Sidious, Snoke and Salacious B Crumb’s Sarcastic and Sassy Situation Saloon (Fanfic Social Thread)

Oh the irony.

Certain hard drives have to be reformatted for Macs. I have purchased Mac compatible external drives from Amazon. If you need suggestions ask.

Glad you still have your AppleCare. Despite my problems with Apple -especially over the last 3 years- it doesn’t look like I will switch as the Surface Studio 2 sports a CPU with four cores, I need at least six. And with no other machine doing that hinge (Dell is anathema), but that is all I am saying.

So I think I have severe zinc deficiency thanks to my stay in the hospital. My fatalist sister is projecting the worst, while my nutritionist mom said zinc and mom was right. I’ll up my zinc and watch that for a few days and then to play it safe, call my doctor if all these symptoms continue. I am not going on drugs if this is a zinc issue.

And I just researched Oppo Rancsis and have to ditch the snake hissisms in his dialogue. Why can’t he be like that? Dude already looks like an awesome Shaw Brothers martial arts master. I want more schlock. It is what I write.

Hope everyone had a good day and are safe. Sweet dreams or whatever does it for you. Must sleep because work.

 

Let me expand on that a bit (edit: well, more than a bit). Warning: lots of technobabble ahead.

Internal hard drives are sold blank because it is assumed that a person installing a hard drive into a computer knows enough to either format it before use or install an operating system on it (which formats it in the process). However, external hard drives are much more commonly used by the average Joe (or Jane), and so they come preformatted. Formatting a hard drive involves setting up one of many different filesystems on it, and the operating system needs to know how to work with the chosen filesystem.

Unfortunately, no filesystem save one is universally compatible across all operating systems. For that reason, most external hard drives are formatted with an NTFS filesystem, which is the native filesystem for Windows, and is also compatible with Linux (read-only natively and read-write with an extra driver). However, while macOS can read NTFS natively, it cannot write to NTFS without unreliable hacks.

macOS's native filesystem was HFS+ until High Sierra, when Apple replaced it with APFS. Both of those are proprietary to Apple, and Windows can't read or write to them unless you pay for a third-party software solution (I don't see any reliable free options, probably due to the proprietary nature of the filesystems). There are external hard drives made for macOS, which are just the exact same hardware as the Windows hard drive but with HFS+ instead of NTFS.

It's completely possible to buy an external hard drive formatted for one OS and, with a little know-how, reformat it for the other. Despite this, places like Best Buy prey on those who are unaware of that by charging more for the macOS version of the drive than for the Windows version. The right way for a Mac owner is to buy the Windows external hard drive and reformat it (instructions here), thereby saving a bit of money.

The one universally compatible filesystem is FAT32, which has native read-write support on virtually all operating systems. Unfortunately, there are several reasons why it isn't universally used: First, it only supports files up to a maximum of 4 gigabytes (so you can forget about downloading that movie from iTunes onto a FAT32 drive). Second, it has a slightly higher rate of disk errors. Third, it doesn't support permissions at all (so you can't control which users can read or modify the file). Despite this, FAT32 is the preformatted filesystem on many USB flash drives, and is used on SD cards up to 32 gigabytes in capacity.

To combat the file-size limit of FAT32, Microsoft developed exFAT as a replacement, which for the purposes of all of us effectively has no limit on file size. SD cards over 32 gigabytes in capacity use exFAT, as well as some very high-capacity USB flash drives. Unfortunately, exFAT is proprietary and encumbered by several patents, hampering the ability to add support for it to non-Windows operating systems. Apple has purchased a license from Microsoft, so macOS fully supports exFAT, but the patents mean that Linux cannot add native support for it (though third-party packages, possibly violating the patents, are available, and there is some speculation that at least some of the patents might not survive a lawsuit challenging them).

And that is the end of the technobabble. I never intended this to turn into a six-paragraph essay, but there you go. That's probably more than you ever wanted to know about filesystems. I apologize if you have a headache now.

 

Hey, Hey, Hey! They say it's my birthday! Well, my Jedicouncilforums Anniversary, anyway! 13 YEARS! It has been a pleasure. I am thankful for all the friends, fun, and frolicking that I have experienced over the years! Thanks, everyone! Have a great day!

 

Congratulations with your "forumary" @brodiew

For me I'm happy for "The return of the WiFi". The tele-company fixed the issue today. There was some corrosion on a contacor somewhere in the system and that had probably caused the instability and lack of signal in to my apartment. Seems stable enough today and definitely more speed. And this time I actually believe it will last.

Tomorrow I'm off to the mountains. Hiking and lots of (too much actually) good food on Saturday.

 

@jcgoble3 I thought there was a way to format it to work...but I am not very computer literate. That is why I buy things like GeekSquad and ApplePlus protection...so I don't have to know all that technobabble you impressively spouted off. So I rely on the experts and they were stumped as to how to make it work. So, I brought it back and after getting a refund Best Buy gladly sold me an Apple product that does work.

 

Congrats to you aniversary @brodiew

I'm still looking for a new job but sadly so far none of the companies I applied to has responded.
Though also had some good news today as my efforts to save energy begin to pay of as we get a considerable amount of money back.

 

Happy board-iversary, Brodie!

 

Happy Board-iversary @brodiew!

 

Keep trying and applying, something will come. Glad to hear your energy savings are starting to pay off for you.

@brodiew congrulations on 13 cycles. Many more.

@Jedi_Lover glad you got a Mac compatible drive. Enjoy.

Hoping I do not forget the sliced almonds at the grocery store tonight. The layout for this store is largely unfamiliar to me save for two aisles where I buy most of my food.

 

Late, but congrats on your board-versary brodiew

Gah! I've gotten nothing accomplished thus far today. Granted I'm not really on a schedule (I've pretty much just taken the week off) but I was hoping to get up a bit earlier today and clean my place (I've got a busy weekend and I want to try to start seriously working on my dissertation research Monday), but it is now closing in on 2pm and I've got nothing done. I was distracted by a fanfic I stumbled upon last night. It's like brain, why are you like this!?!

However, yesterday evening, I did do something sorta productive, sorta stupid. There's a duffle bag I've wanted for awhile, it's like the perfect carry-on size (I have a huge luggage backpack I use for longer trips, but nothing smaller I can use for shorter, less than a week trips if I don't want to pay to check my luggage on a flight) and it was on sale, so I bought it. I didn't really need it, I could have just used the bright pink Victoria Secret duffle bag my mom got for free, but I wanted it.

 

Thanks @Master_Lok

 

I was there recently. If you can find headhunters or politely ask previous HR if they can help, go for it.

Wish you all the best.

 

It's always a huge struggle for me not to buy luggage. I love luggage for some strange reason.
I'm also always on the look out for something better to take on my disaster team deployments. I used a 75L hiking backpack the last time and it didn't work very well. It's too hard to unpack and pack very quickly. I've been looking at this Ospry bag that is a roller bag, and unzips like one but you can use it as a backpack if you need to (which they always tell us we have to be able to carry it at least a few miles). It's 80L which is big enough, but is sooooo expensive.

 

I'm kinda limited as to what luggage I can use because I find anything with wheels annoying (I can't pull it and the wheels and hard frame just hurt when I try to balance it on my lap). Osprey "luggage" backpacks are amazing and the huge one I mentioned is this Osprey and I love it because, yeah, it unzips like a normal suitcase, but I can strap it onto the back of my wheelchair and easily carry it that way (even if I look like a turtle). And the day-pack that model comes with is quite nice but can zip on or off of the bigger bag. This is actually what both my friend and I used when we traveled to England and there's no way we could have done it with traditional suitcases. But it's a 70L, which is nice for longer trips, but the frame makes it too big for even trying to get away with it being carry-on.

I thought about buying a smaller Osprey bag, and maybe I should have, but then this baby came on sale and I just couldn't help myself (plus I supported Canadian industry). I think I love luggage too. PLUSSS If I ever go on a super long trip, I couldn't hypothetically have my huge Osprey on my back, and this one in my lap.

 

Vale Greg Stafford, one of the founders of Chaosium and creators of the Basic Roleplaying system, have passes away.
1948 - 2018
https://www.chaosium.com/blogvale-greg-stafford-1948-2018/

 

@jcgoble3 - thank you for such a great explanation.

Apart from being aware of NTFS and FAT32, the rest were a revelation.

 

I have to say, as a non-techie person, I found that actually coherent & understood it. You might have a career as a technical writer ahead of you!

As long as the rest of your bills are paid, there's nothing wrong with getting something just because you want it. Hope you love it.

Back from a long road trip; today was supposed to be a do-nothing day but kitties make stinkies when their humans are away... Almost unpacked, so I plan to spend the evening sacked out on the couch, catching up on the new SW Resistance episodes that I missed.

 

All my bills are paid Plus, this month I found myself with some extra cash since I'm no longer helping my sister out with her rent (she's moved in with the new boyfriend). PLUS I realized that I'm going to have an extra $600 around that I had to spend the last few years around this time since I don't have to buy her plane ticket back for Christmas. She's not coming back for Christmas. Stinkyhead is spending Christmas with her boyfriend in Mexico. They still might come up earlier in December but he has a huge SUV so they will just drive.

My family was actually talking about this last week during our oddly small Thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving my mom cooked dinner for 12 people. This year, there were 4 of us, (me, my mom, and my two brothers). And we ordered Italian food We realize Christmas is likely going to be smaller. I'm leaving Christmas night (so I will be around for some of the festivities), our older sister won't be there at all, one of my brothers' girlfriend is back from her 9 month mission trip for a week (so you know where he'll be), which just leaves one lonely brother all alone with our mother. Poor kid. We hope for both their sakes that our mom's new boyfriend won't be out of town with work over the holidays.

But, yeah, I also have 2 less people to buy Christmas gifts for this year, so more money for me!

Welcome back. Yeah I understand that post-trip struggle: all you want to do is be lazy but cats and cleaning get in the way.

 

Deep down I want to buy a Star Wars Character Luggage Bag but part of me is afraid that someone might steal it.

Congratulations to everyone here that is under the British Crown, I am sure everyone is excited for the new Royal Baby. I admit I am feeling slightly nervous because I am due about the same time as far as a name is concerned if we both have a girl but I am fairly certain the girl's name I like, but TE is unsure of, isn't going to be chosen and I would fall out of my chair if they went with the name we have chosen if it[s a boy.

I think I accidentally made my Mom feel bad when I told her that none of the issues with my In-Laws house have been fixed because she had wanted TE and I to stay with his parents when the baby comes so we would have help. The roof is going to get fixed and we're going to get a new heating system and it will be cheaper to replace the broken for ten plus years shower downstairs than redo the plumbing for the one upstairs but that's about it as far as I know.

 

I am taking a break from the boards for a time. Due to serious infection!

 

I hope your husband will do better soon @AzureAngel2.

I had agreat day today, my father visited me and together we finally fixed my bike. I spent much of the afternoon rideding it around town and had a great time.

 

I'm stuck in group project hell at the moment. Two group assignments in two different courses. A group essay for literature class (due this Thursday) and a group demonstration speech for public speaking class (to be given next Thursday, the 25th). Fortunately everything came together on the group essay in the past 24 hours, and I'm at a point where I (as the group coordinator) can turn it in for a reasonable grade even if I get no further interaction. As for the speech, my partner and I haven't definitively settled on a topic yet, though I've proposed an idea (step-by-step guide on how to make smart financial decisions after college, like paying off student loans, buying a house, and beginning a retirement fund).

 

Group projects: why I decided to do my MA online.

Seriously. I am so sorry. That sounds like hell.

I've kinda been a slacker. I should be working on my dissertation proposal this week since I'm in-between modules (semesters basically), but I am trying to get a quilt finished by next Friday as it is for a silent auction fundraiser so I've been working on that, buuuut it should be done by tomorrow depending on how productive I am.

Spoiler: Pics for the curious:

Not my most... intricate work, but I wanted to use mostly scraps and I was on a pretty tight timeframe. But it does look so cool!

 

LOL, as if that would help me. My literature class (the class with the group essay) IS an online class.

All I can do at this point is laugh at my own predicament. It's the only coping mechanism I have left.