Bad Day April 3

Sorry, everyone.  I got SO frustrated with the existing computer.  I kind of "lost it" suddenly a few days ago.

It was weird.  The computer had mostly stopped the frequent restarts, but then suddenly got very hot (some heat before for weeks but HOT recently.  I was also noticing that more original-size photos were disappearing from my Photo app.  

I went through an entire "restore" from my Time Machine backup from 2 weeks previous.  It took about 9 hours and I had to be there to answer a few dumb questions (like, "do you wish to continue"?). 

I got the computer "restored".  But I had lost the photos I had taken after that date.  Fortunately, I was able to import them back from a later backup.  It almost makes no sense, but it does really.  I needed the restore from mid-March to avoid some problems, but the newest backup processed photos were OK.  I keep the full-sized photos in Photo, and the smaller (cropped an light-adjusted) ones in a separate set of folders'

The full-sized Photo files (about 1.5-5 MB) are for quick viewing "all at once".  The processed ones (100-300 KB) are for posting.  Both have some value.

It occurs to me that, with a bit of tedious work, I can recover the missing Photo pics (at smaller size) back to Photos.  They look about the same regardless of size.  There are many I would love to have easier access too in Photos.

But they weren't the cause of the problems I have been having.  They were annoying.  What made me snap and shut down the computer and pull out all the cables in anger was the difficulty in commenting on the cat blogs.  And not being able to do that became maddening.

I felt I was just "one-way", receiving comments but not sending them.  Once in a while, they would get through but mostly they wouldn't.  It was either some old apps on my end or the computer was dying.

I gambled on increasing the RAM a few months ago.  That didn't help.  I tried shutting down the computer between uses.  That cooled it off, but didn't really solve anything long-term.  A Mac Mini is intended to be left on in "sleep mode".

I decided to replace it, and that was annoying.  For the price of going from 8 RAM to 16 RAM AND having a technician come out to install it, I could have bought a renewed one from Amazon that would surely have lasted a couple of years.  

But that is spilled milk, water under the bridge, water over the dam, etc. 

I checked Amazon.  For my habits and purposes, I wanted a 1 TB, 16 RAM, Intel 5 or 7 chip, and plenty of ports.  And I was tired of "renewed".  They didn't have one new.

So I went to Apple directly, expecting a hideous price.  To my surprise, I found exactly what I was looking for new and found their prices are more reasonable than they used to be.  Competion is good.

So I will have a new Mac Mini computer April 21-15.  The only difference is that it will have the new Apple M1 chip instead of an Intel.  Well, it must work or they couldn't sell it (famous last words).  I may have to change some apps.  I hope I can still manage to do that.

Meanwhile, I will spend some time importing processed photos back in the Mac Photo app, clean out old docs and gifs, and read friends' cat blogs until I can comment again. 

I HOPE! 

New Mac Mini

I recieved a new Mac Mini today.  It has about 8x memory.  Setting it up will actually be easy.  Mac has something called a Time Machine that saves everything on the disk to an external one.  But sometimes you want to clean things up first.  It a good time to do that.  One of the things was to delete all those notifications I had about blog comments.  I had 15,000+!

I deleted those.  The comments are on the blog, so I mean just email notifications of them.  I have tendencies of a hoarder, so I have to clear things sometimes. 

I'm organizing my files a bit.  I have picture files organized into Cat, Home, Family, Yard, and Other.  Set up by year and month. There are a lot of loose files around those.  Sometimes when you want to save attachments and pics etc, the program doesn't let you get them to exactly the detailed folders I have.  That will take a day.  Or I can just save that "as is" and hope to do it later.  Won't take up any extra space. 

I'm going from 16 GB RAM to 128 RAM, so it not like a few files will be a problem.  The speed is faster, and that's good.  I was starting to get the "slows".  And it isn't the internet connection. 

Speed is relative...  When I remember that 9600kbs dial up seemed fast, I smile.  I used to think that several minutes to refresh a screen was great.   LOL!

I'm also going through the apps list to de-install many unused ones.  And ordered a new keyboard.  I can't touch-type, but I know where most of the keys are.  But so many are pounded to invisibility (is that the E or the R?).  I wanted a keyboard with the letters depressed (sunken) rather than decals but couldn't find one.  OH well.  I read about painting them with clear fingernail polish, so I will try that.  I also saw an overlay, but I don't think I would like THAT!

So, I may be off-and on for a few days, while everything gets set up again.  The world won't end at my end or yours. 

It also means that I have to upgrade to the latest Mac OS.  I tried that a few months ago, and it ruined a few old programs I liked.  But I tried it 2 days ago and they worked.  I hope that continues. 

Anyway, if I come and go until 2020 a bit, that's why.  Just wanted to let everyone know...