carbonel

Or possibly just the march of time.

I have a second generation iPad Air. That model came out in 2013, and I acquired it used in 2016. So I guess it doesn't owe me anything.

I just got off a phone call with Apple support that confirmed my suspicions that it's a couple of iOS versions behind, and can't be updated any further (except for security stuff). It works fine for reading ePubs with Marvin 3, using Wikipedia, and as a web browser, but it crashes a lot when I try to play games with it.

I think I am ready to buy a new iPad. I have a bit of windfall cash, which is how I'm justifying the upgrade. I like the iPad Air model, which is lighter and more svelte than the regular model. I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth paying an extra $150 to get the 256 Gb model instead of the default 64 Gb one. (The one I'm currently using is 32 Gb, which feels tight.)

I'd kind of like to go to the local Apple store to buy it, because then I can look at actual models and they might have tools to do an easy transfer from the old iPad to the new one. But it's $40 less at Amazon. I wonder if the Apple Store people would give any kind of freebie, like AppleCare, as compensation, if I asked.

And then there's the super-important question: of the five colors available, which one should I choose?

If anyone has thoughts on the general subject, I'd be interested in hearing them.

I have a 3Tb external hard drive that's about half full. Unfortunately, something has gone wrong with it. When I tried to run the Windows error checking utility, it ran for quite a while, then hung.

I can see all the files, but a lot of them just return error messages or do nothing if I try to copy them. There's nothing critical if I can't recover the disk (it's mostly audiobooks and videos), but I don't have a backup.

Is there some better utility that you can recommend that will fix the drive and salvage what can be salvaged?

When I installed Calibre on the new computer, I accepted all the defaults.

When I moved over the files a couple of days later, my 900+ books in Calibre didn't show up. Turns out that's because I didn't use the default for my book files back on my old computer. The files are there, but Calibre isn't seeing them. Possibly I could tell Calibre to use the other location, but the default location is actually more sensible. (The old one was buried a couple of levels down.)

I discovered by experimentation that moving a book folder from the old location to the new location and restarting Calibre doesn't make that book show up.

My instincts, which are not necessarily to be trusted, say I should do a mass import of books from the old location to the new location, then delete the old location entirely. But I've always done imports one or two books at a time, and I'm not sure if all those author folders will sort themselves out properly.

Any advice before I try it?

ETA: Migration successfully accomplished, thanks to timill.

I bought a new desktop computer from MicroCenter back in February. I had planned to bring my old computer to MicroCenter to let them do the migration, but their wait time (while both computers would be in durance vile) was always too long. And then the stay-at-home order went into effect, and the one call I made to query MicroCenter didn't even go to voicemail; it just said "we're busy, try later."

So I gritted my teeth and started to do it myself. I got most of the programs reinstalled. And then I was ready to copy files over, and bemoaned the fact that doing that wouldn't copy setting.

One Google search later, I discovered that Laplink has an updated version of the migration program that I'd used to go from Windows XP to the Windows 7 computer I was now abandoning. And better still, it had an option to put everything in one giant file, and take the file over to new computer, instead of using a specialized cable that I didn't have.

Some files ended up in the wrong place because I chose a new name for my computer -- possibly a major mistake, but I'm not sure it's fixable anymore. But I think I have everything where it belongs. My ancient email program is working correctly, I persuaded Adobe that I was entitled to my copy of Acrobat Pro, and I replaced the built-in Office 365 with my own older but paid-for Office from DVD.

The only problem is, I'm not sure I can get the new computer physically into the space where the old computer. The new one is quite heavy, and the computer niche is tucked in under a shelf, so it means lifting high and controlling it at the same time. Normally I would ask a friend to help, and it would be five minutes' work. Now? I may be working from two computers for a while.

First, a bit of background.

I'm a spinner. There's a spinning magazine called Spin-Off that comes out four times a year. I recently bought CDs of most of the old issues of the magazine. I want to read the issues on my iPad. This requires copying the files from the CD to my computer, and importing them (via Dropbox) to my iPad.

When I put the CD in the drive (yes, my computer is old enough to have a CD/DVD drive), it takes a significant amount of time for the contents of the available directory to show (like five to ten minutes).

Once it finally appears, the actual files are hidden. Instead, there's a master PDF that shows thumbnails of the actual issues, and when I click on one of those, it opens up a PDF of the actual issue. At which point I can copy the individual issue to my computer, go back and repeat for all the issues in a given CD. As copy protection, this is pitiful. As a feature designed to annoy me, it works admirably.

But I can cope with this if I have to. It's the slow slow slow loading of the CD contents that's driving me nuts. At the moment, the CD has been sitting there over 10 minutes while I wrote this post, and the contents still aren't showing. There's a gray highlight that creeps across the top of the Windows Explorer box. I assume this has something to do with the indexing function. I looked at the indexing options, and the CD drive (e:) isn't in the list, which means that I can't figure out any way to turn it off. I have this problem with other drives as well, but nowhere near as extreme.

So --

1. Is there some way to deal with the slowness of Windows Explorer? I've googled for settings I can change, and didn't find anything helpful.

2. I went to a command prompt, and used the attrib settings (attrib -s -h -r /s /d *.*) to view the hidden files, but permission was denied to copy them. Is there a way I can do that? That would simplify everything. But I don't know how to run as administrator in DOS offhand.

Any help appreciated.

Today was one of those days.

It started normally, I went to order a book for work. I went to the Amazon site, put it in my cart, and went to pay. As normal, it asked me to confirm the login, which I did. Not so normal was the next screen, asking me to confirm (by entering) my Social Security number and date of birth. I almost fell for it, but then I realized the SSN blanks were 3-3-3 instead of 3-2-4 the way they normally are. I also noticed that my firewall was turned off and I couldn't turn it back on again (error message), so I figured I'd fallen to some sort of virus attack. I suspect either a bad file or a bad website.

In any case, I called McAfee (now Intel, I guess) and paid $60 for a one-time fix. The agent opened a session so he could work on my machine, and he asked me to show him the problem. I did, and he said it was a legitimate site. I disagreed, and explained about the blanks, and how Amazon never asks for your SSN. He used a bunch of tools, and apparently generated a list of suspicious programs. Before I could stop him, he deleted Nook for PC and a little utility I use for running trivia games online. After he'd been at it a couple of hours, he and I simultaneously suggested it was time to elevate things to the next level.

He disappeared, then came back and asked if a callback the next day was okay. I said NO (yes, in caps) because I was going out of town tomorrow and needed things handled before then. He went away again, then said I would have a callback in three hours or less. Three hours later (3:30), he called and said it'd be another hour and half or so. At 5 pm, the new guy, allegedly a senior tech, called back. He asked me to show the problem, and again tried to persuade me that it was a real website. He pasted the URL into a website that identifies malware, and because the website identified it as safe, he insisted it was real. At that point, there were more capital letters at my end. He kept doing a couple of things, then going away for long intervals. And he tried to delete my Nook for PC app again (I stopped him) and I did let him delete something that turned out to be a real program that I'll have to reinstall. But finally, at around 7:15, he told me to try the Amazon site again. Amazingly, no request for SSN/DOB anymore. I'd pretty much lost faith, but he did manage to do the job.

And just because today was such a very special day, the story of my car was another saga. I've been planning to drive from Minneapolis to Michigan for a family thing, leaving early Wednesday. I'd had to do a semi-major repair ($900) a couple of weeks ago. The car was making a screeching noise when it started up, though it stopped after a couple of minutes. I called Bobby & Steve's on Nicollet because it was the place I'd taken it to the previous time. It's not my usual garage, but last time was an emergency, and it was close. I took it there this time because it was a similar noise that started the problems last time, and I thought it might be the same repair needing redoing.

The service guy called around 3 pm with an estimate of another $800 and said it was unrelated -- something with the air conditioner -- and I would only be safe driving it to Michigan if I did so without the AC. And he couldn't get it fixed until next week, so it was driving with no AC or another solution. I started looking at other travel options, and probably would have bought a train ticket and rented a car for the rest of the way if I hadn't been so distracted by the computer thing.

And then, in the middle of the computer tech's flailing around, I got a call from the car repair shop. It wasn't a $900 repair after all -- it was a bracket that had probably been damaged by the previous repair. So they fixed it for free, and I have the car back, and I'll be able to drive to Michigan after all. I very much hope there's no drama along the way.

Back in 2005 or so, someone recommended a little program called LJArchive. It downloads all of one's LJ posts (with the option to include comments as well), and includes a search feature. It's the perfect thing for tracking down that "I know I posted it in LJ somewhere" post.

Sometime between 2009 and 2012, it stopped working, at least for me. All the old messages were there as of 2009, but I kept getting an error message when I tried to download newer messages. In 2012, I went hunting again for either a fix or another program that would do the same thing. What I found was someone in Germany who liked the LJArchive program enough to pay a programmer to fix the problem. No guarantees, but indeed it worked, and I tossed whoever it was (I see no name on the page) some money via his PayPal link.

Fast-forward to today in 2015, when I wanted to find something on LJ using LJArchive. Which is when I realized that a) I hadn't installed LJArchive on the new computer I bought a couple of years ago, though I did still have the old archive file, b) the download file at SourceForge is the old bad version, and c) because I only had access to the old bad version, I couldn't search LJArchive for my post with the link to the fixed version, because that was posted in 2012, after the date the program would crash.

After a certain amount of manual searching on LJ, I finally found the post. Thankfully, the page is still up, as is the direct link to the fixed file. I'm not sure why my Google searches failed, but I'm hoping that by posting here and then doing an immediate update to my LJArchive archive, I won't have the problem again. I've also saved the fixed file in my downloads directory, adding "fixed" to the name.

The real way to keep this fix from total obscurity, however, would be to get the updated version posted at the SourceForge site. I don't have a SourceForge account, and have no connection with the fixed program other than as a satisfied user. The guy who posted the fix -- I don't have a name, just the e-mail address a.q@gmx.net -- didn't fix it, he paid a developer. However, both the fixed application and the source code are available at his site. Any idea how it could get updated on SourceForge?

My computer has BSOD'd several times in the past couple of days -- twice three times today. Each time, it occurs without warning. The blue screen appears, and says "KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR" at the top, then the computer restarts.

This can't go on, even though I'm getting paranoid about saving my work.

Any suggestions on a) what the problem is, b) what to do about it, or c) where to take it would be gratefully appreciated.

Note: The computer crashed again while I was in the middle of writing this message. Luckily, LJ remembered most of it. I rebooted into safe mode, and I'm going to try that for a while to see if it makes a difference. I hate safe mode.

Kind of, anyway.

Back in June, I posted that I was thinking of changing providers, because Visi (aka OneNeck) is restricted to copper, and maxes out at 3 Mbps, and my service was actually closer to half that.

I ended up going for the simplest solution: at the Minnesota State Fair, I stopped at the CenturyLink booth and signed up to have my Internet come directly through CenturyLink instead of via Visi. What with all the discounts and promotions, my phone bill will drop about $30/month for the next six months, then for 18 months thereafter will go back to what I had been paying before the switchover. This is still a savings, because I won't need to pay the $20/month I've been paying Visi all this time.

For the moment, at least, I'll be keeping my e-mail at Visi, which they provide for $5/month. I have the moebiusfibers.com domain, but my plan has been to keep that as a business address. If I can come up with a good and available domain name, I'll go for it.

The switchover was fairly painless -- yesterday, my router stopped connecting to the Internet. I opened the box with the new router, and hooked it up. I had to call CenturyLink tech support to finish the setup, but once that was taken care of, all went well. I was mildly surprised that my wireless devices (iPhone and iPad) didn't require me to log in again, even though I used the same network name and password.

My download speed is now 8 to 10 times faster than it was before. It doesn't make much of a difference for web browsing, because the antivirus seems to be the main bottleneck, but it's huge for download, and presumably will also be for Netflix-type streaming.

This is a two-part question, because my Internet is in two parts.

A. I've had ADSL from CenturyLink (originally Qwest) since the mid-1990s, pretty much as soon as it came available. The speed gradually increased, but at this point it's throttled to 1.5 Mbps, because they don't allow outside vendors to provide Internet via fiber optic, only via copper. Which brings me to part B.

B. I've been with the same ISP and its successors since I started using the Internet. Wavefront was acquired by Visi, Visi was acquired by T-something-don't-remember, and the T-Company was acquired by OneNeck. Mostly the service has been good, with occasional glitches. Lately, the glitches have been considerably more annoying. The site (or portions of it) keeps getting blackballed, and mail is blocked without notice by intermediaries.

As a result, I'm looking for a change. I want the following:

1. A provider that will support fast speeds (at least 5 Mbps speed, ideally more).
   
   
2. A provider that will support the weird retro needs I have -- specifically, POPmail and the ability to do vacation forwarding to another address essentially invisibly.
   
   
3. A provider that gives decent customer service.
   
   
4. A provider that isn't going to be hypervigilant about my torrenting habit. The stuff I download is mostly in the gray area (like already-aired TV shows) rather than pirating of commercial material, and I don't want to get little nastygrams every week or oftener.

I've heard good things about IPHouse, but my understand is that it mostly does web hosting, which is not what I need.

What about old-style providers like EarthLink or Panix?

Am I better off with something seriously mainstream like using CenturyLink as my direct provider, or Comcast? What's fast, good, and not hideously expensive? Note that I don't live in Minneapolis, so the city Internet isn't an option for me.