Mac Computer Problems

 I love my Mac computer.  It does things Windows doesn't do.  But sometimes upgrades can drive you crazy.  The Mac people love to "improve" things.  But they are expert users and don't always account for the difficulties changes can make for a regular user.

They think "Well, now you just go here in 3 steps, then over there for a couple and you have better features.  And if you have a problem then just reboot from the safety startup holding down 3 keys, and redo this and then that from your backup and then..."  

As if that was simple and obvious.  And to them it is.  To me it is nearly gibberish, assumes that I know where everything is on the computer, and even know all the terms they use.

I sometimes wish they would just leave the damn OS alone for a while.  I like my OS as it was, and I like most of my apps as they are.  I don't mind security improvements.  But I wish they would stop obsoleting my apps!

So I'm writing this to warn Mac users about upgrading to Sequoia 15.2.  15.1 one didn't mess up my computer; 15.2 really did!  Photos is bizarre in 15.2.  I used to just plug in my camera, go to Photos, turn on the camera, and it automatically showed my the new pics to but uploaded.  Now, I have to go find the camera as a "device" through a couple of menus were are not obvious.  And since one of my major uses is Photos, that is a real problem.

And Mac seems to be trying to force users onto ICloud!

So, if you are Mac user on Sonora, be VERY cautious about upgrading to Sequoia of either current version.  You get locked in.  Reseting to Sonoma seems to be a real bitch of a process!  It seems, that if you don't make a backup of everything at the end of your daily use, everything you did since the previous backup can be lost.  And I don't mean your last Time Machine app backup.  They say Time Machine won't help you revert this OS!

And speaking of upgrades, Firefox seems to do it weekly.  Which wipes out all your saved logins.  Yeah, just login again, but that gets pretty tiring.

Blowing off some steam!

Cat-Blog Comment Problems

I may have A solution for some of us who have been having problems leaving comments on blog sites!!!

As many of you who mostly visit my Mark's Mews cat blog know, I have had on-and-off problems leaving comments at blogs.  It has driven me to distraction sometimes, but mostly, I worry that my blog friends will think I never visit them.  It was so bad that I couldn't even get Preview of my comments to show up, never mind sent.

I kept trying.  Sometimes I could comment for weeks and then suddenly I couldn't.  I don't know about you, but I have Statcounter.  Its a simple free program that shows you some very general data about visitors to your site.  If you recognize a visitor, you can label them so you see a friend's name.

I'm not pushing it.  It has some flaws.  It doesn't recognize every visitor (mobile phones maybe).  But it gives me a general idea of how many people visit the blog.

So, if some of my friends have that too, they see that I visit but never leave comments.  When in fact, I am trying like crazy to do so, sometimes several times at a single site I visit.

I thought I fixed the problem once by switching my feedly.com reading list from Safari to Firefox, and indeed it worked for a while.  But it would always stop in a few weeks.

Recently, I was looking around at some app settings after yet another frequent upgrade from Firefox, and I REALIZED SOMETHING (all caps to get your attention).

My Firefox was a Beta version.  You can tell by clicking on "Firefox" in the upper left corner and then clicking "About Firefox".  That tells you the version you have.  A "b" means Beta. 

I'm generally willing to go with a Beta version for the improvements, but I started to wonder about that.  Betas are not final versions and have flaws.  And also (and I think this is the most important part), other apps haven't adjusted their programming to the Beta version yet.  Apparently, at some point in the past, I agreed to receive Beta versions of Firefox.

Think about that.  My Firefox Beta app is ahead of the regular sites who sometimes have to make some adjustments!  That takes them some time.  And during that time, there may be programmibg conflicts.

And it seemed to me that the last time I updated the Firefox app was just when I stopped being able to comment on blog sites.

I had a hard time finding info on the Firefox Beta Program, but I eventually found a discussion of it by people like me who were trying to get off it.  Firefox didn't make that easy.  It seems they get a lot more information about your usage in the Beta Program than they can if you use the Regular versions.  And they share it with other companies.

I finally figured out that the solution was actually simple.  All you have to do is download their current regular version and move it to your apps folder.  I don't know about Windows, but in Mac it asks you if you want to replace the previous version.  Click YES.  Your bookmarks will transfer and you will be off the Beta Program.

I did that a few hours ago and immediately tried commenting.  I knew the instant I typed in a comment that it was different!    My avatar showed up.  Preview worked.  Publish worked!

My comment went through to the site.  And all I did was change from the Firefox Beta Program to the Regular Program...

I hope that works for anyone sufferring difficulties commenting...

A haiku of joy...

A problem of late
Became a problem no more.
I can comment now.

Hope this helps anyone else as it has helped me.