Daddy tech support

[MurphCID]

I am at my usual Friday haunt (BRCC) and I am installing software updates. I really love these two System 76 laptops (the newer Darter and Lemur Pro) they just have almost everything I desire on a laptop. So far they just work right. The POP OS install, just once more shows me that Mint is the best distro for me (or maybe the one I am used to using). Unless I break them, I suspect I will be using these two laptops for quite a while. In fact they, and my desktop meet all my computing needs. It is just funny that you hit your limit and go "This stuff is what I want and need, and it is good enough".

[AZgl1800]

10 years ago, prior to retirement, the thought of only using a laptop was abhorrent to me.

now, retired and "living in a Recliner" the thought of having to get up and go to my "office" and sit in an Office Chair and lean forward over a keyboard and look at a 30 inch monitor, is just as abhorrent to me now.

[MurphCID]

I finally got sick of the old Darter Pro, so I have replaced it with the Macbook Pro beside my chair downstairs. The old Darter Pro is now stored away until I can get a good home for it with family or friends. It was just one of those computers I could never get warmed up to and it never really worked right. I am not enamored of the Mac, but it is better than the old Darter Pro. I really have developed a dislike for that laptop for some reason. I love the other two and they work great with Mint (even better with later kernels....).

[MurphCID]

DAAAAAADDDDDYYYYY!

Me: What now?

Youngest: My new Apple iPhone 13 is NOT WORKING RIGHT!!!!!!

Me: Here we go again.

Youngest: Will you go with me?

Me: Yes (groaning inside)

We make the trek to the Apple Store at La Cantera in San Antonio (a long trip), get there for her appointment time, and meet with the Apple "helper" who is wearing painted nails, tattoos, some necklaces, and looks stoned. He has her unlock the phone, and starts running tests on it. We end up leaving it, and they replace the guts of the phone since it is defective somehow. The new iPhone 13 has a swappable screen, so she kept her original screen. Go figure. We came back, and after much more explaining of the issues, she was told that perhaps one of her problems was a corrupted download on her laptop, and so she should pay a monthly fee for extra iCloud storage to "save" her backups. Do you realize how many photos this kid has on that *(!&$!!! phone? So we got back and most of her apps were missing, so she had to re-download them, then she could not sign into her apps which caused a MAJOR meltdown, next day after spending the night letting the phone do whatever in the heck it was going to do, things started working again. I suspect the phone spent too darn long downloading her photos....

This is her second iPhone 13, she went through 4 iPhone 7's (all defective in some way and replaced by (cr)Apple), and two iPhone 11's (same issue, defective).

[AZgl1800]

sounds like Android is the best way to go....
that has been my opinion since Apple Corp screwed me in 1981 and I sold off 3 Apple II's, 2 Apple II GS's, and 1 Mac512.

I advertised them in the Albuquerque newspaper, $3,000 takes all or nothing, they were gone the next day.

I bought a 286DX package and never looked back for the expensive fee of $300.00

[MurphCID]

Here we go, perhaps a distro that might work on the old Darter Pro (AHS version), and some notes: https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/mx-21-kde.html The old Darter is purely a testing laptop until I get rid of it.

[MurphCID]

Started the cooking of "The Dinner", I expect no one will leave the table hungry today.... Plenty of food for Thanksgiving.

[AZgl1800]

Started the cooking of "The Dinner", I expect no one will leave the table hungry today.... Plenty of food for Thanksgiving.

breakfast at 10:30 was Biscuits, butter, and syrup....
milk to wash it down.

dinner tonight will be a Spiral Ham we got for the occasion, none of us here enjoy Turkey meat at all

[MurphCID]

Started the cooking of "The Dinner", I expect no one will leave the table hungry today.... Plenty of food for Thanksgiving.

breakfast at 10:30 was Biscuits, butter, and syrup....
milk to wash it down.

dinner tonight will be a Spiral Ham we got for the occasion, none of us here enjoy Turkey meat at all

yum.

I just spent the better part of an hour updating her laptops, that kid never updates anything, just like my wife. Her big (15.6") Spectre can take Windows 11, but I refuse to load that steaming pile of dung on her machine. Windows 10 is bad enough. I wish I could get it so that the University would let her and my daughter could use Mint on her laptops.....

[MurphCID]

After my adventure of updating computers, I calmed down after constantly telling my daughters computer NO I DO NOT WANT TO UPDATE TO WINDOWS 11! I am typing this on my downstairs laptop which has become the Macbook. I am having many more typing errors since the keyboard is just different enough from what I normally use. Odd how that works. So after family photos today, I plan on working on the old Darter Pro and trying a different distro. Perhaps something with KDE? Or maybe regular mainline Manjaro again? While the Mac is lovely, just lovely, and the Mac OS bling is something I wish Linux would get, I really dislike how limiting the Mac is in real use. But I am using it since I paid for the &^^%$!! thing and I have seldom used it over the past couple of years. I need to get SOME milage out of it. The knee is gotten bad again, and I do not know why.

Also the youngest told me that her car had broken down. I was livid I had told her to take the darn car over to the Toyota dealership to have it checked out before she goes back to University. She told me that she had been "too busy". Yeah right, shopping, spending time with her sister at the local coffee joint, shopping, and spending time with her boyfriend. So she got mad when I got angry at her for NOT doing what I had told her to do. So I managed to get her an appointment today. I came home from the Brother in laws after Thanksgiving lunch and checked her car, and it seems fine. She was amazed that there was not any issue again. Maybe she had a squirrel under the hood? Ugh. Kids just don't listen.

[MurphCID]

Looks like the knee is going out again. Lots of pain walking. *)&!*$^!!!! This just sucks. I see the doctor Tuesday. I want this knee to work right, and it is annoying.

[MurphCID]

This is bad, really bad. I was putting on some sweatpants, turned the knee, and felt something tear. Now it hurts, a lot. 9.6 on the Ouch-o-meter. I am glad I see the doctor tuesday.

[AZgl1800]

ow!

take it easy until you get it fixed.

[MurphCID]

ow!

take it easy until you get it fixed.

Yeah, I wondering if it was a cyst or if I ripped the meniscus again?

[MurphCID]

Doctor appointment went well, HUGE needle in the knee, and a massive dose of Cortisone with some relief today. Doctor told me NO COWBOY BOOTS for at least three months. I love my cowboy boots. He said that he sees what is going on in about 5% of his patients, so I am in the lucky 5%. Still very swollen, but Doc thinks it will get better over time.

[AZgl1800]

I used to have a pair of Custom Made Cowboy boots, made by Justin...

they really fit well, but my feet swell throughout the day, as I get hot and sweaty ( thank you AridZona ) and I had to give them up.

[MurphCID]

I used to have a pair of Custom Made Cowboy boots, made by Justin...

they really fit well, but my feet swell throughout the day, as I get hot and sweaty ( thank you AridZona ) and I had to give them up.

But I LIKE my cowboy boots! I have worn them to work since 1994, with a small digression 2000-2004 when I wore patrol boots. But when I got into CID the dress code was Cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat.

On the tech front, my youngest decided to leave her 15.6" laptop home and just take the 13.3" Spectre back to school. So when she gets home I am going to take it in for an upgrade from a 256gb drive to a 1 TB drive. It still only has 8 gb of ram though. She decided she really, really likes the smaller size laptop since it weighs so much less than her 15.6" machine.

[AZgl1800]

On the tech front, my youngest decided to leave her 15.6" laptop home and just take the 13.3" Spectre back to school. So when she gets home I am going to take it in for an upgrade from a 256gb drive to a 1 TB drive. It still only has 8 gb of ram though. She decided she really, really likes the smaller size laptop since it weighs so much less than her 15.6" machine.

I kind of feel that way about my ThinkPad E-550 for traveling purposes.

smaller screen size, battery lasts for 7+ hours depending on screen brightness.
light weight, think ounces instead of Pounds.

[chiefjim]

My neighbor reports receiving a notice regarding pending update to her iPhone. I have not read it but she said it is very lengthy and requires her to waive something.

Wondering if this is somehow related.

Minor update: Apple has blocked access to her account for failure to accept the new user agreement which she says gives them total control without any recourse. Even email using an outside client like Thunderbird is rendered useless since "iCloud" requires access to their cloud.

Good thing her Apple devices are old and very near end-of-life. Now she sees the wisdom of having the other computer I assembled for her running Mint 20.2. And why she has a Samsung Android powered tablet. Next on the list she's ditching the iPhone which has been troublesome for years. Very pleased when shown what other brands using Android can do at prices 1/5 that of an iPhone.

[AZgl1800]

My son has an iPhone supplied by his employer, they require that he only use it, and no other phone.
They have a package on it that sends everything back to their office in Germany.

he hates that phone, and is hoping to get a new job soon, so he can ditch the damn thing.