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: 2003-11-18 03:45 pm (UTC)I take it that the program you were trying to use doesn't play well with Classic mode in OS X? (I'm not tech support, really. I'm just married to him. *grin*)
Yay for the better back! And yay for potential employment!
MP3 Player etc
Date: 2003-11-18 05:26 pm (UTC)first - glad to hear your back is better!
Second - we missed you at Orycon
Third - Not sure I ever told you a) how much I love your music b) how much we appreciated you stepping in to perform at Douglas' and my Handfasting.
Query -- specs on MP3 recorder???
I've been looking for something to record filk and am interested in what you've found - brand name - vague price point?
Hope you continue to feel better and have a good Thanksgiving in your new home. We're having Thanksgiving for the McCorisons in Victoria this year... Yes, a US Thanksgiving in Canada :)
Juliana (& Douglas)
no subject
Date: 2003-11-18 08:41 pm (UTC)Err. That's the long story part, actually. For some reason the "talk to the mp3-player" program that supposedly runs in OS X won't install if I don't have an up-to-date version of CarbonLib (it wants CarbonLib 1.6.1 and keeps claiming I only have version 1.4.1--my CarbonLib file doesn't have any version number attached to it, so I can't verify this). I downloaded the upgrade for CarbonLib, only to discover that I can't install it while I'm in OS X. I guess this isn't very surprising; CarbonLib is a component of *system 9*. Why the stupid OS X (theoretically) software refuses to run without an up-to-date part of system 9 I have no idea, unless it wants to run in Classic--but Classic isn't starting up when I try to run the program or anything--and come to think of it, the mp3 player software has a OS X-style expandable icon, so I don't have a clue why it would care about system 9 components.
Anyway--the only thing I can think to do next is try to reinstall system 9 from the CD (which I recovered from Kip's office tonight), then upgrade to the latest version from the Apple Website. This *should* include the latest version of CarbonLib, and then (I earnestly hope) the mp3 player software should run. Theoretically.
Grump. I am glad my back is better, but it has been a long day, with only a brief lie-down in the middle, and I'm hurting. On the other hand I couldn't possibly have managed a day like today last week, so I must be getting better.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-19 10:38 am (UTC)Donald fSB
no subject
Date: 2003-11-19 02:25 pm (UTC)I'm definitely interested in the review of the MP3 player/recorder.
And in hearing more about the possible employment!
And yay! for improved back!
Oh, and I can understand being wary of hard drives, but I think backup to hard drives tends to be significantly faster than to CDs. I think all 40GB of my hard drive backs up to external FireWire drive in about 3-4 hours. ...On the other hand, one nice thing about Retrospect is that you can do incremental backups, so now that you've got a full backup, you should be able to do a backup of new and changed files to CD much faster, especially if you do it once every week or two.
Re: MP3 Player etc
Date: 2003-11-19 04:22 pm (UTC)I'm very pleased that you like my songs and I was happy to step in for Beth for a few minutes.
"Query -- specs on MP3 recorder???"
Um. There's a whole page of them at the minidisc.org's site (http://www.minidisc.org/uploader_table.html)(many thanks to Randwolf (http://www.livejournal.com/users/Randwolf/) for the reference). Keep paging down--there will be a big table, with pictures and everything.
I read the table and went to some of the websites of mp3 recorder makers, and read some of the referenced reviews and then branched out on my own. I have a Mac, which drastically limits my options; many of these little beauties won't talk to a Mac. However the iRiver player/recorders got consistently good reviews--and they will talk to a Mac, supposedly, if not as well as they talk to a PC, so I was seriously considering asking for one. Hence my desire to try one out and see if it would work.
I'll be posting more soon (I hope). Before I review the player I'd sort of like to verify that I can get the Mac interface up and running--and that will take some time. But I'll get to it as soon as I can, I promise.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-19 04:28 pm (UTC)But that's partly because I was backing up to CDs--I think if I'd been backing up to another hard drive it would have gone faster. It's just that CDs seem...nice and permanent. Really I should leave them in Kip's office, in case the house burns down. On the other hand, if the house burns down I probably couldn't afford to replace my computer, so what good would backups be?
Furthermore, subsequent backups will be incremental--saving only those things that have changed. Which means they should be *much* quicker.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-19 04:35 pm (UTC)Wish I'd known some of those esoteric key combinations you mention last week. It would have saved me a certain amount of panic. I've added the page to my favorites.
More on mp3 recorder, employment prospects, etc. coming later.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-19 10:44 pm (UTC)Technical neepery follows:
- Retrospect isn't slow; CD writers are slow. For backup of modern large disk drives a DVD writer is preferable--wish I felt I could spend the money on one myself.
- Carbon is the bridge between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, which is why Mac applications that run in both environments might use CarbonLib. There are actually two CarbonLib's on a Mac OS X system.
- If you're interested in recording filks, why not invest in a tolerable USB microphone (if such things exist), and just bring your laptop?
A library of songs you want to learn...what a cool idea.Neep! Neep!
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 07:21 am (UTC)"Carbon is the bridge between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, which is why Mac applications that run in both environments might use CarbonLib. There are actually two CarbonLib's on a Mac OS X system."
Oh. That makes a little better sense. I was feeling quite exasperated. Now if I can only get it to *work*.
"* If you're interested in recording filks, why not invest in a tolerable USB microphone (if such things exist), and just bring your laptop?"
Well, 1) while I've got a Griffin iMic I've never had very good luck with it--there's this hum in every recording I make. I'd have to sit down and do a side-by-side comparison to see if it's really worse than the mic hiss with the minidisc player, but I remember it as being worse. 2) A laptop needs a lot more room at a concert or a circle than a recorder, and room is sometimes at a premium. 3) And if I'm bringing a delicate expensive desireable thing through crowded airports and to a busy con I'd prefer to have it be small and light for easy carrying and hiding and availablity. Not to mention that it's easy to pull the recorder out of your pocket and listen to the con on the way home--much harder with a laptop. :-)
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.