SuperDuper Story

 SuperDuper story

Yesterday, as we were setting up for the morning Zoom streaming session, I told Jim about my problems trying to fix a failed restore on my daughter’s computer. I had spent most of two days downloading various Mac OS operating systems, trying to get it to boot back up. All the downloads failed, citing missing or corrupted essential files.

I tried to download a new OS on my own computer to a flash drive, which I could then transfer over to her computer, but the download site immediately found my computer with an M1 processor would be incompatible with Darlene’s computer with a Pentium processor and greyed out the download button, preventing my download.

I tried several “safe” starts on her computer to type in Terminal commands, with no success. I think her hard drive is now a “brick.”

My next move will be to buy myself a new Mac mini with an M2 chip and give her my present computer. I have most of the photos and some of the documents she will want on her next computer. She lost those in the restore attempts she made before I tried to save it.

Anyway, during the discussion, Jim highly recommended a backup program call SuperDuper, which is simple, easy, and free, unless you choose to upgrade for a small fee. It creates a bootable disk on a flash drive, external disc, etc. with all your data, documents, and photos safely stored.

When I got home, I tried to go to SuperDuper.com with no luck. I also tried SuperDooper.com and SooperDooper.com. I gave up and Googled SuperDuper backup program and found it by a company named ShirtPocket. So I immediately went to the download site to start the program download.

I have never seen an attack like I met on the download site. Had to navigate through other popup pages from other backup programs trying to get me to click on their programs instead. When I finally got to the actual SuperDuper download page, it was plastered with ads, and fake download buttons for other programs. The worst was some program called Avast. You had to look and read carefully to avoid hitting the wrong download button.

I finally got the right program downloaded and installed, and printed out the instructions. I tried a flash drive I had first, but it was too small. I needed about 350 Mb for a full backup, and the flash drive wasn’t even close to that.

Then I remembered an SSD I installed in my OWC Dock under my Mac Mini. I have been using it to store some of my photos to make space for more photos on my iPhone. I checked it and found it was 500 Mb, but only had about 45 Mb used. So I partitioned that drive to a 400Mb drive with a 100 Mb drive with my photos, and had lots of room for a backup.

It all went well, and for the first time in a couple of months my machine is fully backed up. My Apple Time Machine locked up some time ago. I have forgotten how many years it worked, but you only get so many years, and then it quits!

I upgraded to the full version of SuperDuper, which has provision to set up regular backups. It only cost $28.00. Worth every penny!

My next move is a trip to the Apple Store down in Dallas at the Galleria for a new Mac Mini.

Audio/Video for Dummies

 Audio/Video for Dummies

Last week we (Jim and I) decided to hook up the Stage Box to our X32 Mixer, since we have one and the wireless mics were a lot of trouble. We arranged to meet at the church at 1:00 PM today to try to get the system going.

I prepared by reading all I could in the Manual, which is so esoteric I didn’t even have a clue about what they were trying to teach me. I watched training videos on YouTube, most of which assumed you already knew something about what you were doing. The longer I studied the more confused I was.

Instead of a simple demonstration of how to configure just one channel to get the sound to come through, they spent long minutes explaining how to string multiple stage boxes together in series, which would be fine for an orchestra, but we are just a small church in a small town in Texas.

When we first started to set up to stream the services when the pandemic started, we had one microphone which we couldn’t get any sound out of, even though it was brand new. We asked for help from a local business which gave lessons to church members for a price, but either they thought we were too dumb to teach, or they had some Baptist scruples about teaching those UU heretics down at the Red River Unitarian Universalist place. In any case they never called back.

After much searching, I found an article online about the difference between dynamic and condenser microphones. How were we supposed to know that condenser mics need 49 volts of “Phantom Power” to make them operate? Sure, everybody knows that! Except us. We bought some phantom power adapters with batteries inside that allowed us to stream the radio signal across the room to the receiver, which connects to the mixer board.

As Jim and I continued this afternoon to try to get sound out of the stage box, we listened to YouTube videos and tried to make sense of it.On one of the videos the teacher changed the clock setting from external to the stage box. I did that and then we had no sound at all from anywhere, including the Power Point computer. Jim suggested I change that setting back like it was before. Good idea!

 We figured it had something to do with “Routing”, but the page with the routing choices was long and complicated. Where are we routing from? Where are we routing to? Is the routing inside the box or the mixer? 

After an hour and a half of no luck, I took a break and went to the bathroom. When I came back, Jim was back by the stage box and said, “Listen to this!” He blew on the mike and the sound burst from the mixer. 

I asked what he did, and he showed me how he moved the routing from the stage box to the row of faders we wanted to use for those channels. He said we were overthinking it. He was right. It didn’t take us long to plug in the electric piano and several microphones and adjust the gains on each channel to unity on the faders. 

I know this is kind of technical for most people. Me most of all. But I’m beginning to think there is hope for me at last.

I went looking on Amazon for a book titled X32 Mixer for Dummies, but they don’t have it. They should.

This Was the Week that Was...

 This Was the Week that Was…

I really wanted to go for a bicycle ride today, but I’m just too tired and the weather is cold. I also needed a day off. It’s been a crazy week.

Sunday went surprisingly well, considering this is our first time with multiple musical instruments, lots of live songs and several PowerPoint recordings of music, all combined. We had a practice session the week before, gathering up all the microphones we could find and trying to find a good arrangement to pick up all the sounds and mix them for live streaming, recording and the real time program in the chapel.

Since the audience was expected to participate in the songs, I got to coordinate the text verses on the screens as the music played. Due to my monotropic mind, I was afraid I might have trouble working the sound mixer and the PowerPoint computer at the same time, but it worked out once we had the sound board set up the way we liked it.

I learned during the program what I needed to study and practice to make it easier next time. I printed myself another manual for the Behringer X32 Compact mixer board, and by reading that and watching videos on YouTube, I now know how to mute groups of channels with one button and how to control several channels together with one DCA fader.

Muting certain groups of channels was required, because during one song playing on PowerPoint by Dan on the piano, the dulcimers were retuning to a different key for their next number. I had to mute them on their individual channels, which I got done, but it would have been easier to have had them grouped on a single mute button.

The bass dulcimer player had her own amplifier, so we put a microphone in front of that speaker to pick up that sound. Unfortunately, after the program was over, we found that the recorded sound lost her bass part. It sounded good in the room at the time, but we will have to use headphones next time to isolate the sound being picked up on that microphone, since we don’t have a soundproof recording booth.

Monday I went on a follow up visit to my electrophysiologist down in Sherman, TX. Have you ever got a fist bump from your doctor? I did! I told him that in the month since he raised my prescription of Verapamil, I haven’t had even one instance of heart arrhythmia. He said we need to do an EKG to make sure, and I told him I have several with me. Did he want to see them? He laughed and said, “Sure, show me!” So I dug my iPhone out of my coat pocket and showed him the KardiaMobile chart on Oct. 19, when I had my last Premature Ventricular Contraction, and then about four more since then that were all boring Normal Sinus Rhythm recordings. 

He held up one fist and we did a fist bump. I told him I had never had that sudden an improvement after a change in medication, and it seemed a miracle to me. He got a little more sober and reminded me the my heart had already beat thousands of times already that day, and had done that millions of times since I was born. That was the real miracle of God’s creation, he said. I didn’t argue, and I didn’t ask him which God he was referring to. His name is Mohammed, and with the situation in the Middle East right now, I don’t want to have that discussion today.

Tuesday I went back to the church in Denison to retrieve my coat and keys, which I had forgotten Sunday. Marla had called to tell me they found it when they were locking up. I stayed for the Chair Yoga exercise, which I needed. My shoulders are still sore.

Wednesday I took Darlene down to Carrus Hospital in Sherman for an all night sleep study and titration to look for sleep apnea. It was raining, and there seemed to be a lot of trucks on the highway kicking up spray and reducing visibility to nearly zero. The worst part is they were all taking turns passing each other. If they would just stay in the right lane I could get out in front of them, but no chance of that.

Thursday I went back to Carrus hospital to pick up Darlene after the all night sleep study. We drove back home in Oklahoma 40 miles away, and Darlene made me an omelet for breakfast. Then we had to drive back to Sherman, Tx, for a visit with Darlene’s gastroenterologist. They want to examine her for the neuroendocrine carcinoid tumors they are treating her for at Texoma Medical Center. The chemo treatments have helped her pain considerably.

Today I’m tired and it’s cold outside. Maybe I’ll go bike riding tomorrow.