Time and space

Macintosh / / Leave a Comment

My MacBook Pro has a 500GB solid-state drive. (Technically 512GB, I suppose, but it reserves all the rest to replace blocks as they fail. I’m okay with that.) When I first got this computer, I decided to allocate 380 gigs of that to Mac OS, and the remaining 120 gigs to Windows, because I like being able to dual-boot into Windows when I want to help someone with Windows or play a game.

Turns out that I don’t use much storage on the Mac side; I prefer to keep most of my data on my desktop, where it’s more secure. But meanwhile, Windows games are big and I have a bunch of them (darn Steam sales), so I was running out of room on the Windows side.

So I decided to shrink the Mac partition and expand the Windows partition, to give them each 250 gigs.

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Backing up

Macintosh, Tech / / Leave a Comment

The best backup software I’ve found for Windows is Acronis True Image.

Unfortunately, the software really sucks.

Let me illustrate the problem. I told Acronis (on their Facebook wall) that I want a simple “set and forget” backup that doesn’t require a lot of configuration and maintenance, and I asked what the latest version of their product can do for me. Their reply:

An incremental backup stores changes to the data against the latest backup. So you need access to previous backups from the same chain to recover data from an incremental backup. To clean up an older backup chain (Full backup + dependent incremental backups) you’ll need to create a new full backup as a base for next incremental backups. Here you can find different clean up schemes available in the custom backup scheme: http://www.acronis.com/…/document…/ATI2017/index.html… For your scenario I’d suggest using an option “Keep size of the backup no more than [defined size]” – to limit maximum size of the backup. After creating a new backup version, the program checks whether the total backup size exceeds the specified value. If it’s true, the oldest backup version will be deleted.

This is the year 2016. I shouldn’t have to deal with “full” versus “incremental” backups. I shouldn’t have to worry about what will happen when my backup disk fills up. I should just be able to plug in a backup disk, hit a button, and have the backup software take care of the rest.

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Floyd Norman, Disney Legend

Disney, Writing / / 1 Comment

Floyd NormanA few months ago, I attended an interview with Floyd Norman. Floyd is a Disney Legend – “the first African-American at Disney,” he says. He got his start in animation, but his career really took off when Walt himself asked him to help with the story on The Jungle Book.

During the interview, he said a lot about the creative process. I took notes. (My notes weren’t exact, so most quotes below are paraphrased.)

Creative people are more willing to take a risk, he explained. “Creativity is not being afraid to be different, and to be a little bit nuts.” He talked about his job being a collaboration between art, creativity, and technology. “Walt and his colleagues were just making stuff up. The painters, the cameramen, et cetera – they learned and made it up as they went along.” His career has spanned from Sleeping Beauty all the way to Monsters Inc.; he explained that Pixar is very much like the Hyperion studio in the 1930s. Because no one had done it before, there was nothing telling them they couldn’t do it.

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Bed and breakfast

Friends, Jill / / Leave a Comment

Near the end of January, Jill and Lily Pup walked the Pet Rescue By Judy 5K. (Well, Jill walked it, and Lily rode in her fancy puppy stroller.)

At the very end of January, Jill walked the Lady Track Shack 5K and the Celebration Half Marathon. It was a crazy weekend because, in addition to a special guest appearance from Valerie, we had lots of visitors spending the weekend here:

  • Indiana Eve
  • Heidi
  • Tami
  • Miami Eve
  • Jen Litwin

We had one person in the small guest bedroom, three people in the large guest bedroom, and poor Jen got a sofa and had to put up with the cats bothering her.

Indiana Eve then stayed an extra few days with us, and I had some time off work so we got to spend some time catching up on a list of things I wanted to show her:

  • Windows 10 (she was unimpressed)
  • The “Kaiju Fury” virtual-reality video in Google Cardboard (she was impressed)
  • The Stanley Parable (after having played Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald, she enjoyed this)
  • 1Password (in an attempt to keep her sanity)
  • Elegy For A Dead World, a video game that’s really a creative writing story prompt (she enjoyed it more than I did)
  • How to set a custom Minecraft skin (so she no longer looks like Steve)
  • Both soundtracks to Minecraft (they’re really quite good)
  • The second season of the TV series “Galavant” (we caught up on the whole thing)

And I also took her on a trip to Let Us Frame It to pick up some posters we’d had framed, to Track Shack to get her fitted for a new pair of running shoes, and to Skycraft Surplus because they just have all kinds of neat electronic and mechanical junk.

The only thing we had to save ’til next time is that we’re going to teach her how to play Settlers of Catan.

 

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Going wrong

Uncategorized / / 1 Comment

“Have you ever spoken up when you saw something going on that was wrong? Were you scared? What ended up happening?”

Every time I see a television drama about a bunch of people on an airplane and the pilot is incapacitated and they have to figure out how to land it, I always fantasize about how I would do it. (The Canadian television show “The Aviators” has an episode on this, where they put someone at the controls of a passenger jet simulator and “talk him down.”)

Every time I see a news story about attacks or hostages or some other disaster, I always try to imagine how I could have helped if I were there. And I work for a company that has a lot of contact with the public, so every time I’m out and about I try to keep an eye out for anything going wrong that I could help put right.

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, so my imaginings while I’m watching the TV news probably aren’t realistic. And when I’m out in public there are people far better trained out there for anything that could happen. So no, I’ve never seen anything going wrong that I would speak up about. Though I’d like to think that if I did, I could handle it.

Just about the only time I feel inclined to speak up is about our software projects at work, where management continually pushes for new features instead of ever allowing us time to go back and clean up what we’ve got, and frequently I try to convince people that this is just making what we’ve got harder and harder to maintain. But I’m not good at convincing people, especially where money is involved, so I usually refer to this as “tilting at windmills.”

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Lazy day

Writing / / Leave a Comment

“What is your favorite way to spend a lazy day?”

I was born the year that “Information Overload” became a thing. I grew up with the Internet supplying whatever I wanted to know about whatever. Before the World-Wide Web there was USENET, so instead of Googling for an answer I would post a question to a newsgroup; people eager to show off would be quick to share their information and their opinions. So not only did I learn details about technology and politics and religion and economics, but I also learned the points on which people disagree and I got to see them spar in public. This is arguably a better way to learn than reading a Wikipedia article.

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Home Security

Tech / / Leave a Comment

Three times today my cell phone has rung. Each time it’s some company trying to sign me up for a home security system. Different phone number each time, different pre-recorded soundboard voice each time, but always the same spiel; it keeps prompting me with yes/no questions, then asks for a time of day when a “specialist” can call me back to arrange an installation. The most recent call, I said, “Right now. Don’t call me back, I’m available right now, put me through to someone.” The soundboard didn’t have a canned response to fit that, so the person pushing the buttons hung up on me.

A few minutes later I was called by a human being – maybe in response to that, maybe not. She went through the spiel, saying she’s from Alliance Home Security, every day so many people get robbed, yadda yadda yadda …

I cut her off. “Alliance? I signed up with you a month ago when you called! You were supposed to be here last Tuesday to install but I never heard from you!” This tripped her up; she asked for my name and address so she can look me up — “YOU called ME! Don’t you know who I am?” She apologized, said she’s only in the sales department… “It’s always the same every time you call, you never have my info and you always have to start over from scratch! Look, I’m done. Cancel my appointment, put me on your don’t call list.”

“Sir, you’re being unreasonable,” she said, sounding annoyed.

I sounded more annoyed. “A week it’s been, and no word! And then here you call and it’s like you don’t know me at all! Put me on your don’t call list.”

“We don’t have a don’t call list,” she replied sourly. I asked her what she does have, then. “We have a DO NOT CALL list.”

“Okay, then put me on that.” And I hung up on her.

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Windows Technical Department

Tech / / 2 Comments

The phone rang this evening. It was a man with a thick Indian accent. Hello, I am calling you from Windows Technical Department. I am calling regarding your computer.

I suddenly had an idea. “Good evening. How may I help you?”

Sir, we are calling due to numerous error messages we are seeing from your computer.

“I see. I can help you. Would you please tell me what version of Windows you are running?”

I – uh – Windows 7.

“Which version? Home, Professional, or Enterprise?”

Uh. Sir, I am calling about your computer, not mine.

“But you say that you’re calling me because you’re seeing numerous error messages. I can help you with that. What version of Windows, please?”

Sir … sir … This is Windows Technical Department –

“And you’ve reached the Technical Support Department. My department supports your department.”

– I can show you the error messages –

“Which office are you calling from?”

… Delaware.

“Delaware?”

Canada.

“I see. Would you please read me the exact wording of the error messages you’re seeing?”

Sir, there are many errors regarding the registry and –

“The exact wording, please. Along with any error numbers you see.”

… Sir, please allow me to reconnect you. The line went quiet for a moment, then another Indian voice came on, slower and deeper than the first. Sir. We are calling from Windows Technical Department because we are seeing numerous error messages from your computer.

“I understand. Please read me the exact wording of the error messages, along with any error numbers you see, so that I can look them up for you.”

He started to say something, hesitated, then spoke again. Sir. This is not a problem on OUR computer. This is a problem on YOUR computer.

“I need to know exactly what you see so that I can help you resolve the error messages. Please read to me the exact wording and error numbers of the errors you are seeing.”

There was silence for a few seconds, and then he hung up.

 

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