Reinke Faces Life

Last night’s upgrade to OSX 10.6.3 took about an hour, give or take. And, everything looks OK. Sort of.

(The only thing I noticed at the time was that (a) the application icon and huge NBD and that (b) IPHOTO is still broken. (Argh!)

But today, I noticed that VZAccess Manager v7.0.5 (2424j) for the Verizon Wireless USB720 is GONE!

Argh!

Another download!

Sigh!

But, now I wonder what else was nuked?

Sure “Quality is Job#1”!

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Not without difficulty, VZACCESSMANAGER downloaded, installed, and a required reboot … (Why?) …

VZAccess Manager v7.0.5 (2424j) for your Verizon Wireless USB720

And, it’s different.

Argh!

Change control and version control and the vendors do what they want!

# # # # # posted 2010-12-17 09:07

• IPHOTO still broken.

• Pages, Keynote, and Numbers still down; looking for the <synonym for procreation> disks.

• Migrated off APPLEMAIL onto THUNDERBIRD.

• Migrated off FIREFOX onto CHROME.

# # # # # posted 2010-12-16 23:39

… and they want me to rebuy it!

(You have to be kidding.)

Argh!

They will replace Snow Leopard because the machine went in with it and came out without it.

But they want me to rebuy the iWorks and iLife!

Same logic should apply.

Argh!

I hate computers. And, their enablers.

It’s either a product and it’s all my responsibilities. Or, it’s licensed, and my serial number is all that I should need.

Argh!

Now, I gotta find those disks.

# # # # # posted 2010-12-12 16:04

The adventure continues.

My DROPBOX strategy has a flaw. For some reason, a significant portion of my PDF files were deleted. (No idea why?) Clearly, sharing among machines is a winner. BUTT (there’s always a big but) I need a ‘vaulting strategy’. The deletion could have been disastrous. But, it took four hours to recover the files. And, I immediately made a copy. So, I need a synchronization strategy for each platform. Basically a synchronization utility that copies the latest files to the sharing directory and updates back in. Have to think about that.

“Manifests” for each machine are obviously needed. I have to start that now on the other platforms. Need to have the link to the source and possibly the last distribution.

Need a data review and archiving strategy.

In next year’s storage plan, I need to have it monthly archive.

No need to save all the ‘stuff’ I am saving. Argh!

# # # # # posted 2010-12-12 13:15

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

Case close. Broken hardware (maybe? probably?) But “closed” from their POV. Not mine.

Now you see why it’s “NOTRECOMMENDED”?

Like DELL, I think they are living of reputation.

# # # # # posted 2010-11-27 11:38

“No output sound devices defined” (No input either.)

Conclusion after ½ on the phone is it’s a hardware problem.

NOO, really!

Argh!

They want me to leave the machine for three days for them to diag, order parts, and repair.

You gotta be kidding me.

Or, I can send it in and this is with the extended warranty.

Argh!

This is for a machine that won’t sync. (They never figured that one out either.)

Hence my time machine is a giant router in disguise. That’s all it is good for.

Argh!

BAck when I first got the machine and wasn’t totally “on” it, the screen took a week to replace.

Cloud computing, with all it’s version control issues, is looking better and better.

Argh!

# # # # # posted 2010-11-26 15:34

Update applied. Big one. Reboot required. We’ll see.

Sound still broken.

Assume sharing is still broken.

Argh! Have to consider “bare metal restore”.

# # # # # posted 2010-11-13 09:53

For no apparent reason, there is no sound on the McBa. The volume controls on the keyboard don’t work. And in the system preferences | sound, there are no output devices defined.

The only help I can find online says to run the permission fixer, which I did to no avail.

Argh!

So much for Apple’s reputation of “bulletproof-ness”. I go get this on a Windoze machine.

Time for a bare metal restore?

But I’ll lose all my email archives.

Argh!

# # # # #

Re: Excessive Airport Scanning after 10.5.2

Posted: Nov 23, 2008 11:01 AM in response to: Gregory Vonderh…

*** begin quote ***

Glad to know I’m not alone. Slight comfort. I almost bought a new AP thinking that had to be the problem. Of course, this has only happened since the OS update. I never had a problem prior to that. None of the subsequent updates have helped, either. Getting rid of the airport status in the menu bar has only helped in that I don’t constantly see black bars fade to completely ghosted every 30 seconds. I’m hoping that this issue is resolved soon. It’s beyond maddening.

*** end quote ***

I’m also having the problem. Argh!
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http://web.mac.com/reinkefj/Site/Blog/Blog.html

I’ve been putting my McBa use items here.

# # # # #

Last night, didn’t notice the plug was out and McBa was sitting in hibernate. Today noticed it. Battery is under a quarter. Wonder what happens when it goes flat? Any way, cant take it with me today to doc office because it’s so low. Maybe that is a design problem. It should shutdown after hibernate for say an hour?

# # # # #

Argh!

All the work on chapter 63 was lost.

I don’t know if it was McBa’s fault or operator error.

I have to print everything I do on this project before I leave a file. Luggable has screwed me once very badly on this project loosing three wee hours of the morning prose. Now McBa screwed me out of an hour of not so beautiful prose.

Argh! Argh!

Maybe I should use a typewriter? This is a productivity enhancement?

Argh! Argh! Argh!

# # # # #

Argh!

Sent a chapter of the novel over to McBa. Worked fine. Did some work no it saved it. And this morning McBa says something to the effect that “you might be surprised at the results”.

Aghhh!

Surprised is NOT the word I’d use.

# # # # #

Now maybe it’s picky. And maybe I’m just dense. But the McBa’s keyboard is mislabeled one key.

It’s <backspace>; not <delete>!!!

It reallly throws me off.

Maybe there’s a way to redefine it? Maybe I just don’t understand. Maybe it’s trivial to you.

It’s annoying to me!

# # # # #

Update: Yes, I figured out that Fn + Delete is ‘forward delete’. Thanks, Google. Argh!

http://www.apple-touch.com/free-ipod-touch-with-purchase-of-a-mac-for-college-students-02661.php

Free iPod Touch with Purchase of a Mac for College Students?
Posted on June 2nd, 2008 in iPod Touch

*** begin quote ***

Every year Apple has made a special back to school program available for students heading back to school. Last year they made the offers only available to college students and this year rumors are circulating that they might include a free 8GB touch with a Mac purchase.

*** end quote ***

Screwed again. Missed out on one of whatever it is.

Argh!

# # # # #

I ordered a ‘man bag’ for McBa. (Mac Book Air … I’m always accused of using acronyms) I took the 35$ one that looked like it would suffice. Some of them are price in the hundreds. Guess they think if you spring for a McBa, then you’ll spend any amount for anything. Maybe Martha; not me. The dumb thing didn’t come with a shoulder strap so I borrowed one. I’ll gripe about that vendor when I get around to it.

Any way I took McBa out in its ‘man bag’ and it worked perfectly. Fired up the vwubbie (Verizon Wireless Broad Band usb modem). And everything worked fine.

There was a wifi signal but I couldn’t connect. Argh!

McBa ran for more than 2 hours on the battery driving vwubbie.

I as careful to shut down; not just close the lid. Just closing the lid drains the battery in 12 hours.

So far, I’m pleased.

# # # # #

Brought the “time capsule” home. Took a few manual ‘press and hold for 10 seconds’ to finally convince it to connect to my home wireless network.

Yeah!

# # # # #

The first backup, which I had read takes a while, did.

Four Hours?

What was it writing records with a quill pen?

# # # # #

Fired up the Time machine.

It REQUIRES an inet connection to configure. Or at least I couldn’t figure out how to make it work without one.

It’s backing up MBA as we speak. Feels like about four hours.

Haven’t figured out where to keep the Time Machine — home or at work?

Haven’t figured out how to eject the disk from the ‘MacBookAir Super Drive’ (an external cd drive with a twenty page limited warranty in five languages AND a four page ‘user manual’ with one page of pictures and two pages of ‘regulatory information’ and one sentence of documentation)

“Attach the MacBook Air SuperDrive directly to your MacBook Air.” in five languages of course.

No word how to eject the disk, the drive, or the usb cable. (I’ll wait till I power down.) No idea if you can put it on a usb hub between it and MBA!

# # # # #

Connects flawlessly to my home wireless network. At work, not so good. Does it support enterprise wep leap?

# # # # #

McBa is all powered up and ready for “productivity”.

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