There is nothing quite as annoying as having tech not work as expected. We depend so much on our computers and smartphones now days that when something fails it makes us completely reorganize our lives… which has happened to me more times than I’d like this month. It started on April 1st when my mom called from Arizona when her computer failed… the next week was spent setting up a new one via remote access for her. It is absolutely amazing how far things have come since I first used a computer in 1983. The fact that current technology allows me to set up a computer that is 2500 miles away is mind boggling when you really think about it. All my mom had to do was insert cds and occassionally turn it on…

Last week it was my iPhone… for some reason both my iPod and iPhone started having random sync errors following update Tuesday’s slew of updates… This was quite annoying as it threw my morning routine of syncing the BBC World Update Morning Commute to my iPhone to listen to some actual news (it is pathetic what seems to pass as ‘news’ in America) on the trip to/from my son’s school completely off… I know minor thing not having the morning news especially when compared to us losing power for a week last August when Irene came through but it was still annoying. Not the missing the news as much as the fact my iPhone, which has been one of the least frustrating tech devices I’ve ever used, wasn’t playing right…

The random errors included:
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Each year I do up the logo for our local auction to support the Dolphin Scholarship. This years’ auction committee decided on a luau theme. So I did a quick pencil sketch of an idea, scanned it in and then worked on it in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool to create each item and then duplicating layers that needed weighted strokes (dolphins, submarine, flower) so I could cut the paths making more definition/detail on the items.

The pencil sketch:

Illustration version…

You can see larger versions by clicking on them…

I had been noticing that the “Other” section of my iPod Touch’s capacity kept expanding in what seemed to be an almost exponential fashion. Looking around the web, I read several times that the “Other” included system files, thumbnails, various cache files etc and that the only way to reign it back into control was to ‘Restore’ the iPod or iPhone.. considering I have all but 5GB of my 64GB touch filled, restore is a long and tedious process which I didn’t particularly want to undertake even though my ‘Other’ had swelled to well over 2GB.

Thinking some more on it last night I though there had to be an easy way for the system to clear these caches. There is a clear internet cache under Settings>Safari but that doesn’t clear everything. Then I figured I’d try shutting it down (Hold down the top button until you see slide to power off) and seeing if a restart would clear things. Sure enough, after the restart I went from 3.6GB free to 5.3GB free. The only change being in the ‘Other’ section. So to bring the ‘Other’ section of your iPod/iPhone capacity down just restart!

Toggle EXIF Data

• model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• copyright: Connie Jean Burianek
• exposureTime: 0.017 s (1/60) (1/60)
• fnumber: f/8.0
• isoEquiv: 400
• DateTime: 2011:01:12 08:18:08
• meteringMode: matrix
• flashUsed: No
• focalLength: 24.00 (24/1)
• exposureMode: Auto Exposure

There was about 10″ this morning at 8 and another 2 fell before it tapered off…

We had fun clearing this as it is almost to the top of the snow thrower. Had to go really slow through it and it really didn’t want to go up the driveway. By the time we finally made it up the driveway, the belt on the blower slipped… and then I turned it off so we could check it… not a good idea apparently. The load going up the driveway had drained the battery and it wouldn’t start. So we had to turn it manually and then I ‘sled’ it down the hill back to the garage…

Mike dropped the blower mechanism and re-ran the belt while I put a battery charger on the battery and then started shoveling off the steps.

Once the tractor was back in commission, things went a bit smoother as I could drive up the driveway in the cleared path and then blow a strip of snow on the way back down. It did a nice job of it!

Once we were done, a plow hired by the neighbors below us came down the driveway quite quickly… they stopped and started trying to plow the neighbors section. Stopped and backed up… tried again… finally Mike went over and talked to the guy. He wanted to know who had cleared our driveway and Mike told him we did with the tractor. He gave it another try with the snow plow. Then he backed up in our driveway and left… leaving a 5-6 foot wall of snow in the neighbors drive…

So that has been the fun of the day. Will have to go out again and clean up the top of the hill once the town gets done clearing the road and blocking us in…