catching up
Nov. 18th, 2003 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillOkay, I meant to post earlier, but I had a corrupted system file (I think) and couldn't even get into my own computer Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday, which kind of put a crimp in my plans. Furthermore, I haven't managed to fix the system folder yet
I'm using a Mac, which in this incarnation can have two system folders on it, one for system 10, which I normally use, and one for system 9, which is presently ...challenging. I booted into system 9 for long complicated reasons, but basically to use a program that didn't seem to be compatible with system 10. Unfortunately, the computer got stuck in mid-boot--looking for a system folder it could recognize. Much messing around with Norton Disk Doctor for system 9 followed, much hair-tearing, sniffling, cursing and promising whatever gods seemed to be listening (or maybe just myself) that I would back up the hard drive FIRST THING once I got back into my computer.
Now, through all of this, system 10 was just fine. I just couldn't figure out how to get into it without getting system 9 to run on the computer--for this particular value of Mac you have to have the computer running to pick a new system file.
Anyway--a last minute hair raising Sunday night-and-its-raining-and-don't-ask-don't-tell-how-fast-we-were-going drive to West Knoxville to pick up a copy of a more advanced version of Norton before the store closed, hours of crouching anxiously over the computer as it chewed its way through a bit-by-bit check of the hard drive, and booting from the new Norton CD (which has versions of both systems on it--yay), finally allowed me to get my computer back. I was so glad to see Taliesin's little smiling face I nearly cried.
At which point I had all those promises to the gods and myself to live up to and I backed up the hard drive. To CDs. Since I don't really trust hard drives anymore. Retrospect is not particularly quick. It wanted a new CD every hour. For ten hours. Then it wanted to check that it had written everything correctly, which took about forty minutes per CD.
And *that* is why I haven't written for a while.
In the meantime, remember that program I was talking about? I wanted to use it because I have gone out and gotten a new mp3 player/recorder. I went to the store hoping they'd have a demo model I could try--one of the reviews I'd read said the onboard mic was pretty good and I wanted to see if it was good enough for recording filk before I asked for one for Christmas.
Alas, they had no demo model. They did, however, allow returns. So I fronted the money and bought one to check it out. I am, however, probably going to return it, since I'm thinking about asking for one for Christmas, and Mom and Dad are starting to get sarcastic about being asked to pay me back for things I bought myself in lieu of getting me presents (I only did that with Brown Bird (the mandolin)--but someone might have bought her while I was gone. And then there was Feather (the tenor guitar)--but I really *needed* a travel guitar and he was such a deal someone else was sure to snap him up if I just went away and put him on my wishlist. But my family doesn't understand--they're starting to write *poems* about it and I don't want to go there again).
Anyway--I'm trying it out, but I'm probably going to return it. I'm attempting to square this with my conscience by pointing out that filkers are a good market for little recording dohickies, and maybe you all haven't heard much about mp3 recorders yet, and I'll write a review and that might sell more recorders and be good for the company.
Besides, I really want one with more memory.
However, this player/recorder can only hold about four hours of music (eight hours if you get the 512 MB model). So naturally if I'm going to start Cat's Indexed Filksing collection of all the songs I've ever wanted to learn, I'm going to have to be able to upload the recordings to Taliesin so I can put them on CDs or something. It's the uploading to computer part that I was trying to install when everything went south.
I really need the upload part to work. Without that, the recorder might as well be a dirt clod instead of the sleek wonder of electronic miniaturization that it resembles. I think I can still do it. But I may be looking at a clean install of the latest version of system 9 that I have on CD, followed by downloading an upgrade of system 9 from Apple and installing *that*. Grump.
Note that none of this computer hassle is really the mp3 player's fault. I've been having trouble with system 9 for a while--should have fixed it ages ago. The player just uncovered the problem and shoved it up my nose where I couldn't ignore it.
On the bright side, the hassle and hair-tearing associated with this player, while not its fault, may have gone a long way toward clearing the "isn't it sleek and small and *cute*?" stars from my eyes, and enabling me to write a level-headed review of its strengths and weaknesses, possibly even with a few mp3 snippets from a concert/workshop I'm going to tonight if the performers agree.
Watch this space for details.
Oh, and my back is doing better too, and I might be becoming employed soon, but I'm running out of space.
I'm using a Mac, which in this incarnation can have two system folders on it, one for system 10, which I normally use, and one for system 9, which is presently ...challenging. I booted into system 9 for long complicated reasons, but basically to use a program that didn't seem to be compatible with system 10. Unfortunately, the computer got stuck in mid-boot--looking for a system folder it could recognize. Much messing around with Norton Disk Doctor for system 9 followed, much hair-tearing, sniffling, cursing and promising whatever gods seemed to be listening (or maybe just myself) that I would back up the hard drive FIRST THING once I got back into my computer.
Now, through all of this, system 10 was just fine. I just couldn't figure out how to get into it without getting system 9 to run on the computer--for this particular value of Mac you have to have the computer running to pick a new system file.
Anyway--a last minute hair raising Sunday night-and-its-raining-and-don't-ask-don't-tell-how-fast-we-were-going drive to West Knoxville to pick up a copy of a more advanced version of Norton before the store closed, hours of crouching anxiously over the computer as it chewed its way through a bit-by-bit check of the hard drive, and booting from the new Norton CD (which has versions of both systems on it--yay), finally allowed me to get my computer back. I was so glad to see Taliesin's little smiling face I nearly cried.
At which point I had all those promises to the gods and myself to live up to and I backed up the hard drive. To CDs. Since I don't really trust hard drives anymore. Retrospect is not particularly quick. It wanted a new CD every hour. For ten hours. Then it wanted to check that it had written everything correctly, which took about forty minutes per CD.
And *that* is why I haven't written for a while.
In the meantime, remember that program I was talking about? I wanted to use it because I have gone out and gotten a new mp3 player/recorder. I went to the store hoping they'd have a demo model I could try--one of the reviews I'd read said the onboard mic was pretty good and I wanted to see if it was good enough for recording filk before I asked for one for Christmas.
Alas, they had no demo model. They did, however, allow returns. So I fronted the money and bought one to check it out. I am, however, probably going to return it, since I'm thinking about asking for one for Christmas, and Mom and Dad are starting to get sarcastic about being asked to pay me back for things I bought myself in lieu of getting me presents (I only did that with Brown Bird (the mandolin)--but someone might have bought her while I was gone. And then there was Feather (the tenor guitar)--but I really *needed* a travel guitar and he was such a deal someone else was sure to snap him up if I just went away and put him on my wishlist. But my family doesn't understand--they're starting to write *poems* about it and I don't want to go there again).
Anyway--I'm trying it out, but I'm probably going to return it. I'm attempting to square this with my conscience by pointing out that filkers are a good market for little recording dohickies, and maybe you all haven't heard much about mp3 recorders yet, and I'll write a review and that might sell more recorders and be good for the company.
Besides, I really want one with more memory.
However, this player/recorder can only hold about four hours of music (eight hours if you get the 512 MB model). So naturally if I'm going to start Cat's Indexed Filksing collection of all the songs I've ever wanted to learn, I'm going to have to be able to upload the recordings to Taliesin so I can put them on CDs or something. It's the uploading to computer part that I was trying to install when everything went south.
I really need the upload part to work. Without that, the recorder might as well be a dirt clod instead of the sleek wonder of electronic miniaturization that it resembles. I think I can still do it. But I may be looking at a clean install of the latest version of system 9 that I have on CD, followed by downloading an upgrade of system 9 from Apple and installing *that*. Grump.
Note that none of this computer hassle is really the mp3 player's fault. I've been having trouble with system 9 for a while--should have fixed it ages ago. The player just uncovered the problem and shoved it up my nose where I couldn't ignore it.
On the bright side, the hassle and hair-tearing associated with this player, while not its fault, may have gone a long way toward clearing the "isn't it sleek and small and *cute*?" stars from my eyes, and enabling me to write a level-headed review of its strengths and weaknesses, possibly even with a few mp3 snippets from a concert/workshop I'm going to tonight if the performers agree.
Watch this space for details.
Oh, and my back is doing better too, and I might be becoming employed soon, but I'm running out of space.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-23 11:38 pm (UTC)I also suggest you insure your computer and whatever recording device you end up purchasing--a--I think they call it a floater--can be purchased as part of most household insurance, and since you depend so much on your computer it would probably be worthwhile.