COMPUTER PROBLEMS CONTINUE TO PLAGUE US - HAVE YOU UPDATED EVERYTHING FOR THE NEW SECURITY STANDARDS?

 This is my computer problem which has been set aside for the past couple of weeks since it started as husband's computer was much more important than mine.  

I use a software program to check my email – but like most to all of the programs I use, I have not updated it.   I hate adjusting to the assorted changes to programs which invariably come with the update and will put off updating unless necessary for the program to run.  

At the same time husband had the problems with our Win 10 computer the recent security changes to online caught up with me.  I could not use my email program to check my email as I did not meet the new requirements.  Normally I would have had husband deal with the changes – but he was still dealing with the computer problems he had.  So I did what I had to – I started checking email by signing into each email account separately and checking email that way.  I have a number of emails accounts – my general one for family and friends, a couple for when I don't want to be known and may need to drop the account if it gets hacked, one for groups I go to online, one for me for my embroidery guild, another one I use as treasurer of my chapter of same – which I consider to be an email of the chapter and I can pass along to the next treasurer to use, one for me for our reenactment unit, a similar email address for the treasurer of the unit – again, can be passed along to the next treasurer, one for a client – she does not use a computer and her business's alarm company only bills by email – so I set up an email account for her and I monitor it for her, an email for this site, an email address for me for the craft business husband and I have, and about 5 or 6 more for various purposes – some of which are gone and I have the kept the address for junk use.  

I knew I could not sign in and out of all of these accounts daily. I picked the ones most important to check daily and I do so.  The remaining ones I am checking once a week.  Unfortunately for some reason my computer does not like me signing in and out and in and out… one after another.  So around the 4th email address – it gets hung up and I end up having to reboot the computer, same after a few more email checks – I am not talking a lot of emails here – most have none, others might have 3 or 4 at most – but the computer is not happy.  So checking email has become an extended chore.  

Yesterday I asked husband if all was okay with his computer and it was running as before and as needed and it was.  So I asked him to help me setup my email accounts to meet the new requirements.  We spent 3 hours today trying to do so.  It has not happened – not even with one account – and worst of all -  I did not get to check ANY email accounts today – though I am sure I did not miss anything.   We set up an account and then it is rejected when we try to check email.  Latest idea is that we delete the email program and start all over with a new copy and enter each account as it needs to be for the new standards.  

Well – at least we have something to do.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Don't be like me – keep your programs updated to avoid problems – and don't wait for the last minute to make needed changes.

COMPUTER REPAIR - PART 2

 Everything was not okay with his computer.  When it came back using the backup there were no speakers and other problems.  He decided to use an older backup – from March – and then the entire process went blooey!!  He worked it on for hours and hours.  Last Friday we gave in and took it to the chain computer store we used – and bought the computer from – to see what they could do.  

Of course there is a diagnostic fee, which with tax was over $40.  They contacted us back on Monday morning with all sorts of suggestions that he should add to the computer.  I don't remember if I mentioned this – but the computer is 14 months old – 2 months past the end of the warranty – of course.  They wanted to take out drives and add drives – and none of the drives were damaged.  They also wanted to update it to Win 11 – we are barely into using Win 10 and hate it compared to Win 7.  Their price for the repair was coming to more than we paid for the computer to begin with!  He told them no to what they wanted to add and to just reinstall windows as the hardware was not damaged per them.  We picked it up yesterday, Tuesday, and he has been working on reinstalling software and putting back a backup.  Seems to work well again.  He got different backup software to use – though we have used what he had used for years, if not decades.

This was the first desktop computer we actually “bought as a computer” since maybe the last century.  Husband has been building our computers with my help since then.  We buy the parts at the same computer store and then assemble the computers – well he assembles them, I just help.  Before these computers we have made we have bought computers since before we were married (close to 50 years) starting with Atari 800.  We have never had problems with a computer such as we had with this.  None of them stopped working – we stopped using them due to change in type of computer or when the computer was actually too antiquated to keep using – never due to a problem with them working.  The reason we bought this computer instead of assembling this one  was that it was cheaper and the computer was being used only for software which needed Win 10 while we kept using our old Win 7  computers which we like.  


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

KEEP BACKING UP – OFTEN.  Make sure that you make the backups separate each time and if you can – onto alternating drives and other media also so if a problem occurs one can go back a backup if needed.   (And remember “the Cloud” is just “someone else's hard drive”).

COMPUTER BACKUPS - SO WHEN THE COMPUTER DIES ALL CAN BE RESTORED

 This week I have to talk about organizing one's computer – yes, it is very important.  If one leaves the dishes for later in the day, as long as they get done it is fine – the same for dusting, laundry and most household chores.  But one may only get one chance to back up their computer before data or software is lost.   

We do not back up to “the cloud”.  All backups are on local on other media than the data drive(s) used.    Another name for “the cloud” is “someone else's hard drive”.  I figure it is worth much more to someone to break into, say, Google's data which includes same for – how many people? - then it is to break into ours – and we do not keep sensitive data.  Plus if the Internet is “down” we can keep using our computers with all data available to us.

I am very careful to back up.  I keep my data on USB flash stick drives so it can be moved from my desktop to my laptop or another computer.  I use 2 additional of these drives (marked “A” and “B”) for daily backing up.  I do so at least daily and alternate between the two of them,  If I used “A” yesterday, today's backup is on B.  This way even if the backup for the day and the original data is lost – I have only lost a day's work as I still have the prior day's backup.  

I also have 2 of these drives (with larger capacity) which are marked “E” and “F”.  On Friday afternoons I update the data on whichever of these 2 drives I did not use last Friday.  This way even if I lose my original and both backups – I have the data as of the last Friday (end of work week).

Okay you are starting to think I am bit crazy and back up too much – but more is coming and it is important.  Since flash drives have a limited number of rewrites to them I also have 2 external hard drives.  I They are named odd and even (my data drive is H and my archive drive of prior years is G).  My data drive, archive drive and A and B backup drives are always in my desktop computer (unless being used on my laptop or there is some unusual reason to remove them from the computer).  

In the middle of the month (around the 15th) I will back up my data drives to an external hard drive and also backup my computer itself to same.  I use the “odd” hard drive for backups in the odd number months (1, etc) and the “even” hard drive for same in even months (2, etc).  This way I have a complete backup of computer and data at most 2 months old and more likely one month old or more recent.  

It sounds like a lot of work but takes maybe half an hour at most (and that is more than actual) while I am closing my work area for the day.  

I also have separate data flash drives for my accounting business clients so that when I go to a client (in non-pandemic times) I only bring their data with me and not any other client's data.  I back these up when I use them to the A/B alternates and if used during the past week on weekly backup and also always to the monthly hard drive backup.

Earlier this year my computer went wacky and husband had to use the most recent backup of the computer after he got it working again to get it close to normal and I did not lose any data.  

Okay – that is a one time problem, won't happen again – HA! HA!

Two days ago husband let our joint Windows 10 computer update.  We each have a Win 7 computer setup as we want and only use the Win 10 as we need to for software which needs it.  A month or so ago his Win 7 died and since he is using the Win 10 as his regular computer.  

When he turned on the computer yesterday – it did not come on.  Something in the backing up did something weird to the computer.  He worked on it into the wee hours of this morning and then gave up.  He does not back up as often as I do so his backup is about a month (maybe two) old.  Presuming that backup works – all of his programs will think it is back then and any work since and not backed up is lost.  It took 3 or 4 tries of booting the computer today for everything to seem be okay with it.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When was the last time you backed up your computer(s)?  If you lost the data on it would you be okay or would you need the data?    

Get yourself a couple of USB stick flash drives and at least start backing up your data.  An external hard drive is good idea for backup of the computer itself also.

MOWING, SNOWING AND KNOWING WHEN TO HIRE HELP

 Well we finally did what we needed to do.  We hired a gardener.  

We used to have a gardener whose employees came weekly and mowed the grass – mostly in the backyard as the front of our house is mostly paved driveway – and cleaned up the leaves and such.  We actually had several of them over a time.  The last one disappeared – we were waiting for his people to come and clear the snow one winter a decade or so ago and he never came.  He did not answer his telephone.  We called our former gardener who had “sold us off” to this one and he checked.  Our gardener had moved back home to another country.  

Husband decided he (we) could deal with the mowing and seasonal cleanups and we started doing same.  We hired a company to clear the snow in winter as that can be a bit much for us – depending on the amount of snow we get.  This worked a couple of years and then the snow clearing company said it was only doing snow removal for commercial properties – as did and has every other snow removal company we have found.  

So we have gone along for some years dealing with it all ourselves – and husband is not what he used to be in terms of what he can do (which is why I have been helping/doing much of the work) and spends the fall and winter in terror of being snowed in and not being able to get out of our house if we need to.  

We managed to get through doing the mowing, cleaning up, and snow removal as well as we could.  But then the pandemic came along.  In 2020 we were staying in the house almost continually.  In late summer we had to go to our garage (which serves as husband's wood shop so it was needed before during the year).  The garage sits behind our house on one side and the regular door to it is on the side.  We needed something from the garage in late summer and when we went to go into the garage we saw our backyard – there was waist high grass and weeds!  We realized we could not handle it and decided to ignore it, let it all die over the winter and start anew in 2021.  

But 2021 was not much a better year and we again forgot about the backyard.  I knew that we would not be able to deal with what had grown in the yard – “weed trees” - plus poison ivy was probably running loose also.  So we discussed it and decided that in 2022 we would hire the same gardener as our next door neighbor used.   I even made notes in my cell phone and computer calendars to remind me to start the process in March 2022.

Of course I missed March and did not get in touch with the gardener until May.  He is very nice.  How nice?  Turns out he has helped us before.  During the winter we had a large snow storm – the snow was light and fluffy and we easily cleared it away.  Unfortunately the county snow plow crew did not come through until the day after the storm and the sidewalks/driveways had been cleared and the light snow was thrown back onto them as HEAVY PACKED snow.  We set out again to try to clear the snow chopping off bits of the packed snow and shoveling it.  A pickup truck with a snow plow on the front stopped and told us to move away from the snow – he then drove up the driveway partway and broke apart the packed snow.  He would have done same with our other driveway cut but a snow plow came through again (so glad they came twice two days after the snow and not at all during the snow) and said something to him and he had to leave.  When the gardener came after I called him to talk about what we needed – turned out he was the good soul who had helped us?  

His crew has come twice (it started raining heavily the first day) and cleared out our backyard.  It is now rather bare.  He suggested he would bring new dirt and fill in so backyard was even and reseed – but, he warned us, we would have to make sure to water it regular until the grass was growing.  I agreed.  I then remembered  - the back water faucet is shut off as it had frozen and water was dripping.  So before he comes and does the reseeding work we have to get a plumber to come and fix the faucet!  

Husband had been very nervous and tends to oversee a bit too much – I try to keep him in the house and not out bothering anyone.  

Today we went out and bought a new window well cover and put it in place.  We are hoping that the basement flooding that we had during Hurricane Ida last year and after wards whenever we had heavy rain will no longer happen.  The water seemed to come in through/around this window and the cover was gone from it.  We did not have the same problem by the other window whose cover remained intact and in place.b

And we can actually walk in our backyard – even go to the shed back there.  Which reminded us – we need to fix one of the hinges on the shed door!   And he lists residential snow clearing on his website!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes one has to give in and admit that they cannot do something.  When it is something which even children can do (mow grass) it can be even harder to admit that one can no longer do it.  But one has to learn their limitations and give in and hire someone to do what they can no longer do.