Even when you give long detailed instructions

And show the results as to WHY, there are always Mansplainers. 

With the upcoming Blue Supermoon Eclipse, I gave detailed instructions on how to use a freeware astronomy program called "Registax".  It didn't take long for the usual Mansplainers to tell me THEIR way was better, or using a single focus image isn't any good, or how I was just wrong, or it was nothing but HDR, yadda yadda yadda. Even when I posted an example.

Every time I patiently explained why, the same mansplainers would com up with a different reason I was wrong.  Then I tried "momsplaining".  Now, I just roll my eyes and ignore them. 

On left is a single focused image of the almost full moon. The one on the right, is 20+ jpgs processed in Registax.

 

One would think that showing this would stop their arguments and derision, but no. Now I just roll my eyes and ignore them.

Up before the dawn again

Sometimes, I just can't get the right leg comfortable enough to sleep well through the night.  Was up at 4:43 am (checked my watch, so know the time is right).  Let Keito and Loki into the back yard to 'dig holes in the sand'.  Checked on Ziggy, as she and Trance had another dust up yesterday.  Once again, Trance was on the losing end of things.  Ziggy is ok, though.

Fed them all around 5:30.  Keito got his insulin on time.  Ziggy, from having to groom self after the fight with Trance, hurked up her food. Of course ON the sofa. (Preen OxyAction to the rescue)  There was a HUGE clump of fur.  After I cleaned it all up, she demanded to be fed again.  Tossed some things into the washer, and they are currently hanging out on the line.

Knee feels a bit thick and stiff this morning, but there was no sciatic pain.. at first.  But when it showed up, it did so with a vengeance. Immediately did the routine Matt gave me. First five.. gritting teeth. Second set, not so bad. By the time I had finished the 3rd set of five, the pain was manageable. Have taken pain meds, and the anti-inflammatory.

One really doesn't appreciate the absence of pain, until it hammering away at you.

Physio Visit

I gave Matt the rundown of what I have been doing to alleviate the pain in my shin/ankle.  Nothing seems to be working. Even starting up the rehab exercises didn't help.

After some questions, then some pushes/pulls/twists/pokes/prods we did find out it's nothing wrong (aka, no damaged bone, or DVT). It's mild compartment syndrome, pinching the sciatic nerve that runs over the outside of the fibula, down over the ankle, to the arch of the foot. I still have some swelling from the knee replacement, nothing like it was before, but still there, and it's causing pressure on that nerve. 

Been told to continue with the pain meds as needed, and to NOT SKIMP or skip. Given some exercises/stretches to reduce the nerve pain.  Go back next week for a follow up.

Voluntarily back to the drawing board

The Tibialis Anterior pain isn't going away.  I have done the stretches and other things Matt The Physio said to do, and it's not changing anything.

After checking my blogs, and comparing when the pain started to when I was give the 'all clear' from having to do the rehab exercises, it seems the shin pain started shortly after.  I have decided to go back to the rehab exercises.  And if I see any improvement, it will just mean I have to take 10 minutes, 3 to 5 times a day, to do them again.

Here's hoping, because if it is compartment syndrome, that could end up requiring more surgery and NO thank you!

When am I ever going to learn

When your browser works, all addons functioning properly... do NOT update the browser if you aren't having any issues.

The "OH NOES! SECURITY PROBLEMS!" Bullshit, that is what some of the security addons are for.  Having the latest version of Firefox disable what it deems is 'not compatible' is bullshit, too, because with the installation of another addon, you can load them up.  Even worse is when the updated addon doesn’t work but the older one does!

Gawd, I am so thankful that I made a full back up of the addons I had, because if I hadn't I wouldn't have been able to reinstall them after rolling back one version.

Adobe Drama Llama

It just keeps going on and on. I got this bull$hit email today.

Hello Sandra,

Thank you for contacting Adobe support.

I am writing in reference to your case regarding your issue with Adobe application. Please accept our sincere apology for all the inconvenience.

We request you to provide your phone number and preferred time to contact you or contact us back on live support so that we can assist you on real time.

Please respond to this mail so that we can assist you further on your issue without any delay.

Thanks and regards, Adobe Support.

 

My reply:

Why bother? I have already sent you one of the invoices I could find (still waiting for reply from three other sellers, who are graciously checking their records to see if they can find the sale tome, but as they are between 5 and 11 years ago it's not looking too good.) and I got bullcrap about how I have to contact Amazon (reseller) and I did. Then I was told to contact the Amazon seller, and I did. THEN the Amazon seller told me that if the installation discs are in working order (they are) to contact Adobe.  And THEN you tell me there is no record of the sale with Adobe. No $hit Sherlock. 

Because I live in Australia (I moved from the U.S.) Adobe was charging double for the products, even when U.S. and AUD were at parity.  I refused to be skinned, so ordered the products from the U.S. and had them shipped TO me.  And the when each and every one arrived, I would install it, activate it, follow the link to the registration page. 

What I find passing strange is that the ONLY things missing from my Adobe account are each and every boxed set I purchased from other than Adobe, when I know I registered PSE 9, PSE10, CS3E CS5E, CS6 Master Collection. I had screen capped the page, but it's gone due to a massive HDD/System crash about 5 years ago, along with digital invoices I had.  But I wasn't worried, because I had all my products listed on my Adobe account..... oh yeah, the same account that had all my Boxed products 'disappeared'.

Not saying I am going to do this, but I know there are ways to hack and crack, but I don't want to, nor should I have to, because I LEGALLY BOUGHT AND REGISTERED MY PRODUCTS! The same products you say are not mine, or are mine but is a student teacher edition (No, I have seen what  Student/Teacher/EDU edition boxes are, and mine aren't.) Mine are full on, genuine one person purchased (me) .  One would think that if I wasn't the person who owned the software, I wouldn't be bothering to rant/rave/vent or even CONTACT you regarding anything about it. But no. To hell with the fact that I bought legit boxed editions from a store, just keep parroting the bull$hit.  Perchance to force me to subscribe? Ain't gonna work. I'll switch to On1PhotoRaw and Affinity, or maybe even Corel, ALSO bought by me, boxed/disc editions.

A VERY Angry Adobe Product buyer and  user.

It does seem to be the week for this sort of thing

I was surfing on a news website, and I noticed the bookmarks on the browser bar disappearing one by one.  What the heck?

Checked my back up browser, and saw the same thing happening there!  Again, what the heck?

It seems that X-Marks had a malfunction. Luckily, I am a BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP sort of person. I disabled it in both browsers, then imported a 2 day old back up of my bookmarks.

Re-enabled X-Marks in one browser and made that one the one that only writes to the server. And in the other browser, made that one that only downloads from the server.

All fixed in under 5 minutes.

Dear Microsoft

You knew your "Meltdown Patch" was buggy, for Windows v7, 8, 10, but you released it. Not only that, you send out NOTHING to tell people to remove this patch!

I used two DVD/Blu-Ray play back programs (there are always discs that won't play in one program, but will in the other) TotalMedia Theater 6, and PowerDVD17. I had a problem with play back being too dark in PowerDVD about 10 days ago. So, I started TMT6... and it wouldn't start. I checked TaskManager, and noticed it started up, but then just stopped/disappeared.

A few minutes of searching on AV/Tech forums I found out that the patch is what caused it.

• Win10 1709 KB 4056892 Build 16299.192
• Win10 1709 for ARM KB 4056892 the mysterious patch listed in the Update Catalog
• Win10 1703 KB 4056891 Build 15063.850
• Win10 1607 and Server 2016 KB 4056890 Build 14393.2007
• Win10 1511 KB 4056888 Build 10586.1356, the patch that’s only available on Enterprise and Education editions
• Win10 1507 LTSC KB 4056893, Build 10240.17738
• Win8.1 and Server 2012 R2 KB 4056895 2018-01 Monthly Rollup
• Win8.1 and Server 2012 R2 KB 4056898 2018-01 security-only patch
• Win7 and Server 2008 R2 KB 4056894 2018-01 Monthly Rollup
• Win7 and Server 2008 R2  KB 4056897 2018-01 security-only patch

So, if you're having an issue with tried and true programs suddenly just not started, check to see if your most recent update is listed here, and remove it.

To sum up the Adobe Dilemma:

Adobe: Contact Amazon

Amazon: Contact Seller

Seller: Contact Adobe.

What this boils down to is if you have purchased your older Adobe product from a reseller, and not as a direct download, your product no longer exists and you screwed if you need help with it.  Even when you have the original invoices from said purchases, Adobe will reply that THEY have no record of your purchase.

Well, no shit Sherlock, because it was a boxed/hardcopy version, not a digital download.

Boxed version of CS3E with CS5E upgrade.

Boxed version of CS6 Master Collection.

Hey Adobe, fukc* you

I found one of my invoices for an Adobe product, and sent it to them, as proof, that "See, yes, I did buy it!" I told them, over and over, that I didn't buy it as a digital download, but as a Boxed Version.

Their response: We have gone through the Email that you sent to us but would like to inform you that kindly contact the Amazon as this order was purchased from Amazon, because in our system there is no any order details found in our system that you are talking about.

I told them I didn't order it from Adobe, I told them I had registered my software when I popped open the box when it arrived. I told them I did same thing with CS6 Master Collection, and CS5E, and CS3E. It's doesn't matter where it was legally purchased from! I think even if I do get a copy of the invoice for CS6 Master Collection, they're going to brush me off with the same excuse. No record of sale with Adobe, so tough shit.

And they wonder why people pirate their software.

 

*spelled that way as to not offend the nannyware of some blogging sites.

I am more than a bit stubborn

I managed to track down the seller I bought Adobe CS6 Master Collection from. I am optimistically (stupidly?) hopeful that his sales records go back that far.

I found the invoice for Photoshop Elements 10 and sent that along.  I will have to go through some laptops and back up drives to find more information.

You would think they would get it, that someone hammering away at them, sending them information piecemeal would be telling them the truth. A pirate/thief would just hack and crack the problems I'm having and be done with it. But no...

Now that I’m not falling asleep at the keyboard

And have had some sleep, I am revisiting my Adobe complaint.

Over the past 10+ years, I have purchased "Boxed" aka store bought versions of Adobe products.  CS3 E, CS5 E, CS6 Master Collection, Photoshop Elements (9, 10, 11).  I dutifully made an Adobe account, registered each and every purchase without fail, or incident. I had taken a screencap of all my products listed. I think that vanished because of a system restore, but I haven't given up looking for it.

The only product I purchased directly from the Adobe site as a download was CS6 E.

When my CS5 after years of no problems threw out the "Trial has expired", I was "whohuhwha?". Thinking it had to do with hardware upgrade (motherboard, HHD etc) I typed in my CS5 serial that was on the box.  Then picked up my 'qualifying product' for the CS5 upgrade, typing in the CS3 E serial, only to get "Invalid Serial Number".  *boggle*

I headed to my Adobe account, login to make sure I had the serial numbers correct, and then only find CS6 E listed.  WTF?  I checked every link, and even started a (useless) chat session.  I ended up getting CS5 E working again without resorting to 'convincing' it to work if you get my drift.

So then, the support chat went to "Where did all my other products go?"  This is where I am calling "Bullshit" on Adobe. Suddenly, after 5, 7 and 11 years, all my non-downloaded software are suddenly not mine, or never purchased, or don't exist.  I gave up on that support session.

Started one with Adobe Customer Care on Twitter.  The story changed. This time, I was told my products were teacher/educational ones. Uhh, no. Packaging of those would clearly have Student/Teacher Labels, and guess what? Mine don't.  I even sent photographic proof of that.  Then the ACC on Twitter said "Send your invoices as proof".  I looked, and looked, and looked. Paypal and online bank records only go back to 2015. That's three years. My purchases were 5, 7, and 11 years ago.

Wing believes, seeing as the problem first started with old CS3, then CS5 and now CS6, that it's Adobe's way of painting people in a corner, forcing them to rent their software, instead of using the old tried and true. And remember, only the store bought hardcopy versions registered with Adobe disappeared from my Adobe account.

Yes, I know there are ways to 'convince' these programs to work, but there should be no need for me to resort to that as I bought and paid for mine.

Finally contacted Adobe

Regarding how CS5 kicked up "Trial has expired" message after 5 years of using it.

This just gets even more bizarre than my CS3 serial suddenly not a valid license number!  It seems all my adobe products that weren't purchased as downloaded programs from the Adobe site have been wiped from my account!

And even better, I have been told that my now missing Adobe products are registered so a different email address?? WTF??!! I have had the same email address for 16 years! I've bought and registered the Adobe products 5, 7 and ll years ago!

Wing of the mind that I am not going to get any real help, because I can't find invoices/receipts for software I bought, 7, 5 and 11 years ago, that I properly registered with Adobe when I got them, as a way to paint me into a corner to rent Adobe products if I have another problem.

Nope, I will 'convince' the software to play nice if I have to, I will NOT rent their products.

Physio visit

Good news, the area of sharp pain on the shin is more diffused, and much less 'jamming ice pick' feeling.  A bit of acupuncture to help it settle a bit more.  I told Matt how it was worse first thing in the morning, but after a few minutes of limping around, if I sit down in a chair for a few minutes, it's all good...  Until..

Until I do a lot of walking, or any upright activity.  Yesterday, while shopping, I went to take a step and my right leg was "Nope.. not moving!" in mid-step. Total muscle fatigues/lock. Hurt like hell over the top of my foot, too.

Matt said it's because I'm doing more, and until I hit 'the wall', I won't know how much is too much. No way to speed up getting the muscles toned and strengthened. *sigh*  

The knee itself is doing fine. To prove it, I put my heels together 'turned out' 90 degrees, and executed a perfect plié.  Matt said I was doing phenomenally well.  Even though I'm frustrated at the seemingly slow recovery, Matt said it's way above average. I see him again in two weeks, or sooner of something comes up.

Go me.

Tweaking and adjustments

Forgot about my Cyberfox custom search engines, and the scrapbooked webpages.  I had to do a bit of searching to find where they were stored so I could import/copy them into FireFox. 

It took longer to type this out, than it did to locate the files/folders and get them copied over. 

Sorry Cyberfox, but until the programmers fix the problems you're having, I'm back to using Firefox.

Juggling browsers again

For the umpteenth time, I am switching browsers again.  I had been using Cyberfox for about 2 years.  I started using it when Firefox started having glitches (it would 'forget' addons, frequent crashes), but lately, it's been slow to load pages. Even if loading it with all addons disabled it was slow to load pages. Also, it's become a bit too aggressive with the Nannyware aspects. 

Good timing that the Firefox issues have been fixed, because back to using it. Yes, I have Chrome installed, but it's just not as good. It's lacking certain things that I'm not going to get into. Let it suffice to say Chrome is ok, but isn't my 'go to' browser.

Nice bonus

All the HDDs formerly known as single unit external HDDs are now in the multi bay enclosure are running much cooler than they did as stand alones. Also, the HDDs in the computer are also running cooler.

Less power draw, maybe?

This is why Tech Support gets such a bad rap

I emailed Corel support for a problem I'm having with WinDVD Pro 12. Here's the correspondence.

My support request. When I try to play any disk folder/DVD folder with WinDVDPro 12, it's choppy and intermittent. I have already checked for updates, have uninstalled and reinstalled. I have moved the disk folder from one HDD to another, and it does no good. My graphics drivers are up to date.

His reply: My name is Abdel and I have been assigned to your case. We really appreciate you bringing your query to our support team, rest assured that we will give you the best support for any concerns. Regarding your concern, I would suggest you uninstall and reinstall the program. Let me know how it works.

My response: As I typed out in my support request, I had already uninstalled and reinstalled the program and it didn't do any good. Did you just read the subject line, and not the body of the message?

I told him I already followed all the online troubleshooting steps, and he gives me a copy/paste from the @#%$&@ FAQ!

This is my little 'setback'

 

The Tibialis Anterior, when in motion, feels as if someone is jabbing an icepick into it. Had some more acupuncture and gentle massage. The physio put black strapping tape on to give the affected area some stability.

I was so thrilled that all I was taking was anti-inflammatories, and was off the pain meds. *sigh Back on them for a while longer, I guess.
#kneereplacement

Dammit

I slept for almost 8 hours. Amazing what the combination of exhaustion and pain meds can do.  I was so happy to have been just taking the non-analgesic anti-inflammatory in the morning, and not taking the pain meds. 

Now, I'm hobbling into the kitchen to take them. 

Have left the Targin alone though. I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms so not really worried about addiction regarding it, but I feel it's a level of pain management I don't need.

It's not the knee, nor is there any breaks/micro fractures in the shin. Interesting test, use of a tuning fork. Bip, place on shin.  If there had been any breaks, it would have been extremely painful. I just felt cold metal of the tuning fork.

Matt checked for heat (sign of inflammation) and for deep vein thrombosis (palping the calf muscle..ouch) but it's none of those. There is a thin muscle between the tibia and fibula, that goes down and across the foot (the tibialis anterior). THAT is what is giving me all this grief.  The knee itself is fine.  

Matt said that as much of a downer this is (I was so happy to be able to DO things, albeit at a slow pace, but still able) it's only a set back, and it will get better.  Depressing, yes, but not untreatable.

Pardon me while I go mope/cry for a bit, ok?

ARRRRGH!

Now, I know this is just another example of "First World Problems", but c'mon! First, the wrong 5 bay drive. Then haphazard instructions. Then finding out that the Western Digital external HDDs had hardwired encryption in the data bridge, now this? 

First back up/format/restore files on HDD #1 went ok. Had a bit of a bobble there, but overall, all ok. Took two days to off load, then reload the data files.

So, this morning I start on drive #2. Hooked it up the same way drive #1 was hooked up, only to see it wasn't showing on Windows Explorer, but was showing up in Device Manager. Checked disk management, and it said the entire drive was unallocated space and it had to be initialized. ARGGGH!  Of course it HAD to be my photography drive that this happened on.

Brief moment of panic.. three deep breaths. Then I remembered I had M3 Raw data recovery. Biting my lip, I fired it up, had it look for partition, and TA DA! there was all the data.  Currently 'recovering' it on another drive.  As it's a recovery/diagnostic tool, it will probably take longer than just copying things over to restore after formatting.

Just for giggles, I did plug in HDD #3, and that one is ok.  I have it safely sequestered to continue the back up/format/restore routine in a few days.

Nope... They don't make it easy

Even though I had formatted the Western Digital MyBook HDD, it still had almost 800gbs of encrypted space on an unreadable partition, compliments of the encrypted data bridge.  Windows native disk management tool couldn't handle the problem, no matter what we tried.

Luckily for me, I had gotten MiniTool Partitioning Wizard a few years ago.

Yay! The MiniTool Partitioning Wizard worked. Was able to remove the partitions from the WD HDD. Because of Western Digital hard-wiring encryption on the data bridge card, I had to convert the drive from MBR to GPT. Drive formatted, Simple volume, letter designation.. check! Now moving the files back to it from the temporary storage.

And the good part is.. I get to do it two more times. :p  First world problems, yes?