Hosting Labashi's school buddy ; starting the process of switching Labashi from Windows to Mac
(posted from home)
(This post covers 23 – 31 August, 2012)
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Friday, 31 August -
This morning I did a final review of laser printers, both standalone and multi-function. I'm a bit afraid of the latter units and just can't beat the Labor Day deal on the Brother model ($100 for a duplexing, Energy Star, inexpensive-toner, well-regarded printer.) I called the two Office Max stores in York to see if they had them in stock and put one on hold at West York.
Labashi and I had a few errands to run this afternoon before our run for the printer. We went to our local optometrist so Labashi could try some eyeglass frames they ordered in for her. One model turned out to be just right so she went ahead and ordered. I also found a set of frames I like. I've had the same frame design for forty-plus years and this last set has been a disaster. I've always had a bit of a problem with corrosion of the frames (from my sweat, I assume) but this pair has been by far the worst ever in this regard. Whomever is doing the plating has changed the process or is cheating on quality somehow. The problem has been, though, that I've not been able to find anything even remotely similar and didn't want to make a major design change. But today I found not only a similar design but it's also a stainless steel frame. I'm also ready to jump ship from my previous optometry shop after my disappointment with the latest set of lenses.
We then drove in to town to the west-side Chili's for an early supper. Afterwards I stopped at the Office Max next door and bought the printer I had reserved.
We then drove a few blocks to West York High School to look around. We have an event to attend this weekend and we hear parking is going to be a problem.
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Thursday, 30 August -
This morning I signed on to the 8Convert app and bought the full-version license. I ran it on the Windows machine to create the export file and then copied it to a portable hard drive and moved it to the OSX side. I then ran Apple Mail's Import function to pick up the file.
The mail all appeared in a new mailbox called Import. I was a bit surprised to see it had not created a tree of nested mailboxes but rather had labeled each set of emails with a long title, like this: PersonalFolders/Inbox/
I decided to leave the actual re-organization of the mailboxes to Labashi. I turned my attention to downloading and testing Chrome and Skype. Both installed with no problems and testing went smoothly.
I then switched to trying to get the printer to work. But when I looked on the back of the printer I saw a blanking plate where I thought the USB port should be. That led me to a long research session to try to find an adapter that would convert the old Centronics parallel 36-pin receptacle. I found one on the Radio Shack site but it was listed as a Windows-compatible. I rode over to our local Shack and bought one. And it worked perfectly-- for one page. But after printing that one page I was never able to print another.
So I went looking online for a new laser printer, this time a wireless one. I've always been partial to the HP LaserJet line but now I see they've decided to only have manual duplexing (front-and-back page printing) on most models. As it happens, the few WITH duplexing didn't have the other features I wanted or didn't get very good reviews on CNET. When I found the Brother HL-2770DW model had good reviews and happen to be on a 33-percent-off sale at Office Max this weekend, I had a winner.
Late in the day Labashi went off to her volunteer project and I rode the GS down to Rudy Park for a 5K walk (52 minutes today). I managed a bit of jogging but again had problems with my right leg loading up. I also had a bit of hip pain. Maybe I'd better not push the jogging thing. I've been injury-free with my walking this summer and want to keep it that way.
Afterwards I rode over to the North York Starbucks for a biscotti-and-coffee supper then went home and worked on the offline blog.
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Wednesday, 29 August -
I started the Windows-to-Mac migration process this morning and immediately ran into trouble. The first-boot process went okay but when I tried Migration Assistant I hit a snag. The process had me download a Windows component onto the Windows machine to talk to the Mac but it wouldn't run. As soon as it started the program said it required a .Net Framework 3.5 update and told me to run Windows Update to get it. Running Windows Update then failed because I was using Chrome as my browser and said I had to be on Internet Explorer. But Internet Explorer is broken on that machine. It runs away, creating new windows as fast as it can right from the start. I've looked into this before and could find no good answers, just some 'try-this' advice. No thank you. Once I switched from a Windows laptop to a Mac laptop the hassle factor went down 90 per cent so I'm not about to get sucked back into that massive time-waster.
I did contact Apple about this but they just referred me to Microsoft's Mac-support tech staff (they support Windows Office for Mac, for instance) but Microsoft didn't to anything but switch me to a pay-for-support line. Such are the joys of mixing Mac and Windows worlds.
My friend Google found me a utility called 8Convert which promised to convert the Outlook mail and contacts. Comments in the reviews showed it runs without the .Net Framework problem. Better yet, it offers a test version which only converts five emails and five contacts but that test demonstrates whether or not the process works. I ran through the test and saw it would indeed do the conversion for me. Since the full version is a reasonable $14, I decided to go with it rather than spend a lot of time trying to find a workaround. (I had done the same move in 2009 using copy-this/import- that instructions from the web but this one has a complex set of folders to move).
Before buying the utility, though, I needed to figure out whether the mail system would give me a bunch of duplicate mail. I have multiple mailboxes which I have set up to not delete the mail on the server so I can share it with Labashi. The multiple Gmail boxes automatically forward to my cable-company email account. Leaving all the Gmail alone allows me to use Gmail's powerful search tools but I can't tell Apple Mail about the Gmail accounts or it will continually try to download all those emails again and again. But by forwarding them to my cable-company account, it works. For some reason Apple Mail recognizes it has already downloaded the mail and doesn't give me dupes by downloading the same mail the next time. I can read the mail on my laptop and when Labashi signs on she gets the same emails. I only need to occasionally sign on to the web version of the cable-company email system and clean out the mailbox. But that's not even once a year so it works out very well.
Since we've already seen all the mail on the server, it was time for a clean-out. Fortunately, my ISP has an updated version their web-mail app and in the latest version the deletion process was very easy; just grab a handful of emails or skip down through the emails picking here and there and then hit delete. This gave me a final review of emails on the server before final deletion.
Most of those emails are also backed up on Gmail in case we lose a hard drive. The subset directly addressed to our ISP email address aren't in the Gmail account but we don't generally give out that address any more.
That evening we watched 'Mildred Pierce, Part Four'.
Oh, yeah. Today Labashi put down an application of lawn grub killer.
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Tuesday, 28 August -
Today we drove over to the only Apple Store in the region (at Park City Mall) and bought Labashi's Mac Book Pro and accessories. We had another good lunch at J. Dawson's (excellent gazpacho!) and started planning the migration from Windows to Mac.
I had done this migration in 2009 so this one should be easier. But you know how that is: easy to do is easy to say.
By mid-afternoon I needed to get moving with my lawn-mowing chores. I've never done so much mowing as this year! I did the upper section in the heat and then finished up the lower-40 once things cooled down a bit after supper.
We watched “Adventures with Purpose: New Zealand” for our entertainment tonight.
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Monday, 27 August -
Labashi and I finally felt we had enough information on the Mac line of computers to make a decision on which platform would be best for her given the functionality and form-factor of the platform, the age of its technology (whether we should wait for an update to come out) and the relative performance measures. In the end we decided on the Mac Book Pro 15 laptop with Retina display, the Generation 3 model of the MBP line. We considered the non-Retina version of the MBP15 because a lot of software does not yet support the Retina display. But that should be fixed this Fall and the non-Retina model is considered a Gen 2 model. We also considered waiting for the MBP 13 Retina due out next month but the tech specs being reported for it appear to be significantly less impressive. Also, we might get away with the 15-inch screen for “pro-sumer”-level video and photo editing but a 13.3-inch screen would be awfully small for that (though ideal for our travel). We also decided to put off consideration of an external display until we see how the laptop screen does. I think it will be fine unless Labashi decides to take on a very large video or desktop-publishing project.
I also spent quite a bit of time tracking down a QuarkXpress question. We have an old version (v4) on the Windows desktop and I wanted to know if that would qualify us for upgrade pricing for QuarkXpress v9 on the Mac. And if so, how do I go about submitting proof that we're qualified? The short answer to those questions is 'yes it does' and 'you key in a validation number I'll send you once I verify that you have an authorized product'. After some back-and-forth I received an email with the validation number. Good deal!
We also reviewed the periperals and decided we'd need a USB hub to plug in our existing printers and scanner and would want a Magic Mouse (mainly for photo editing) and we decided we want to go with MS Office (for Mac) and Photoshop Elements (to duplicate the desktop's functionality).
By mid-afternoon I was ready to get out of the house. I took the GS and ran a quick run to the bank and then went on to Rudy Park for my 5K walk. I've been doing that walk enough that I felt I could jog a bit of it today but the temperature was close to 90 and I only jogged a tiny bit before my right leg began stiffening up. I walked it out and tried again but could not continue with the jog. I was disappointed to finish in 55 minutes today.
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Sunday, 26 August -
Today Labashi worked on a series of family history photos to send my newly-met cousin. I spent the day researching the various Apple computer systems to hopefully decide soon on which platform we will go with to replace Labashi's dying Windows system. The decision is surprisingly complex.
That evening we watched Globe Trekker: New Zealand.
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Saturday, 25 August -
This morning I finally forwarded the picture of my second great grandfather to Labashi so she could do a bit of cleanup and send it on to my cousin as a thank-you for our tour on Thursday.
Once that was done we drove to Lancaster's Park City Mall to go to the Apple Store. We first had lunch at J. Dunlap's, a nicer restaurant with a storefront on the mall parking lot. We were pleasantly surprised to have a perfectly-spiced chili and a black-and-bleu burger. I could get used to that place!
We then spent the better part of two hours working with Alan, a retail specialist in the Apple Store. We've decided to replace Labashi's dying Windows PC with a Mac. But which one?
By the end of the session we were more-or-less settled on an iMac. But we still didn't know what to do for travel.
On the way home we picked up some sweet corn for supper at a roadside stand and then watched the last two Louie episodes and then “Unforgettable Girls”, a documentary about New Zealand's Topps twins.
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Friday, 24 August -
We had a leisurely morning with Labashi's friend before he left for his visit to the Carlisle car show. Once we saw him off, we began looking for a picture of my second great grandfather to send to my newly-found cousin. She had mentioned him and when I said I had a late-1800's photo of him, she was very interested.
This was one of those frustrating situations. I know I had seen the photo recently and had a clear picture in my mind of the binder it was in. But we couldn't find that binder.
I've been doing pretty well at putting family history files and mementos in one place so I thought the binder must be there. But despite our best efforts we couldn't find it.
I then remembered I had a scanned-in version of that photo on my old laptop. I fired it up and then went through a very frustrating effort to get that photo to Labashi. I found it easily enough on the laptop but Windows decided to do a series of updates which slowed the system to a crawl. I finally was able to make a copy on a thumbdrive but then the thumbdrive wouldn't eject. And when I decided to simply shutdown the machine to extract the thumbdrive, Windows decided it needed to do another nine updates and wouldn't shut down until they were completed.
I had wanted to get out for a walk and was by that time just fed up with crapware Windows. I left it in the middle of its updates and jumped on the motorcycle, bound for Rudy Park and my walk.
The walk calmed me down and afterwards I lingered to watch a guy fly a radio-control airplane for a while. That looked like a lot of fun.
I then rode to the North York Starbucks for a break. There I met 'Jay' an older biker riding a new Victory Eight-Ball. I simply asked him what other bikes he had had before buying the Eight-Ball and how they compared to it and that launched us into a half-hour-long discussion. Jay had had more than a dozen bikes and I really enjoyed his take on each of them.
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Thursday, 23 August -
Today we drove to Chambersburg with Labashi's school buddy from Texas. We rushed to make it to the church which was only open until 1000 and we made it only ten minutes before closing. But that was enough to get into the sanctuary for a brief look to see what had changed in forty-plus years.
We then got lucky. We had been warned the school had an open house for kindergartners today so we probably wouldn't be welcome. And when we approached the ladies at the reception desk, that appeared to be the case. They began to explain that they were very shortly going to be too busy to deal with us though one did offer a two-minute tour. But then fortune smiled. It turned out she is a cousin I've never met. We expected our tour to be a quick walk down the hall but it turned into a very nice tour visiting every nook and cranny of the building and including introductions to the teachers and staff as we went. Incredible luck!
After the church and school visits we drove to the old neighborhood and drove slowly through the streets there as memories flooded back for Labashi and her friend.
After many photos we then drove to Mechanicsburg, arriving just in time for supper. I dropped off Labashi and buddy and drove over to Texas Roadhouse to pick up our to-go order of their wonderful baby-back ribs.
We headed home around 1830. As we drove through Lisburn we saw the guys who run the new live-crab business out in front so we stopped to say hello. Labashi had bought the steamed crabs here for our meal the other night. We had a very nice chat with the guys and they appeared to be very appreciative of our stopping by to let them know how our feast had gone.
That evening we sat around talking and before long started enjoying a few rounds of extra-strong margaritas. They eventually made me too sleepy to stay up but Labashi and her friend stayed p late with their childhood memories.
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posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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