For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On Thu, 11 May 2017 09:07:37 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Bill W
wrote:


All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

meanwhile, you're futzing with fixing windows rather than actually
doing useful stuff with the computer...

Exactly, and over several days this time. That PC was down for over a
week.

yikes.

It's my hobby computer - photography & music. I decided I could stay
away for a bit, and take my time finding a way to recover it without
losing any of the tedious work I had done between the most recent
drive image, and the failure. (I don't need a PC to golf.) I admit
that the actual work did take quite a bit of time, though. Probably
much more than a full day, which is just crazy. At the same time, I
did learn, or relearn quite a bit about this crap.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On Thu, 11 May 2017 10:11:51 +0100, "David B."
wrote:

On 11/05/2017 08:31, Bill W wrote:
[....]
All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

I've taught my 93 year old friend to use Facebook so he can communicate
with his daughter in Australia and a granddaughter in HongKong!

No problem. My 94 year old father has his iMac and he seems to manage
without too many problems.

He's probably smart...

No ...... as he's actually _using_ an iMac, he *IS* smart!

aside I've just been browsing your photographs on Flikr - *YOU* must
be pretty smart too, Bill, to capture such good shots! Thanks for
sharing. :-)

My photos are invariably documentary type, so the photos that look
good have subjects that look good. The ones I like are the street type
photos, but those are taken at events, and there are interesting
subjects everywhere at those. Easy pickings.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On Thu, 11 May 2017 05:46:58 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2017-05-11 07:31:32 +0000, Bill W said:

On Wed, 10 May 2017 23:13:18 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2017-05-11 05:48:59 +0000, Bill W said:

On Thu, 11 May 2017 01:24:58 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Bill W
wrote:

Well, I finally got my photo computer working again a little after I
hung up on MS customer support, and a little before I reached the bomb
threat level of frustration with them.

what does it take to move beyond threat level and actually carry it
out? :)

After they told me I had to pay them to tell me how to fix the problem
that *their* update caused, I was at the tipping point... And this was
after I told them exactly what was wrong - a munged boot sector. "Oh,
well at this level 1 customer support, no one knows anything about
MBR's and those things. You have to get that info at level 2, our paid
service".

customer support is mostly useless, and at the larger companies, they
just want to get you off the phone because they're rated on number of
calls.

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

No problem. My 94 year old father has his iMac and he seems to manage
without too many problems.

He's probably smart...

He is an old P-47 & P-38 fighter pilot who survived two tours in WWII.
So he is pretty smart.

The only combat I saw was in the Caribbean, and the only incoming was
drive-by beer bottles thrown by angry locals who hated us Yankees. I
wasn't smart, but I was pretty drunk. I have photos. No one needs to
see them.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On Thu, 11 May 2017 08:39:24 -0400, PeterN
wrote:

On 5/11/2017 1:48 AM, Bill W wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2017 01:24:58 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Bill W
wrote:

Well, I finally got my photo computer working again a little after I
hung up on MS customer support, and a little before I reached the bomb
threat level of frustration with them.

what does it take to move beyond threat level and actually carry it
out? :)

After they told me I had to pay them to tell me how to fix the problem
that *their* update caused, I was at the tipping point... And this was
after I told them exactly what was wrong - a munged boot sector. "Oh,
well at this level 1 customer support, no one knows anything about
MBR's and those things. You have to get that info at level 2, our paid
service".

customer support is mostly useless, and at the larger companies, they
just want to get you off the phone because they're rated on number of
calls.

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...


Actually there is not all that much difference, if you are just using
some apps. nospam is trying to start a tools war. Please don't feed him.
I'm afraid that I already bet, but will not go further.

I have some past exposure to Unix/Linux, so I guess I have at least a
little familiarity with iOS. That memory is well faded, though.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 11/05/2017 14:35, Savageduck wrote:
On 2017-05-11 13:19:43 +0000, "David B."
said:

On 11/05/2017 13:46, Savageduck wrote:
On 2017-05-11 07:31:32 +0000, Bill W said:

He's probably smart...

He is an old P-47 & P-38 fighter pilot who survived two tours in
WWII. So he is pretty smart.

He's certainly is most fortunate to still be here!

Are you aware of THIS place?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambri...y_and_Memorial

I wasn't until now. Thanks for that bit of information.

You are welcome. Following all the trauma of organizing my son's
funeral, we had a 'spare' day. My wife and I went to visit Cambridge for
the very first time in our lives - and took a ride on an open-top tour
bus. After reviewing the various universities, the bus left the city and
eventually stopped outside the American Cemetery. We were invited to
leave the bus and go and explore - but we simply could not, knowing so
poignantly how much sadness the parents of those young men must have felt.

My father flew his war in the SW Pacific, New Guinea, Bismark
Archipelago, Borneo, Philipinnes, Okinawa, and finally Japan.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngx2hzfiveuw00b/HRO-NG44P38.jpg

Great pic!

...and his current status:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/185dtm3e9ukpurn/IMG_0068w.jpg

I'd so love to be able to still drink a beer with *MY* dad!

I left a message on Dropbox!

--
David B.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 2017-05-11 15:47:52 +0000, Bill W said:

On Thu, 11 May 2017 05:46:58 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2017-05-11 07:31:32 +0000, Bill W said:

On Wed, 10 May 2017 23:13:18 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2017-05-11 05:48:59 +0000, Bill W said:

On Thu, 11 May 2017 01:24:58 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Bill W
wrote:

Well, I finally got my photo computer working again a little after I
hung up on MS customer support, and a little before I reached the bomb
threat level of frustration with them.

what does it take to move beyond threat level and actually carry it
out? :)

After they told me I had to pay them to tell me how to fix the problem
that *their* update caused, I was at the tipping point... And this was
after I told them exactly what was wrong - a munged boot sector. "Oh,
well at this level 1 customer support, no one knows anything about
MBR's and those things. You have to get that info at level 2, our paid
service".

customer support is mostly useless, and at the larger companies, they
just want to get you off the phone because they're rated on number of
calls.

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

No problem. My 94 year old father has his iMac and he seems to manage
without too many problems.

He's probably smart...

He is an old P-47 & P-38 fighter pilot who survived two tours in WWII.
So he is pretty smart.

The only combat I saw was in the Caribbean, and the only incoming was
drive-by beer bottles thrown by angry locals who hated us Yankees. I
wasn't smart, but I was pretty drunk. I have photos. No one needs to
see them.

This is the 9th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force, in
New Guinea, 1944.
Dad is standing, 4th from the left.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/stz52cw3w0sspvg/9th-Squad-5-c2e.jpg
--
Regards,

Savageduck

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

In article , Bill W
wrote:


I have some past exposure to Unix/Linux, so I guess I have at least a
little familiarity with iOS. That memory is well faded, though.

although both ios and macos use unix under the hood, for ios, it's
completely invisible to the user, while for macos, it's there if you
want to muck around with it, but there's rarely, if ever, a need to.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On Thu, 11 May 2017 09:06:21 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

This is the 9th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force, in
New Guinea, 1944.
Dad is standing, 4th from the left.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/stz52cw3w0sspvg/9th-Squad-5-c2e.jpg

Those were some tough guys. Tough guys who actually contributed to
society.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 2017-05-11 16:04:52 +0000, "David B." said:

On 11/05/2017 14:35, Savageduck wrote:
On 2017-05-11 13:19:43 +0000, "David B." said:

On 11/05/2017 13:46, Savageduck wrote:
On 2017-05-11 07:31:32 +0000, Bill W said:

He's probably smart...

He is an old P-47 & P-38 fighter pilot who survived two tours in WWII.
So he is pretty smart.

He's certainly is most fortunate to still be here!

Are you aware of THIS place?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambri...y_and_Memorial

I wasn't until now. Thanks for that bit of information.

You are welcome. Following all the trauma of organizing my son's
funeral, we had a 'spare' day. My wife and I went to visit Cambridge
for the very first time in our lives - and took a ride on an open-top
tour bus. After reviewing the various universities, the bus left the
city and eventually stopped outside the American Cemetery. We were
invited to leave the bus and go and explore - but we simply could not,
knowing so poignantly how much sadness the parents of those young men
must have felt.

My father flew his war in the SW Pacific, New Guinea, Bismark
Archipelago, Borneo, Philipinnes, Okinawa, and finally Japan.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngx2hzfiveuw00b/HRO-NG44P38.jpg

Great pic!

...and his current status:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/185dtm3e9ukpurn/IMG_0068w.jpg

I'd so love to be able to still drink a beer with *MY* dad!

I left a message on Dropbox!

I noticed. An interesting proposal.
--
Regards,

Savageduck

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 5/11/2017 11:49 AM, Bill W wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2017 08:39:24 -0400, PeterN
wrote:

On 5/11/2017 1:48 AM, Bill W wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2017 01:24:58 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Bill W
wrote:

Well, I finally got my photo computer working again a little after I
hung up on MS customer support, and a little before I reached the bomb
threat level of frustration with them.

what does it take to move beyond threat level and actually carry it
out? :)

After they told me I had to pay them to tell me how to fix the problem
that *their* update caused, I was at the tipping point... And this was
after I told them exactly what was wrong - a munged boot sector. "Oh,
well at this level 1 customer support, no one knows anything about
MBR's and those things. You have to get that info at level 2, our paid
service".

customer support is mostly useless, and at the larger companies, they
just want to get you off the phone because they're rated on number of
calls.

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...


Actually there is not all that much difference, if you are just using
some apps. nospam is trying to start a tools war. Please don't feed him.
I'm afraid that I already bet, but will not go further.

I have some past exposure to Unix/Linux, so I guess I have at least a
little familiarity with iOS. That memory is well faded, though.


You really don't need too much experience. I use PC's for various
reasons that I will not talk about here, so no troll Appleseed will try
to tell me Apple does it better. But as I said earlier, Apple makes some
fine machines. One of my daughters, who is a creative director as a
large company a Mac in her office, and a PC when working from home. She
has no problems adjusting from one machine to another, at least on Adobe
CC, Excel and PowerPoint.



--
PeterN