Gerald Brandt

Arnie Kasdorf was my neighbour: for many years an acquaintance, and for the last few years, a friend.

Arnie was a stay-at-home dad from when I first met him, about 11 years ago.  He raised 3 beautiful, thoughtful, and considerate children.

Here I am, a wanna-be writer, and I can’t seem to get the words from my brain to my fingers, and the screen is getting too blurry to write anymore.

The world is an emptier place.

http://www.passagesmb.com/obituary_details.cfm?ObitID=156160

For Edgar Allan Poe, 2009 has been a better year than 1849. After dozens of events in several cities to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, he’s about to get the grand funeral that a writer of his stature should have received when he died.

- Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

- Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

I hit this web site every day.  Todays picture is one of my favorite optical illusions.

President Obama on David Letterman

I had a wonderful opportunity today.  I was able to take off and spend the day alone.  I brought my laptop, worked on The Courier and started working on the undo/redo code for my WordStar clone: WordTsar (though I may change that name).

I also brought some free range chickens to Ev and Rob in Winnipeg Beach, and spent some time on the shores of Lake Winnipeg.  A wonderful and restful day.  Thanks Marnie!

From the blog of Charlie Stross comes this little gem:

This happens every year: Beloit College issues this heads-up to their staff, to try and remind them of the mind set of the incoming college year. Here’s what the fresh graduates of 2013 know about the world …

image: http://media.photobucket.com/image/old%20man%20face/DESERTSUN2008/FACES/israel-125year-old-man-laughing.jpg

I’ve had my iPhone for quite awhile now, and I’ve been adding and removing apps as I needed them.  Before each removal, I synced the phone, and made a backup of the device, just to be sure.

Well apparently that’s not enough.  First, syncing the phone does not, by default, sync the apps that are on the phone.  Okay, that’s my bad.  I should have looked at all the other tabs in iTunes, and figured out what was going on.  Now that I have ‘sync apps’ checked, they still don’t sync since my Mac doesn’t have rights to the apps.  Great, thanks.

However, backup doesn’t actually backup the phone.

My phone had been getting slower and slower as time went on.  I did some research, and apparently a reset of the phone would fix the issue.  So I dutifully did a backup of the phone, did a full reset, and then a restore of the phone.  BLAM!  I lost almost everything.  The only thing that stayed was my email and calendar settings (oh, and my contacts list).  Everything else was gone.  Wiped out.  Not to be seen anywhere.  That included, of course, my handy dandy ‘Password Wallet’ that stored all of my passwords for the various systems I use and admin.

I’m not sure I have a copy of those passwords.

The iTunes App store keeps a list of the software I’ve downloaded, so I’ve restored all my purchased apps.  But c’mon.  Really?  A backup that doesn’t actually backup?  What the hell are you guys thinking?

Now some Apple dude (or dudette) is probably going to tell me what I did wrong, and why backup does what it does (my guess is something to do with DRM bullshit).  But that’s not going to bring back my lost data, or the lost time I spent getting my apps back (and I’ve only gotten back the paid apps so far).

All-in-all, I’m not a happy camper.

edit: But my iPhone is fast again!  LOL