iPad updates; now to renew the cloud or whatever it is. Thermaltake, Swan and Windows 8

View 745 Friday, October 12, 2012

The Wall Street Journal had an editorial entitled “The Bully vs. the Wonk”, which about summed up what happened last night. Nothing unexpected. And Benghazi was all the fault of the Intelligence Community, which appears to be an entity completely independent of the Office of the President of the United States. Does this mean we still don’t have Intelligence consolidated and we need another superagency?

Within minutes last night I got a dozen notes on how to update the iPad – I had to go to a computer that has iTunes on it, connect to that, and let it happen that way. I suppose that is obvious to Mac users but it wasn’t to me.

I still can’t get my mail. Attempts get a demand for a password for smtp.me.com for username, and I have that in my log book, but it won’t accept that, and does not offer me any alternatives than endlessly trying to retype a password that it rejects. It looks as if I’ll have to go to an Apple store anyway. This whole shift to ‘cloud’ has been handled badly. For those who use only Macs I suppose it all went smoothly enough, but during the critical period I was distracted and Apple apparently never thought there would be anyone who didn’t live and breathe with Apple only.

Anyway there has to be a procedure for forgetting a password, but I have no idea what it is, and Apple isn’t offering me anything. I don’t use or need Apple mail much, but I can’t think it was smart of them to put us through the mobile.me mess and then drop us on our heads when they decided to get out of it.

I’d appreciate advice from people who know what’s going on.

It’s time for our morning walk. Outside it’s gloomy but it’s not raining. Sable has decided that whatever was wrong with her, it’s cruel and unusual punishment not to take a Husky for at least a mile walk, and if we don’t do it we’ll regret it…  Back later.

Incidentally, the iPad still won’t access Safari. It brings up a big red sign telling me that mobile.me is dead, please go away. Very user friendly, these Apple people.  I suppose I’ll have to do something through the iMac but I have no clue as to what that should be. I suspect I need something new to replace mobile.me which went away – I can’t say without warning, but I didn’t realize that if I didn’t act fast I’d be stranded without recourse. Simplest thing to do is wait until Tuesday or so when things would be slow and go to the Apple Store. I’m hoping to revive Chaos Manor Reviews and that’s a good place to start.

I still haven’t looked under the bandages; that happens tomorrow. It’s pretty clear that it won’t look like much. I still have my nose, and it looks as if what was skin which will grow back. It’s a little painful, but nothing to worry about. Now to catch up.

Eris was over just after lunch and we set up Swan, the newest machine at Chaos Manor. I intend to revive Chaos Manor Reviews – it has been long enough – and the two new machines, Alien Artifact and Swan will be featured. Both use Thermaltake cases and power supplies. Thermaltake is expensive compared to Anrec and some other rivals, but they are also elegant; and I am coming to the conclusion that if you’re going to go to the trouble of building your own computer, you should have elegance. Our newest has a ‘toaster’ type external drive port on top – take any old hard drive and push it in, and lo! you are connected and can see what’s on it. It’s also quiet and runs cool. Swan and Alien Artifact will replace a couple of the older machines here.  And Swan runs Windows 8. I like it. Much more coming up.  I really am trying to catch up. But that of course means working on fiction too. But there’s nothing like finding that you’ve got cancer beat to get you moving again.