The Coffee House

[Cortian]

I don’t understand why, with all the free email options out there, anyone still uses Comcast or Verizon or AT&T email accounts . It just adds an extra layer of crap to deal with when you change providers. Gmail, hotmail, outlook, yahoo, heck even aol is a better option...

We have a saying in the IT industry: Free email is worth what you pay for it.

Of the ones you listed, I regard only gmail as reliable, and don't feel their privacy policies particularly attractive. Yahoo! and AOL are either dead or dying. Microsoft's email system has been regarded for years by many email admins as one of the most unreliable large email providers on the Internet, bar none. (Maybe it's improved, lately. I no longer track it because I no longer need to do so. However, back when I did, I found their systems regularly "dropping email on the floor." That's when a system accepts it and never delivers it. That's regarded by email admins as a mortal sin.) "AT&T"s email service has never struck me as being particularly dependable, either. N.B.: I don't know if they're still doing this, what with Yahoo!'s issues, of late, but "AT&T" used to use Yahoo! to supply it's customers' email service.

Somewhere, somehow, people got it into their heads that everything that's on the Internet, including email, should be free. Problem is: All that stuff, just like this site, costs money. The hardware, software, network connectivity, bandwidth, and systems and network administration all have costs. Somebody wants to get paid for all that stuff so they can put a roof over their heads and food on the table for their families. Google does it by monetizing the user. (You're not the customer. You're the commodity.) Not certain how the others do it.

If your email is important to you, and you don't have the tech chops to run your own mailserver, then your best bet is to pay a reputable email service provider.

 

[terri58 1]

Happy Friday , hosers !

Windy, windy, windy around here - and much cooler, but sunny and nice. The wind is all we're going to see from this storm bearing down on the northeast.

Crossing my fingers that no one loses power or has any other issues from it.

 

[Cortian]

Finally after two days of which I allowed it to run overnight, I have finally completed update of Windows 10 ....

It's weird that it took so long. Is your internet super slow or is your pc getting old?

That kind of behaviour from Microsoft Windows Update is actually not uncommon, IME. I see users complaining of this sort of thing in every on-line venue in which I participate. The guy we hired to handle desktop admin (Hallelujah! I hated desktop admin) started the job disliking Microsoft Windows. Within six months he was where I was at: Hating Microsoft, MS-Windows and particularly MS-Windows Update with a passion.

MS-Windows Update did not used to be so wonky. It started about the time they End-Of-Lifed MS-Windows XP, I believe. At least that's when I started experiencing it and seeing wide-spread reports of it. (Tin foil hat time: I always believed they purposely broke MS-Windows Update for MS-WinXP to "persuade" users reluctant to make the switch to Vista to move.)

Now, whenever I do an update, I cross my fingers, say a prayer and make sure I know where is my installation media.

It's really quite astonishing, IMO. I can do a major update to one of my Linux boxes, incl. OS updates, whole bunches of services and apps, and a reboot in a fraction of the time MS-Windows Update takes just to figure out what updates it needs--on the same network.

 

[Cortian]

Pure Michigan. 62° and sunny yesterday. Today, snow bomb.

And, in the middle of that snow bomb we decide to get a leaky gate valve that's part of the water softener and whole-house filter system replaced. The plumber bungles it, we find out after he's left, and now we have no water at all. Yay!

 

[jcdeboever]

Pure Michigan. 62° and sunny yesterday. Today, snow bomb.

And, in the middle of that snow bomb we decide to get a leaky gate valve that's part of the water softener and whole-house filter system replaced. The plumber bungles it, we find out after he's left, and now we have no water at all. Yay!

Oh boy. Did he mess up in a major way or just something stupid simple that he done a million times?

 

[smoke665]

That kind of behaviour from Microsoft Windows Update is actually not uncommon,

Yup, and after awhile you learn the common problems and how to fix them. Doesn't make it any less time wasting, just less stressful. That's somewhat why I'm reluctant to switch, at least I know what to look for now, and a completely new OS has it's own learning curve. Case in point Quickbooks wouldn't connect with banks to download transactions after the windows update. The error message said to uninstall and reinstall software. Had i not had previous experience i would have spent hours doing this. Instead it was a 5 min fix. Finally got the last of the accounting software back up and running, and fresh backups of everything, so I guess all is well.

 

[Cortian]

Pure Michigan. 62° and sunny yesterday. Today, snow bomb.

And, in the middle of that snow bomb we decide to get a leaky gate valve that's part of the water softener and whole-house filter system replaced. The plumber bungles it, we find out after he's left, and now we have no water at all. Yay!

Oh boy. Did he mess up in a major way or just something stupid simple that he done a million times?

It's a long story. Fairly major, though. Could have been worse. The leak that developed could have waited until we were, say, hundreds or thousands of miles away on vacation.

His boss was supposed to be here at 9 a.m., but called to tell me he had a customer with a basement that was flooding. We're without water, but it's not the end of the world. (We can even turn it back on for short periods, if need be.) So now he's supposed to be here at around 11:30 a.m. We'll see.

I'm going to insist he re-do the entire job. I don't trust the other guy's work at all.

I should have just bought some copper and fittings, and taught myself to do it.

 

[limr50]

Mac

Feh.

C’mon. Just take a little bite of the apple. It’s perfectly ripe and crisp.

Mmmm hmmmm, that's what they said to Snow White. And we know how well THAT turned out.

 

[Gary A.]

Buenos Dias Coffee Hosers. Gary has finally finished processing Chorus Line. Ended up with 350 final images for the kids and Gary is culling those down to about 50 of his favorites for his gallery.

a miss ...

... a hit.

 

[Gary A.]

Crazy theatre lighting sans spotlights:

Drama Teach

 

[Gary A.]

It has been cold and rainy out here. According to snow reports for the local mountains, (and SoCal Avalanche Center), the snowline is down to 2,000' and may get lower by tonight. There have be mandatory evacuations below fire damaged areas, especially in Montecito where everybody is taking the evacuation notices seriously. Gary has emptied his rain barrels from Wednesday's downpour and they have started to fill as Gary keyboards.

 

[limr50]

Snowing pretty good here.

Power went out at about 3:30am this morning. Came back on just before 7am, which made me happy because I was able to use my hair dryer to avoid going to work with a mop head. I left my house at 7:20 and the traffic report was showing my route to be clear.

It had turned from rain to freezing rain, probably somewhere around 5:30ish, and when I left my house, it was starting to turn to snow. Roads were slushy but not too bad. By the time I got to the highway entrance, it was very snowy and roads were getting coated really fast. I started down the highway and it was getting worse by the minute. Got off on the next exit where there was a shopping center and gas station so I could check the weather and traffic again. I figured a) it would be better as I moved south, and b) it would turn to rain in the afternoon.

I learned three things:
- it WAS a lot better mid-county where my school is,
- the weather would get worse, not better, and
- in the 15-20 minutes since I left my house, there were 3-4 accidents reported on my route and the green line had turned totally orange and red.

I turned around to go home. Got on the highway going north. The southbound side, where I had just been, was even snowier but at least you could still make out the lanes. The northbound side was a holy mess. Middle lane had some tracks where you could still see road, but the left and right lanes were covered with layers of snow and freezing rain. Went the one exit, got on local roads to go home. About a mile from my house is the town hall where the plows start from. It was clear that the plows came out of the driveway and turned right. I was still on the plowed section. I passed the town hall and was suddenly on the section that they hadn't started yet. From that point on, the snow was so deep that I don't think my tires stayed straight for one single second until I finally came to a stop in my driveway.

I am doubly glad that I turned around because my school finally decided to close early. If I had fought through the snow and the traffic jams, I probably would have been there for a total of about 2-2.5 hours before I would have had to turn around and do the whole thing all over again.

I friggin' love March. It is just a giant middle finger to everyone who starts waxing poetic about the coming of spring, and oh, Feb wasn't so bad this year, and blah blah blah. In like a lion, beeyotches!

 

[Gary A.]

This recent storm has raised snowfall by seven to eight feet in the Sierra.

 

[jcdeboever]

Bud called me and said his external hard drive pooped out. Year old Seagate. He has a wedding on there he was working on. He got an estimate to recover for $3 grand. He is bumbed. Sad thing is we talked about it a couple months ago, how important it is to backup. He didn't buy the drive I suggested either, I strongly opposed the Seagate but he wanted to save a few bucks... I feel really bad for him. I told him if it were me, and I was doing a paid gig, I'd leave them on the flash card and back the card up. We talked about several strategic solutions, he opted for the worst scenario....

 

[Gary A.]

Bud called me and said his external hard drive pooped out. Year old Seagate. He has a wedding on there he was working on. He got an estimate to recover for $3 grand. He is bumbed. Sad thing is we talked about it a couple months ago, how important it is to backup. He didn't buy the drive I suggested either, I strongly opposed the Seagate but he wanted to save a few bucks... I feel really bad for him. I told him if it were me, and I was doing a paid gig, I'd leave them on the flash card and back the card up. We talked about several strategic solutions, he opted for the worst scenario....

The hard drive in my very old All-In-One desktop went out a few months ago. I took it to 'Adult School', and it was replaced with all the programs for $25 ... plus Gary tossed in a $20 tip.