So this morning I awoke to the brother ranting what a dink I was on FB, how I destroyed all his sacred memories and how if he brought his car to a mechanic, turned down repairs and left it there over a year, any reputable mechanic would have just given “his property” back not destroyed it.
So much for differing from the norms.
I had to point out to his post that any mechanic surely would not have destroyed it, they would have long ago sold it as is or for scrap value. If they hadn’t got around to that, he’d owe a huge storage fee for waiting a year.
That was the Macbook with a smashed screen with a hole the size of a hammerhead, cracked in two motherboard and soldered on hard drive. They brought it to me around Sept 2023
Should change the thread title to F*ck Windows, but I still make pocket money from it.
30+ years and every week I see a new Windows problem I’ve never encountered before. Had an error come up trying to start LibreOffice on a fresh install - turns out Win10 installer didn’t install MSoft C++ at all. Why? Used the same 22H2 USB stick on dozens of other machines for years!
Best one yet: the guy told her her Starlink goes on and off because “the satellite” keeps moving around.
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BTW any recommendations to replace Teamviewer? Had that to help a 95 yr old on the other side of the lake and the woman mentioned in my last post and hadn’t used it for a couple years.
Incessant BS to run the free program now, so to hell with that one!
Ended up walking her (the lady that should hire herself out as a customer service trainer. 90% will quit and work at Wendys instead, if they hold out and manage her problem - hire them as a manager) through over the phone.
2 hours… she’s a personal friend so at least I can tell her to STFU and listen without her getting mad.
How to save her files to a USB stick… etc etc etc
Mac Question:
I find that Finder is far more annoying compared to File Explorer.
From my Amiga days, I used to copy, paste, etc with the GUI using two open windows, source - destination.
Then they came out with DOpus, a text application with source on one side, destination on the other and a bunch of action buttons in the middle. I think the Windows one was Commander something. It was handier, copy to, extract to, compress to, move etc. I think FTP was even built in.
Anydesk is the one I use. Don’t even need to install it. Can be run in portable mode. But the other side needs to be able to read some numbers to you and then give you permission.
Midnight Commander. I use it a lot on the command line, in Linux and on macOS.
https://midnight-commander.org
Install on Mac with brew install mc
And then you can just mc on the command line to start it.
Thanks! I always preferred that one.
Win10 and 11 are horribly slow on file handling. More time counting files and estimating size than working.
Had to remove and copy over 40+ Gigs of photos from an iPhone onto a USB stick. After all kinds of PITAs I found the fastest/easiest was to plug into my PC, open the iPhone folder then copy to the Desktop. Then cut from the Desktop to the USB.
Then had to open each date folder on the iPhone and bulk delete the files. Could not delete the folders themselves.
The guy had an older one and I found with the Lightning port on my old one, not a damn USB thing would work at all in it. Couldn’t even find a Lightning/male USB to try using a powered hub.
Today’s gripe is about large companies that can’t use technology to save their own ass.
TWO credit card outfits that mail statements mailed them during the mail strike. Both had my email on file already but because I didn’t fill out that email me only box years ago, couldn’t even think to use it of their own accord. Both self-servingly charged a little overdue penalty so I must assume affected my credit rating, One didn’t send a January statement at all and added an unpaid amount on the Feb one too.
Update computer records? Never! Today I received a huge catalogue from an office supply wholesaler. Addressed to my old desktop printing company that I merged with another and used their name in 1998. Out of business for 27 years. Good for a chuckle!
I also inquired at an Auto Parts store if they can look up via a part number in their computer yet, they said NO. This is after owning my Kei truck 15 years ago no one could look up by year, make, or model as the db was made in the USA and the truck wasn’t. The part is in the db but you can’t look it up by that one. I found out that part was used in a vehicle they did sell in America only through a Kei owner forum…
OMG back again with the same thing! She’d just had her bank send her to me before Christmas and all she did was call the number in her email and the guy ‘fixed the problem’ then she couldn’t log into any of her things.
Saved the banking passwords again for both accounts.
Both banks ask me for a written statement of what I’ve done and that it include warning people not to save their banking password before they will restore online access.
Also had me do a backup to her external, refuses to learn how to do that either. Sigh, people like that… so long as they have cash I just shake my head.
Not much excitement dealing with the same things every day:
Used her yahoo address as her yahoo recovery mail, her gmail address as her gmail recovery, and her landline as her phone. All years ago.
Got a new computer and copied all their files. Then they smashed the old ones to bits and tossed it. THEN they called the accountant to come from out of town because when you clicked on their file, there was no Simply Account program to open it.
Guy trying to bank on his iPad, his bank’s TFA was his old landline at a house that burned down.
Next one the people at the bank told him their signal wasn’t strong enough to work on his tablet. Him too - recovery # was an old landline, recovery email was on my old domain closed in 2014
Just his morning FOUR lost passwords, too complicated, shouldn’t have to do all this, robots on the phone blah blah, why don’t YOU know my password… one lady went on about her well for ages how the “iron bacteria” killed her husband and the lying doctors claim it was cirrhosis of the liver…
I’d tear my hair out but I did manage to fetch my old USB/DVD, get that damn 2011 Simply to work on Windows 11. They now have a whole 15 days to remember what account they set up 14 years ago or it will stop. I know my own old SImply2014 just glitches and burns on Win10 or 11.
DING and now the lady with the gmail/yahoo f*ck up just called as she also has a Telus mail she forgot the password for and Telus is going to send the code to her landline… aaaiiieeeyyyyahhh!
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On my home LAN windows is gone. I’m running Slackware and I maintain my wife’s Debian laptop. Will edit /etc/apt/sources.list when 13 is released this summer.
Friend called today, he had a 1913 wall phone, before dialers were invented and wondered if there was a gadget to make it dial.
Downloaded “Dialer” from the Apple store.
Loaded his phone number in, then picked up my landline, got dialtone and held the iPhone up to the mouthpiece and pressed the button on the app.
It rang! Left a message for him of what I did. He’s pleased.
Reminded me of 1982 going around Central BC installing machines in BC Tel central offices that converted DTMF calls back into pulse for the old stepper switches.
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My 22 year old living in PG has an older 16 inch Dell laptop running Windows 10. Windows 10 is going EOL in October. I’m going to be visiting her before October so I’ll bring an Ubuntu 24.0.4 USB stick with me. Ubuntu is breath-taking in its ability to auto-detect hardware. I’m guessing it’ll be able to see her Xerox laser printer. The laptop still works well so I’d like to keep it going(it has a battery that needs replacing).
Hell, I’ve found almost every distro I tried was better at detecting hardware. A couple gagged on some older wireless cards but printers were already there after the install rebooted.
Just finished taxes, I think I’ll buy myself a Pi5 and relegate the Pi4 as a full time Pihole.
Or if I wait a few weeks, mabe I can get a 2nd hand Tesla for the same $80 
Hahahahahahahahaha good stuff
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another exciting day of dealing with old farts that don’t know their passwords… sheesh! Brought me his new iPad all pissed because his Windows password didn’t work.
The guy at Telus wrote it on the inside of the box along with his AppleID and password. His kid in Kelowna remembered his hotmail password, but signing in from a new device it sent the confirmation code to the guy he hates that sold him his computer and then moved away to the Yukon years ago,
Happy happy joy joy.
That guy was ‘my competition’ years back. He’d buy all the computers off me, copy the Band Office Enterprise Windows and Office onto them and sell them for $100-$200 more than the same one in my store that came with a Windows OEM CD.
Couldn’t for the life of him figure out Office Outlook and installed IncrediMail all over the Band office… called me in to fix them all when he was on holisdays.
They discovered it didn’t look professional to send email from the Health office thst said
Dear Mr XYZW
We regret to inform you that your biopsy showed the tumour was malignant.
Health Dept.
(and a bunch of dancing kitties on the bottom)
Turns out we couldn’t fix the guy’s hotmail as he was on a different ISP without answering the questions he didn’t know ot getting the text from that other tech we don’t know where or if he’s still alive…
Set him up with a new gmail, but 2 days and he still doesn’t get that he has to change the hotmail TFA to HIS cell number olr why he can’t “just put his old 3.5” SATA drive into his iPad and make it Windows… UUURRRRGGGGHHHH!!!
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My fave customer moved away, I thought she was lazy and uninterested in learning dick about Windows at first until I realized she was just wealthy and uninterested, and paid full rates willingly and promptly.
Called me today as she bought a new system in PG and the Geeksquad couldn’t put everything from her old computer into it.
IOW, her Sage Accounting, the $5000 edition she uses. And like passwords, I just can’t “get” your registered software for you.
Looks like a 2 hour drive each way is in my near future, and 2 more calls to explain again how SHE needs to call Sage with her customer ID to get a download link.
(she’s oe of those bookkeeperss that used computers since AccPac for DOS and to this day couldn’t save a client’s file to a floppy if they even made those anymore…
Haven’t been to the recycler for years. Noticed the bin of used vapes 
is gargantuan, so I’m thinking of pulling a Super Dave, wiring them all up and converting the Wrangler to a BEV…
