Monthly Archives: September 2017

United? Nations?

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This post is about Justin Trudeau, today’s Person of Interest.

Here you will find one (of many) analyses of Trudeau’s speech to the UN. I will content myself with these observations:

  • Given the large number of international concerns running right now, it is odd that Trudeau would talk about how badly we’ve treated our aboriginal people.
  • Given that the UN will have no part in fixing a purely Canadian internal problem, it is odd that Trudeau would mention it on this particular stage.
  • A cynic might think that, by exposing our ‘dirty underwear’ Trudeau is trying to distract public attention from other real problems, including: broken voting reform promise; blowback on tax reform; dealing with Donald Trump.

There are, imho, many things Trudeau could have tried for progress or at least consensus on, including these:

  • Cholera in Yemen
  • Bombing of citizens in Serbia
  • Isolation of Qatar (mostly by Saudi Arabia)
  • North Korea with rockets and h-bombs
  • Hurricanes and Global Warming, and warming nay-sayers
  • Earthquakes in Mexico
  • The continuing fiasco in Haiti, where years later, little has been accomplished despite large amounts of money going to NGOs there, and a lot going to the US Army there (research this if you don’t believe me.)
  • Political and economic disaster in Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Argentina.

Oh well. Sunny ways here, and dirty laundry at the UN.

Acronis gets my back up

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I am updating this post partly in fairness to Acronis.

They did not respond quickly to my problem with Acronis 2018. I had decided to un-install it and try for a refund. They called me on my cell phone about ten minutes after I’d done the un-install and installed a competitive product. I asked for a refund and got it on my credit card a few days later.

What follows is my original post, unaltered, until you get to the bottom where I will mention Paragon. Original post continues right here.

I claim to ‘look after’ five different computers in this house.

I acquired Acronis 2018 to use as backup for the newest computer,  a Zenbook for my wife. She can watch useful videos in her art/sewing/ studio instead of lugging subsets of equipment to the desktop downstairs.

Acronis 2018 made exactly one backup on a 3 terabyte Mybook Live, USB 3. It refused to make a second backup on the same drive connected the same way. It gave an error to the effect that the backup location could not be found.

Acronis 2018 could not make a recovery bootable USB because the screen was too big (mostly blank white space) with no scroll bar.

I overcame this by un-locking the taskbar (to get one extra screen line) and created a bootable USB. This machine has a different bios from what I’m used to, but it’s rather easy to choose a USB boot if one is available.

The boot leads to a blue screen from which a recovery canNot be launched.

I am considering my options with regard to this purchase. I think that if I solemnly swear that the product does not work my credit card company will reverse the charge.

Acronis 2017 was an oops moment. I wanted to increase my 2016 3-license agreement, but despite promises via eMail of a deal, the site would not make it cheaper than purchasing one new license. Not being prescient, I did not realize I’d need more than one more seat, so I got a 1-license Acronis 2017.

2017 has one bug. From time to time a window pops up saying ‘operation failed.’ There is no clue as to what operation. I think this happens when there is no Internet and it tries to find updates. This message seems to come up shortly after a cold start. 2017 is installed on an Acer Switch Alpha 12.

Acronis 2016 is a 3-license deal and is on two desktops and the older Zenbook. It works fine. I built recovery USBs on each machine separately and tested, getting to the point where it was asking: ‘do a full recovery’ or ‘what files?’ So I assume this would work if I needed it to.

There was a problem with 2016, however. On my wife’s desktop (after it had been used several times) it said I had installed it on more than three machines and I had 30 days to fix this. After some discussion Acronis allowed that it was legally installed after all.

I have no idea why Acronis would think it was on another machine. I have no idea why Acronis picked this particular computer out of three to complain about. It makes no sense.

So, today I downloaded (and paid for) a competitor’s backup product. This on the newer Zenbook. Sadly the install seems to need two executables so I guess I’ll actually have to read the manual. Sigh. There seems to be no rest for the wicked, or for sysadmin’s.

So, Acronis has my backup on four machines, and my back up on 2018 which I can solemnly swear is, on my installation, c..p.

I should mention that Acronis did give me a refund and did offer a fix. However I needed to back up my wife’s laptop ASAP and so got Paragon, an alternative. I downloaded the free version to discover that it does not support rescue media creation. So I deleted that and got the paid version.

I can Not create rescue media with this package either. It needed a Massive download from Microsoft, which had an error message; then rescue media creation fails every time. I have submitted a ticket to Paragon. I am hoping my wife won’t do something Very Dumb and we won’t need rescue media. But I want to build it anyway.

backup. sigh.

Pete Seeger and Donald Trump

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Here is a hotlink to a YouTube (sound only) recording of Pete Seeger: Last Train to Nuremberg. You may wonder what this has to do with anything.

I saw this performed live in a taping of the Tommy Hunter show, decades ago. Seeger came out and said something like: “I’m going to play some songs for you, and we’re going to ignore all these technical people milling about.” He did, and they did. At one point some twit kept saying, ‘cut, Pete,’ and he didn’t.

Seeger played and sang Last Train to Nuremberg, explaining that he, in all honesty, played this song in every engagement. Simple as that.

Of course the Pete Seeger segment of the Tommy Hunter Show was short, and omitted the protest song. Of course.

Nuremberg was (you maybe knew this already) the site of war criminal trials. Listen to the song a few times; it’s free: Seeger’s song tells us that we are all complicit. Simple as that.

Donald Trump got elected. We are all complicit. Simple as that.

Donald Trump will tear the USA apart. We are all complicit. Simple as that.

The American magazine Atlantic has a couple of articles (among many) about this.

I expect readers of this blog to click on hotlinks and think for themselves. I’ll content myself with one quote from each, emphasis mine:

The trick here is that the administration and this shadow government are one and the same. Even as the public government sputters, other elements of the Trump administration are quietly remaking the nation’s regulatory landscape, especially on the environment and criminal justice.

The 45th president, Donald Trump, might pose the gravest threat to the constitutional order since the 37th. Of course, he might not. Perhaps we’ll get Grown-up Trump, an unorthodox and controversial president who, whatever one may think of his policies and personality, proves to be responsible and effective as a chief executive. But we might get Infantile Trump, an undisciplined narcissist who throws tantrums and governs haphazardly. Or perhaps, worse yet, we’ll get Strongman Trump, who turns out to have been telegraphing his real intentions when, during the campaign, he spread innuendo and misinformation, winked at political violence, and proposed multiple violations of the Constitution and basic decency. Quite probably we’ll get some combination of all three (and possibly others).

The Atlantic rejected my poems decades ago. I once owned an issue which dealt with the gun used in a massacre in the USA. (Loaned the mag and lost it. Damn!) Atlantic is a very fine magazine and I have no reason to trumpet it. No special interest. They don’t like me.

Pete Seeger is deceased. If you click on the hotlink at left, you’ll find out what else he did as a protest songwriter/singer.

Donald Trump is very much alive. If you google search for Trump News, you’ll see his/our latest folly.

We are all culpible. If we let this go on.

OK, dumb question?

What will you (personally) do about this?