MACBOOKAIR: Online, but not back to where I was

Saturday, December 11, 2010

OK, it came back from Apple wiped.

❶ Lost the Snow Lepord OSX, Iworks, and Ilife upgrade. Have to find the distribution disks. (That was last year. Know how much stuff has flowed under the proverbial bridge?)

❷ CARBONITE did its job. All my data is back. (Not software. Ouch!)

❸ DROPBOX put an extra data backup in its folder. (Data back up redundancy. Love it.)

❹ GOFLEX drive did NOT back up the applications directory. (ARGH! Not recommending that any time soon.)

❺ What ever clipboard manager I was happily using B.A. (before Apple mucked it) is lost in the mists of memory. (Note to self: keep your own manifest of what’s on the machine! Argh!)

❻ Dumped Apple’s lame MAIL Client. Deployed THUNDERBIRD3. (PIA to redefine all those accounts. Would have had to do it for APPLEMAIL. So bite the bullet.)

❼ Blogs have been neglected and irregular during this adventure.

❽ Old APPLEMAIL archives are “lost”. Argh!

❾ Oh, and thanks Apple for the “Thanks for purchasing your Mac.” message. Argh!

❿ Old system of accounts on the MACBOOKAIR is wiped. Guess I’ll just forget about “separation” of USER and ADMINISTRATOR roles. Argh!

The adventure continues.

p.s., I dumped APPLE’s software for Open Office.

p.p.s., Started a “manifest” of stuff I put on like NVU.

Argh!

# # # # # posted 2010-12-11 09:05

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Posted by reinkefj

IPAD: Tables in IPAD’s PAGES

Friday, December 10, 2010

Couldn’t figure how to size the cells. Adjust the font”? it’s definitely NOT like a desktop.

Leave a Comment » | ADMINISTRIVIA | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

MACBOOKAIR: Back from shop

Friday, December 10, 2010

Well, got it back last night. The apple store employee was stunned I was less than pleased at the hard disk being wiped! I expected it, but was hoping against it. The official report says that the hd wouldn’t mount. Worked fine when it went in. Visualize this: it goes in for a sound problem, a failure to sync on one account, and they nuke the hard drive. Lazy!

CARBONITE appears to be working at restoring my data. It appears to take a whole day to restore it all. We’ll see! I know that DROPBOX has my data as well.

It is just a big PIA to restore all the software and configure it!

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Should I write the “fat old white guy injineer’s guide to money”?

Friday, December 10, 2010

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/12/05/reader-story-making-the-move-to-semi-retirement/

*** begin quote ***

On 31 December 2009, I finished what I hope will be my last full-time, permanent job. I’ve worked a bit here and there over the past year, but it’s on my own terms, and not because I have to. I’m now semi-retired at the age of 45. But what does that mean?

About nine years ago, after reading Your Money or Your Life, I changed from an under-earning, confused woman to a woman with a mission: to never have to work again (unless I wanted to). In November of last year, I reached the Crossover Point, where the income from investments exceeded my expenses. (I think it actually happened sooner than that, but I hadn’t been paying attention.) At last, nine years after first figuring out what I wanted to work hard and save money for, I’d reached Financial Independence.

*** end quote ***

Interesting. Wish I could have done it. Sigh.

Guess I should have read that book.

Bout the only thing I can remember doing right was matching car loan to car savings plan.

https://reinkefaceslife.com/2006/05/07/muny-the-majority-of-auto-loans-are-now-five-years-or-longer/

I think I’ve made most of the mistakes. Wonder if I should write the “fat old white guy injineer’s guide to money”?

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: The cloud isn’t as good as a newspaper

Thursday, December 9, 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/08/editorial-wikileaks-julian-assange

WikiLeaks: The man who kicked the hornet’s nest

As the disclosures continue, a number of questions about the way the world has changed are becoming more clearly framed

* Editorial
* The Guardian, Wednesday 8 December 2010

*** begin quote ***

The academic Clay Shirky has blogged persuasively this week that the US government should openly use the law against WikiLeaks and others rather than muscle. “Whatever restrictions we eventually end up enacting, we need to keep Wikileaks alive today, while we work through the process democracies always go through to react to change. If it’s OK for a democracy to just decide to run someone off the internet for doing something they wouldn’t prosecute a newspaper for doing, the idea of an internet that further democratizes the public sphere will have taken a mortal blow.” We agree.

*** end quote ***

Several interesting points:

* The inet is not as resilient as expected. It’s supposed to route arond failures, but it’s politcially “controlled”.

* The DNS infrastructure is a single point of failure with respect to that political control.

* With this spur the creation and deployment of a peer to peer bittorrent style dns? Will everyone discard DNS in favor of “phone numbers” like 1.2.3.4? People remember 10 digit phone numbers when they need to.

* Will WIKILEAKS create a new genre of “tabloid journalism”?

* “We, The Sheeple” have gotten a real wake up call into their Gooferment and their politicians. Will it change anything?

 

 

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: “contagious yawning”?

Thursday, December 9, 2010

http://www.impactlab.net/2010/12/05/babies-are-immune-to-catching-yawns/

December 5th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Babies Are Immune to Catching Yawns

*** begin quote ***

There is now growing evidence, however, that yawning may be a social cue that communicates a message. Anthropologists have suggested it might have evolved as a way of signifying that it is time to go to bed. There are even suggestions that it might have developed a sign of sexual attraction rather than the desire to sleep. Dr Anderson said: “I don’t think there is one primary function, but as adults we have a natural tendency to inhibit yawning because it is seen as being impolite. The contagious yawning might just that our brains see someone else doing it and so it becomes acceptable.”

*** end quote ***

Who ever even heard of “contagious yawning”?

And, attaching it to “sexual attraction”?

Was that what all those girls were “signaling” when they yawned while I was pitching them? If I had only known …

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: Added a POGOPLUG to my garage “datacenter”

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

http://download.pogoplug.com/meet/

*** begin quote ***

The Pogoplug is the perfect accessory to your connected life. Imagine accessing all your files and media at home from any laptop or desktop computer, anywhere in the world, or sharing this content with friends and family without having to upload. There’s even an iPhone application so you can always “phone home” to get your files!

*** end quote ***

It installed quickly and easily.

It works as advertised.

(Doesn’t seem to like when the platform hibernates?)

Have to figure out how to sync various machines on the home network. No immediately apparent.

RECOMMENDED!

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Sports “rules” that I don’t like

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Hey, I have a lot of time on my hands. So here’s some sports rules that I don’t like.

① Offsides in soccer and hockey. Never understood it.

② “Overtime” in football. The College rule is dumb and the Pro rule is that the coin flip determines the outcome. I like either “no ties” (first to the tie score wins; credit to the GSN show “catch21”) or “king me” (second to the tie score wins; forces the leader to play; not stall)

③ Sports with no “mercy rule”. (Even pro games that are 37-0 are boring.)

④ Sports with teams that play the mythical “Home for the Blind” to pad their records.

⑤ Division 1 NCAA Basketball “leagues”. (I like the idea that there are different tiers with the bottom of an upper tier gets demoted and replaced with top of the lower tier.)

⑥ NCAA rules on “eligibility”. “Schools”, (Most are really Gooferment subdivisions), can “graduate” “student-athletes” who can’t read or stars leave without graduating. If I were “king” and heaven help the politicians if I was, “Doctor Guillotine, the King has summoned you.”, I’d have “exit exams”, just like they have “entrance exams”. “Student athletes”, who fail the exit exam or just leave, cost the “school” a scholarship for 8 years. (Think that will get their attention?)

⑦ NCAA needs better treatment of “student athletes” when the coach leaves or is dismissed. Signees, freshmen, and sophomores should be given “immediate clearance” to play elsewhere.

⑧ Sportsmanship in all sports. It’s sports; not warfare. Coach’s antics are unacceptable. Athlete’s might get a warning. I like soccer’s red and yellow cards. Maybe the football players need to play without equipment; like rugby. Maybe we need rules that really penalize “unsportsmanlike conduct”! What message are we sending to society or children? And, perhaps, we should have a mandatory “sit out” anytime there is a hint of a concussion. For example, if the ref has to stop play for any injury, then that player is “administratively unavailable” a quarter (i.e., elapsed time of 15 minutes; the equivalent of a “time out” in the hockey penalty box). Multiple “unavailables” lead to some number of game exclusions as directed by a doctor of unimpeachable credentials dedicated to protecting the player. College and pro.

⑨ Refs and umps need a feedback mechanism. They’re not “gods”; they make mistakes. But, they are also not the “devil incarnate” and deserve respect.

⑩ And, don’t get me started on “instant replay” rules.

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Ted Turner knows what’s right for us all!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=8503

Ted Turner and the tilt toward coercive population-control plans
RSS Facebook December 07, 2010

*** begin quote ***

Media mogul Ted Turner has encouraged world leaders to adopt an international norm restricting families to just one child. He claims this step is necessary to global survival.

*** end quote ***

Sure glad we have Ted to tell us what to do. And what exactly were his qualifications to run the world?

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Deny Congress everything

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/12/deny_congress_fica_payroll_tax.html

December 05, 2010
Deny Congress FICA Payroll Tax in the General Fund
Erroll Ivery

*** begin quote ***

It was not just a “change in budget presentation.” The net result of lending payroll tax to the federal government under a unified budget was divestiture of all trust funds. Congress then spent surplus payroll tax, instead of leaving it in the trust fund and investing it in money market investment accounts, for example, to earn interest and preserve capital during years of surplus payroll tax. Instead of asking the American worker to compensate for Congress’ fiscal irresponsibility, Congress should re-capitalize the Social Security Trust Fund with payroll tax deposits. Any deficit in receipts needed to pay benefits should then come from the General Fund.

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand why we continue the fiction that this is a “separate program”, “insurance”, or even an “entitlement”. It’s a welfare program that has been marketed

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