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....

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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.

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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

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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.

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The stuff we can never find

Keys? What keys?

Can't keep hold of keys. it seems I really don't want to open or close much at all. But keys are not the only objects that plague me. Grocery lists, cough drops, bills, pencils, poems I have scrawled on envelopes, the cup of coffee I am drinking... Whatever it is, I can pick it up, hold it my hands contemplate its uses and destination, but only half a minute later - it's no longer there and I have no idea what I did with it

I am not the only one with this problem - though for a while I wasn't sure.... A few years back I witnessed a scene that was a revelation. I was visiting a couple I know – the husband is a pianist who was getting ready to rush off to accompany a choral group's concert. He was standing in the kitchen clutching the directions to his concert location, when he and his wife realized he didnt have his dress jacket. They began to frantically search for it and finally found the jacket, smoothed it, covered the hanger with plastic. But now he discovers that although he has the jacket in hand, he no longer has the directions to the hall where he is going to play. A new search is mounted for the directions which cannot be found anywhere. A call is made to get new directions. After he leaves, I noticed the original set of directions on the floor right where he was standing when the search for the jacket began. yikes!

This sort of drama has happened to me repeatedly, except that I curse and slam as i am searching which does not really help.

It was so clear to me that my friend was thinking about where his jacket was and was not paying the slightest attention to his hands or what was in them... As he walked away his hand opened without his realizing it and the list skittered to the floor like a lost leaf. It's the thinking about something else and not paying attention that seems to be the cause...

Maisy goes for a walk early in the morning, a short one, but the terrain is not smooth. Couldn't find her cane today. We looked in every room, behind all the doors, in the car, beside all the chairs. No cane.

She went to the grocery store yesterday though where the same not-paying-attention phenom came into play. People with canes tend to put them in the grocery cart when they are pushing it around the store. That works great until they get to the car and happily stow their food, while contemplating future meals, the drive home, the next stop on their errand route. (Cane? What cane?) The last time Maisy inquired if they had found any canes, they offered a choice of a dozen that had been left behind in shopping carts. That's where we went and sure enough they had her cane which has her name and address right on it.

Go figure.

Medical bruohaha needs context

A letter I am sending today to the local paper

To the editor:

The News Times and Connecticut's various versions of television news have repeatedly run stories that illegal immigrants are costing Danbury Hospital $4 million in unpaid bills. The figure has been cited over and over again. Any reporter and any thinker worth his salt knows a figure without context can be a little like holding a dime up next to the moon on a dark night or looking at one line from a drawing. Could be the side of a skyscraper. Then again it could be the side of a jelly jar.

There are two numbers without which the $4 million dollar figure is completely meaningless. It is necessary to know the total amount billed out for medical care (both paid and unpaid) by the same hospital during the same time period - and also how much was spent by that hospital covering for medical care for uninsured and UNDERINSURED American Citizens.

Then there must be a comparison - what percentage of the total billed out for medical care does that $4 million represent? And what is the percentage of the total for the unpaid bills of citizens? Give us context and then we'll know how to consider that $4 million. I suspect we are whining about the jelly jar when we should be furious about the skyscraper...

ADENDUM - As of Dec, The Danbury News Times never chose to print this. They never even called to confirm the letter sender as is usual at most newspapers.