Category: Modern problems

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Well I was worried about space…

I’ve reconciled myself to the loss of almost 6TB of data.

I’d been kinda worried that the drive was 80% full and was wondering what I was going to have to do to address that situation.

Should I buy another Array? Should I start dumping and backing up the stuff on this array that didn’t need to be out there?

Fate it seems had a far more direct solution.

After formatting and checking each drive preforming a variety of diagnostics and surface scans, some of them taking as long as 20 hours. The drive checks out fine. There is no explanation for the failure other than some act of the cyber gods.

So I’m waiting on the final check and then I’ll have a brand new clean drive to begin filling again. This time, I’m going to be a little less cavalier with the data and make sure that I have a better backup scheme.

On the negative side, I lost a lot of data. On the positive side I saved myself a lot of money. I’m not sure exactly how balanced the equation is. Since I’d gotten in the habit of scanning financial records and then shredding them. Most of that information was lost.

I’m also suspecting that I lost a lot of photos. I’m going to wait until the drive is done with it’s last check then start searching for the original files.

Lesson learned.

I think the CD/DVDRAM burner is going to be a busy little camper over the next few weeks.

Word of advice… have a couple of backups of your data. You’ll be glad you did.

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Mergerus Interruptus

I was reading this article about the AT&T, T-Mobile mess.

It turns out the T-Mobile is shedding customers on worries ABOUT the merger!

I can’t blame the customers.

If you’re trying to escape the tyranny of AT&T you’re not likely to sign a contract with T-Mobile until you know the outcome of the merger hearings. That leaves you as a customer heading to Sprint or Verizon.

Of course this means that all AT&T has to do to eliminate their competitors is threaten to merge with them.

This does not set a good precedent, there has to be a better system. Rampant mergers and acquisitions have demonstrated time and time again that the customers interests are a very very distant concern.

It’s exactly this kind of think that has sparked the Protests on Wall Street and in cities across the nation.

I’m all for capitalism. However, I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve slipped too far for simple legislation. The corruption goes too deep and reaches from the lowest echelons to the highest offices in the land.  So much is about greed, power, and “I’m going to get mine regardless of who it screws.”

The question is… is there any way to prevent monopolies without destroying capitalism and entrepreneurial spirit?  What’s it going to take for the American People to say stop?

A more interesting question is after we say stop!  How far are we as a people willing to go to enforce our will?

If you’ve been wrestling with these questions, you’re not alone.

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Old Cell Phone is… Outta Here!

My old phone died and terminal phone-itus set in.

I picked up the new puppy yesterday and wow, I’m impressed!

It’s a very smart machine. The new baby is an Android based HTC Sensation. It’s thin, fast, 4G, and very smart… also it was expensive as hell.

But it works, and my old phone had gotten just too dang flakey for words.

So new phone and learning all the new features there are a lot of those.

One of the funniest things about it is that I can share pictures, or videos directly with my DLNA enabled TV.

I can also print to my existing 3 year old printer.

These features are not available on my iPad. If I want to put a video up on the big screen, I need an apple TV. If I want to print, well I can but only to select printers. I can purchase an application that does an ok job but it’s a bit kludgey in it’s operation.

In short I’m more and more convinced that Android is the way to go for my phones, and future tablets.

Sorry Apple…. as much as I like your sense of design, you’re just too dang fussy about what devices you’ll interface with, and how your products communicate with those devices. Why the hell did you cripple bluetooth in the iPad 1? Oh well it doesn’t matter… my next tablet is going to be Android.

Uhh Apple, you should probably remember that when a company no longer listens to the customer… the customer will move on to a company that is listening.