Through The Indulgence Of Strangers

Your business and productive life is not something you want to trust to the indulgence of strangers.

Unfortunately that is the situation that many of us find ourselves in. This came to me in sharp, unavoidable clarity after my iMac hard drive was toasted this past week.

I purchased my iMac because I needed a system that would provide a hospitable environment for both OS X and for WinXP. The iMac as advertised as doing this. That is not quite true. Sorta true, but not really true.

The iMac is very hospitable to the OS X, but it only tolerates (marginally) the WinXP. Windows is treated like an unwelcome but tolerated guest on the machine. Some Mac users will take exemption to this statements. Most Mac users will wonder what kind of idiot would bother putting WinXP on a Mac when they have a perfectly (and superior) operating system already installed OS X.

Actually I agree that OS X is a superior operating system. I like it. But alas, several key programs that I require for my work are not available in any flavor on the Mac side of bootcamp. Bootcamp is the program that allows me to switch back and forth between the two operating systems. I think of them as two sides of the computer -- the mac side and the windows side. But really there is not windows side.

Near as I can figure it, bootcamp works with a huge file area that is set aside for use by the Windows OS and software. So Windows is a guest of the OS X.

Now that my WinXP install is toasted as a result of a hard drive crash I have zero access to my files. If the system was a PC desktop, it would have been easy to remove the hard drive and put it into an external drive case and salvage parts of the file system using any number of software tools.

But since the file system is not really a hard drive file system (it is a pseudo file system) these third-party programs are not capable of accessing the information. Thus I am unable to salvage even bits and pieces of my previous data.

Fortunately most of my data was backed up. I think I may have lost a week of work. Some of which can be redone, some of which is beyond reclamation.

But this got me to thinking about guest systems, or systems that rely upon layers upon layers of drivers and interface.

There was a time when a word document was only readable in the Word program. Many years ago a client sent me a proposal that was in word format -- rather than the request rtf interchangeable format. It took me quite some time to find a means to read that file. I finally had to write a program of my own to dump the text data so that I could at least read the ascii portion of the letter. This may sound strange, now that we have so many programs that are capable of importing Word documents. But at the time there was not a competing program that could import the new word format I was sent.

Yes, that is ancient news. But, today there are many examples of similar situations. Try to get access to a 3DS Max model if you do not have the program. Deep Exploration can import and export dozens and dozens of model formats -- no problem. But, they are not allowed to import and export Maya or 3DS Max models. Not because they are incapable of writing the plugins. They are not allowed by the manufacturer.

This means that any model saved in a maya or max format requires access to a working copy of the program. If the program stops working -- or they upgrade program without allowing for compatibility with older versions -- you are sunk. But, they would not do that. That is true. But, they could.

I really like Maya. It is a great program. I would continue to use my copy of Maya forever -- even if the company went out of business. But, I can't use Maya if the company goes out of business. If they go out of business how am I going to get an activation code when it comes time to re-install Maya because yet another hard drive was toasted.

Any program you have that requires internet or phone activation also requires that the mother company continue to do business. We saw recently major financial institutions go belly up. How is it impossible to consider the folks supporting Maya to not go under? Admittedly, they are big enough I don't worry about them. But what about the folks in Finale that put out PrintMusic. They are not so huge. They could easily call it a day. Then my software, for which I purchased a perpetual license, would not install because there would be no on available to activate it.

Something the hardware and software manufacturers are discovering (much to their chagrin) is the fact that some of us like to keep our working (and expensive) software.

All of this is beside the point. It is germane, but not on direct target. The issue is, we are functioning at the indulgence of strangers. I suggest making audits to make sure you have data backed up on ways that will allow access -- should anything go wrong.

The easier it is for me to get my grubby little fingers on the data the better I feel about it. Take this blog for example, if one uses the export feature of blogger the data can be saved in an open xml format. I can totally access to my words. Meaning that if google had a hiccup and wiped my blog clean, I have a backup. AND, that backup can be accessed directly by me -- not just by an import filter proprietary to google.

Unfortunately, that is not true of everything. So I am auditing my involvements to see where I am at most risk and see what I can do about minimizing those risks.

Yearning

Yearn, long, hanker, pine all mean to feel a powerful desire for something.

Yearn stresses the depth and passionateness of a desire: to yearn to get away and begin a new life; to yearn desperately for recognition.

Long implies a wholehearted desire for something that is or seems unattainable: to long to relive one's childhood; to long for the warmth of summer.

Hanker suggests a restless or incessant craving to fulfill some urge or desire: to hanker for a promotion; to hanker after fame and fortune.

Pine adds the notion of physical or emotional suffering as a result of the real or apparent hopelessness of one's desire: to pine for one's native land; to pine for a lost love.

Desire, craving, longing, yearning suggest feelings that impel one to the attainment or possession of something.

Desire is a strong feeling, worthy or unworthy, that impels to the attainment or possession of something that is (in reality or imagination) within reach: a desire for success.

Craving implies a deep and imperative wish for something, based on a sense of need and hunger: a craving for food, companionship.

A longing is an intense wish, generally repeated or enduring, for something that is at the moment beyond reach but may be attainable at some future time: a longing to visit Europe.

Yearning suggests persistent, uneasy, and sometimes wistful or tender longing: a yearning for one's native land.

New Blog Started

Based on some of the feedback from yesterday's blog about sprouts I decided to start a sprouting blog. It is up and running on WordPress.com Kitchen Counter Gardening.

In case you are wondering, "why put the blog on WordPress when you already have your other blogs on blogspot?" Several of my web design clients have been asking me for help with their WordPress sites. It is true that one can learn quite a bit about a CMS using a local server installation such as WAMP. I have a windows apache mysql php install on my desktop so that I can test Joomla, wordpress, and other CMS systems. All part of my php programming adventure.

However, to really stumble upon the little tricks and traps of a CMS (content management system) one really needs to use it in earnest. Nothing like really wanting to accomplish something to run you smack dab into pot holes and speed bumps. For example, every time I want to monkey with the settings for the front page it takes me forever to remember that the front page settings are under Appearance/Reading. When I find it, it makes sense. But when I am poking around in the menu system it just doesn't jump out at me saying click here.

In any case, I needed a real-life project to get into the nuts and bolts of WordPress so that is why the Kitchen Counter Gardening blog is on wordpress.com

Sprouts -- The Miracle Poverty Food

I'm not much of a sprouting expert. Can't sprout a zillion different seeds and beans. Basically I sprout a few items that I have found over the years to be easy and reliable to work with -- mung beans for example.

Even so, I am a total advocate of sprouting. I wish it could break away from the reputation of hippie new age kitchen practices and enter into the main stream. Mostly because I believe sprouting can easily improve the quality of life for many individuals living on a budget.

While it is true that I have had the good fortune to make a nice piece of change with programming, it is also true that I have spent a good part of my life living on the financial edge. When buying food on a budget, fresh vegetables are the first causalities.

This is unfortunate. Fresh living food is important to attitude and sense of well-being. Poverty is not the time to let your attitude go.

Faced with the prospect of not enough money for fresh vegetables, I would resort to rice and beans -- good foods but lacking in the things that fresh living foods can provide.

Sprouting to the rescue. One day I discovered (actually re-discovered) that if I put those beans into a jar I could convert those dried high-starch nuggets into living vibrant fresh vegetables.

It takes some planning. It takes some discipline. It takes some grunt work. But with not too much extra effort one can get started on the path of kitchen counter gardening and really stretch your budget.

Things You Would Not Expect

While working on an SEO posting for my other blog it became necessary to find a search expression that would return only a few results. I wanted to find a search phrase for which there would only be a few pages that matched.

Silly me, for some reason I figured "tattooing pigs" would yield few, if any, results. Did you know that tattooing pigs is a huge endeavor on this planet. Artists all over the world are using our swine buddies as canvases for their art. Go to google, type in "tattooing pigs" and press the search button. You will find somewhere in the neighborhood of 723,000 pages on the topic of tattooing pigs. That's almost a million pages on the topic. I would have lost that bet. Tattooed Poultry is even worse -- 3,730,000 results.

A "left-handed monkey wrench" has only 12,000 search results. Turns out that this is an unusually low number.

When I started this hunt for search terms with low results I had no idea how truly weird the situation had become. Alas, I need to find a nice corner and go catatonic for a while.

At least good ol' "morphotony" still only had 64 results.

p.s. If you want to see the end of this hunt check out "Walk In Traffic" on my SEO blog