advice would be great.  For what is worth, I have the entire new iPhoto pictures saved on an external backup drive, so I probably can't lose them.

I checked my Google Reader.  226 posts to read!  And 150 emails!  That will take a few days!  LOL!

Switching From Comcast ISP To Verizon ISP

Last week, I decided to finally rid myself of Comcast Internet and Cable TV service.  I did not have their internet telephone service because (1) they could not keep my current telephone number and (2) they did not have a good quality rating for it anyway.  I used Verizon for telephone, with a "foreign exchange" (allowed me "local" calls to my friends in the Washington DC area).  The combined services were costing me $210 per month. 

Verizon kept sending me ads for all 3 services at $99 per month.  Of course, I wanted better TV than the basic, but I estimated (from the bill of a friend) that the total cost would drop to about $140 per month.  And with faster internet speed, less or no TV picture freezing (brief, but frequent on Comcast), no modem rental fee, no charge to service failed equipment (Comcast charges for any visit unless you pay a monthly support fee), etc, etc, etc.

So I arranged for Verizon FiOS service.  It was installed Dec 23rd.  I've got some gripes.  The Verizon TV remote control needs to be aimed dead on to register; the Comcast remote could be aimed anywhere in the general direction of the set top box.  I think I can fix that by raising the set top box to a higher shelf and angling it upwards a bit with rubber doorstop wedges.  The Comcast TV listings were easy to read and navigate; The Verizon TV listings are more like navigating a website.  And while the Comcast HD channels were a "bit" randomly numbered, they HAPPENED to have clumped MY favorite channels closely together.  On Verizon, the channels are logically grouped by topic, but my favorite channels are now far apart.  I'll get used to that once I memorize the new channel numbers.

Sounds OK, right?  Not!  So far, I have spent 16 hours in 2 days fighting to get my new email addresses working.  OK, Christmas weekend might not seem the best time, but it seemed to me the best.  Everyone is busy with Christmas stuff!  But I think only the least able Verizon agents were online too.

My Mac Mail was easy to set up with my Comcast service years ago.  Straightforward, no problems.  I got instructions, they worked, I had functional email.  I didn't even have any problem with Comcast when I switched from Windows to Apple.

But, oh boy, am I having problems NOW with Verizon email!  Verizon has many customer support options; telephone, virtual agent, live chat with real agents, user forums, and a downloadable diagnostic program.  The telephone que was 45 minutes, so I tried the live chat (online streaming service).  That was "not available).  So I tried the virtual agent.  My problem was beyond its programming, but it DID offer to connect me to Live Chat (not available according to its own link).  SURPRISE!  Virtual Agent can get me to Live Chat even when Live Chat thinks it is "not available". 

Sadly, I had to pull that little maneuver several times Saturday...

Saturday, into Sunday morning, I contacted Live Chat Agents 4 times.  Here is the problem I was trying to solve (and to anyone who has read this far, type "artichoke" into the comments, so that I'll know).

The agents were Kumar, Carlos, Moad, and Salvador.  I think I went all over the world!  Maybe I need a Li and an Umlak to complete the continents.  I may, yet...

The problem was that, while I could set up email accounts at the Verizon site, and set up the same on my Mac Mail, they wouldn't connect.  At first, I could send emails from my new Verizon address via Mac Mail, but not receive emails from the Verizon server.

The first Verizon Live Chat agent fixed that.  I could send emails.  But then I couldn't receive them.  I discovered he had reset my primary user name from "cavebear2118" to "vze1983ol" and THAT godwful ugly thing was my new email name (as in "vze1982ol@verizon.net").  He also deleted one of my new Verizon email sub-accounts (marksmews) AND even (in his hapless inept attempts at fixing my problem while he controlled my screen, changed my PRINTER connections (as if that had anything to do with the problem.  But afterwards, I couldn't RECEIVE any emails to my new Verizon accounts.

So after an hour of struggling, I went to Live Chat again (only game in town Xmas Eve). THAT agent got me able to RECEIVE emails to the new account, but I discovered afterwards that I couldn't SEND!

I am not a really patient person, but I AM persistent!  The next Verizon Live Chat agent assured me he understood the problem and could fix it.  He got me back to sending emails, but after he signed off, I found I couldn't send them again.

I should mention that setting up email accounts involves specific incoming and outgoing addresses and port numbers, SSL (secure socket layer -whatever those are) choices, user names, STMPs, etc; few of which I know much about (but can enter in the right places upon instructions.  I know how to find those places when asked, but I don't know what they mean.

The 3rd Live Chat agent brought me back to where the 1st one had me, but stated that the Verizon setting were right, my Mac Mail settings were right, so it had to be a Mac problem.  I let him go after only 30 minutes because my Mac Mail works just GREAT with my Comcast email addresses and there is no difference between Comcast and Verizon in that regard.

The 4th Verizon agent smiled when I explained my problem and said he knew exactly what I needed to do to fix the problem because he was familiar with it.  He gave me specific settings to enter and specific ports and where to "allow SSL with authentication".  He sure seemed to know what he was doing!  I was grateful.  But then afterwards, I discovered I STILL couldn't both send AND receive emails (as usual so far). 

I gave up for the night...

I tried again today.  This time, the agent apologised for the problems the previous agents had caused and gave me very different and very specific instructions.  Even told me how to change my primary email address from that awful "vze1982ol" to "cavebear2118".  He explained I was a POP3 on the Verizon FiOS (not the standard POP the other agents had assumed), and gave me specifv port numbers to use in several places.  He included a link to the "24/7 restart" site.  I was thrilled!!!

The link was down...  ROTFLMAO! 

Basically. all YOU will see is that my email address will change (eventually) but not yet.  Iam debating whether to attack this again tonight (it is 12:40 am here).  I'm alert at late night...  Thinking, thinking, thinking...

Well, well, what the hell, I'll go "once more into the breach, dear friends"...

Computer Problems

3 PM:

My Mac Pro computer is apparently too evil too repair.  I don't mean that it is possessed with a malevolent spirit or that there are problems that multiple repair techs can't fix.  I mean that it apparently smells so strongly of cigarette smoke that no one is willing to repair it.

OK, I'll say straight off that if the computer is damaged because I smoke, that is mostly my fault. Only "mostly" because I have a lot of other computerized equipment in the house (including a PC that worked for 8 years - and still does) and they all work just fine!  The Mac needed repair after only 9 months and then again after 6 months.  If Macs need to be operated in a smoke free "safe" environment, they should have told me! 

I am not defending smoking; I know it is a really dumb habit and I'm trying to quit .  But when Apple Repair Stores point to "environmental abuse" in the warranty and claim that detectable cigarette odors void the warranty, I have a right to think I am being abused...

I was surprized and confused when the 1st repair place refused to work on the computer.  I tried to find a place that cleaned smoke-damaged computers (with no success).  When I called an actual Apple Store, the person laughed and said of the 1st repair place - not an official Apple Store, "That's just an excuse they use, bring it in and we'll repair it".  I was quite relieved.  But after 3 days, they called me back with the same story; that they wouldn't even work on it and my extended warranty was void.  Apple considers cigarette smoke to be a "toxic hazard".

After struggling with the fan problem for 3 weeks plus driving 220 miles back and forth to the 2 repair stores AND not having a repaired computer, that was a hard blow!

The problem is that the output fan operates on high speed constantly.  The computer appears to work just fine.  So it may be that I just have to put up with the noise until I can find someone willing to clean/repair it.  Or I may have to replace it, and quit smoking.  Quitting would be a very good idea anyway.  And I think I bought way more computer than I need, so replacing it may not be THAT expensive, especially if I am no longer buying cigarettes.

So the computer might fail at any time and it will be a while before I can replace it...

Update:

I just searched "Mac cigarette smoke" and found many sites that explained why cigarette smoke is so damaging to computers (and especially Macs because of their design).  I understand now why it is a real problem.  I even found a discussion site about it.  There were posts from users in my situation, users who have never (like me) experienced the problem with a PC, posts from users who blame Apple for not specifically mentioning cigarette smoke as a deal-breaker, and posts from Apple techs who described how cleaning melted nicotine from computers is both nearly impossible AND disgusting (even to techs who smoke).  Apparently, no smoking user has ever gotten any mercy from Apple.

I am in a real dilemma.  Given the descriptions of the problems with repairing Macs abused with cigarette smoke, I accept their refusal to repair the computer.  I think Apple is seriously wrong not to advise buyers that smoking voids the warranty or extended warranty, but I accept that no further action on my part can get the computer repaired.

I am fairly confident that I could stop smoking in order to save the next computer (if not myself).  But I haven't really been happy with my Mac Pro.  I haven't had crashes like on my PCs and I feel little threat from hackers, viruses, etc, but the applications software basically SUCKS!  Pages and Numbers are far less featured that Windows Word and Excel.  Even Office for Mac is far less than the same on a PC.  Organizing files in Finder is much harder than in Windows Explorer.  I first thought I just wasn't familiar with the Mac systems and commands, but after more than a year, the same problems remain.  Macs are expensive.  In addition, the nearest Mac repair store is 25 miles away, while there are 4 PC repair stores within 3 miles.

On the other hand, I switched to a Mac because Windows became so frustrating to use.  It crashed, it froze, it needed massive hacker and virus protections, and it is slow to load software.  The 3rd time in 1 year that I had to spend 2 days completely reloading all the software from scratch made me determined to never own a PC again.  My PCs needed a repair about every 6 months.

I think, though, that I will stick with a Mac.  My old PC still works.  I could use that more often for offline work.  As far as I can tell, my Mac would not yet need any repair service.

If that forces me to stop smoking, it might be the best purchase I've ever made!