Mac is NOT always easy

My laptop computer is a MacBook Pro (8,2 - early 2011 - high resolution display).
With a lot of effort I had managed to get it set up for triple boot: I goot choose to run Mac OS, Windows or Linux (Ubuntu at the time because that was the only one that had drivers for the chips in this model).

I was very happy with it for years. I would mostly use the Mac personality, but occasionally on field service visits I would need to use Windows in order to run the utility programs to talk to the radios that my company makes. Sometimes at the office I would use it to run the Windows-based programs to talk to our Panasonic telephone switch. And sometimes I would use the Linux to duplicate problems that some customers had with using the Linux version of our utility programs in Ubuntu (since most of our Linux systems at the office are Fedora Linux).

But one day I was seduced by Apple to update the operating system to their latest version, "Yosemite". It was after all a free upgrade, and some of the older versions of Apple's programs did not support all of the latest features. Unfortunately, the installation procedure for the Yosemite upgrade broke my triple-boot system, and it has taken me about 3 months to get back to a working system again.

First, I could not find the Snow Leopard install disk that came with the computer. No big problem, for $20, Apple would send me a Snow Leopard install DVD.

Only one problem: As soon as I tried to install Mac OS X from that DVD, it would stop with a simple white screen with a grey apple and issue a sequence of 3 beeps every 5 seconds. The online pages that mentioned such signals said that indicated a memory error. Except the memory test on my Linux DVD said my memory was good. So I concluded this must be a problem with the partition tables.

Partition tables are one of those "magic" things under the hood of the computer system. Most personal computers have a single hard drive, and all the space is available as one large warehouse to all the software on the machine. By dividing the drive into separate spaces called partitions, we can pretend that we have several smaller hard drives (called partitions) instead of one large one, and each of them can be organized in a different way (called formatting) which is important when you try to run different operating systems, because each OS wants its system disk formatted in it preferred style. Mac OS X uses a format called HFS, Windows needs to use NTFS and Linux prefers ext3fs although it can use others (but not NTFS or HFS). In order for the part of the system that loads the operating system to find out where on the disk to start loading from, there is a table of which partitions exist - generally called a "partition table". And now the fun begins: Different systems use different formats for the partition table. For many years, all personal computers with intel CPUs used a built-in bootloader called a BIOS, and there was a partition table defined for that. But then Intel came up with a new bootloader called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface), and while it could use the BIOS partition table and pretend to be a BIOS so that Windows would still work, EFI had a different preferred partition table layout called GPT (General Partition Table). When Apple changed from Motorola CPUs to Intel CPUs, they decided to use EFI and GPT from the outset. It took several years before first Linux and the Intel updated their systems to be able to work with EFI and GPT, so in order to run all three on the same machine, you needed to create both a BIOS and a GPT partition table that described the same partitions. This turned out to be a very fragile setup. Any time an operating system update touched anything related to partition setup, it could render the system unable to boot. For this reason, both Apple and Microsoft (and most computer stores and "helpdesk consultants") refused to support any setup with multiple operating systems installed except for two very limited combinations of Mac OS and Windows, called "BootCamp" and "Parallels".

So I needed to get the Mac back to its factory settings. I took it down to the Apple store, and had them load Yosemite on it from the server in the store. Done in 20 minutes.

After I got it home, I successfully installed Windows on a second partition. Windows ran fine. I did notice that both Mac and Windows had slightly different variations on their setup of EFI - they had each allocated their own partition for the EFI support files. Which turned out to be a problem: After I was done with Windows, I discovered that the Mac side would no longer boot. And I could still not use the Snow leopard install disk to wipe the hard drive and get back to something that worked.

I went back to the Apple store. This time I had them install Snow Leopard.

After I got it home again, I reduced the Mac partition to a modest 100 GB and installed Fedora Linux in the unused part of the hard drive, letting Fedora figure out how to partition it. Again, Fedora ran fine, but when I went back to Mac, it would not boot.

I spent many hours trying to erase the mangled GPT so that the Snow Leopard disk would believe that the hard drive was blank, but it always refused to install.

Finally, someone suggested that I go to the independent Mac Superstore in town. Where the technician explained that not all Snow Leopard disks were created equal, and the one had bought from Apple was a few months older than my machine and was guaranteed not to work for that reason. He said he could load the operating system for me over the Internet, and then "clone" the system to a USB stick that I could then use to recover on my own as I probed my way through various setups until I found one that worked.

I am now in the middle of running Windows update after installing Windows 7 on the machine. I am anxiously waiting for 203 updates to be installed so I can try booting Mac and then Windows again.

I am hopeful!

The old Hewlett-Packard company has a new name .... again

When Bill Hewlett and David Packard started their company in a garage in Palo Alto in 1939, they were devoted to building precision measurement instruments at very competitive prices. Their first successful product was a precision audio oscillator, the HP200A, which was still being built in 1972.

In 1966, the company started building minicomputers for controlling lab equipment. These systems known as HP2100 and HP1000 were produced for 20 years. In 1968, they introduced a programmable calculator, the HP9100A, which as been called the first personal computer.

In 1984, HP started building inkjet and laser printers.

By 1999, the computers and the printerrs had grown to be the majority of the business, and the non-computer company (inclinding the original test and measurement division) was spun out in an 8 billion dollar IPO to become Agilent. (This was well before HP took over the failing Compaq, which had already taken over the failed Digital Equipment Corporation.)

Since then, Agilent has been growing its activities in life sciences research,  building MRI machines, genetic sequencing machines and buying Dako, a Danish cancer diagnostics company, while selling off units supporting semiconductor manufacturing. The original test and measurement unit still exists, but it is now a small group that again does not fit well with its parent company, so Agilent is splitting into two companies. The Agilent name goes with the life sciences, and the test and measurement unit will now be called Keysight Technologies.

History repeats itself: First as farce, then as tragedy. I think the customers will have a hard time finding the twice-renamed instruments in the future.

My Linux box had to be replaced ...

Over the week-end, the Linux server at my house shut down several times. It provides
- file service to
   - the desktops in the house (Windows desktop, Mac desktop, my travel laptop)
   - the Sonos music system
- email service for my private domain
- web server for my personal website including password-protected access to
      - the document storage
      - the music collection
      - 10 years of photo albums and some home videos
      - a Wiki note-taking server

This was quite annoying, since it was doing it at a time when I was trying to finish up my 2013 tax filings, and of course the program is on my (Windows) desktop but the files are mounted from Samba shares on the Linux box.

At first, I thought it was happening when I was doing certain file operations, so I attributed it to a bug in a recent update to the Samba file service, but then it occurred to me, that an ordinary system crash should lead to a reboot. So I thought maybe I had picked up some malware. The uptimes were getting shorter ... under an hour. So I went to look at /var/log/messages and learned that a motherboard temperature sensor was triggering a shutdown when it reached 139 degrees Celsius. My next thought was a failed fan in CPU or power supply, but after opening the case, I found all the fans in good working order. But a large chip with a 4cm x 4cm heat sink was hot enough to fry an egg. A google search for the motherboard's model name gave me a board layout picture which identified the hot chip as the SouthBridge (disk controller, mostly). So it was clear that I needed a new box.

The old box was a HP Pavillion, and the local Best Buy had a current HP Pavillion for just under $500, so I picked it up Monday afternoon and after dinner, I started scouting out how to get online again.

My first hope was that I could just remove the hard drive in the new computer and plug in the old drives and see if it booted. No such luck: No bootable files found. I swapped the drive connectors with no improvement.

Next thought was to boot from a Fedora Linux Live CD and look around. But it would not boot from the CD. I tried a lot of things to find a boot configuration menu, but without luck:
- The power-up screen offered no suggestions
- The Quick Start booklet had no useful information other than to suggest that if I started up windows, I would find a program that might give me more documentation or information about a telephone number for technical support.

I put the Windows drive back in, and did the "first boot and system setup" for Windows 8.1. I found the so-called documentation, which was useless. Finally, I called the 800-number for technical support. In India. After insisting on taking all my personal information before I could ask how to boot from a CD, he asked why I wanted to do that. "To install Linux instead of Windows", I explained. "Why would you want to do that?" I explained. He explained that running Linux on HP Consumer grade computers was not supported and would void the warranty. I explained that I am used to installing and managing Linux systems, but I needed to know how to boot from a CD. He did not know, but put me on hold while he "explored resources". After about 10 minutes he came back to tell me that he would transfer me to another support group that might know something about Linux. And after 30 seconds of switching noises, I landed on a recording that explained that "this office is now closed, please call back during business hours".

I called back to the 800 number. Went through the same script with a new person, who told me that I would get a boot device selection menu if I hot the "Fn" key. I had reused my old keyboard, which did not have an Fn key, but the keyboard that came with the new computer had one. I made the mistake of thanking the support rep; he hung up. I switched keyboard and rebooted a fair number of times while tapping the Fn key. No result at all.

I called back to the 800 number. Same script. Same promise of a referral "but I will stay with you to make sure you get connected". Still the call got lost after about 5 minutes in the hold queue after the alleged transfer.

Called back 4th time. By now, the wait before the first rep was 35 minutes. After going through the script, this rep saw that I had been through the mill 3 times, and sent me to the US-based professional workstation support group. When the rep there answered after about 5 minutes in the second hold queue, he was surprised that I had been transferred, because he was not supposed to touch consumer products and did not have any documentation for Pavillion desktops. He did know a lot about unix. He also had used the Pavillions and gave be some hints about boot escape keys:
- ESC is an EFI configuration menu called "Startup Menu"
- F2 is firmware based hardware diagnostics
- F9 is "Boot Menu", selecting a boot device for this boot only
- F10 is "BIOS setup Menu".
When I tried to boot from the CD, I got "Secure Boot Failure - Unsigned Content".
He thought I should be able to select a "Legacy Boot" option instead of the "Secure Boot" default configuration, but reminded me that he really was not trained on advanced configuration of Pavillion Systems. He then promised to find me a competent support rep in the consumer product group.

While I waited on hold again, I figured out how to switch to "Legacy Boot". At that point, the machine would no longer boot the Windows hard drive, but it booted the Linux CD, which allowed me to see the old drive that was still plugged in. So I exchanged the Windows drive for my old Linux system disk ... and the system booted to my old Fedora Linux desktop.

I had almost forgotten my Workstation support rep, but he came back and apologized for having been unable to find me help. He would file an escalation request and someone should call me back within a day or so. But he was pleased when I told him that once I had the basic information on where to find the menu, I had solved the problem myself. He was as disgusted as I was about the poor quality of the documentation and the support. He did suggest that if I would buy professional products instead of consumer products, I would get technical support from the United States instead of from India. And I pointed out that those products cost about twice as much for similar capabilities.

The irony is that a few years ago, I had a couple of HP laptops for which I needed technical support, and the support reps in India were EXCELLENT, well trained, polite, knowledgeable and patient. This was a great factor in my purchase of a HP desktop rather than a Dell or an ASUS (is that who took over Gateway/eMachines?) But I can no longer recommend these HP systems.

Bringing Manufacturing Home to America

I came across a pointer to this article from the New York Times:
www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/business/us-textile-factories-return.html?pagewanted=all

The story is that a fair amount of manufacturing that fled the United States between 2000 and 2009 is quietly coming back because it actually makes business sense to manufacture close to the customers. Low wages in Asia does not always translate to higher profit margins, for several reasons:
- the lower wage expense may be balanced by higher transportation costs
- merchandise subject to fashion's vagaries may be obsolete by the time the design gets sent to Asia and the goods get shipped back.
- the cheap manufacturing plants in Asia may not share your understanding of what "a quality product" is.

So even in Textiles, which was considered the premier example of a labor-intensive business that HAD to move off-shore, some jobs are coming back. But in returning, they have changed.
- there are fewer jobs now. Instead of 1000 workers in the plant, there may be 100, assisted by robots
- the jobs are not the same jobs: Rather than low-skilled mill workers (high school dropouts) they are machinists, mechanics and programmers that can maintain the robots.

Interesting reading!

Back at Blogspot

I have been away for a couple of years - there was a lot happening in my life. I may ease back in and we shall see what my new focus may be.
Since the last post here, I met a delightful woman and married her. So while I may have a fresh perspective on dating in retrospect, it remains to be seen if it is something I can share here.

Walking lightly on this earth ...

For several years my doctor has been nudging me to lose weight, and I have tried as best I could, but despite regular exercise, the weight has been inching upwards. At my annual physical exam this summer she repeated the usual lecture, and repeated the suggestion that I should look into the weight management program offered by a branch of the same multi-location medical service group that she works for. This time she actually put a brochure in my hand, which may have been what made me eventually sign up for an orientation session a couple of months later. Now I wish she had done that a couple of years ago, so I could have gotten started earlier.

They have several different program; I signed up for the most intensive, which they call the Decision-Free CORE Program. This is an excellent program, designed in multiple layers.

First, it is a medically supervised diet program. You eat nothing but the specially designed food they sell you, which include 5 different formulated protein shakes (Vanilla flavored whey protein, chocolate-flavored ditto, chicken soup flavored ditto, and soy based varieties of the first two) to be mixed with water. The soy based shakes turn into a pudding when prepared with half the normal amount of water. There is also a multigrain cereal package blended with dried cranberries, dried milk and whey protein that can be cooked in the microwave to create an oatmeal-like porridge for breakfast, and some miniature microwaveable dinner rations that allow for some semblance of eating a meal for lunch and dinner. The "standard" daily intake of 1 cereal, 3 shakes and 2 dinners adds up to around 1000 kcal per day, which means that if you weigh 100 kg (220 lbs) to begin with, you are 1500 kcal in deficit before you start exercising, so you are GUARANTEED to lose at least 3 pounds per week.

Second, it is packaged with the same kind of health education support group that you might find in programs such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, but since this is operated by a medical clinic, the groups are led by certified health educators. The leader of my CORE class is a German behavioural psychologist who also free-lances as a life coach.

And finally, significantly overweight people like myself see a doctor in conjunction with the weekly class several times per month, and they draw blood samples for lab tests to make sure nobody's electrolyte balance gets too far out of alignment. (There is some concern about heart damage from potassium deficiency on an extreme diet like this.)

In the beginning I was worried that I would get really sick of the endless protein shakes, but one can add significant variety with non-caloric flavor additives. Tabasco pepper sauce on the oatmeal, for example. Or using aspartame-sweetened diet sodas instead of water in the shakes. There are 14 varieties of the packaged dinners, and ways to "doctor them up" with the chicken soup or by combining two in a single meal. One could also worry about being hungry all the time, but the program instructions are really simple on that point: If you are hungry, drink another shake or eat another packaged dinner. Yes, you will get more calories with more rations, but far less than if you "go out of the box" by giving in to a temptation to eat something that is outside the program. The one thing that we all crave - but can't find an approved solution for - is something crunchy. Regardless of former eating habits, we all wish we could eat vegetables, but that is NOT allowed in this program, until after we reach the goal weight and change to the maintenance program which will indeed  require us to eat a lot of vegetables every day.

After 7 weeks, I have lost close to 25 pounds (11.5 kg) and I hope to be able to ride the program all the way down to 70 lbs (32 kg) below my starting point. If all goes as planned, I should get there in 4 more months, in time for my daughter's wedding.

My growing art collection

Over the past year I have gradually started to think of myself as an art collector. I have a list of artists that I follow; I regularly go to visit the galleries where my favorite artists tend to exhibit; I love to go to opening nights and I struggle to go home without buying anything. To help me enjoy more and spend less, I have a focus for my collection: "I buy paintings of mountains I can see from my house, painted by living artists that I have met". Of course, I cheat on both accounts: Often I don't meet the artist until after I have bought the works. And some of the pictures I drool over are not actually of the peaks behind my house, just some that look similar.






But this one really is the cluster of mountains that I can see from the panorama window over my kitchen counter. It is titled "San Roque Canyon" and is painted by John Iwerks (grandson of Ub Iwerks of Disney animation fame - the artist who actually drew "Steamboat Willie, the first Micky Mouse movie). I spent the middle of Thanksgiving Day hiking up this canyon with my beagles on a leash, putting 15,000 steps on my pedometer.

I first saw a larger version of it at the Easton Gallery last spring. It was a show with about 30 paintings by each of John Iwerks and his wife Chris Chapman. The only problem was that it way way too big for my house, measuring about 40 by 50 inches (100 by 125 cm). So I wrote to ask John if he would be willing to make me a smaller version, which he graciously agreed to. This one is just 12 by 16 inches.


Sometimes I find something I like at a less prestigious venue. This one called "Little Red House" by Paul Edwards was hanging in a church where I attended a folk music concert,  and the pastor had invited his parishioners to bring in art for display. Paul Edwards is 93 years old, retired from a career as a Disney artist. I liked the masculine feeling despite it being a watercolor painting, and this looks very much like a compound I can see halfway up the mountain when I look out my window. It is 16 by 24 inches, and I had it reframed in a blonde natural wood frame with no matte to look moare at home with my other paintings.


Marcia Burtt is the most prestigious painter in my collection. This 18 by 20 inches piece is titled "Mountain Overlook #1". It was the beginning of my serious collecting. When I got it home, I thought it made the landscapes I had bought before look bad in comparison, so I gave them to my ex-wife who fortunately still likes them.


I have written about this painting "Peace, a quiet evening" by Karen Feddersen in an earlier post.
Each of the three panels is 20 by 20 inches (50 by 50 cm), It holds the place of honor in my living room, and I love it as much today as when I first saw it. Every night when I come home and turn the lights on, I draw a deep breath of admiration.

So what is next ?

                          
Last week-end I was gallery hopping with a friend who loves the Oak Group painters as much as I do. At the Sullivan Goss gallery we saw a couple of breathtaking pieces that fit neither of my rules, but still tempted me greatly. One was by Ray Strong, the other  by Angela Perko. Both of them scarily expensive (the Strong one especially) so I let them stay there, but I will probably go back and visit them again. I have also been very charmed by the recent work of another Oak Group member, Jeremy Harper. Jeremy has not painted "my mountains" but I think I might commission him to give it a try.

Watch this space!!