THANKS APPLE!

Ya know, ALL I WANTED to do was play a couple of songs that I own that are loaded on my phone while I had a 10 minute break between things.

BUT that was not to happen.

WHY? because of this…

So then I tried on my iPad and got the same screen. GRRRRR! I just want to play my music why am I seeing this? What does it mean? Why is it going on and on and on and on? Why is there no message, no instruction, no prompt, NOTHING?

30 minutes later my phone still hadn’t changed or give me any indication about what the hell I was supposed to do or what the machine was doing. I reset both machines then tried again.

Same screen,

Reset

Same Screen

I actually started thinking Apple may have given me a perfect reason NOT to upgrade my Phone or iPad. After all, if I can’t access the 30GB of music on either device, then I can FLUSH music from the devices, and dump iTunes from the iPhone and iPad.

Then I wouldn’t need additional storage because without functional iTunes the music is useless and for that matter so is any movie that would be played through iTunes.

After letting it run in the background on my phone for over 1 hour the damn thing finally gave me a prompt that said something like….

Do you want to start a free subscription to Apple Music or Go to your Music.

Really?

You blocked my accessing my local music storage for over an hour while your stupid screen tried to figure out if it should present two freaking buttons?

AND this you’re doing after I already answered this same question months ago, and after I’ve been successfully using phone and pad to play music.

Obviously, something updated but didn’t bother to preserve my previous answers.

Nonetheless, my few minutes of listening to music was trashed, and every time I accessed my phone and pad, for text messages, or calendar stuff I had to deal with this stupid screen.

Apple, you’re better than this. I’m begging you, don’t make iTunes on the iPhone and iPad as hated as it is on the Mac.

Whee it’s here! Whaaat?

 

NewImageApple announced, as expected the new iPhone(s) on Tuesday.

The new phones were in line with what a month of media leaks said they were going to be, and there were no surprises.

Looks like the pundits, wags and Wall Street are not impressed.

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I guess I understand that they wanted to be WOWED again. In their disappointment they’re perhaps being unduly snarky. 

The new iPhones are beautiful, all of them.

I don’t really give a shit about what the pundits and wags from PCMagazine say (I haven’t paid them any attention at all since they savaged the Newton and then embraced the Palm Pilot. WTF? I liked my Newton a hell of a lot more than any Palm or Handspring device I ever owned.)

My bottom line is that I need a new phone… It’s not just that I want a new phone, my current phone is full of so much bloatware from my carrier that it’s almost useless. 

I normally only use 6 features on my phone.

I call people… sometimes.

I like having a calendar

I use text & messaging.

I will sometimes use the phone to look something up on the web, but since I often have a computer or tablet at hand I’ll go to one of those before I use the phone.

I take pictures with my phone (if it’s the only or most convenient camera I have at hand.)

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My carrier seems to think that I want games, and internet radio, and more games, and to be reminded to restart my phone and billing reminders and honestly a bunch of shit that I don’t even have a clue about. More importantly, its stuff I have no desire to learn about.

The stuff they think I need cannot be removed. Unless I play their “lets unlock the phone game“. This is apparently as “easy” as giving birth to Rhinoceros twins… through my penis. Frankly I don’t have the time.

This unlocking procedure involves me contacting them, them looking up some information, me winking and nudging at the appropriate times, them asking questions, me answering questions, them sending me a code, me contacting them when I receive the code, them acknowledging the code, and my phone is unlocked.

Here’s an idea… How about them just sending me the damn code when the phone is paid for, and the contract expires. Better yet why don’t they simply remotely unlock the phone at the end of the contract?

I guess that’s just too easy…

My current phone is Android based.

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That was fine and dandy for me until I realized due to carrier interference I wasn’t getting the latest bug fixes and updates.

The reason wasn’t that the updates weren’t available it was because it takes time for the carrier to bundle all their bloatware into the version of the operating system & then push it out to it’s users. 

I hate living with crashes. I hate having my phone seize up for no reason when I’m trying to make or receive a call. I hate getting text messages 2 days after they’ve been sent. And I really hate that because of all the crap running on my phone all the time that my battery life is inconsistent as hell. One day the battery will last 8 hours (idle) and the next day it will last 3 hours (idle). But while I’m not using the phone and it’s supposedly idle. There’s some other process or processes just cranking away doing god only knows what. No matter how many times I terminate individual or ALL processes they restart and there’s no explanation as to why they’re running or what they’re doing.

Thankfully, there’s nothing on the bills indicating nefarious activities. The antivirus application running on the phone says nothing is going out or coming in. For all the world it looks like the phone is senile and just muttering to itself.

This has led me to the decision to buy an unlocked phone. NO CONTRACT.

I’ll jump ship to the next carrier, and the next, based on saving money, better coverage, or better customer service.

It’s that simple and this is why for so many years the cellular carriers fought the ability to take your phone number with you.

If a customer can take their phone number, their phone, and have no contract to boot. The onus is squarely on the shoulders of the cellular provider to provide not just mediocre service but to compete! They must provide excellent telephone service and their customer service has to be exemplary as well.

All of this leads me to the purchase of a new phone. 

The iPhone 5s is predictable in it’s sameness. The iPhone 5c is fun with it’s colors and it’s specs are remarkably similar to the 5s. Both phones are incremental improvements on the iPhone 5 itself. Perhaps with the iPhone 5 Apple reached the pinnacle of form dictating function.

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The Galaxy phones are beautify done, but they’re big. Too big to fit in my front pocket and we all know that if I have one in my back pocket I’m going to sit on it and snap that large expanse of glass right in half.

For me, the iPhone is just about the right size. I can slip it in a pocket, I can carry it in my existing holster. It’s got all the functions and applications that I want and I already have an app store account because of my iPad and computer.

Moreover I intend to OWN the phone from the get-go. I don’t intend to allow bullshit applications to reside on MY device. I’ll have the ultimate say. if I want to delete something I will.

I have considered the Galaxies I also was curious about the MotoX.

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As I mentioned the Galaxies are too big. The MotoX (build your own) is AT&T only at this time. I have no desire to ever darken the door of an AT&T store or see their logo again. We had a falling out several years ago and I plan to keep that nasty divorce final.

I was interested in the Moto X precisely because I could in theory build my own. The ability to customize the color combinations is cool. To be able to build one with a walnut back cover and choose other elements of the phone to make it uniquely mine is attractive. However it’s not attractive enough to make me go back to AtT&T

So I’m going to play with the iPhone when they hit the stores… OH HELL NO not the DAY they hit the stores, I’d have to crawl over salivating 18 to 25 year olds all of whom want to buy one, yet none of whom can afford it.

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I’ll wait a couple of days, until the youngsters have drooled and cooed. Then I’ll walk in ready to do business.

I plan to look at both the phones the 5s and 5c. There are slight differences… Fingerprint sensor, better camera functions, processor chips etc. 

For me it’s going to boil down to bang for buck.

I’ll probably go for the 5s due to the processor horsepower. 

I’d like to see an iPhone last as long as my Macs do.

Typically I get 4 -7 years out of a Mac on average. I’m thinking that the better processor may enable me to keep and use the phone by upgrading IOS versions longer. Only time will tell. 

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That’s a key issue for me personally. I want bug fixes and OS improvements on a regular ongoing basis. Apple provides that through IOS, Google/Android doesn’t.

I’ve been through a Blackberry, and two different Android phones.

In a very real way, I’m looking forward to going home to iPhone.

I’m sure my disentanglement from Google and Android will cause some bumps in the road with the attendant swearing.

But in the end fingers crossed, I’ll have a happier, simpler user experience.

That is what we want right? 

Ubiquitous technology that we don’t have to think about using?

I know at this point in my life that’s exactly what I want…

Happy Sunday

TimeMachine

I’m cleaning up another mess of my own making.

I was in a hurry the other day and I shutdown my computer while it was “Cleaning Up” after a backup to one of my drives.

I was a “BAD BOY”. I figured “cleaning up” was just deleting old outdated files and that by executing a shutdown and letting the computer take a full minute to do so would give the backup time to write a file that would save it’s place and I could do what I needed to do. Like go try to make some money.

I was wrong… Not only was I wrong I was very wrong. It corrupted the backup and now I’ve gotta wait for the backup to be deleted and recreated. Oh Joy!

Don’t get me wrong. I actually like Apples Time Machine.

Albeit less so in the Mountain Lion version than I did in the Snow Leopard version. 

Snow Leopard just freakin worked! never a problem in 5 solid years of operation and really what more can you ask of a backup program? I mean it did it’s job, it was quiet about it, and never once failed to get me the data I needed to restore. I always gave it a 10 out of 10.

The Mountain Lion version is far less reliable.

I find myself often correcting problems that should never have occurred. As I have today…

Not really a big deal per se but annoying.

In this particular case because I’ve lost faith in the backup routine I have the system backing up to 3 different drives. Two of the drives are network drives and the third is a little USB3 1TB pocket drive from WD. 

The really annoying thing is that if one of the backups reports an error, rather that cycling to the next drive sometimes Time Machine will simply stop backing up altogether.

This results in a situation like today when I found that the last backup had actually completed at 2:45am on Thursday.

I miss the old Time Machine but this one is what I’m dealing with so I suck it up and deal with it.

I’m hoping that the next version of OSX “Mavericks” has addressed this problem and that they’ve fixed some other issues they have with the built-in email program.

I like the built-in program better than I like Outlook. It’s a usability thing for me. Outlook is just fine but some of the things that Outlook does are really not that Mac friendly.

I gotta say, I really LIKE Gigabit ethernet. The backup claims it will be complete in approximately one hour. That’s 112.46GB of data. Damn fast, by comparison to 100MB.

I’ve got to find a nice 16port Gigabit ethernet switch and replace my 100mb switch in the wiring closet. I had the house wired with CAT6 and many of the devices on my network are Gigabit capable. They’re being throttled down by the slow switch.

Tuesday is the big day.

We’ll hear and see the new iPhones and know when to line up outside our Apple stores to purchase them! I think the President is speaking about Syria around the same time.

I’ll be watching the Apple presentation.

I’m not really interested in the Presidents justification for attacking another country. Yeah the use of sarin is wrong but it’s an internal situation between the government of Syria and the rebels against that government.

It’s none of our country’s business until the UN or one of our allies asks for our help with the situation. 

I’ve said it before. If the world wants us to become Peace Keepers fine. The world should pay for our services NOT the American Taxpayers. 

Also our Military men & women should be getting damn good salaries for our peace keeping actions. You know, living wages not salaries below the poverty line.

But I realize doing what I’m suggesting would legitimize a mercenary force. And why should the UN actually PAY for services when they can get them for free?

Off to go do some other things then I’ll catch up on the news…

It’s a nice lazy Sunday here in the mountains. Hope yours is as nice where ever you are.

Still tweaking

When I have to rebuild my system from scratch… I’m always amazed at just how customized it really is.

It’s the little things. Where a particular application is… the aliases on the desktop.

These things you do to your computer over time and each one of them is a minor thing by itself. All of these little things add up to a computer that is very personalized and specific to you and the way you work. And they’re a pain in the ass to lose. 

The odd thing is that when you’re faced with a machine that doesn’t have these little tweaks, you’re off balance. Your machine isn’t yours, it’s an alien cyberscape that has certain recognizable features… and yet it’s not home.

Off & on this weekend I’ve spent hours re-tweaking my rebuilt OS back to being my comfortable machine. In many ways it is like putting your home back together after a disaster albeit not quite as traumatic. (Been there done that!)

I’ve also solved problems that I inadvertently caused.

Note: If you’re a Mac user with a TimeCapsule. Don’t forget to tell your anti-virus to exclude the backup drive from scanning. Yeah think about that one for a minute and you’ll go OHHHH!!

I’m planning to get some real work done today.

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Writing, practicing, and a nice dog walk that should help me work the kinks out of my joints and my new big camping pack.

Last week didn’t go at all the way it was supposed to. 

I’d planned to get a lot more of the book written, and I wanted to experiment with breaking the book into more manageable discrete chapters.

This will take some time and I’m not exactly sure if I can manipulate the file that way and still have it printable in a simple way when I publish.

I’d also planned to test flight a new pack with a short hike.

As the dogs and I have been working our way higher onto the mountain I’ve discovered some really cool places where the phone can’t ring.

I’ve thought “Gee, it would be nice to get up here with the computer, and sit on a rock just typing.” The dogs would like it and I could use the peace & quiet.

With no internet connection, no email, and no phone, I wondered how much progress I could make.

This has led to me heading higher on the mountain, because just over the next rise there always seems to be a more amazing place.

Which led me to realize if I was to get hurt, or If it rained or if one of the pups was to get hurt I really didn’t have the kind of supplies with me that I’d need, to hunker down for a storm or for the night if that became necessary.

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Sure I carry the radio so I could call for help if I was really badly hurt. But that does nothing to deal with something simple like rain, The forestry service takes a very dim view of you asking to be flown out by helicopter just because you din’t want to get wet.

I own a slick little tent which would be big enough for me & the dogs if it rained. But I had no really convenient way to carry the thing. My normal day pack just isn’t the right size to carry it, a little food and plenty of water.

This left me looking at packs and doing research on the different brands. I caught a deal on a nice Osprey pack, it  arrived last week,

I’ve managed to do some test packing and think it’s exactly what I need. I’ve also been thinking about stuff like; a disaster, or having to bug out due to fire, as well as actually using it for overnight camping.

Hey I’m nothing if I’m not a planner.

Sometime this week the plan is to pack light, but load up the new pack & take to the heights. I figure, this computer can easily run for 6 hours on a charge. A day on a rock might be a good thing for me.

I think I’m going to do the experiment about splitting the book here at my desk on the big screen before I go all mobile.

The next thing is some nice solar panels… 

Arrrrhhhhggggg!

Sad Mac 400x400

Two days Ago I had an event in my Computer.

I was running along nicely having a pretty normal day when out of the blue my machine started asking me for passwords to email accounts.

This made little sense because those passwords are all stored on the system and shouldn’t be required.

I entered the first password without thinking then the second one, the the third one and that’s when the event caught my attention.

I thought Whoa! Something bad is happening. So I saved my work, closed the programs I had open and told the computer to reboot.

That’s when all hell broke loose! What I got back after that reboot was a system that had been mostly reset to it’s factory defaults. 

I don’t have esoteric settings in my systems. For the most part I’m an average kind of user.

I work at being just an average user I’ve spent so much time being a “Test Jocky, Monkey, Software Quality Assurance guy” that when it comes to my home systems I just want to sit down turn the computer on and do what I’d planned to do without a lot of drama. God save me from endless updates and reboots.

That’s why I use a Mac.

99.998% of the time I fire up my Mac and don’t think anything of the fact that I’m using technology, because it’s not in my face.

Well, two days ago was the .002% of the time when I was reminded.

This machine is barely 3 months old and it’s possible it was experiencing a hardware issue. So I pulled up the console logs and saw some very weird stuff. As I was stepping through the log I realized I didn’t know enough about the way Apple does things, to really be able to tell if the errors I was seeing were do to the failure or due to normal errors (Yeah… there is such a thing as a “Normal” error).

So I called Apple. I figured that the data was toast and I was looking at minimum at a restore of my system from my backup. I had a couple of questions, the first of which was how do I send log files to Apple?

After dealing with a first line phone rep for all of about 2 minutes (Thank you BTW for realizing that I wasn’t calling with anything ordinary.) I got transferred to this really great guy whose initials are RR.

RR listened carefully to what I said and we started walking through some items. This makes sense because he couldn’t see my screen and he must get 1000 calls a day from people who’ve forgotten to plug their system in.

Within a few minutes of talking, I’ve got a log collection tool running and he’s looking at my screen. (He can’t actually click on anything or control it… that must be maddening.)

After poking around for a bit he admits he’s never seen anything like what happened to me ever.

The logs get sent to the Gurus in Apple engineering.

Then I’m pretty much ready to call it a day and restore my whole system from the backup. When RR says, “you know… that might not be a good idea.”

I think about it and don’t like at all where he’s going, because he’s absolutely right.

Since we’d pretty much ruled out a hardware problem. That means that software has to be to blame. (Hardware Engineers around the world are rejoicing… Industry inside joke.) 

If I simply restore my system from the backup, it’s likely that I’ll be resetting the conditions that created this problem in the first place.

Which leads inexorably to a complete format, & rebuild of the system. Including reinstallation of every single piece of software. Then we get to pick and choose the bits from the backup that we absolutely can’t do without. Like the data!

As much as I don’t want to… RR is right.

Best to bite the bullet, reformat the drive, reload a completely pristine copy of the OS, then reload copies of the applications and then make a backup of the computer in this new pristine state.

You’d think that given the age of the machine I’d have a pristine backup… Well you’d be wrong.

When I got this machine a few months ago, I moved all the programs from my older MacBook to this one. Then I upgraded the Operating System on the new machine, so god only knows what bits of incompatible flotsam and jetsam may have been floating around on the disk.

Approximately 20 hours of work later I have a system that is mostly like what I had before. I know that I will be stumbling over bits of unlicensed software for weeks to come.

When I stumble over one of these applications I’ll have a choice. Find the license key… or toss the software. Realistically if I haven’t used a bit of software for weeks… I probably could do without it.

I like a clean system that works. So I’ll probably be tossing these little bits of software.

I did notice while reinstalling software that there are an awful lot of applications that ask for access to my contacts list. I understand Word asking… It’s trying to make writing letters easier by linking contact data. But some of the other applications made no sense at all.  Needless to say they were denied access.

I’m kind of a fan of Apple, NO… I’m not a rabid fan boy. But I like Apples machines.

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Honestly, Apple does it right most of the time.

There are some things that they screw up on in big ways but in general they do a good job in design, implementation, and support.

If you’re thinking Apple for your next computer purchase. A word of advice…

Buy the full boat machine. Max Memory, Max hard disk, top of the line… You’ll never be sorry and the machine will probably have a usable lifespan of at least 5 years possibly more. Think about it, you and your Mac go to College and graduate with a Masters degree 6 years later. Can you say the same of Windows?

As I’ve been reading email & writing this blog, my machine has been backing up to a different TimCapsule drive. I want to keep the old backup for a few weeks in case I need to go pick something out of it that I can’t recreate or live without.

I’m back online, back to working and Hopefully this is a “One Off” event.

RR wherever you are… Thank you!

Talk about great service! RR called me several times to see how things were progressing and was always there when or if I hit a snag. He’s the consummate professional and genuinely knows his stuff. Even if I did make him a bit nervous by fiddling with the UNIX underbelly of the Mac OS.

I hope that if he reads this he’ll take what I say next, the right way. I hope I don’t have to talk with Apple again. But If I do I’m going to see if I can have a chat with RR.

Now on to the next thing…