Obsolete tech devices as canvas and frame

I painted this abstract (above) in an odd place - inside a dead Sharp Personal Organizer, "512K" which, for a short  time many years ago, was invaluable. (Click on the picture to see it even larger - I think it makes the size-transition well) Of course, every darling is brief in the tech world and the planet is littered with abandoned, non-functioning gizmos. Painters - recycle! Below you can see it insituo - in the frame and substrate.

Safari & Opera browser bugs on Blogger post forms

Well, I have another problem I'd like to addresss.

Safari 3 still cannot be used to cut and paste into blogger. On my system at least, it habitually pastes the block below the entry form which is not very helpful. Does anyone else have this problem?

So I downloaded another browser Opera - which I like quite a lot. But it has yet a different bug on blogger. It seems to allow you to paste into a blogger form. and you save your post. But when you look again - it's not there. Weird. Even if you refresh the page.

Anyway I gave up and downloaded a fresh copy of FireFox which seems to work fine on blogger. Thank you Mozilla.

Week long saga of Apple's unfinished, buggy MobileMe upgrade

In the interests of this blog not turning into a litany of complaint about Apple's transition from dotMac to MobileMe - I have put the saga into this single post.

7/20/08

Things seem to be working much better today. Where is there a large board so I can knock on wood?? HaHa. More later Actually, rather than have all these whinning posts I am going to consolidate the saga.

==============

7/19/2008

I was finally able to get some info back from my iDisk. maybe the one million iPhone newbies were having dinner and not hogging all the bandwidth....

==============

July 18

APPLE ARE YOU THERE? STILL HAVING TROUBLE ACCESSING MY IDISK

Yes I already installed all the requisite MOBILEME updates for my operating system. Fat lotta good that did.

Apple's status says one percent of users cannot access web mobileme mail but all other services are working . WHAT A LOAD THAT IS. I still can not mount the iDisk. It still has not returned a file list, after 40 minutes. I give up. One again I tried to access it through MobileMe using safari. It let me up load two files, but when I tried to create a folder - it does so without asking me for the folder's name. Then it hangs - and WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO RENAME THE UNTITLED FOLDER. After that everything is frozen, even after emptying the browser cache, and nothing more can be done to the iDisk. This makes my web work impossible to do. Now I check again. The file list from the desktop iDisk still has not mounted.

If this is "working" I would hate to see not working. of course this is Days after MobileMe's launch. BACK!

While it is a complex thing they have tried to do - it is a truism that one does not FIX something which is not broken. DotMac was NOT broken. The company bit off more than it could chew with ONE MILLION new iphone users, and the roll out of the IDIOTICALLY NAMED MOBILEME - (a name only a teenager could love.)

Apple CAN YOU HEAR US? PLEASE FIX THIS.

======================================

July 16 or 17?

MobileMe, ie APPLE, engenders a snafu for folks with domains still in sites folder.

With all the mysterious machinations of the MobileMe transistion. For a while I thought all was well but now that I have republished some of my iWed sties, some of my domains are not working. OutoftheMist, and several other domains I had now return errors from MobileME DOTMAC APPLE - I am thankful BentPin still works. However that is in the "web" folder - and is published with iWeb. The sites that are problematic are strait HTML and reside in the homepage "sites" folder, though they were not made with homepage. In its paternalistic wisdon APPLE has programed the new MobileMe, so that Domain names can apparently only be associated with an iWeb page not with the old HOMEPAGE folders where I had several living - not generated with iWebs 50 ton codes.

I am frustrated with Apple. I was going to get an iPhone next year. Maybe I will get a Google phone instead.

=======================================

Computing misadventures: Leopard & this geek wannabe

Well I had an adventure with my macbook this week.  While I have had a spate of problems with the new operating system Leopard - Apple has released a lot of updates which appear to have settled it down a bit once you get them installed. Of course releasing a 180 to 340 meg update, when one of the difficulties it corrects is connection problems, is a sure method to user frustration.
.

After crashing software update twice - I did get this gigantic monster downloaded and installed.  Then the unthinkable happened --- yes, the dreaded USER STUPIDITY. This stupid user attack occurred this past Saturday afternoon (it's Monday now) as I was blissfully exploring. I highlighted my hard drive icon, and brought up the GET INFO box to check how much free space I had left on the drive.  In this info box, I noted  that I had permission to read and write my drive but was STUNNED to see that EVERYBODY had permission to read it!   I was really indignant - why should everybody have the right to read my hard drive! I changed it to "no access."   No sooner had I closed the box when suddenly everything started hanging up - the rolling beach ball  on every save.(the proper mechamisms to keep other PEOPLE off your drive are the Sharing and the Security preferences panes in system preferences)

.

As usual my simple answer to most things is to either relaunch finder or reboot. So I rebooted.  BUT now my machine wouldn't even start up.  The blue screen would appear,  the spinning star like icon would appear, then the screen would flash like finder was about to start  - but instead of the familiar desktop - the blue screen was back, then the spinning star, the flash, then the blue screen again.  It only took six or seven cycles for the "Loop" light bulb to go off in my head.  Looks like it can't find the startup disk I thought. Hmmm.   Could I have done this?  I wondered.  DUHHH.

.

I hooked up the machine to my old G5 and started it in Target mode. (I attached the machines together via their firewire ports with the macbook off.  I started the mac while holding down the T key.)  This went very well. I dragged all my dated onto the old G5, anything and everything I might need including the domain.2site file from iWeb which contains all the data on your sites, and the iphoto and itune libraries.  while they are large - things cook along very fast on a firewire.

.

I shut everybody down and went to the Apple store at the mall. NO I DID NOT BRING MY MACBOOK. I have to confess that I have not ever consulted with the Genuses at the  Genus bar. I am way too stubborn for that.  What I did when I got there was saunter around reading the boxes of every disk and repair utility they had in stock. I have a copy of TechTool but on before Intel macs.  I read the cover on a new box of Techtool pro.  But it only listed Tiger on the cover.  None of them seemed to address my problem or to cover the latest version of Leopard.  I also thought the disk must be working just fine, since I was able to read it from the G5.

.

As I stood in my perplexity - I spied  "Mac OS X - The Missing Manuel, Leopard edition" by David Pogue.   This is the best $30 I have ever spent.  I would kiss the ground this guy walks on - he saved me zillions of bucks and weeks of delay.  In one weekend I have learned so much about my operating system from this book! IF YOU OWN A MAC WITH LEOPARD AND you are not a very excellent geek - you will find this book very helpful.

.

First I looked up safe mode in the index. As a converted windows user, I am familiar with this mechanism which loads a stripped down version of the operating system from its last successful boot - so you can get in there and undo what ever you or the latest download did that caused the problem....  Pogue notes that APPLE has one of these modes too - you boot while holding the shift key. Valuable info - but it didn't help me this time.  Next under startup problems, the book reminded me I could start via the Leopard install disk while pressing the C key - and then use Disk Utility.  I did so, and it declared my hard drive to be OK.  BUT then I tried to verify the permissions - and this crashed immediately. I  tried to repair the permissions. This crashed immediately too.
.
Hmmmm I thought. It can test at a low level - at the level of ones and zeros perhaps -- but it can't read the files headers or the files themselves...... hmmmmm I was pretty sure at this point the culprit was me....  I thought about all the other users who appear in Activity Monitor - like ROOT....

.

I tried throwing away my sys preferences file in target mode but this didn't help either. Finally I was pretty sure a reinstall was my only option. Or at least the only one that wouldn't requirea large a tech support bill and enduring scornful looks and snickers too...

.

First I tried the install option which preserves the users and files.  This install attempt crashed. When I read the log  - I could see the judge in his white wig pounding down his gavel _"YOU _ YOU idiot YOU Did this to your machine..." The log repeatedly noted it could not open the hard drive directory -- didn't didn't have authority. SIGH.

.

At this point I knew I was going to have to make yet another clean erase and  install of leopard. but at least I could laugh because I HAD ALL MY DATA.......   I did the install which in Apple land only takes a two hours - and which chugs away without asking for obscure driver CDs like a window's install does.  Once I had completed the install, before reinstalling any programs or moving back any data,  I used Software update repeatedly and did something Mr. Pogue suggested in his book  there is a menu option in software update to download and SAVE the Package. This avoids another gigantic download in the event of further trouble.

.

Anyway the lesson for all you tinkerers out there is - don't ever make this particular mistake.... With luck, logic and a book from the Pogue -  I am back though, happily posting this from my macbook which has all its data in place including the iphoto, itunes, and iweb files, documents etc.  Five stars for David Pogue!!!!

======================================

latest install of Leopard was purring, we'll see how it goes..

This is the first post I have made from the macbook post Leopard Install#2.

With all the trouble I had last time, I am being very cautious with this new setup. So far I have installed absolutely nothing. I have run software update and gotten the latest code. I have arranged the dock, synced for my address book and bookmarks and imported my purchased tunes from the iPod as well as a bunch of CDs. (iTunes would only let me import items purchased from the iTunes store, not stuff loaded via CD) Recordings I made myself I had backup on the G5. Another bit of good news, after repeated tries, the external hard drive I had acidently dropped is suddenly mounting again. And strange to say - its "on-off" button which NEVER worked, is suddenly functional. Go figure. Today I am planning to add iLife. Am keeping my fingers crossed.

Immediately after typing that last line, my network connection just dropped out just as it was doing last time. Cut and paste in this blogger window is acting weird too. I used photo both and took a good morning shot. Maybe I will hold off on iLife.

Post script - I have added firefox now, as some of the problems with blogger were Safari errors, according to the consol log.. hmmm. I also added taco html edit. so far so good.

TO SEE THIS WHOLE SAGA click

Leopard, a clean install this time

Often when things run amok on a computer there are two software programs having an unresolved argument over system resources, or one going into some endless loop for some inexplicable cosmic reason..

After the clean install that I HAD to make of Tiger, I had nothing more on the hard drive to lose. So I thought I would give the spotted cat one more try with nice clean reformated installation on my Intel macbook.

I did that this morning. Have not installed anything else. Got my wireless network right away, have been loading CDs into itunes. SO FAR SO GOOD (hold breath tightly...) I think I will add my programs one at a time and see how it goes. Perhaps the OS was not at fault, but the programs adapted to run on it.... On the other had there was a large Leopard update which I installed immediately after the wireless was connected....

TO SEE THIS WHOLE SAGA click

The kicker: a realization on iWeb files

Ah the final kicker on my intel macbook troubles. I was hoping against hope (Irrationally I must say) that there would be some way to import the websites I'd made and published in iWeb. I had carefully saved a published-to-a-folder representation of my websites, never once realizing the obvious fact that this would not help at all. Oddly, when the OS finally started having some sort of loop where it could not fully load, I was still able to hook it up in Target disk mode via firewire to the G5 and drag things off of the hard drive... I thought I had everything haha... SO in addition to total software snafu - I am also suffering from operator stupid (in not recovering enough stuff and in dropping the backup hard drive where previous backups were located.) ****** IMPORTANT ADDED POSTSCRIPT 2/27/08 ---> the file to back up is: domain.sites2 --- which is located in your homefolder: /Library/ApplicationSupport/iWeb/Domain.sites2 ***** This file has all the info on your sites and all their pages.....

So I spent most of Monday night and Tuesday morning building a new main page for the Wednesday Night Poetry Series on a blogspot site. (Which is now live at http://wedpoetry.net ) I moved the sub pages that could be moved out of the iDisk web folder to the old sites folder. I moved the WNPS features archive and blog but it doesn't seem to be functional outside its origional spot. ( I will recreate them and the founder's page slide show at a later time.

The problem for me is this -- in order to recreate and upload wedpoetry.net - I would obliterate the current issue of Bent Pin Quarterly because the program would over-write the web folder. After the upload only the files from the current IWeb publishing event would be left in that folder. NOTE: It didn't work this way it added to what was on the iDisk when I finally uploaded it in Jan -- though I am not sure what would happen if the site names were exactly the same.

I also ran mac Hardware test from the Tiger disk which found nothing. I have almost nothing on that machine, and I may reinstall Leopard sans additional programs to see if it will work alone..

Leopard is out temporarily

Well, it' s not over, but Leopard is off the macbook. But that means no Bonjour scan support. Even With Tiger back Soho Notes was unable to open the database backup. Never liked its group feeling anyway. it's open base heart always wanted to go out somewhere and contact some distant database. Maybe it was Soho notes all along. FOR THE RECORD I LOVED STICKY BRAIN. GREAT PRODUCT. I RUE THE DAY CHRONOS DITCHED IT FOR SOHO Luckily while the thing was still operational I exported my files so I have the rtf and text files of my writings at least up to a month or so ago.

I have have lost my itunes library, except for the files I created by recording or garageband. lost all my project files. I had backups but accidently knocked the External HD off the shelf when switching between machines. Now it won't work.

Not sure how to get iWeb to import what's on the idisk instead of replacing it.

This might be my worst fake-geek day ever. I should have stayed in bed. At the time it the external HD fell, I had already made a 28 gig timemachine backup for the G5.

TO SEE THIS WHOLE SAGA click

Will be removing Leopard from the Intel Mac

Yes, I will be removing Leopard. Now my ethernet connection keeps dropping just like the wireless connection. I am posting this from my old G5 which seems to be running Leopard like a champ. Go figure...  Soho Notes will no longer export either . I will be restoring OS X 1.4

TO SEE THIS WHOLE SAGA click

Leopard OS on my Intel mac has some aggravating problems

NOW THAT I HAVE IMPROVED MY INTEL MAC by installing the Leopard OS I have begun having all sorts of problems - with the key board and with the wireless connection.  Slow boot, a blackedout menu bar, a stuck shift key then a stuck num lock, and the airport connection in out in ou in out the finally no connection at all.

 I am really angry and frustrated that this expensive piece of equipment which worked very well for six months now is an aggravating piece of crap after I spent money to UPGRADE it.  Guess you can't guild the lily.... Ironically Leopard works just fine on my G5 which I almost got rid of....  

On the upside -  with my apple airport network I could plug a spare ethernet cable into my macbook and be instantly connected to the internet -   I have tried quick switches between wireless and ethernet on a PC with Windows XP -  the OS doesn't seem to find the connection - so I guess to be fair Apple is still ahead despite the snafus.

TO SEE THIS WHOLE SAGA click