Tag Archives: Apple

complaints, music, videos, YouTube

Why do “user friendly” applications have to be so unfriendly?

I swear, I’m not a “boomer”, nor am I a member of the “greatest generation”… I’m sitting here having flashbacks to the late 1990s, when my dad struggled to send emails and would call the local computer wizard to help him with that basic task. So many of us tried and failed to teach him that skill. It got so bad that the local computer wizard quit answering my dad’s calls!

No… I’m not THERE yet… But I do seem to be having some issues with iMovie that I didn’t used to have.

On my travel blog today, I wrote a post about how I made a new music video starring our dog, Noyzi. This is something I’ve done dozens of times over the years. I bought my first iMac in 2011, and although no one ever taught me how to use iMovie, I quickly figured out how it operated. I made a whole bunch of YouTube videos, most of which didn’t feature my visage at all.

It wasn’t until some months ago that I finally decided to make music videos that show my face. Surprisingly enough, the videos that show me tend to do better, even if I think pretty scenery and pictures of my dogs are much more beautiful than I am. But, as I explained in my travel blog a few days ago, I had a really nasty looking “bloody eyeball” bruise over the weekend that was kind of disturbing to look at. It was mostly healed yesterday, when I decided to make a new video, but the song I recorded just really lent itself to using clips of Noyzi, insteading of my homely mug. So I recorded the audio portion of the video, then went off to iMovie, to make the visual part.

I tried to drag photos and clips from my photos into the editor. None of them would import. I got one of those circles with the diagonal lines through them when I tried. I went looking for an explanation and a solution. I found a few suggestions, most of which involved granting permissions, moving media into the application, rebooting my computer, updating software, and changing security settings. I did all of that, but today, I still can’t make videos the way I used to.

Another hindrance is the fact that everything help related seems to be made in a video, rather in a written article, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. Yesterday, I was finding that I had to keep stopping and starting the videos I tried to watch in order to help myself, flipping back and forth to try to fix the issue. Ultimately, my efforts failed, anyway.

I created yesterday’s video using my trusty laptop. I don’t like to make videos on that, because I don’t have a mouse for it. I did have one for my old laptop, but I so seldom used it that I didn’t bother to get one for my newer one. Consequently, it’s a real pain to try to maneuver things on my laptop, and it makes creating videos all the more annoying. I did manage to succeed yesterday, though. I thought maybe I could just make the visual part on the laptop and send it to my desktop, but no dice… the video would NOT load into my iMovie app. I got the infuriating circle with a line through it and the message that I “didn’t have permission”. Grrr… it’s my computer and MY photos, dammit!

So then I airdropped my audio track to the laptop and created the video that way. It’s now on YouTube, doing fairly decently in terms of engagement. And today, I’m looking into seeing what I can do to fix the settings on my newest computer, so I don’t have to use the laptop the next time I don’t want to video directly from my desktop machine.

I’m sure there are better video editing software programs out there, but as I’m not a technogeek, I have no desire to try to find a new program and figure it out. In the past, I’ve bought new software, only to never use it, because I couldn’t quickly and easily figure out how it worked. I just want the Apple software to work easily. Is that too much to ask?

Some people are fascinated by techie stuff. Figuring things out is exciting and fun for them. I am fascinated by figuring certain things out, too… but mastering computers isn’t among my passions. I wish it was. It might make me more employable. Some people really have a real gift for mastering any and all gadgets, but I am definitely not one of them. I could probably make videos on my old desktop, but I relegated it to light duty for good reason. It’s kind of on its last legs.

Anyway… I’m sure the issue plaguing me is a minor thing. It’s just annoying, is all. But it’s not as annoying as the prospect of vacuuming the house, which is today’s dreaded chore. Guess I’d better get on that.

By the way… I’m dealing with a petty annoyance on my travel blog, too. For some reason, it won’t let me use certain category tags on my posts. For instance, if I try to tag a post with “Germany” or “dogs” or certain other categories, it will automatically revert to “uncategorized”. It doesn’t do that for all categories, just certain ones. It’s very annoying, but not as annoying as contacting tech support. I just wish things would WORK properly!

Edited to add… I ended up deleting iMovie and reinstalling it, and Final Cut. Final Cut, which I hadn’t even had on this computer (I bought it for my old one), was giving me the same weird error. It finally let me move a clip, but presented it as a still photo instead of a video. But then I tried iMovie again, and that time it worked. Why it suddenly worked is a mystery, but for now, my issue is resolved. All’s well that ends well… for now, anyway. 😀

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first world problems, modern problems, music, technology

I feel the terrible “STING” of moving Sting’s music to my new computer…

I’m getting a late start on today’s blog post, because I spent the morning trying to move more of my music collection from my old computer. It mostly went smoothly, until I got to Sting. I have tons of music by Sting, and that seemed to complicate matters a lot. I have multiple copies of several albums, along with different versions of the same albums. I kept trying to put them on my external hard drive, so they could be moved, only to find that either the albums didn’t make it onto the drive, or I got partial albums.

Making matters worse was the fact that every time I tried to move the damned files, duplicates were generated on the old computer. And even then, it was a crap shoot as to whether or not they’d successfully migrate to the hard drive, even when I tried to check.

I know this is a first world problem, but moving these files is legitimately a real pain in the ass. I have to get up from my chair to go to the other computer, which doesn’t have a chair. Then I stand there and wait for the colorful wheel to stop spinning so things won’t be frozen. After awhile, I got the bright idea to delete some of the duplicate files, only to find that I accidentally permanently erased a few of them.

iTunes won’t let me replace the lost tracks, because they’re already purchased. Amazon won’t let me buy MP3 albums here, because I have a US based credit card, but I live in the German market. And I have a US Apple account, so I can’t buy from the German store. Even if I wanted to do that, I’d still have the credit card issue. Sometimes, I can use PayPal to get around that kind of stuff, but it was all just getting way too annoying and complicated. And sometimes there are other editions of an album available that can be purchased, but there I was no such luck for the album I messed up today. So I ended up buying an actual CD so I can manually replace the lost files.

Hopefully, my Superdrive CD-ROM peripheral will still work properly. I’m not sure if I managed to move everything else I have by Sting today, but I simply had to quit trying. My mood was progressively getting worse by the minute.

The good news is, I don’t have too much further to go in order to be done with this “project”. I managed to get to the Ts, my trials with Sting notwithstanding. So, hopefully, I will be finished with moving my music tomorrow. Then I can make new playlists. I might have said “fuck it” regarding Sting, but he happens to be a big favorite of mine. I have some pretty great stuff by him, some of which is rare. I’m not willing to sacrifice a thing.

I’m sure I could probably send Apple a note and see if they might make it possible to download those files again on the new computer. However, as much as I’d like to be practical and save some money, my concern is that it would take too much time and effort to deal with customer service.

You know… as much as I like how easy and convenient it is to download music, and as nice as it is not to have to find places for physical CDs, I will say that using CDs was a lot easier. Plus, once you own the CD, you have the music for as long as the CD lasts. I don’t want to join Apple or Amazon Music, because I don’t want to rent my music. Plus, I don’t want them fucking up or with the files I have. Some of my most cherished MP3s date back to Napster circa 2000.

So anyway… because of this project, I don’t have anything else to write about today. Sorry to have wasted your time. 😉 Maybe I could rant about how it’s 2023, and I’m having to waste so much time on this shit. Why wasn’t all of this automatically moved on the cloud? iTunes/Apple Music really sucks on many levels for multiple reasons.

But there are lots of other useful posts in this blog… and other blogs on the Information Superhighway. I now feel the overwhelming urge to go lie down somewhere and try to decompress. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll be back with something more exciting to share.

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complaints

“I’m having trouble connecting to the Internet…”

Sometimes Siri says that to me when our Internet is dodgy, as it often is.

Alas… this morning, I feel the same way. Last night, I made the mistake of finishing off some brandy. There wasn’t much of it left, but the bottle was taking up needed space on our booze cart. I decided to kill it, so I could reallocate the precious booze cart real estate. Now, I fear, it might be killing me. I feel pretty crappy today.

In retrospect, I probably should have just dumped the last of the brandy down the sink. I think that specific bottle came from a bad batch.

On the occasions I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve woken up feeling unusually terrible, even when I haven’t had much of it. This is not a normal reaction for me, because I’m a seasoned drinker. That particular brandy is a favorite of mine, too, and I’ve never had this severe reaction when I’ve had it before.

Anyway… because I feel yucky today, I don’t feel much like writing anything of substance. The good news is, I do feel much better than I did a couple of hours ago. My head is not quite so achy and my stomach is a bit less distressed than it was when I first got up. Maybe I might soon even be able to face the idea of swallowing a pill without hurling, so I can do something about my acid indigestion.

I don’t need anybody’s sympathy. I should have known and done better. I know it would be best for my health if I became a teetotaler. On the other hand, I don’t want to live to be old, anyway. I’ve seen what happens to the elderly. It’s not pretty.

The good news is, at least that bottle is gone now. I won’t be buying more of that stuff anytime soon.

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home, technology

My big time office makeover…

The featured photo is of my new setup for my old computer, and the snazzy new lighting strip. I can control the lights from my computer (home app). They’re pretty cool.

Yesterday ended up being very busy. I ordered a bunch of stuff for my office, and most of it showed up yesterday. It started with a slim dock port I got for the new computer, so I would have some ports that could handle my old peripherals until it’s time to replace them with USB C type devices. Then I got a new table for my old computer. I was going to add the old machine to my pile of discarded computers, but then I determined that I might be able to use the old computer for media… making videos, playing music, watching movies or videos etc.

The new table is very nice. It’s made of solid pine, and has a lovely aroma of fresh wood. I was in the middle of putting it together when my new HomePod Mini showed up with a smart socket and smart Nanoleaf strip lights. I hadn’t planned to buy the socket or the lights, but Apple did a successful suggestive sell move. I’m actually glad I bought the strip lights, because they look really cool and offer much needed lighting to my usually dim workspace.

I spent about an hour putting the table together, mostly screwing in the forty screws it took. It’s perfect for what I needed it for, but putting it together came with a price. I got two blisters on my right palm. It was also quite an effort to get it upstairs to my room. The thing weighs a lot. It’ll probably last for the rest of my life, though.

After I got the table set up, I put the old computer on it, and started configuring things. I unpacked the light strip and wondered where I should put it. Then I realized it was just about the right length to go around the front of the new table. Now, I have new lighting on my new table holding the old computer.

Blisters from putting together my new table…
But it’s a very nice, solid wood table.
Roses Bill sent on Valentine’s Day.

Meanwhile, I’ve been slowly setting up the new computer, which is turning out to be more difficult than I expected. Starting with the new VESA arm and ending with transferring files– mostly music files, some of which are on CDs– has been a real pain. For some reason, even though Apple still sells the SuperDrive (with the USB connection), I had to buy a special connection to get it to work on the new computer. And even then, there’s no telling if it actually will work. Half the time, when I try to import a CD, the Internet gets knocked offline.

I will say this, though… When the Internet is robust, and I have all of the speakers going, it really sounds good. The trouble is, our Internet has become very fragile lately. This was a problem even before I got the new computer. My next upgrade will be a CD tower for all of the CDs I’ve accumulated since we’ve been in Germany. I don’t buy them unless the music is something I really want in my collection and I can’t download it. I have a whole lot of CDs in storage, too. If I ever move back to the USA and live in my own house, I’ll have a wall full of them.

I actually moved my old office chair back into my workspace. It works better than the new one Bill got me for Christmas. I put that one in the entertainment/Noyzi’s room. Someday, maybe we’ll use that room more often than we do.

By the time I’d written two fresh blog posts and practiced guitar, I was pretty exhausted. When Bill got home, he walked the dogs. Today, I’m not expecting any deliveries, so I plan to walk the dogs. The exercise will do us all some good, although Arran looks like he’s getting kind of tired. He seems determined to stay with us for as long as he possibly can. He truly adores us on a rare level. Unfortunately, the lymphoma will eventually win.

This post is probably not that interesting to most people. I could be writing snark about the Duggars, especially Josh– who appears to have gotten into some trouble in prison. I haven’t read Jinger Vuolo’s book, and I probably won’t, because to me, it seems like she traded one cult for another.

I could also write about Timmy Rodrigues, who has apparently found himself a partner for courting… I could write about that, but I don’t care enough about it to watch the videos. Or, I’ve just been busier than usual. That could be a very snarky post. Maybe Toni will come back to chastise me. 😀

Meh, we’ll see. I’d like to get to a point at which I feel comfortable and functional with my new equipment. I sure have more computers than I ever thought I would. It’s hard to believe there was a significant portion of my life when I didn’t even have ONE computer. Now, I have six of them… and three of them don’t really work anymore and need to be ditched.

Yeah… I’ve been unusually busy this week. I hope the building projects will be finished soon.

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lessons learned, technology, YouTube

Every day brings its own surprise learning curves…

As I suspected it would, my new computer arrived a day earlier than expected. I stuck around the house all afternoon, waiting for it to show up. The dogs didn’t get a walk for the second day in a row. As I excitedly unboxed my new machine, there was a nagging thought in the back of my mind. When I ordered the new iMac, there was a notation that it would come to me without a stand. That worried me a little bit, but then I pushed the thought out of my mind. How can Apple sell me a computer with no way to stand it up?

Then I looked on Apple.com to see if there was a separate accessory I needed to buy. When I bought my Apple Watch a couple of years ago, I had to buy a charger separately. I figured maybe it was a situation like that– Apple trying to look more environmentally conscious while making people spend more money. But then, when I bought an Apple Watch for Bill, it came with a charger. I did see a stand available for sale, but the price was about 1000 euros.

Well, the fancy new blue computer got to me yesterday, and indeed, there was no stand. I tore the box open trying to find one, but none was to be found. Why? Because I inadvertently bought a VESA model. Until yesterday, I didn’t know what VESA was. Now, I know that it stands for Video Electronics Standards Association. For some reason, it also refers to a mount on the back of televisions and monitors that allow people to wall mount or use custom “arms” or stands for their computers or TVs.

Most Apple computers come with fixed stands that can’t be removed. But that doesn’t work for every user, because some people stand at their desks, or they are very tall or very short. Or they are neat freaks and/or lack desk space, and they want to be able to mount the monitor on the wall or clamp it to the side of the desk instead of just setting it on the desktop. Some people want to be able to move the monitor in a way that will work best for them. I don’t have that problem myself. In fact, our current house has sloped ceilings, so the ability to mount a monitor on the wall would not be useful for me.

Apple.com reverts to Apple.de where I live. I do translate the site when I use it, but sometimes things get lost in translation. I swear, until yesterday, I didn’t know what a VESA mount was. I had never heard of it, and didn’t know why it would be preferable to having a plain old factory made stand. Just now, I went to the Apple store and “built” a computer to the same specifications as the one I just received. I still didn’t see an option for VESA versus a conventional fixed stand. So, how this happened to me, I don’t know. I do know that it’s not worth the hassle to return the computer, because it came all the way from Hong Kong, and I don’t want to wait longer, when I can just buy a VESA monitor arm.

So, yesterday afternoon, after poring over articles, videos, and Amazon.de, I finally selected what I hope will be a good stand for my new computer. Then, I will begin the painful process of transitioning to my pretty blue machine… which has all new USB C and Thunderbolt ports. That means a lot of my old peripherals will need to be upgraded or converted. I bought a new dock just that purpose, and it already warns me that the CD drive I bought separately when I purchased my second iMac (which died in 2019) won’t be supported. That drive has a USB connection, which is now obsolete.

I also bought a converter so the fancy headphones I bought last spring will work with the new computer. I have a microphone interface that connects with a USB. That’s probably going to have to be replaced, too. Upgrading computers is expensive!

I really would have liked to have waited a little bit longer to get a new computer. Lately, my desktop has just been a real pain to deal with. I’m sure there’s something I could do to make it less of a pain. I simply lack the patience to try to figure out what. Luckily, it’s not yet in its death throes, so I can hang with the old computer for a few more days until I get the new system ready to go. I’ll even bet that in the long run, I’ll be glad I got the VESA Apple instead of the standard one. It seems to be the choice of techies.

One of the videos I watched. Note that the computer has a stand. Mine doesn’t have that. It’s just the monitor.
How I wish I’d seen this video last week.

The weird thing is… everybody in the videos about using a VESA mount on a Mac says that Apple doesn’t really advertise the availability of the VESA model. So a lot of folks were rigging their Macs equipped with conventional (and apparently unremovable) stands, showing how to use VESA monitor arms with the stand hanging down. One guy actually sawed the stand off of his Mac! Here I am, with a VESA model I wouldn’t have chosen to order, had I known what the fuck a VESA mount is before yesterday afternoon! Hopefully, the arm I chose will work seamlessly with my new computer. I don’t see why it wouldn’t… but then, making assumptions is what got me into this mess in the first place.

When my new arm gets to me, I plan to watch this guy’s video in full. His was the most useful of all of them.

I should have married a computer techie. Alas, my man just plans Army exercises that prepare people to go off to war. I just hope I manage to get this right. I have a history of not quite doing things to precision, only to see them fall apart later. 😉 Like, for instance, when I was in grad school and tried to put together a CD rack without the proper tools. By the time I got it put together, it was pretty rickety looking. It looked ugly, but worked for a few months. Then one night, the whole thing collapsed in a huge mess. We’re talking hundreds of CDs that had been carefully alphabetized lying in a pile in the middle of the wreckage. There was much cursing.

I do much better with things that don’t require assembly. Or, at least things that don’t require complicated assembly and tools. Bill isn’t much of a handyman, though, and he’s a busy guy. That means that sometimes I have to figure these things out for myself.

Well, I suppose I’ll get to work on my next task for the day… I have noticed today that my old computer is working better than it has for the past couple of weeks. I got a notice this morning from Apple that my hard drive on this computer needed updating. I clicked a button, and sure enough, I am getting much better performance today. If this had only happened a week ago, maybe I would have held off on this big purchase that is currently vexing me. It’s yet another surprising lesson learned, I guess.

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