So last autumn I was one of the people who lost all their documents by upgrading early to the October 2018 update. One thing I did after that was to purchase a 128 GB SD card to put in my computer's slot, where I keep all my documents, pictures, music, etc. I also use Dropbox and an external hard drive. The idea, of course, is that I back up, and frequently, at least once a week, on at least two of those. I did backup to Dropbox before the deletion, but not as frequently, maybe once a month, so I lost a couple of weeks' worth of data. Now I don't have many documents, and they're not earth-shatteringly important, except for things to do with the Cthulhu game that I have been playing weekly since July 1991 (hello, 28 years). So that's the main thing I have to back up. I've gotten it down so I only have to really back up those files I update. My friend, who uses my old desktop and I back up his stuff on an external hard drive, has tens of thousands of documents and another tens of thousands of pictures, along with some videos and lots of e-mail. So, his is much more of a process, as he routinely changes where things are on folders and is constantly editing--again, mostly to do with the game.
I did the latest May update with no problem. It was not pushed out to my computer immediately, as it had been flagged for some reason or other, probably due to my Dell. I knew it would not update with the SD card or any USB media attached, but that's fine, as the whole point of having the card is to lock my documents away at the time of update, so I'd planned to remove them anyway. But all in all, it was a much smoother process.
Showing posts with label Windows 10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Windows 10. Show all posts
Saturday, July 06, 2019
Saturday, October 06, 2018
I'd like to think that I could write on days other than weekends
But it seems, for now, I'm too tired in the evening. Here is a re-cap of the last few days:
Thursday, September 27th -- I utterly broke down at work because a mom was not happy that I hade made an appointment at an alternate location since I can't get an MRI at the university until a month after the child was supposed to have it. Turns out the doctor told her they couldn't have it locally because the university's scanner is so much better. She was very strident, not necessarily abusive, but it just set me off into a crying fit (it turns out I was also pre-menstrual, so maybe that can explain the sudden lability), and my neighbouring co-worker heard it, had me unlock the door, and talked me into taking a walk and stepping away from the office. It was a really hard day. I had over 20 off-sites to schedule (still do, as every time I manage to schedule one about 2-3 more appear in my box).
The university is down to two, maybe one MRI scanner (depending on certain conditions like age, if it's with contrast, etc.) due to some maintenance, and so the other day I managed to get a cervical, thoracic, and lumbar MRI scheduled there--a long scan, easily over 2 hours--but otherwise without any of the constraints I'm normally given (it was originally supposed to coordinate with a brace pickup, but the university was too booked, so they just said any time I could get), and the first available was in the middle of December. Now in some cases, I do have an alternate place I can go to--the one I scheduled the kid in that caused his mom to go ballistic--and I was given the go ahead to go there for this one, as it's just too far out. Most of these are supposed to be same day so they can see our doctors then, and they're usually in clinic about two days a week, given that they're in surgery or at the university on other days. But if I go to the alternate place, I have to clarify a spine survey (a reduced scan) vs a full scan, and all these little details take time, especially since I try at the university first as that's preferred. And they can't do sedation ones.
Meanwhile, the baby hips are causing me no end of stress. When we ask for an ultrasound for hip dysplasia, it's usually for treatment, not for diagnosis, and it has to be without manipulation, often in a harness. These kids are extremely delicate--they can't be moved out of position at all. The university is the only place in town that does them without manipulation, and they're down three techs. The requests for these are always the same day, as is our protocol, and usually a week or two weeks out. I'm struggling to get dates before a month out, and I'm relying on cancellations to get anything scheduled. There are lots of little things that go into all of this, forms to fill out, faxes or e-mails, calling the centres, calling the parents, rescheduling, usually, as it doesn't suit someone, and then mailing letters, maps, and updating a summary, and sending the form out to a group. That's just my part. Then I hand it over to someone else who pre-certifies it. But this could easily be a more-than-full-time job alone. And it's just half of what I do--the surgery pre-certs are the main thing, and I"m struggling to get those done ahead of time because of all the time I'm spending on the off-sites. I tracked the last week of off-sites on a running total to see how many I had a day, how many I got done, etc., whether I ran into any problems. The one where the mom triggered the crying fit took about three hours total. On a good day--if I only work on off-sites--I can do about seven, or one an hour. But that's without doing the surgeries at all that day. Usually, it's two, maybe three. And they just keep coming. Plus, they have to be prioritised as they come in, as some are more urgent than others, like ones that are post-surgery the next day, or the baby hips for a week out. It's causing a lot of stress.
I've already had an episode where I went to the emergency room for hours with chest pains and headache, and they eventually decided I'd had a migraine that was causing numbness and pain down my left arm. I told that to my neurologist yesterday and he gave me a dissolving medication for migraines. But I'm sure the whole thing was stress-related. I'm getting a lot of headaches, have had some gastroenteric issues, and I've been stress eating from the vending machines, so my hA1c jumped from 7.1% a few months ago to 9.0% since I started in June. I'm going to have to start packing carrots and other healthy foods, as I'm not sure I can curb the urge to eat, but at least I can change what I eat, and my endocrinologist said that was fine.
Friday, September 28th--It was a better day. Busy, of course. I started tracking the off-sites at work. I had 26 that morning and got it down to 19.
Last weekend--my friend, the kitten, and the cat were all sniffly and under the weather. The dog and I were the only ones fine. We didn't play the game as a result, but I got a lot of rest, at least.
Work throughout the week--I just sallied forth and did what I could. Surgeries were mostly done the day before or day of. I realised late Friday afternoon that I had not sent one, and sent it in. It may be denied for no timely authorisations (most places don't due retro ones). That's not acceptable, and I know it, and it most likely will be an issue. It won't be passed to the family (we are an actual charity, not just a non-profit), but it will cost the hospital money if denied. So there was stress there. I didn't think I was doing well, but I didn't think I'd actually drop the ball entirely on one. So we'll see if they approve it. I have no illusions that they will.
Tuesday, October 2nd--So I updated my laptop to the Windows 10 October Feature Update. More on that in a minute.
Wednesday, October 3rd--That evening, I went to do a book review that I hadn't managed to get in by the 1st, and lo, my documents were all gone due to the update. No one was really reporting on it at the time, just a few things in the fora. I spent the evening seeing if they had been moved to another area, and I rolled back the update to see if they would appear. Nada. Nothing on my desktop, music, or photos had been touched, just my local drive non-cloud documents. But that included the game notes, my job hunt materials, and my book reviews. I updated back and at least I have some of that on Dropbox. The game notes were backed up a month ago, and there are just two sessions I lost, which is good, and those recordings were still on the desktop, thankfully, so I can reconstruct (over several hours). Most of the important stuff was already backed up. But I was not happy with Microsoft at all. I was also up late that night backing up my desktop, where my friend has tens of thousands of documents and pictures that he's collected and created over years, and we unplugged it from the Internet entirely.
Thursday, October 4th--News stories started making the rounds on the tech sites of the data loss issue with the update. I did find a good tool for trying to recover files, but it only recovered a few non-important files I'd deleted myself, although I did get a book review back. But either the files I'd had were just absolutely deleted by Microsoft's update, or rolling back--which even now Microsoft is suggesting,--just deleted them beyond recovery.
I did find ways to make sure the desktop didn't get the update (fortunately that machine is Windows 10 Pro, not Home like the laptop, so it's easier. We were able to plug the computer back in. It's deferred all updates for a month, and any feature updates for a year. So we're good for now, hopefully. But again, despite my best efforts to go to bed early, I was awakened in the middle of the night for a minor crisis and didn't get back to bed till 4 am.
Yesterday--We are officially out of grocery money. I'm broke in general, my last purchase being a pie for a send-off at work for a co-worker who is moving to a new department. It's going to be a very lean week until I get paid.
Today--I got some good sleep last night, and woke up to sun streaming through the window, and the cat, who'd really been struggling with the crud, obviously doing much better. I got up, got some water, took my medicine, and played with the kitten with a laser pointer, although I have to be careful because while he's up to playing, he's still got a little breathing issue from the crud he had.
Okay, that's it for now. Sorry I haven't blogged. Today is the library, pet food run, book review, and working on the notes, plus going over to our sick friend's for a visit and maybe a movie tonight.
Thursday, September 27th -- I utterly broke down at work because a mom was not happy that I hade made an appointment at an alternate location since I can't get an MRI at the university until a month after the child was supposed to have it. Turns out the doctor told her they couldn't have it locally because the university's scanner is so much better. She was very strident, not necessarily abusive, but it just set me off into a crying fit (it turns out I was also pre-menstrual, so maybe that can explain the sudden lability), and my neighbouring co-worker heard it, had me unlock the door, and talked me into taking a walk and stepping away from the office. It was a really hard day. I had over 20 off-sites to schedule (still do, as every time I manage to schedule one about 2-3 more appear in my box).
The university is down to two, maybe one MRI scanner (depending on certain conditions like age, if it's with contrast, etc.) due to some maintenance, and so the other day I managed to get a cervical, thoracic, and lumbar MRI scheduled there--a long scan, easily over 2 hours--but otherwise without any of the constraints I'm normally given (it was originally supposed to coordinate with a brace pickup, but the university was too booked, so they just said any time I could get), and the first available was in the middle of December. Now in some cases, I do have an alternate place I can go to--the one I scheduled the kid in that caused his mom to go ballistic--and I was given the go ahead to go there for this one, as it's just too far out. Most of these are supposed to be same day so they can see our doctors then, and they're usually in clinic about two days a week, given that they're in surgery or at the university on other days. But if I go to the alternate place, I have to clarify a spine survey (a reduced scan) vs a full scan, and all these little details take time, especially since I try at the university first as that's preferred. And they can't do sedation ones.
Meanwhile, the baby hips are causing me no end of stress. When we ask for an ultrasound for hip dysplasia, it's usually for treatment, not for diagnosis, and it has to be without manipulation, often in a harness. These kids are extremely delicate--they can't be moved out of position at all. The university is the only place in town that does them without manipulation, and they're down three techs. The requests for these are always the same day, as is our protocol, and usually a week or two weeks out. I'm struggling to get dates before a month out, and I'm relying on cancellations to get anything scheduled. There are lots of little things that go into all of this, forms to fill out, faxes or e-mails, calling the centres, calling the parents, rescheduling, usually, as it doesn't suit someone, and then mailing letters, maps, and updating a summary, and sending the form out to a group. That's just my part. Then I hand it over to someone else who pre-certifies it. But this could easily be a more-than-full-time job alone. And it's just half of what I do--the surgery pre-certs are the main thing, and I"m struggling to get those done ahead of time because of all the time I'm spending on the off-sites. I tracked the last week of off-sites on a running total to see how many I had a day, how many I got done, etc., whether I ran into any problems. The one where the mom triggered the crying fit took about three hours total. On a good day--if I only work on off-sites--I can do about seven, or one an hour. But that's without doing the surgeries at all that day. Usually, it's two, maybe three. And they just keep coming. Plus, they have to be prioritised as they come in, as some are more urgent than others, like ones that are post-surgery the next day, or the baby hips for a week out. It's causing a lot of stress.
I've already had an episode where I went to the emergency room for hours with chest pains and headache, and they eventually decided I'd had a migraine that was causing numbness and pain down my left arm. I told that to my neurologist yesterday and he gave me a dissolving medication for migraines. But I'm sure the whole thing was stress-related. I'm getting a lot of headaches, have had some gastroenteric issues, and I've been stress eating from the vending machines, so my hA1c jumped from 7.1% a few months ago to 9.0% since I started in June. I'm going to have to start packing carrots and other healthy foods, as I'm not sure I can curb the urge to eat, but at least I can change what I eat, and my endocrinologist said that was fine.
Friday, September 28th--It was a better day. Busy, of course. I started tracking the off-sites at work. I had 26 that morning and got it down to 19.
Last weekend--my friend, the kitten, and the cat were all sniffly and under the weather. The dog and I were the only ones fine. We didn't play the game as a result, but I got a lot of rest, at least.
Work throughout the week--I just sallied forth and did what I could. Surgeries were mostly done the day before or day of. I realised late Friday afternoon that I had not sent one, and sent it in. It may be denied for no timely authorisations (most places don't due retro ones). That's not acceptable, and I know it, and it most likely will be an issue. It won't be passed to the family (we are an actual charity, not just a non-profit), but it will cost the hospital money if denied. So there was stress there. I didn't think I was doing well, but I didn't think I'd actually drop the ball entirely on one. So we'll see if they approve it. I have no illusions that they will.
Tuesday, October 2nd--So I updated my laptop to the Windows 10 October Feature Update. More on that in a minute.
Wednesday, October 3rd--That evening, I went to do a book review that I hadn't managed to get in by the 1st, and lo, my documents were all gone due to the update. No one was really reporting on it at the time, just a few things in the fora. I spent the evening seeing if they had been moved to another area, and I rolled back the update to see if they would appear. Nada. Nothing on my desktop, music, or photos had been touched, just my local drive non-cloud documents. But that included the game notes, my job hunt materials, and my book reviews. I updated back and at least I have some of that on Dropbox. The game notes were backed up a month ago, and there are just two sessions I lost, which is good, and those recordings were still on the desktop, thankfully, so I can reconstruct (over several hours). Most of the important stuff was already backed up. But I was not happy with Microsoft at all. I was also up late that night backing up my desktop, where my friend has tens of thousands of documents and pictures that he's collected and created over years, and we unplugged it from the Internet entirely.
Thursday, October 4th--News stories started making the rounds on the tech sites of the data loss issue with the update. I did find a good tool for trying to recover files, but it only recovered a few non-important files I'd deleted myself, although I did get a book review back. But either the files I'd had were just absolutely deleted by Microsoft's update, or rolling back--which even now Microsoft is suggesting,--just deleted them beyond recovery.
I did find ways to make sure the desktop didn't get the update (fortunately that machine is Windows 10 Pro, not Home like the laptop, so it's easier. We were able to plug the computer back in. It's deferred all updates for a month, and any feature updates for a year. So we're good for now, hopefully. But again, despite my best efforts to go to bed early, I was awakened in the middle of the night for a minor crisis and didn't get back to bed till 4 am.
Yesterday--We are officially out of grocery money. I'm broke in general, my last purchase being a pie for a send-off at work for a co-worker who is moving to a new department. It's going to be a very lean week until I get paid.
Today--I got some good sleep last night, and woke up to sun streaming through the window, and the cat, who'd really been struggling with the crud, obviously doing much better. I got up, got some water, took my medicine, and played with the kitten with a laser pointer, although I have to be careful because while he's up to playing, he's still got a little breathing issue from the crud he had.
Okay, that's it for now. Sorry I haven't blogged. Today is the library, pet food run, book review, and working on the notes, plus going over to our sick friend's for a visit and maybe a movie tonight.
Monday, August 08, 2016
I am getting a little frustrated with myself
I came home today, right after work (for a change), with the best of intentions. I was going to conquer the clutter and mess by which my apartment is currently under siege. If anyone were to judge by my desk at work, they would think me a neat freak--I always make sure everything is put away each day and than only papers being used at the moment are on top. But at home, well, I'm pretty much a hoarder, and it's a small apartment with lots of books--more than in my library at work--and I've never been particularly neat. The one complaint my parents ever had about me was that I was reluctant to clean my room. And when you live alone, it's easy to come home and just plop stuff down on the couch or dining room table. But it's reached a point where I need to purge the messiness, as I do on occasion. So that was my goal today--to at least get part of the stuff in some semblance of order and get rid of what wasn't important.
But like many middle-aged people (I never thought I'd describe myself that way, but it is true), I have some back problems. I did a lot of bending, lifting, twisting, etc., this weekend. I guess I overdid it. One of the problems with having a truly sit-down job is that I don't walk enough (I average about 5,000 steps or just over a day, rather than the 10,000 you're supposed to walk), and my core and back are weak as a result. Then you add a generally sedentary lifestyle and bursts of activity on the weekends, and it's not pleasant. I came in today, took some Tylenol Arthritis medicine, slathered the Kroger equivalent to Ben Gay (which is very strong) on my back, and stretched out for a half-hour to see if I could get some of the tension out, doing various stretches I'd learned in physical therapy. That seemed to help, but as soon as I got up and gravity hit, it hurt again. Even sitting hurts at the moment. So I went back to the bedroom, slept for a little while, and got up just now to take my evening meds and prepare for actual bedtime. I hate to do it, but I think I'm going to have to take a mild muscle relaxant my doctor prescribed for flare-ups. I've never missed work due to my back or neck, but I do occasionally have these periods of pain.
My plan is to get up VERY early--4:30 or 5 am, do some walking, if I can tolerate it (to help strengthen the back), do some of the stuff I planned to do tonight, and then go into work early, as I have an appointment later in the day. I'm going to try to get up and walk about some more at work; I'm at my highest weight ever and that scares me a bit. I'm going to try to satisfy my sweet tooth with yoghurt or fruit for awhile, which usually works, as I've been eating too many sweets (I was about to say I'd done well today, but then I remembered a small serving of ice cream I had this afternoon).
Oh, well, here's to doing better tomorrow. At least we did play the game (and I think we all enjoyed it) yesterday, and we're back in the swing of things. I did stay late last night trying to update my desktop (which is at YKWIA's, on loan) to the Anniversary Update of Windows 10, but it got almost to the end, and then reversed the installation back to the previous version. I'm not sure why--I'll have to do a little research. But it was a bit annoying; the laptop took a long time, but it did fine. Oh, well. Hope you have a good night.
But like many middle-aged people (I never thought I'd describe myself that way, but it is true), I have some back problems. I did a lot of bending, lifting, twisting, etc., this weekend. I guess I overdid it. One of the problems with having a truly sit-down job is that I don't walk enough (I average about 5,000 steps or just over a day, rather than the 10,000 you're supposed to walk), and my core and back are weak as a result. Then you add a generally sedentary lifestyle and bursts of activity on the weekends, and it's not pleasant. I came in today, took some Tylenol Arthritis medicine, slathered the Kroger equivalent to Ben Gay (which is very strong) on my back, and stretched out for a half-hour to see if I could get some of the tension out, doing various stretches I'd learned in physical therapy. That seemed to help, but as soon as I got up and gravity hit, it hurt again. Even sitting hurts at the moment. So I went back to the bedroom, slept for a little while, and got up just now to take my evening meds and prepare for actual bedtime. I hate to do it, but I think I'm going to have to take a mild muscle relaxant my doctor prescribed for flare-ups. I've never missed work due to my back or neck, but I do occasionally have these periods of pain.
My plan is to get up VERY early--4:30 or 5 am, do some walking, if I can tolerate it (to help strengthen the back), do some of the stuff I planned to do tonight, and then go into work early, as I have an appointment later in the day. I'm going to try to get up and walk about some more at work; I'm at my highest weight ever and that scares me a bit. I'm going to try to satisfy my sweet tooth with yoghurt or fruit for awhile, which usually works, as I've been eating too many sweets (I was about to say I'd done well today, but then I remembered a small serving of ice cream I had this afternoon).
Oh, well, here's to doing better tomorrow. At least we did play the game (and I think we all enjoyed it) yesterday, and we're back in the swing of things. I did stay late last night trying to update my desktop (which is at YKWIA's, on loan) to the Anniversary Update of Windows 10, but it got almost to the end, and then reversed the installation back to the previous version. I'm not sure why--I'll have to do a little research. But it was a bit annoying; the laptop took a long time, but it did fine. Oh, well. Hope you have a good night.
Thursday, August 04, 2016
So the night before last
I wasn't online because it was time to do the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and my laptop, for whatever reason, is always really slow at updating. When I took it from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, for example, it took a grand total of about 24 hours to install the new operating system. Regular updates aren't a problem, but this was a large file and changed some features. So at first it seemed to download way too quickly, and then got stuck on preparing for installation, and in fact, it had failed. I'm not sure what I did to get it going again, but this time it downloaded (slowly, and this was on an Ethernet connexion and not Wi-Fi). It was doing the preparing to install thing again, so by that time it was late and I went to bed for awhile. When I got up and came back to it, I started the installation, then went back to bed. A couple of hours later it was at 50% installation. By morning though, I just had to restart, and it was on its way. Since then I've tweaked the tiles on the start menu and gotten rid of what I don't use, while reordering what I do. I also updated Chrome, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and my anti-virus software (dropping back to the free version of the software; I just couldn't pay $70 or so for the two computers this year. I have not updated the desktop, which is over at YKWIA's, but I will try to do that this weekend, if I can find a time when he's not on it or needing it. It shouldn't take nearly as long as the laptop; maybe an hour or two.
I'm excited about playing the game this weekend, too. I've missed it--we haven't played since late April, and we usually play weekly. We've been playing this ongoing campaign since July 1991, so we've recently reached the 25-year mark. Yay!
Yesterday I got caught up in 'branding' my social media sites for the job search, and updating publications on LinkedIn. I'm up to 38, with one more recently submitted, and while most of those are book reviews, I've done a column, a book chapter, several stints as librarian selector for Doody's Core Titles in the Health Sciences, in two different subjects, and two different sections of a book meant for collection development as well. I also have a finding aid from before I became a librarian, as part of an internship in state publications, under my former name. So it is varied. I would like to frame a research study or write an entire book at some point. I may write an article about shuttering our library, as there isn't much on the subject out there in the literature.
Yesterday was my mom's birthday. I left her messages on her voicemail, e-mail, and Facebook, but I'm not sure she got them. I hope she had a good day.
This morning I saw my podiatrist and ordered some shoes, this time ones that will be good for exercising and walking in, rather than work shoes. Tonight I helped YKWIA with a few small things, did a short grocery run for both of us, and got home about 9 pm, right before dark. I've eaten some bread and cheese and now I think I'm going to take it easy, cool off (I've been warm all day), and maybe read and listen to some music. I got my work done today, but for whatever reason wasn't feeling particularly motivated--I just soldiered on anyway. Tomorrow I must pay some bills, including my rent, take YKWIA for an appointment in the afternoon, and get my allergy shots. I'm up to the green phial; I'm hoping to build up as quickly as I can. I was near the top of the build at one point and then life got in the way--I had to fall back down to silver and start almost over again. Even missing one week is an issue at this point. At my last visit, my allergist actually was telling me about new single-allergen sublingual immunotherapy, which I guess is an indication that I should make the time to come in more often. They're open late Wednesdays, at least. I'm going to stop by tomorrow just because I'll be in the area--down the street about a block--but normally I'm shooting for mid-week. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work. :)
Okay, I think I'm going to go relax before going to bed. I may turn in early--I didn't get much sleep on the night of the update, and I didn't sleep well last night, either. And two nights ago I had a horrible dream where there was a transgender uprising in response to oppression and Muslims were being rounded up like cattle. I think I'd read too much about Donald Trump that day. I count any dreams of oppression and violence as a nightmare, don't you? Hopefully tonight will be more pleasant in the dream department.
I'm excited about playing the game this weekend, too. I've missed it--we haven't played since late April, and we usually play weekly. We've been playing this ongoing campaign since July 1991, so we've recently reached the 25-year mark. Yay!
Yesterday I got caught up in 'branding' my social media sites for the job search, and updating publications on LinkedIn. I'm up to 38, with one more recently submitted, and while most of those are book reviews, I've done a column, a book chapter, several stints as librarian selector for Doody's Core Titles in the Health Sciences, in two different subjects, and two different sections of a book meant for collection development as well. I also have a finding aid from before I became a librarian, as part of an internship in state publications, under my former name. So it is varied. I would like to frame a research study or write an entire book at some point. I may write an article about shuttering our library, as there isn't much on the subject out there in the literature.
Yesterday was my mom's birthday. I left her messages on her voicemail, e-mail, and Facebook, but I'm not sure she got them. I hope she had a good day.
This morning I saw my podiatrist and ordered some shoes, this time ones that will be good for exercising and walking in, rather than work shoes. Tonight I helped YKWIA with a few small things, did a short grocery run for both of us, and got home about 9 pm, right before dark. I've eaten some bread and cheese and now I think I'm going to take it easy, cool off (I've been warm all day), and maybe read and listen to some music. I got my work done today, but for whatever reason wasn't feeling particularly motivated--I just soldiered on anyway. Tomorrow I must pay some bills, including my rent, take YKWIA for an appointment in the afternoon, and get my allergy shots. I'm up to the green phial; I'm hoping to build up as quickly as I can. I was near the top of the build at one point and then life got in the way--I had to fall back down to silver and start almost over again. Even missing one week is an issue at this point. At my last visit, my allergist actually was telling me about new single-allergen sublingual immunotherapy, which I guess is an indication that I should make the time to come in more often. They're open late Wednesdays, at least. I'm going to stop by tomorrow just because I'll be in the area--down the street about a block--but normally I'm shooting for mid-week. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work. :)
Okay, I think I'm going to go relax before going to bed. I may turn in early--I didn't get much sleep on the night of the update, and I didn't sleep well last night, either. And two nights ago I had a horrible dream where there was a transgender uprising in response to oppression and Muslims were being rounded up like cattle. I think I'd read too much about Donald Trump that day. I count any dreams of oppression and violence as a nightmare, don't you? Hopefully tonight will be more pleasant in the dream department.
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
Okay, I am posting from the laptop
So the Internet connexion issue is resolved, everything is up-to-date, etc., and it's working via Wi-Fi, too. I think I will try to go back to bed. Good night.
PS It is funny to have a laptop above your desktop keyboard. I was often reaching for the wrong keyboard or mouse while updating. I would have kept it on the dining room table, but I needed that Ethernet connexion. :) Anyway, good night! I was only up for an hour in the middle of the night. Now it's time to go back and try to get three hours' sleep. Somehow, I think I'm going to hit snooze a lot.
Oh, and important tip: when you type in those commands to reset the Internet connexion, you must restart the computer before it works. Just thought I'd add that, in case you didn't go to the article I linked to.
PS It is funny to have a laptop above your desktop keyboard. I was often reaching for the wrong keyboard or mouse while updating. I would have kept it on the dining room table, but I needed that Ethernet connexion. :) Anyway, good night! I was only up for an hour in the middle of the night. Now it's time to go back and try to get three hours' sleep. Somehow, I think I'm going to hit snooze a lot.
Oh, and important tip: when you type in those commands to reset the Internet connexion, you must restart the computer before it works. Just thought I'd add that, in case you didn't go to the article I linked to.
I figured
that at some point in the middle of the night I'd get up to go to the bathroom and come out to check the progress of the laptop update. What I didn't expect was to have reflux. The peanut butter sandwich I ate an hour before bed seems to be sitting somewhere between my stomach and mouth, causing heartburn. I haven't had trouble with reflux in years, so I certainly wasn't expecting it. In fact, I haven't had issues since I was in school. I don't know if that's a stress indicator or not. I don't feel stressed, at least compared to the last couple of weeks. It may be mild nervousness due to the interview coming up. Or maybe I just should have waited before lying down tonight. Who knows? I do have more sympathy for a co-worker who recently had a baby. I think that child kept her in reflux most of the pregnancy. I got to see him this afternoon when Santa came to the hospital. I'm not really in to babies (they scare me a bit), but he was adorable--and slept pretty much through the whole thing.
The update worked. We're at that post-sign-in part where Microsoft is saying 'We've made some tweaks to make Windows even better. Don't turn off your PC. We'll be ready soon.' That's a very good sign. Granted, it's taken about 24 hours to update this machine, which is ridiculous. But it is updating correctly, apparently, and it shouldn't be much longer.
So it's 2 am, I'm supposed to get up and start doing stuff at 5 am, and I'm not particularly sleepy at the moment. I also woke up because my upstairs neighbours, who keep odd hours, were apparently running back and forth or something in their apartment. Our apartments aren't really well-shielded from noise from upstairs, or even sometimes from the apartment I share a kitchen wall with. The bedroom, thankfully, has a firewall between buildings, which are attached together, so I never hear anything from that neighbour, just the upstairs one, when I'm trying to sleep.
The computer just loaded. Oddly enough, it didn't reset Cortana to being active. The laptop has Windows 10 Home; the desktop has Windows 10 Pro, so there are some differences. And the Internet setting issue has cropped up there as well. Fortunately I saved the fix in that one post, so let me get out of here for now and go work on that. I'm up, I might as well.
The update worked. We're at that post-sign-in part where Microsoft is saying 'We've made some tweaks to make Windows even better. Don't turn off your PC. We'll be ready soon.' That's a very good sign. Granted, it's taken about 24 hours to update this machine, which is ridiculous. But it is updating correctly, apparently, and it shouldn't be much longer.
So it's 2 am, I'm supposed to get up and start doing stuff at 5 am, and I'm not particularly sleepy at the moment. I also woke up because my upstairs neighbours, who keep odd hours, were apparently running back and forth or something in their apartment. Our apartments aren't really well-shielded from noise from upstairs, or even sometimes from the apartment I share a kitchen wall with. The bedroom, thankfully, has a firewall between buildings, which are attached together, so I never hear anything from that neighbour, just the upstairs one, when I'm trying to sleep.
The computer just loaded. Oddly enough, it didn't reset Cortana to being active. The laptop has Windows 10 Home; the desktop has Windows 10 Pro, so there are some differences. And the Internet setting issue has cropped up there as well. Fortunately I saved the fix in that one post, so let me get out of here for now and go work on that. I'm up, I might as well.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
So I spent a good portion of last night
Trying to get a certain update to Windows 10 (it's actually called a new version of Windows 10) to install on the laptop, which is also why I never got around to blogging last night. I discovered it hadn't installed yet on the desktop, either, but when I told it to try, it did download and install it. This came out in November, towards the early to middle part of the month. I tried several things on the forum to try to get it onto the laptop--it wouldn't even download it so I could try all those fixes I found, like changing things in the registry by creating batch files full of commands, etc. You can learn more about this update at:
Mysterious Windows 10 version 1511 patch KB 3122947 fails to install
Then I thought, you know, the desktop worked. Now, granted, my desktop is marginally better in terms of memory and processing speed, but what I decided was the main factor is it's on Ethernet rather than Wi-Fi. It takes awhile to download the file--it appears to download quickly, but then starts a slower download afterwards. Maybe it's just too much for the Wi-Fi connexion, and if I remember when I downloaded Windows 10 via Wi-Fi it took what seemed like forever.
So I have an extra Ethernet cable that I can run from my modem/router to the laptop, plugged it up, plugged the laptop to charge as well, and went to bed. Then I got up to go to the bathroom around 3 am and discovered it was downloading, but then this morning when I checked it had apparently paused when the computer went to sleep. I changed the setting for that, so it won't sleep if plugged in to the outlet. Then I left it. So when I got home tonight I checked and at first it said it was 62% downloaded, but when the screen refreshed, it said to restart the computer, so it had downloaded completely. It is now at 16% set up. Will see if it works. :) But even so, it is taking awhile.
Oh, and on the desktop, after I did the update, it changed some settings, so it turned Cortana (which I find to be utterly useless and slow) back on, changed Edge back to my default browser rather than Chrome, and did something that made me unable to connect to the Internet, although I was connected. So I went to the Windows 10 Fix Network Connexion page from Microsoft and went to the command prompt (which is now attached to my taskbar on both computers, as I'm tired of searching for it each time), running it as the administrator, and typing the following at the command prompts:
Okay, we're at 20% now. I think I'll go eat a sandwich and do some things around the house.
Mysterious Windows 10 version 1511 patch KB 3122947 fails to install
Then I thought, you know, the desktop worked. Now, granted, my desktop is marginally better in terms of memory and processing speed, but what I decided was the main factor is it's on Ethernet rather than Wi-Fi. It takes awhile to download the file--it appears to download quickly, but then starts a slower download afterwards. Maybe it's just too much for the Wi-Fi connexion, and if I remember when I downloaded Windows 10 via Wi-Fi it took what seemed like forever.
So I have an extra Ethernet cable that I can run from my modem/router to the laptop, plugged it up, plugged the laptop to charge as well, and went to bed. Then I got up to go to the bathroom around 3 am and discovered it was downloading, but then this morning when I checked it had apparently paused when the computer went to sleep. I changed the setting for that, so it won't sleep if plugged in to the outlet. Then I left it. So when I got home tonight I checked and at first it said it was 62% downloaded, but when the screen refreshed, it said to restart the computer, so it had downloaded completely. It is now at 16% set up. Will see if it works. :) But even so, it is taking awhile.
Oh, and on the desktop, after I did the update, it changed some settings, so it turned Cortana (which I find to be utterly useless and slow) back on, changed Edge back to my default browser rather than Chrome, and did something that made me unable to connect to the Internet, although I was connected. So I went to the Windows 10 Fix Network Connexion page from Microsoft and went to the command prompt (which is now attached to my taskbar on both computers, as I'm tired of searching for it each time), running it as the administrator, and typing the following at the command prompts:
- Type netsh winsock reset and press Enter.
- Type netsh int ip reset and press Enter.
- Type ipconfig /release and press Enter.
- Type ipconfig /renew and press Enter.
- Type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter.
Okay, we're at 20% now. I think I'll go eat a sandwich and do some things around the house.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Today I:
- Worked in scheduling, the library, and the revenue cycle aspects of my job.
- Picked up a friend from an appointment after work.
- Took another friend to an appointment.
- Read three chapters of Hollow City while waiting at the appointment.
- Got some gas.
- Took my friend home.
- Checked out Facebook and blogged.
- Turned out all the lights except for the hallway and fish tanks, lit two lavender candles and some incense, and enjoyed the resulting scents and relaxing waterfall of the large tank.
- Tried to get the wind-up clock that my dad brought from Japan on the way back from Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War to stay going. I can't quite seem to get it level, even when using a level, and it will run for about 10 minutes and then stop. Yet again, this has happened, although I thought I'd actually gotten it for a few minutes.
- Updated some things on the computer.
- Set my Dropbox settings so it doesn't automatically connect. Often when I'm at my friends' house, I turn off the Wi-Fi because they don't have it there, and I don't want my battery on the laptop going down. But then Dropbox tries to connect when I turn the computer back on at home, and it takes what seems like forever (but seriously, at least a half an hour) to get the connexion menu to come up so I can even connect, and I think it's because Dropbox is stuck in a connexion loop, as the computer isn't connected, but it's trying to. When I changed the settings I suddenly had control over my computer again. It was a little sluggish, so something else is happening too. This doesn't happen on the desktop--Windows 10 actually sped it up, but it's connected at all times. The laptop is a different story entirely. I must figure out what settings or programs are interfering with things. I can right click to get the menu on the start button, but not left click it, for example, while it's bogged down doing something. And I checked, it wasn't automatically going into update mode or anything. Maybe it's the AVG anti-virus program, but it doesn't seem to be updating or scanning when this happens, although, of course, it's running in the background. Any ideas?
- Was going to go ahead and work on the notes for awhile, but decided I've already spent too much time just fiddling with the computer, and my wrists are hurting already. I think I'll get the recording over to the laptop from the voice recorder, at least, but the rest of it will have to wait till Friday (as tomorrow I'm over at YKWIA's watching 'Heroes Reborn' with him, after a trip to the pharmacy for a medicine we couldn't get the other day because A was so busy he forgot to go to his appointment and get his prescription, which he got today instead. We just couldn't go to the pharmacy today because YKWIA had an appointment, and I couldn't do both and get it all accomplished by the time the pharmacy closed and still get him to his appointment. So, tomorrow it is.
Monday, August 03, 2015
Interesting article on how to protect your privacy during or after the Windows 10 upgrade
Broken Windows Theory: Microsoft’s Windows 10 is a privacy nightmare. Here’s how to protect yourself.
Windows 10 is the operating system Microsoft needs. In other words, it’s not Windows 8, a Frankenstein’s monster of a tablet-plus-desktop OS that alienated everyone from PC manufacturers to corporate users. Instead, Windows 10 is an incremental improvement on Windows 7, one that is faster, slicker, and has some new bells and whistles, like virtual desktops and functional tablet support. One of Windows 10’s leaps, unfortunately, is straight into your personal data.
Saturday, August 01, 2015
While I am glad the 'charms' of Windows 8 are gone off my computer
habits die hard. I went to shut down and kept trying to bring up the charms by going to the lower right of the screen. Sigh. It'll take awhile to get used to having a Start button again. But I'm glad it's back. Thank you, Windows 10. Okay, really, good night already. I'm going to shut down the laptop and go to bed. I'm on the last song of the album. Time to sleep.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Success!!!
15%
That's what the large dial on the notebook says right now. It's in the final stages of the installation, but this one is much slower than the desktop. I put the slower download to being on WiFi, but the whole thing has been slower. I started around 9:30 pm, and it's 2:30 am now, whereas the other took maybe 2-3 hours altogether.
Fortunately nothing has required my response since about an hour ago, so I can sleep and check in later to make sure it all went okay. I'll give it another couple of hours. It's kind of like when I make bread in the machine, in that I can sleep while waiting, although this doesn't have a set timed end. So I'll have some broken sleep tonight, obviously. I could just let it go and check in the morning at this point, but I am too much of a geek to do so. :)
I'll post an update. In the mean time, good night.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Wish me luck
I'm going to try to upgrade the laptop next. It's a lower-grade computer, but then I'll be getting the Windows 10 Home, and not the Pro, so it should be okay. :) I'm downloading the files now.
Well, persistence has led to me actually running Windows 10 on the desktop
PS I did get a fun old game I love, Get Medieval, which is a Gauntlet-type game with a fake Arnold Schwarzenegger voice going on about girly spiders, among other things, going even though the same game wouldn't play on Windows 8.1 using compatibility mode because the game is 32-bit and my system is 64-bit. But this at least loaded; I just need to remember how to play. :)
On a side note, Microsoft Edge (the upgraded browser replacing Internet Explorer) just froze when I tried to add the screenshot to this post. We'll see if that continues to be a problem. I just popped back over to Chrome and it works fine. :)
Update: I did some digging as as long as you are upgrading from an activated version of Windows, it doesn't look like it should ask for an activation key. And everything is done like to like, so for example, I had Windows 8.1 Pro on the desktop, so it's Windows 10 Pro. My notebook is standard Windows 8.1, so it'll go to Windows 10 Home, hopefully. Also, if like me you had Windows Media Center, which allowed the playing of DVDs, it is not included in Windows 10 (I had to purchase it separately even for 8), but they're supposed to give you a free DVD-playback application, if not immediately, then soon, like the first update after install. Or you could use something like VLC, which I use on the notebook with Windows 8.1.
So did anyone actually get Windows 10 today?
Not me. On one computer, I have an error explaining that my graphics card isn't compatible, when it probably is, but even though I put in another graphics card, the compatibility report doesn't refresh for up to a month, according to their FAQ. A month? Really? I went through the Microsoft website and found a way to make the compatibility program run under task scheduler, but it didn't change anything. So it keeps telling me I can't upgrade because of a card that isn't active. The other computer keeps saying that it hasn't run the report yet, but will get around to it eventually (isn't that nice, and maybe two weeks ago it would have flown, but it's release day and it won't even tell me if my computer is compatible?) Both computers have the necessary update to have the program run a report correctly. It just isn't updating it's compatibility information, and so no upgrade.
It has thus been an extremely frustrating day for me, Microsoft. You suck majorly at times, and this is one of them. Of course, Best Buy offered to upgrade my computer for $30 a pop. The whole point of Windows 10 is that it is supposed to be a better operating system, and oh, yeah, free. It's not supposed to be this difficult. I'm not a tech genius, but I'm competent enough to handle many software issues and install/configure some hardware. But right now, in this moment, I am almost too irritated to sleep. Thank you, Microsoft.
It has thus been an extremely frustrating day for me, Microsoft. You suck majorly at times, and this is one of them. Of course, Best Buy offered to upgrade my computer for $30 a pop. The whole point of Windows 10 is that it is supposed to be a better operating system, and oh, yeah, free. It's not supposed to be this difficult. I'm not a tech genius, but I'm competent enough to handle many software issues and install/configure some hardware. But right now, in this moment, I am almost too irritated to sleep. Thank you, Microsoft.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
So far today I have
- Woken up and showered/gotten ready.
- Put that CD in the book drop (but wrapped in a bag to cushion it/keep it together).
- Eaten breakfast (at McDonald's--I know, it's bad for you, but I didn't have much here, and their egg and cheese biscuits are yummy; plus I was parched).
- Updated my laptop in preparation for the upgrade to Windows 10 (it took 17 updates--it's not connected all the time like the desktop is). But it's not running the compatibility report yet to say whether it will work.
- Searched for an inexpensive solution to the Windows 10 incompatibility I'm having with the desktop (I think I solved it, but it took going to both Office Depot and Best Buy, the latter of which came through).
- Mailed my mom's birthday card. I was able to buy a single stamp at The Mailroom, but my God they charge 59 cents, so it's a 10-cent markup per stamp. I hate to think how much the books cost.
- Received replies from my aunts about some pictures I sent them that I scanned in. They were from 1981, when we were all much younger. They were happy to get them.
- Switched tonight's lesson from the giant teaching notebook to the working notebook, and mapped out which parts I do and which parts my co-teacher does. I still have to read it thoroughly, but it's a start.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Yay! I'm off for two days!
Which means I:
- get away from the office for a little while (I really had to drag myself to work today, which indicated it was time to get away, even for a short time, as I usually love being there.
- can get the house in order before the fire department inspection on Thursday (which I didn't know would happen when it will when I asked of, but I knew it was looming)
- can take care of some errands and make some phone calls
- can prepare properly for class
- can get my allergy shots properly this week
- can go swimming in the pool
- won't have to take time off to take a friend to an appointment
- can blog more
- might be able to install Windows 10 on my machines, depending on how the rollout goes
- Take a CD and some books to the library
- Clean the apartment thoroughly
- Water the plants, including the outside ones, one of which fell off its ledge yesterday, so I also need to sweep up the dirt
- Prepare for class
Monday, June 08, 2015
It was so nice to be back and able to visit with friends
Today was National Best Friend Day, in case you missed the memo, so after work I took some soy burgers, whole wheat buns, egg mustard potato salad, and cookies over to my friends' house and we all had a nice dinner. YKWIA and I watched some videos (including the one below), and then a couple of paired episodes of 'House of Anubis'.
As great as this weekend was, I was happy to get back into my routine with work and then spend time with my friends, whom I had missed, I must admit. Still, it was nice to get away from the norm for a couple of days.
Totally off topic, I've reserved Windows 10 for both computers, as the little Windows logo appeared in my desktop tray, and it has you go ahead and sign up. It'll be released on July 29th.
As another non sequitur, I just had the best, sweetest California blackberries. They tasted as fresh as if I'd just gotten them from a field. Yay!
I do have to admit that I didn't really feel that tired from the weekend until today, when I've struggled to stay awake. Now I;m thinking of going on to bed to crash. After all, the fan is in the bedroom and I've become hot this evening, even with air conditioning and the fact that it's only 70 degrees in my apartment and middling humidity. I am going to have to call my landlady tomorrow, though, as my air conditioning, which is above a walk-in closet, in which I try not to keep anything easily damaged, is leaking slowly. So they'll probably have to take what's in there out (the Christmas tree in a big container, a bedside commode, a shower chair, and that sort of thing) out, and fix it. But that is for tomorrow. For now, I am going to turn the laptop off, turn out the aquaria lights, and set my alarms, after I do a quick check of the news. I had a clock application freeze this morning, causing me to think it was an hour earlier than it really was, but fortunately I discovered it with just enough time to get to work on time. So here's to that not happening again. Good night.
As great as this weekend was, I was happy to get back into my routine with work and then spend time with my friends, whom I had missed, I must admit. Still, it was nice to get away from the norm for a couple of days.
Totally off topic, I've reserved Windows 10 for both computers, as the little Windows logo appeared in my desktop tray, and it has you go ahead and sign up. It'll be released on July 29th.
As another non sequitur, I just had the best, sweetest California blackberries. They tasted as fresh as if I'd just gotten them from a field. Yay!
I do have to admit that I didn't really feel that tired from the weekend until today, when I've struggled to stay awake. Now I;m thinking of going on to bed to crash. After all, the fan is in the bedroom and I've become hot this evening, even with air conditioning and the fact that it's only 70 degrees in my apartment and middling humidity. I am going to have to call my landlady tomorrow, though, as my air conditioning, which is above a walk-in closet, in which I try not to keep anything easily damaged, is leaking slowly. So they'll probably have to take what's in there out (the Christmas tree in a big container, a bedside commode, a shower chair, and that sort of thing) out, and fix it. But that is for tomorrow. For now, I am going to turn the laptop off, turn out the aquaria lights, and set my alarms, after I do a quick check of the news. I had a clock application freeze this morning, causing me to think it was an hour earlier than it really was, but fortunately I discovered it with just enough time to get to work on time. So here's to that not happening again. Good night.
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