[CCC News] Assorted News 49: Rebooting...
Michael Kean
michael at auzzie.net
Fri Aug 9 22:38:35 AEST 2013
*In this edition:
**
*This edition comes to you from the United Kingdom. (Heathrow Airport.)
*Latest News:
What's Mike Been Doing?
Rebooting...
Turn Windows 8 into 'Windows 7' for $5 US
Free File Sync (and backup) tool - BitTorrent Sync. (Can replace
DropBox, works with Android phones too!)
Giving Thanks.
**
*
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*What's Mike Been Doing?
*Well, since Val's recent passing my life has of course been turned
somewhat upside down; so I guess it only fitting that for the last two
months I have been at the other side of the world, visiting family and
friends in Wales, UK and Ireland. Prior to that I've just been mostly
kicking back at home, trying to get over the loss, and occasionally
doing unusual stuff such as attending Roller Derby events, geocaching,
learning how to skate, bush walks, etc. Some other plans haven't come to
fruition yet - my plan to do the Goulburn rail trail for example has
been scuppered for now when the charger for the new bike battery turned
out to be DOA. That can wait.
This current adventure started exactly three months to the day that Val
passed - and although it has been at times incredibly stressful to have
taken myself so far out of my comfort zone, I have had the love and
support of family and friends to help me through. As I write, however,
I'm less than a day away from getting onto the plane back to Oz via
Dubai; and while I now feel stronger and less 'brain damaged' than I
did; I have to admit that leaving all my family and some new close
friends behind, both here in the UK and in Ireland, is going to be hard;
and I'm not looking forward to the 18 hours on the plane.
Once I'm back behind the wheel of the Commodore, and later making myself
useful to the world again by doing what I do best, I am hoping that the
melancholy will continue to wear off and I'll be back to my cheery self.
The ol' water works still strikes me at random times, but the severity
is lessening.
About 500 photos from the trip are available at
https://plus.google.com/photos/116830952460629218664/albums/5891544975569462593
*Rebooting...
*So, what now then? I've been somewhat out of the game now for almost a
year. Windows 8 has come along and irritated a lot of you. (And me!)
I've lost a number of customers by necessity - It's been hard to have to
leave many of you to the unknown mercy of Armidale Computers, Amac
Digital Products, Lorraine's Computer Services, RMIT, Mac One, Computer
Support Team, Dave McKay and who knows who else! Hopefully those of you
who have had to try these other sources of support have been met with a
reasonable level of service. I wouldn't mind hearing of your experiences
actually as I am considering possibly approaching one or more of these
companies so that if I ever have to take a similar leave of absence in
future, it won't be such a traumatic event.
Sadly I have also let a few customers down while Val was ill, and since
her passing, by simply not being able to do a quality job. I'm still
terribly disorganised stock-wise, house-wise and back then I just didn't
have the brainpower or the passion for the job any more. I'm hoping that
all of those traits will return for me. One such customer was left with
a somewhat dysfunctional phone system, another ended up losing the name
for his website, etc. The worst affected weren't billed.
Exetel's broadband plans have changed around a few times, still not
quite the value they used to be but keeping an eye on them. NBN is still
happening. Mobiles and Tablets continue to be popular. And while I was
here I acquired the new skill of replacing the broken glass on an iPad
after a *four year old* iPad owner's parents managed to drop theirs. A
painstaking multi-hour operation for sure, but a new skill I can
probably put to use given how many people seem to break theirs on
Armidale Buy Swap Sell! (And yes it was a freebie job for them since I
am not allowed to work in the UK!)
But what am I going to do workwise now? I'm thinking for the time being
I will continue with what I know - that is the usual on-site computer
repairs, installs, upgrades; and if my brain will handle it perhaps a
little database / programming work again too - although before Val died
I was starting to get a bit saturated with programming work so I will
have to watch that I don't get overloaded with it.
I'm also going to have to review what happens regarding website hosting
and design. My skills there are getting quite out of date as the
Internet technology moves on. Again I am hoping to re-find the
inspiration to catch up on those particular skills, but I'm not sure
that web development will remain a key part.
Mobile Broadband is something I'll have to give some more serious
thought to as well. When I started selling it years ago it was a
wonderful, liberating product to get into people's homes and businesses;
but over the years some of those (Optus) modems have proven to be
woefully unreliable as they age; and worse still sometimes people's
services just seem to get worse over time and it's often completely out
of my control. The worst are for example when I travel out to someone's
place 30km out, put up a lovely new antenna for them, get a nice fast
speed on Telstra (typically) only to get a call some weeks or months
later saying it's all gone bad - and when I get out there I can't make
it better because the problem is not in the equipment but rather because
someone at Telstra or Optus changed something, or a tree grew in between
the line of sight. Hopefully the NBN Satellite stuff is coming on line
now to resolve those kinds of issues, but it's another thing I need to
get back into the groove and research a bit :) On the other hand, most
mobile phone plans include wireless broadband now, doing away with those
pesky modems.
Anyway, with all that in mind, I plan to resume working to a small
degree at least from about the 15th, and have, as you'd expect, a bit of
a backlog to deal with. Future newsletters will hopefully get you all
informed as to where I'm up to!
*Turn Windows 8 into 'Windows 7' for $5 US
*A common question I get is 'how can I get Windows 7 back' when someone
buys a new computer. I've had that a few times even while I've been
overseas as my sister opted to buy a new lappie while I was here. If you
too can't stand, or simply don't want to learn, the new tabletty
interface on Windows 8, you can install "Start8" which will bring back
most of the Windows 7 behaviour you're used to. (Also useful if you're
used to Windows XP etc.)
With Start8, your computer starts up just like you're used to with
Windows 7 and before - to the desktop.There are still a few issues such
as choosing what email and internet programs to use (which of course I
recommend Firefox, Outlook or Thunderbird, etc.) if you don't want to
use the ones Windows 8 foists upon you, or you can also buy "ModernMix"
for $5 which puts those pesky full screen WIndows 8 apps back into a
resizable window.
You can get Start8 free from http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/ -
with a free 30 day trial.
ModernMix is also available at
http://www.stardock.com/products/modernmix/ - with a free 30 day trial.
*Free File Sync (and backup) tool - BitTorrent Sync. ***(Can replace
DropBox, works with Android phones too!)**
Some of you have heard of DropBox? A program that lets you keep folders
in sync between multiple computers? Well, now some clever buggers have
come up with "BitTorrent Sync" Basically you can choose any folder on
your computer, opt to share it, and the computer will give you a secret
code. Then, on any other computer (or some phones too!) you can select
where you want to store that copy of the folder, give the computer the
secret code, and you're done :)
I haven't used it a lot yet, so can't guarantee how well it works, but I
do know it seems to work well; and is designed to work even with very
large files.
Files deleted from one computer are put into a "SyncArchive" folder for
safety rather than being deleted from the other computers. Versions are
also saved for up to 30 days, so if you make the mistake of overwriting
a good file with an old one, you have a good chance of getting it back
again.
BitTorrent Sync is free from
http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html
You can also use it to sync files, photos, etc between your phone(s) and
computer(s).
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*Giving Thanks!
*I with to publicly thank the following people:
Val's close friends: Bronwyn Baker, Adrienne & Jack Rapley, Loretta
FitzGerald, Lesley Colley, Ian and Di Bibb for all their support.
Val's extended family: Ed, Pete x2, Kay, Barry, Rosemary for their support.
Ian and Di Bibb, Campbell Wolfenden for checking on the house and
animals while I've been away.
Val's GP, Dr Brian Glover for his considerate treatment of Val during
her illness.
BUPA Staff, particularly Janelle, Divya, Mandeep, Liz for their gentle
considerate care of Val and Myself.
Armidale Hospital staff.
Many others - anybody who helped and provided support during the
difficult times.
Oops - my gate's opening! Better get moving, don't want to miss the plane!
Cheers, Mike.
PS: This newsletter's distribution was delayed by two days because I
didn't dare log in to the mailing list system while using public WiFi in
Dubai, I'm actually back in the Blue Mountains now, enjoying a few days
of rest here to get over the jetlag.
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*Old Editions
*You can used to be able to find old editions of this newsletter on the
CCC Blog. http://auzzie.net/cccblog/
(I will fix it one day!)
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Michael Kean
*Proprietor, Cool Country Consulting.*
Trading Hours: 10am to 8pm weekdays.
http://coolhelp.com.au/
Tel: 02 6775 0239 Mob: 0427 644 825
Chat contacts: WLM: michael at auzzie.net Skype: cccons
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