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Tag Archives: macbook

Technology foiled by a gum wrapper of life

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Bob in myLifestyle, myTech, Technojungle

≈ Comments Off on Technology foiled by a gum wrapper of life

Tags

adobe, apple, battery, cleaning, computer, crumpled, daughter, feed rollers, feeding, frustration, gum, indesign, internet, macbook, macintosh, paper, phone, printer, printing, problem, publish, publishing, reboot, tech support, techie, techno, technology, transient, troubleshooting, typesetting, university, wrapper, write

My daughter called me one day to complain that her printer would not work. She lives in another city and I could not just pop over to assist her, so I attempted phone tech support. The problem was that paper was not feeding properly into the printer. It was getting crumpled on one edge on the way into the printer. Of course, I asked her to reach in and feel around to see if anything was in there. I also wondered if the feed rollers might need cleaning. The frustration level was rising. I was sure it was something simple, but she had little time for technology failures.

wpid-05ce16c3-faa3-4bac-8376-687fa3be439f-2014-01-15-10-53.jpg

The next step, was to search on the Internet for similar problems and to find the solution. I found information on how to clean the rollers. I forwarded information on to her. Now, she tends to always be busy and is certainly not a techie type. We all know people in the techno-aversion range who have various levels of interest and ability when it comes to technology. Some love to roll up their sleeves and dive in. Others can’t even imagine doing anything to fix problems involving technology. They just want to plug it in and have it work. Apple Inc. understood this and created computers that could be taken out of the box, plugged in and they were ready to go. There are a range of people that fall between those extremes.

We have all had to deal with a variety of techno-failures. Perhaps you had a broom break. A broom is a type of technology. Call it low-tech. I’m sure we have all had a more complicated technology fail, such as a light bulb. Most of us have also had very complex technology fail like a computer. High-tech devices are so complex that I often think it amazing that they even work some of the time. There are so many things that could fail.

Lately, I have been talking to my daughter about more technology issues. She is learning Adobe InDesign for one of her jobs. I have a background in printing and publishing and ran several Macintosh computer labs for training students to go into the printing industry. We were discussing some of the things that can go wrong and difficulties she has had in getting her typesetting and layout to work properly. Nothing is as simple as it seems. Everybody these days thinks they can write and publish, make documents and do some of the things they see published. My daughter is learning that, at the professional level, it is complex.

I explained to her that, if you can’t replicate the problem, you probably can’t solve it. Some failures or errors are transient. That is, they just simply occur, often at the most inopportune times. I often say, “Technology is great, when it works.” Or, “Technology will fail just when you need it most.”

wpid-unknown-2014-01-15-10-53.jpeg

Another call from my daughter informed me that her computer would not work. We tried everything. She even had a guy friend listen to the strange sounds emitting from the MacBook Pro and then remark, something like, “It is fried.” The local authorized Apple computer store said that it might need a couple of things done and quoted her prices for just looking at it. She was in her final weeks of university and also needed the computer for work, so I said that she should not spend any money on the machine until I could look at it. I told her to go get a new one and that we would help her. When I got the computer, it was indeed completely dead. That, of course, due to sitting for weeks and the battery being fully depleted. So, I charged it overnight. I am writing this article on that very same computer. It is fine. Go figure!

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Probably the most used troubleshooting method that everybody knows is, “When in doubt (or, when all else fails), reboot.” While you’re waiting for your computer to come back up, grab a stick of gum and relax. But, don’t crumple and toss the wrapper somewhere on your desk because it might land in your printer and that is exactly what had happened with my daughter. I got her printer and it now works too. Anybody need a printer?

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Back from Kauai for more than two weeks—what have I been up to?

18 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by Bob in myNews

≈ Comments Off on Back from Kauai for more than two weeks—what have I been up to?

Tags

1080p, 2tb, age, body, camera, challenging, christmas present, convention, conversation, corporation, curling, downtown, dslr, dvd, eat, editing, external, fair, files, goal, greens, hard drive, hd, health, healthy eating challenge, hours, life, macbook, movie, mugs, music, nikon, off-load, photoblog, photos, pocket, programs, project, rolling credits, safely, samsung, shooting, shots, sister, slideshow, smoothies, storage, taking, tickets, trend, w200, website, wellness, whole foods market, wifey

Yes, we returned safely and life has taken off again. One project that has occupied many of my hours is editing video. We received a pocket video camera from my sister as a Christmas present, a red Samsung W200 that shoots in full 1080p HD and I waisted no time in shooting videos. Of course I ended up nearly running out of storage. I had only accounted for files coming off my dSLR Nikon camera. Video files are substantially larger than photos. I think I ended up with around 1500 files of photos and videos. So, I have been editing and producing a two hour movie, complete with music and rolling credits. This is taxing our little MacBook, which is getting slower and slower. I even went out and bought a 2TB external hard drive to off-load files to make room for working on the photo and video projects. I have completed the photo slideshows, sorting out all the shots and adding music. Now, I am thinking of doing further video editing, but, may just take everything to DVD and be done. When I have completed everything, I will get some photos on my photoblog and feature photos websites.

We have returned to curling and now we are into some record breaking cold weather. My wifey has got us enrolled in a 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge at Whole Foods Market. This week is about getting more greens and that has meant making smoothies that include as much kale as we can. All I can say is, this is going to be challenging, for sure. I will post a log every week.

This health trend is interesting because opportunities have been popping up everywhere, it seems. We do eat pretty good, yet, my wifey decided to get us into the four week program at Whole Foods and recently, I have had some conversations with a fellow who does wellness programs for corporations. Today, we were at a mini wellness fair. I found out that, while I am 56, my body age is 61 and my obtainable age is 48. Just a little goal to shoot for. While we were there, we got mugs and free tickets for a very large wellness fair at the huge convention center downtown next month. Health is trying to gang up on us.

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Greetings

24 Thursday Sep 2009

Posted by Bob in myNews, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

apple, bob, cms, computer, content management system, d50, dslr, ip, iphone, itunes, mac, macbook, mysql, nikon, os x, photo

 

Bob Protrait - taken by my daughter a couple of years ago.

Bob Portrait - taken by my daughter a couple of years ago.

 

mySelf

Let me take a quick moment to greet you with a photo of me taken a couple of years ago by my daughter. Yes, I do have a newer photo. I took it myself using my iPhone. Why have I not uploaded it instead of this older one taken with my Nikon D50 dSLR, you ask? Well, that is a bit of a story.

myMac

I have been using Apple Macs since the late eighties, however, I seldom own a new product and am currently using an old Mac G4 from around 2001 or 2. It is the OS that is actually the problem here. My OS is so old (OS X 10.3.9) that I can’t run a version of iTunes new enough to recognize my iPhone. I do plan to remedy this in the near future though. I am just hoping that there will be a refresh of the MacBook Pro line in the coming weeks.

myBlog

Now for a word about WordPress. I have had WP running on my G4 for a few years and have been playing around with it. There were a couple of problems with my experiments. The first, if you have been paying attention, is the age of my computer system. It just can’t cut it, especially since I use the computer for other activities. The other problem is the lack of a dedicated IP address. I can get one, but, it costs money and I have been avoiding expenses with my projects. This has resulted in a couple of other problems. Without a static IP, visitors had to come via another web page since the IP could change occasionally, and did! Resetting the IP for WordPress is a bit more difficult than for other content management systems (CMSs) I have been running and involves digging in to the mySQL database.

Well, here we are, taking advantage of the hospitality of the wonderful folks at WordPress by using a free account to host the rebirth of myBobLog. I hope I can find at least a few things to write about that might be of interest to you.

Next:

More about my interests and activities. Then, I shall begin building on some topics of deeper interest.

Please tune in again.

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Preamble

I have many interesting activities in my life—so many that I have sometimes neglected my blogs. Since myBobLog is my original and first blog, it is here that I endeavour to continue my blogging journey once again. I started w while back with a new theme.

Then I wrote about a project of growing my hair to donate to cancer patients. I had a fundraising page that I linked to. I was going to write quite a bit about my return to playing music with my cornet and how had a dream come true by acquiring a particular cornet; and was also going to write about the two jazz bands I was running. In fact, I begun websites for them too.

Then my Essential Tremor condition worsened and I have had to resign for the bands.

Next came the great Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. This curtailed my music activities even more—to the point I can barely play me cornet.

Thus I am currently focusing on my books and my  Technojungle Safari website. I suppose I have been blaming my blogging neglect on the writing and editing of my upcoming book. I have even postponed work on my photography.

Don’t worry about the details of all these projects and activities. I will make sure the mud settles as soon as I get a better handle on how I want to set up things here on this blog to start with.

It will take some time, so stay tuned and be patient.

This Preamble hints at only somme of what I hope to write about in the future.

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