A New Laptop . . . Again

Last week I thought my IT department was to blame for the poor performance of my laptop. It turns out that my laptop really did break. There is an internal ribbon cable for my keyboard and mouse that needed replacing. I could have fixed it with an $8 part but my IT department just gave me a new laptop instead. The bad ribbon cable is a common problem with that era of MacBook Pro.

One of the reasons I keep adding to this blog is that it serves as a technical notebook. When it came time to copy all of the stuff off my old computer, I just looked up what I did the last time and that allowed me to get my new machine set up quickly. I picked up the new computer on Monday and returned my old one this morning. The only thing I had forgotten to include in my last instructions is to copy over the VPN settings. While my IT department set up the primary server settings, there is an older secondary one that will often work when the other doesn't. For those keeping track, I made sure to:

1. Copy all of the files from my backup
2. Copy bookmarks from my browser
3. Set up printers
4. New: copy VPN settings

I'm not sure I like the new computer though. While my old computer had an intermittent keyboard and trackpad failure, my new computer likes to crash and reboot itself every 10 minutes. I have tried a number of troubleshooting techniques to figure out what could be causing the problem. So far, I haven't figured it out. Monday I had a number of problems with the laptop and then it ran flawlessly on Tuesday. Yesterday the crashing returned. Today it has run without incident all day. My hope is that the crashing is related to copying all of the old files onto the computer and then having to encrypt the files. Time will tell.

I Thought My Computer Broke

Last week my company's IT department installed some new software on my work laptop. This week it has been causing countless problems. I actually thought my laptop broke and needed to be replaced. Then I remembered the new software install and did some digging around. It isn't broke but sure feels like it.

Today the offending program is backing up my laptop to an Internet cloud without warning me. As it progresses, my computer keeps freezing up to the point that not even the cursor moves. If I wait a bit, it becomes unstuck and I can use my machine for a moment or two. Then it gets stuck again. When I put the machine to sleep, I can't wake it up again until I plug the laptop back in. I need a word stronger than "annoying."

For someone that stays put in the same office day after day, this wouldn't be a problem but right now I am on a mid-week business trip and am waiting for a late-night flight to San Francisco. I am at the airport using less-than-reliable WiFi. I would hope that the backup software would ask me if I wanted to delay the large file transfer. Nope. No matter what I do, I can't get the automatic backup to stop. I even opened the application and tried to pause all backups for 4 hours. That didn't work.

I must have started the backup before I even left on this trip. My dashboard says it is transferring 58 gigabytes of data. Some of that has been at the hotel, some at the offices I have visited, and some at the airport. I'm just glad I discovered this before connecting my computer and using my phone as a WiFi hot-spot. I think I would have burned through my monthly data plan in a matter of hours.

Interestingly enough, I discovered this problem during one of my meetings when I really needed to get into my laptop. When I couldn't get in, I thought I was going to have to have the company get me a new computer. Then I thought back to the last backup I performed (Tuesday of last week) and wondered how much work I would need to redo. Hopefully you see the irony of a backup causing me to think about my last backup and whether or not I did it recently enough.

Unknown Places Becoming Popular

Recently my youngest son suggested I watch the movie "Gorging" as he thought I would like it. It is a documentary about canyoning or canyoneering and gives a brief history of the sport. This is something I discovered a little over a year ago when I toured Zion National Park's Subway. I then followed it up a month later by doing Pine Creek Canyon.

For those that don't know, canyoneering is where you follow a dry (or wet) stream bed as it winds its way down. The canyons the water forms in soft sandstone can be very deep and narrow. They can be very visually stunning. The Subway is mostly rock scrambling with only a couple of technical sections requiring a rappel. Pine Creek Canyon is much more involved with the final obstacle being a rappel of around 90 feet or so.

I enjoyed watching the movie as it showcased a number of places I have been. One of the points made by the movie is how the Internet has opened up a number of unknown places. We see a visually spectacular place and post it on a popular social media site. Then all of our friends re-post it until this once remote place is now swarming with tourists. The national park system has addressed this by issuing a limited number of permits for such places. This has helped cut down on some traffic but not all.

I have to agree with the conclusion the movie made. During my canyoneering adventures I have seen quite a few people in areas once thought to be remote. For the most part, people are good about taking care of the environment but that much traffic in a fragile desert environment may not be able to recover. So is this a bad thing? If so, do we blame the Internet or the crowds of passionate tourists?

My daughter suggested we hike The Subway at Zion National Park and until then, I had no idea it even existed. She found out about the hike because of my oldest son. My youngest son is how I found out about Pine Creek Canyon. I am not really sure we can blame the Internet for my interest in canyoneering. However if this is the first time you have heard about those places then we definitely can.

Personally I think the world is filled with a lot of great places to visit. I like reading about them and wouldn't have the chance without the Internet. Therefore I appreciate the ease of finding information on these formerly unknown places. Now it is important for me to treat this information carefully. Before heading into dangerous areas I need to make sure I have the correct training and proper equipment. Without the ubiquity of travel information I might show up ill prepared and that would be bad. Hopefully you agree. If not, let me know.

Fire Alarm

Yesterday I walked across the street from my office to visit a local store. It is one of those large ones that has groceries as well as home appliances, video games, and clothing. I like the store and go frequently. As I got closer I noticed that the fire alarm was going off and making a lot of noise. That didn't seem to keep anyone from going into the store. Other people's actions confused me.

I got closer and saw a few people coming out of the store and so I asked several strangers if the alarm could be heard inside. Yes, but nobody was really in a hurry to get out of the store. I couldn't believe that people would continue to walk in. Furthermore shoppers were putting employees in danger by continuing into the store.

What good is technology if we don't take advantage of it? If there really is a fire and you walk into a burning building, you could get seriously hurt or even die. If there isn't a fire, but the fire marshal shows up, you can be assessed a fine. In the state of California it can be up to $1000. I really didn't want to come back later but knowing I could be fined a large sum of money helped inspire me to turn around and come back later.

Ignorance is not an excuse. If you come to a public building and the fire alarm is blaring. Don't go in. How hard is that? All you have to do is wait until it stops. If the fire truck pulls up before that happens, then go someplace else. Waiting the 4 to 6 minutes for emergency personnel to arrive is well worth the wait.