Oh, my! Five weeks? Really?

Well, I did it again. Failed to post for just over a month even when there's plenty to tell you about.

First: Terry did get her new Rav4 and drove it out to St. Louis for a SAGA event and then down to Lake of the Ozarks to visit with her sister (and do some fishing!). Now that she's home, she's got all kinds of local meetings for EGA. Most are of the sit-and-stitch variety but a few are either picnics or luncheons or classes--some of which she teaches beading to the ladies.

Second: I finally managed to nab the last kitten, Collar, and get it to the Animal Care Sanctuary to get "fixed." Turns out Collar is a female--just like the other two kittens. What are the odds?! Three kittens in the litter and they are all female. Getting all of them, and their mother, spayed probably helped keep the cat population limited next spring! I mean, Mom, a.k.a. Coffee, was just one year old when I took her in to the vets in June(?). If all four had litters next spring, it could have gotten very, very crowded around here.

Third: We harvested more than enough peppers and tomatoes from our garden this year. Way more than we expected to get from two pepper plants (one bell and one banana) or four tomato plants (2 cherries and two Early Girl). In fact, we are sick of eating tomatoes! We've canned enough tomato sauce to get us through the winter and spring even if we eat Italian twice a week. And there are numerous bags of peppers in the freezer.


 Fourth: My 8-year old Dell laptop gave up the ghost this week after I dropped it. It was acting a little wonky before hand but this damaged the hard drive beyond repair--or, at least, that's what the tech folks said on Friday. I went and bought a new Dell Inspiron17 7000 Series even as I dropped the old laptop off for diagnostics. Now comes all the fun of installing software on the new machine. The tech folks were able to save my pics, documents and a couple of other folders from the damaged drive and have said they will load them on the new one for me.

Fifth: My daughter has been forced to move from her apartment of the last four years when two of her roommates (a married couple) decided they wanted out and wanted to do so by breaking the lease. Luckily, Jess was able to find another rooming situation a short distance away. It's not close enough to walk to Disney but she will be able to drive to work without too much of the LA-Anaheim traffic.

Sixth: Rick, Sandy and the kids, Chelsea and Justin, traveled down to Anaheim and Disneyland to visit with Jessica. It was the first time the little ones got to see their Aunt Jess--and all the Disney folks. I understand they had a good time.

Seventh: My granddaughter, Chelsea, started preschool this week. I must say, she's a lot older than her years!

I guess that's about all the news fro now.

Almost Home

Just racking up the miles as we home.

Yesterday morning (Friday...I think) we were just inside Louisiana's southwest border in the town of Sulfur. That night we were in the northern Alabama town of Fort Payne. Tonight we are in Woodstock, Virginia just south of Winchester and seventy miles away from Pennsylvania. But first we will have to complete forty miles in Virginia and around fifteen miles each in West Virginia and Maryland. (Don't blink!) The total distance to home is about 280 miles (just about five hours since it involves travel on Route 15 north of Harrisburg to I-80).  We've been doing close to 600 miles a day since we left Corpus Christi, Texas. (Maybe a little less that first day since we did stop at the Aransas Wildlife Refuge to do some birding. Maybe a little more the second between Sulphur and Fort Payne.)

We'll be home a couple of days early but that's fine. I've lots to do before I pack for a fishing trip at Caesar's Outpost in northern Quebec. (You can find a link to the outfitter on the sidebar.)

******

For the first time since we left the Omaha, Nebraska region after the torrential rains of the 3rd of June that we had serious rain. (Actually, just about the first rain period.) Visibility dropped to maybe fifty feet and traffic slowed from 75-80 all the way down to *gasp* 55 miles per hour! Yet even that lasted just long enough to wash the road grime off the Tundra and drop the temperature fifteen degrees from 79 to 64 degrees. (It had been as high as 93 when we were crossing the Alabama-Georgia-Tennessee portion of I-59 this morning.

******

I had no luck getting online last evening because I could never get a sign in screen. I finally figured out why. I had inadvertently changed my default browser to AOL when I installed updates two days ago. AOL requires I enter a password to sign in. I can't sign in until I agree to terms and enter the network password. It's a catch-22 situation. Tonight I went and (temporarily) made Internet Explorer my default browser. Got signed on in no time. I should have played with the photos but wasted too many minutes trying to get on line that I was too frustrated with the computer. Instead, I used the iPhone to get my email done and look at Facebook and then went to sleep with a headache.

My New Toy/Tool and Knee Surgery Progress

My six year-old (or is it seven?) Toshiba has been acting wonky so I went out and purchased a Dell Inspiron 15 with Windows 7 via the Dell web page. Had a lovely chat with a gal on that page who lead me through the purchase process after I went there to "window shop" but had a few questions that needed answering. One thing lead to another and...well, FedEx delivered the laptop Thursday afternoon. About one week from the time I placed the order.

 It's like Christmas in June.

I spent the better part of the afternoon and evening playing with the new computer: downloading software, trying to learn where all the bells and whistles are, transferring files from the old computer, etc.

 A couple of questions/comments:

• Why doesn't the software you've purchased not come on a CD anymore? Yeah, you can purchase CD backups for SOME of the programs but that suggestion/request often comes in the middle of your downloading/installing the online version and is never seen again if you skip it the first time.
• Why do you have to download it after creating a Microsoft account? (Why don't they tell you to create that account first on the little postage card sheet they DO provide with your 25 digit code that you've got to enter like four times--I've just about got it memorized!?) 
• Without a manual--or a teenager in the house--how do they expect new computer people to get things up and running in a reasonable period of time? Sure. Some of it is intuitive, but there are some step-by-step online instructions that seem to be missing a few steps or that make some great assumptions as to the skill level of the user. They really need to test their directions with people who can barely turn the machine on as well as those capable of doing full diagnostics.
•  I've been using computers since the Apple IIGS and windows machines from just after DOS; I've run into just about anything 12 year-old kids can do to a machine (Macs were a snap to fix. Windows machines--not so much.) and I still like to have a manual that I do not have to order from the folks with the Dummies books. (Not that there's anything wrong with the Dummies series. They are entertaining and very informative. It's just that most are also outdated too soon after you've purchased them due to the updates to software.) 
• Speaking of updates: It's a brand new computer fresh from Dell-land. Why does it have to update Windows on the first day it's turned on?
• Some simple explanation of some of the little programs that are part and parcel of Windows 7 would be helpful, too. Even a little tutorial that could be viewed for the newbie. (Sure, I can find them on YouTube, but there I've got to winnow out the dross from the gems. Why not get an "official Microsoft Windows" version right up front?)

Okay. Enough. I've got to get back to the work of making sure I've got everything from the Toshiba to the Dell. So far the only thing the Toshiba is reluctant to give up is the save mail from AOL. I've found directions on how to move it, but the Toshiba won't let me copy and paste the file. Keeps telling me the file is in use and that I need to close all programs using it. BUT, I haven't got any programs running...at least none that I started.

******

I've got a final(?) date for the replacement of my knees: July 15. They've moved it twice but this one seems pretty fixed.

I've had the X-rays and MRIs to be used in constructing the template for cutting the ends of the bones in each leg. They are also used to make sure the joint doesn't add or subtract from the length of the leg(s). I wanted an extra 1/2 to 1 inch but they said no.

I've met with the PA, Kim Ryan, to discuss the procedures leading up to and immediately after surgery.

Today I go to Corning Hospital to attend Joint Camp. Basically the care and exercise needed prior to and post operation.

Then, next Tuesday I see my phsyician for preop inspection and blood work.

Computer worries.

My Toshiba laptop has been acting wonky for a couple of months. It refuses to go to sleep. (The screen will go dark if I walk away from the computer for more than 10 minutes--sometimes--but usually not.) It refuses to shut off. (It freezes after going through 99% of the process.) And, today upon arrival at the Bolt Hole, when I started it up after shutting it off at the Aerie, it did not show anything on the screen when I started it up. Not seeing a log in screen, I shut it off and then turned it on again...three times. Nothing but I could hear the usual sounds in the background so I typed in my password and hit "Enter" and heard the usual sounds from my normal sign in routine. WTF?

I started looking around to see if there was a button I might have accidentally pushed that caused the screen to go dark. AHA! Function-F5 seemed the likely culprit. It switches to a monitor as the output device--and back. Perhaps if I pushed Function-F5....

BINGO! The screen came alive again.

This is the first time this has happened and I've no idea how or why it occurred. It's virtually impossible to accidentally hit Function-F5 so it must have something to do with the poor behavior at Shutdown.

This little Toshiba Satellite has served me well for at least five years with nary a hitch until the last 6 months. (One exception: Windows Defender fails to load "The handle is invalid," it says. Of course, no Windows Defender means I can't control the start-up programs.) I did upgrade its memory at one point when it was having some issues running PhotoShop Elements. (Issues that are still occurring, BTW.) It's running Windows Vista (Home Premium) which is not the most stable of systems. Perhaps it's time to start looking for a new machine.

(There! Let's see if the little bugger gets the hint!)

Rainy Day...of course.but the Toshiba IS Running!

Been raining here at the Aerie all day. Well, almost all day. When it's not actually raining, I believe it's because the clouds are BELOW us...as they are right now. "Pea soup" is the proper phrase for the dense fog we are experiencing. The good thing about this rain? It's not the gully-washing, thunder-producing downpour it could have been. What we have is more a gentle (but persistent) rainfall. The kind that's sometimes referred to as an "Irish mist." Tell you what though, we keep getting rain like we've had for April and early May, and these hills will start looking like the Pacific Northwest. The trees will be festooned with moss draped over their branches.

And the temperature...we've been 5-10 degrees below average on the high side and about 5 degrees above average on the low end. We'll wake to 45 degrees and maybe see a high of 55 pr 60.

******

Don't know what I did, but Toshiba san is back working properly and swiftly. I took a chance this morning, started it up in safe mode with networking, and ran one more virus/spyware scan using the Norton software then downloaded a special super-duper add on from the Norton website and ran that too. When it finished, there were numerous items in quarantine/trash. I restarted Toshiba san and it's been running continuously since without a problem. Watched last week's episode of NCIS and then followed the Mets vs Astros game (Mets won 7-4). Been surfing the net since that ended while opening two browsers and several tabs. Things couldn't be better.

Knock on wood.

Rain, Birds and Computers--All are Problematic

Waiting on the rain. Should be here a-n-y m-i-n-u-t-e n-o-w. It's been threatening all day long but so far nothing but a slight misting every now and again. When it does arrive, AccuHunch is promising something near to 2 inches of rain in the next couple of days then scattered showers after that for the next week.

Almost makes you wish for a drought. Almost.

******

Birding was pretty slow today. Up at Colton Point the trees were indeed out in tiny new leaves and there were some warblers way up there hopping about, but things were so gray and overcast that the coloring couldn't be made out. And few seem to have been singing making song as a identifier a tad tricky, shall we say. With hardly a breath of a breeze and no thermal currents to speak of, even the vultures stayed home today. I came home with a short list from Colton Point SP.

I took a short walk along Pine Creek at Darling Run and got a second short list but this one included a couple of Bald Eagles and several Baltimore Orioles and King Birds. The fishermen in the creek didn't seem to be doing too well either. Of the 7 or 8 I spoke to, only one admitted to having caught a trout. This despite a recent hatch of mayflies that were still fluttering over the trail. Of course, the fishermen also had to contend with a flotilla of kayaks and canoes going down the river. Most of the boaters were smart enough to pass behind the wading fishermen.

When I get a chance to get time on line without crashing (see below), I'll enter my data in eBird and then post them here.

Oh, the Tiadaghton Audubon Society picnic was nice.

******

I've got some 'puter problems. Starting about a week ago, some gremlin crawled into the Toshiba laptop and started wrecking havoc upon that machine. It's crashing, freezing and generally locking up every few minutes while I'm online in Regular Mode. It's a little better in Safe Mode with Networking Capabilities but not much. I've tried everything I could think of including moving photo files over to the external hard drives to free up space, defraging the hard drive, and running a virus check using Webroot, Norton and Windows Defender. They all said things should be A-okay. Liars!

Looks like tomorrow I'll be heading out to see the Geek Squad. Of course, the problem with that is they also sell computers at Best Buy. I might decide to get the Toshiba fixed and then splurge on an upgrade. I mean, the current 110 GB hard drive and 2 GB RAM are adequate, but that 11.73 Ghz processor? Snails and slugs move faster. Oh, the temptation!

I flunked that test last time when the Apple PowerBook G4 went down. While it went out for repairs (new hard drive with all the data from the old one saved!) I ended up with the Toshiba Satellite. (Woefully underpowered, I might add.) Prices have fallen considerably since then and I could get a much nicer laptop--bigger, smarter, faster--for about 2/3 the price I paid for the Toshiba back then.

For now, I'm making do with the Apple PowerBook G4. I gots 'lectronics up the wazzo!

Computer Rage

I mentioned that I suffered a computer malfunction last night while making a presentation at the Audubon Society meeting. My reaction was much more controlled than this fellow. Perhaps I held back because I had an audience. Perhaps I held back because I realized I might be partially at fault for having a low amount of RAM in my computer. Perhaps. But deep down inside I sure wanted to.



(Found over at Denny's)

It's done....The slideshow presentation, that is.

The presentation of our 2010 road trip to Alaska went pretty well last night. NOT!

Murphy was in attendance.

Extension cords (which I forgot to bring with me) were all two-prong affairs but the projector had three prongs. And extension cords were needed since the wire from the projector was only 4' long and would not reach the outlet from the optimum set-up position. Someone from the photo club happened to live a block away from the library and she took Terry home to get an adapter so everything could work together.

The slideshow, which ran without a hitch at home, froze several times on my computer once the computer got hooked up to the projector. This, of course, caused several delays before we simply switched over to a friend's laptop using a copy I had stored on a memory stick for just such a situation.

The half hour lost due to this frustration inducing SNAFU produced an outbreak of nerves on my part and a much longer than anticipated program running time, causing people to start squirming in their seats. I ended up halting the show as we were returning to the lower forty-eight in Portland, OR. Folks never got to see our birding in Utah, the visit to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, or hot air ballooning in Colorado Springs.

We did get to discuss portions of our trip with several folks who had been to Alaska either by ship or plane. It was interesting to see them nodding their heads as we showed slides of places they had visited and hear them agree with some of my comments about those places.

This morning, when I ran the slideshow at home, it worked perfectly. It could be that while I merely clicked through the slides rapidly at home (1,2,3,4...etc.) I was pausing to discuss a few of the slides during the performance last night. This gave the computer an opportunity to cogitate in the background and access the RAM--of which I have only the minimum 1 GB--causing the computer to seize up.

To prevent that from happening in the future, I just ordered some memory chips from Crucial to boost my RAM to 4 GB. Should help with the running of a sometimes balky Photoshop program as well. In any event, more RAM for the old computer is cheaper than a new computer--which would probably come with either the basic package or an exorbitant boost in price for the larger RAM package.

That is all.

Thursday night at the Bolt Hole

I'm sitting in the kitchen of the Bolt Hole this evening following the Rutgers game against Norfolk State on the computer. (RU just scored a rushing TD and a 2-point conversion to go ahead 14-0 midway through the third quarter. Not great but not bad either.)

Terry came over to the campground this morning to help me prepare the trailer to depart for Alpin Haus in Amsterdam. It took us about 15 minutes to get things squared away and hitched up. She took the last of the things that just had to go to the Aerie (including the dirty laundry and bed linens) and I took the few things that I knew could not stay in the trailer while it sat int he yard awaiting the replacement of the slide out motor. We then emptied the tanks as best we could at the dump station at the campground and I headed north while she went back to tending the cats and watching Don and Adam apply stone to the exterior walls.

The ride north was totally uneventful. I had t stop once to refuel in Seneca Falls and then once more to eat my lunch--a left over Subway sandwich from our workday meal on Wednesday.

When I got to Alpin Haus I was surprised to be told that they may actually get to the work early. Joey, the gal at the service desk, said she had information that the parts were on their way and, in fact, should have been in house already. Hopefully, she said they will be there in a day or two. Originally she had told me that they would schedule the work for September 10th, but now she said they would get to it as soon as the parts arrive. I left her the keys and a note about the braces I had put in to keep the slide out from...well..sliding out, gave her my telephone number and bid adieu as I headed for the Bolt Hole.

Mark is here and showed me the devastation a power failure had produced vis-a-vis the refrigerator. Not only did we lose nearly all the food contained therein, but the mice had a field day with what spilled out the door. They carried on with the toilet paper, towels and various other things they normally leave alone. (How's that saying go again? Oh yeah: "While the cat's away....") He also showed me what may have caused the problem: moisture condensing on the electrical box in the basement. Then he pointed out the corrections he made down there to dry the place out.

He also showed me the new high-speed wireless internet connection he had installed in my kitchen while I was away. (I had to give a verbal okay to the folks at the phone company that he had permission to act on my behalf. I think I was in Alaska at the time.) Thing works like a charm although the modem does create a little buzzing sound in the background when I'm on the phone. Much faster than dial up.

Then we took a walk about the yard. The number of apples in the trees is astounding. Trees that are whip-like in nature being only a couple of inches in diameter at breast height and running 20 to 25 feet tall are bend nearly double with the weight of apples. The apples themselves are pretty poor quality being only a few inches in diameter and tart as vinegar, but they are abundant. Mark thinks the type of apple was chosen because it is so prolific--when the spring frost allows--and because they were grown for the applejack they could produce. They are certainly not eating apples by any means. If they were, the bears would have torn many more limbs down to get to them. The few deer that are around have nibbled at the tips of the branches and have also nibbled the drops, but there are still some apples within reach that they haven't touched. Even so, I'd have to say the apple orchard reclamation project Mark began about four years ago seems to have begun to pay off.

Then it was time to go grocery shopping to replace some essentials, like coffee and toilet paper!

Now, I'm "watching" the Scarlet Knights game on the internet via CBSSports.com.

If Earl remains to the east, I may have to go out and start cutting firewood tomorrow. At least, the circulation about the storm will draw cooler air south from Canada. Today it was near 90 degrees--again.

Abbott and Costello today

One more from Ruthann. It's been around for a bit but still good for a laugh.
She actually sent it last night but I held off posting it until this morning. Don't want her to think I'm totally dependent upon her emails. ;-) Besides, by delaying this post, I got to locate and post "Who's On First" before this one showed up.

You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and not too old to REALLY understand computers, to fully appreciate this. For those of us who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please read on...

If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their famous sketch, 'Who's on First?' might have turned out something like this:

COSTELLO BUYS A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know.. What will I see when I look at the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows..

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows..

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue'W'.

COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

(A few days later)

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on 'START'.............

Connectivity

GuyK (of CHARMING, JUST CHARMING) is experiencing trouble with his internet connection. ( The Roadrunner Has PMS ) and he talks about some of the problems he used to have with AOL, the bad old days of dial-up and using his Verizon antenna

The Aerie has wireless through a modem to our fiber optic phone line that also carries our TV signal. (Talk about multi tasking!) All through a little phone company that just about covers the northern half of Tioga County and part of Bradford as well. Very responsive customer service too. It’s not quite a Mom-and-Pop operation but it’s close.

I currently use AOL as my main service although I also use Firefox, Safari and Explorer. I could get by without AOL and will often use just Firefox as my browser at the Aerie, but I need AOL for its dial-up service and have had few problems with it although they seem to have forgotten (as most folks on the internet including yours truly have) that dial-up is slow as molasses when lots of graphics are involved. I don’t really need to use AOL at the Aerie but the story at the Bolt Hole is quite different.

The Bolt Hole has dial-up service through old wire phone lines. And it’s at the end of the line to boot so if there is ANY problem ANY where along the line…well, I’m screwed. Again, however, it’s a small, local company and they are pretty good about getting out to diagnose any problems and make repairs.

There’s no cell phone service at the Bolt Hole either, so using a Verizon antenna is out of the question. I’ve looked into one of those for when we are traveling but, hey, we’re not traveling so it’s on the wish list.

As a result, I use dial-up connection when at the Bolt Hole. If they ever run fiber optic phone lines (they have them in the nearby villages where the population makes it cost effective) or improve cell coverage with another tower (unlikely as there are vast swathes of Adirondack Park Forest where there are few roads and fewer residents adjacent to the Bolt Hole property), I might consider switching but for now my end-of-the-phone line cabin has to deal with the occasional bad splice that puts static on the line and causes me all kinds of headaches until the repairman can hustle out to fix the problem. (That happened twice last year with the bad wind storms in August that had trees down everywhere.)

I learned a couple of things from the repairman. If your signal on dial-up is dropped frequently it's usually due to noise (static) on the phone line. To check for static, lift the receiver and press 5. You should hear nothing. If there's ANY snap, crackle or pop there's static on the line. That noise will be read by your connection as a garbled message from your computer and cause it to drop you like a hot potato. As it is, 95% of the time the noise is on the company's line due to bad splices or a limb on the wire or something and not in your house. They will fix that for free and quite quickly if you have a good phone company. And the local company up North is quite good.

So, my email address still has that aol.com at the end and is likely to continue that way for some time. (Of course, even if I switch I can still use the mail service. No?)

"Back up, back up, back up!"

I mentioned a short time ago that I had a hard drive crash on my PowerBook G4 and seemingly lost years of personal photographs and journal entries. I was stupid enough not to have created a back up of those photos and documents on CDs or a portable hard drive. With the cost of portable hard drives and memory sticks/cards constantly dropping, there was no excuse for not having done so.

I purchased a new hard drive for the G4 and had it installed but held on to the old one for nearly a year before I finally decided upon a company to handle the data recovery. Then I bit the bullet and contacted the folks at ECO Data Recovery. I was impressed with the previous clients (NASA, GE and my own bank, Fist Citizens National) and thought they should be able to help little old me.

Within two weeks of their receiving my 80GB hard drive they were shipping it back to me along with an 80 gig portable hard drive containing all the data they were able to retrieve including my iPhoto file with several years of photographs and my documents folder with all my journal entries.

It wasn’t cheap but it was quickly and professionally handled. Now I need to spend some time burning some back-up CDs and deciding what files on that portable HD I can dispense with. You can be sure that backing up my photos and documents will become a monthly task. I've learned my lesson the hard way and "Back up, back up, back up" will become my mantra.

If you ever have a similar problem and need to have your HD data retrieved due to an accident to your computer or simple mechanical failure of your HD components, I would whole heartedly recommend ECO Data Recovery.

One of Life's Lessons

Over a year ago I turned on my Apple PowerBook G4 and was greeted by all sorts of grinding noises and repeated clickings. Never having heard such a racket before, I shut the power off and tried again with the same results. I attempted to start the computer one more time and got the same noises. The hard drive had a catastrophic failure. I was without a computer! Worse, I had several years of documents—mostly journal entries but at least a year and a half of blog entries—on that computer. And let’s not even discuss the number of photographs that were on that 80 GB HD. Back-up? Surely you jest?

Needing a wireless computer, I immediately went out to purchase a new laptop and ended up with a Toshiba Satellite running Vista. (Hey, it came with the damn thing.) As much as I love my Mac, this Toshiba has been doing everything I want. And Vista hasn’t been the nightmare I expected. I had run Windows machines before but this one has all the bells and whistles. I’m pretty happy with it.

I still had the Mac and have an insider working in the Apple Store at the Mall at Short Hills—my daughter, Jess. She asked around about data recovery and came up with a couple of companies that do that sort of work from machines that have suffered far worse than mine. Of course they charge a pretty penny for their services, but I’m thinking of all the photos from several fishing trips to Quebec, one or two trips across the country, and five years worth of miscellaneous family action. How much are they worth? (Seeing as how I didn’t pay for any film or developing, I might be breaking even here.) Plus there are all those journal entries and blog posts. I’m thinking of biting the bullet and boosting the economy of one of these recovery companies. It’s going to cost me between $700 and $1K. Ouch!

Oh, by the way, Jess did have one of her friends take the old HD out of the PowerBook G4 and install a new one so I’ve now got a Windows Vista machine and a Mac PowerBook G4 running Tiger. Sweet!

I will say that the connectivity of the Toshiba is much better than the Aluminum cased PowerBook. Must be the case itself, but the strength of signal with the PowerBook is so dependent upon where I am in the house and even which direction I’m facing that it’s pretty damn annoying. No such problems with the Toshiba. Strong signals are received anywhere in the house and even on the deck.

Last of the Few: Gates vs. GM

Ya gotta love this. If Cars were made like computers.

Last of the Few: Gates vs. GM

12 year-old "Magneto Man"

Having taught computer usage to middle school students (for nearly 10 years), this story just had me laughing:

Like the movie "Be Kind Rewind," computers go haywire around Oswego County boy

I had students who had trouble with some of my lessons and who just couldn’t grasp editing or the use of a spreadsheet, but I never had one who could literally crash a computer while just sitting next to it. (There were a few who would do their best to intentionally cause a crash, however.)

Joe, a 12-year-old boy in the town of Richland in Oswego County, began calling himself "Magneto Man" last year, after his teachers concluded that his presence could crash the school computers.

"Another student could use a computer, and it would be fine. But if Joe was on it, weird things started to happen," said Marie Yerdon, computer lab teacher at Lura Sharp Elementary School in Pulaski.

The teacher speculates there is something in Joe’s body chemistry that’s causing the problem. Well, hell, a 12-year old boy’s body chemistry can be doing all sorts of strange things, if you know what I mean.

They finally had to put an anti-static pad under the computer and wrist strap on Joe to halt all the problems. (He also had difficulties playing an Xbox at home until they switched to a wireless Xbox 360 and put Joe across the room from the box.)

But the best part of the story is this:

But the most legendary example of Joe's "powers" came at his fifth-grade promotion ceremony last year, when the teachers put together a computer slide show of their students' baby pictures. The gym bleachers were packed with parents, and the students sat cross-legged on the floor to watch the presentation.

"They were going through the slide show, and my son was sitting quietly," Joe senior said. "And all of a sudden, the music started to slow down and get distorted, and the pictures were messing up, stuff like that. As parents, we didn't think anything of it, until two teachers sprinted over to get to Joe. We're thinking, 'What did he do? Did he do something wrong?'

"The teachers moved him away to the side of the room, and then the slide show started going again, and the computer went back up to speed," he said. "And then we realized that it wasn't that Joe was misbehaving. They were moving him away from the hard drive so the computer wouldn't crash."

He’s in the middle school now and his class is in a new wing. There have been no recurrences of the problems. Yet.

h/t to Ace

Just asking...

So, I'm at the Bolt Hole where I'm using dial-up service. Since I have only one phone line, the computer is disconnected when I'm not actually online and the phone is plugged back into the jack in the wall.

Last night I checked for messages around 9 PM and then unplugged the computer when I was through.

This morning, when I woke the computer from it's slumber I got a message saying Windows had installed new software updates during the night and when I clicked for information, sure enough, the date stamp on the installation was after midnight as it bears today's date.

I'm running Vista on a Toshiba Satellite. What I want to know is how the hell it was able to download and install the updates while the computer had no access to the internet?

Forget FISA, put Microsoft in charge of tracking terrorists. Apparently they can do miracles. (Oh, wait, Bill Gates would then be the first to see all this information...Forget about it. Reminds me of the portrayal of Ma Bell in Our Man Flint.)

Traveling Music

When I purchased the Aveo for Terry I noticed the audio system no longer included a tape cassette player. When we got the Tundra, we again lost a cassette player. Now, I realize there are fewer and fewer tape cassettes being sold in music stores these days. I know this even though I haven’t been in a music store for a bit. Not because I’ve been downloading music or anything. I just got tired of dropping a C-note every time I walked into a Sam Goody’s. Even before I managed to keep out of the music stores, the tape displays were making way for more and more CDs. That’s even true at the local WalMart. But I’ve got probably close to two hundred or more cassettes. And I almost never listen to them anywhere but in the car. What to do?

While I had Jessica here (she's going to bug out tomorrow to avoid any ice on Friday), I got a quick tutorial on converting music tapes into MP3 files using Garage Band on my MAC PowerBook. Later I’ll burn some of those MP3 files onto CDs so I can play them in the truck. I spent most of the afternoon recording four ZZ Top’s tapes. Next up will be some Tractors and Bruce Hornsby.

Maybe, when I get done I’ll take the cassettes down to the local 2nd Hand Shop and see if I can get anything for them. Right now he’s got a pretty pathetic selection of tapes there from artists (?) of whom you’ve never heard.

I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

Have I mentioned how much I HATE dial-up?

E v e r y t h i n g i s s o s l o w .

Wahoooooo!

Sometimes the computer gods do smile down upon me. (Other times they seem to drop trow and...well, you get the idea.)

You remember I told you my PowerBook G4 crapped out on me the other day? Well I tried everything I could to get it to reboot and/or reinstall the MAC OS X and failed at every turn. As I usually do when I have a computer problem, I went whining to my daugther, who works at the Apple Store at the Mall in Short Hills. She talked me through some of the very same steps I had all ready done and then, "Jeez, dad. You're screwed!" or something like that. She had lost a hard drive on her PowerBook when it was just 2 years old. Mine was nearly 5 and starting to show its age.

I resigned myself to the loss of the HD and asked if there was any way I could retrieve my files. That was when she directed me to the section in the manual about linking two MACs using a bit of FireWire magic.

So, upon the advise of my lovely and talented daughter, Terry and I went shopping today for a piece of FireWire that had 6-to-6 pin connectivity. Our travels took us to the Best Buy in Horseheads. It was there we found the cable we needed and this nifty little Toshiba Satellite I am working on at the moment. (Never hurts to have a spare!)

Getting home we hooked up the two MACs as per the instructions and started my PowerBook up as I pressed the T key. Within moments I discovered that Terry's little iBook could see my HD just fine, thank you. I downloaded all my files to Terry's machine and will now see if I can erase the HD and have the restore disc rewrite the MAC OS X software on to it. If I succeed, I have a working PowerBook. If I don't, the PowerBook will have to go into the shop for a new HD. But at least I still have the Toshiba to work on!

Sh*t Happens

After four plus years of loyal service, the hard drive on my MAC PowerBook G4 suddenly crapped out on me this morning. Instead of a nice crisp bell-tone and all sorts of happy startup sounds I get a grinding reminiscent of a '54 Ford pick-up in need of a transmission job and hauling two shovelfuls of nearly round 2" diameter gravel in an unlined metal bed.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad a sound, but there was less than a smooth spin-up of the old hard drive as it attempted to get going. And then there was--nothing. Just a grey-blue screen with the Apple logo. Forever.

I've tried doing all I can to get it booted up. It does so from the Install/Restore disc that came with it but even from there it fails to install the Mac OSX because of some fatal flaw on the hard drive.

Looks like it will be back to the shop to see if the whiz kids at the Apple store can help. Since I never did get around to backing up any of my files, I'm screwed if they can't retrieve them for me. if I can get a hard drive for less than $300 to replace the defective one in the PowerBook I will be happy.

Meanwhile, I'll be looking at a Toshiba Satellite for a temporary replacement. Wal-Mart carries them at a very reasonable price. I see they have a nice A105-S4397 for just under $900. Only bad thing about it is it comes with Vista all ready installed. I'd much rather take my chances with an XP machine.

Oh, well. Now if the up to 2 FEET of snow we are predicted to get today and tomorrow would only get out of the way....