Update: Problem Resolved

Last week I wrote about a computer issue between my Apple desktop PC and an external CD/DVD drive (also an Apple product). I appreciated blogger feedback that a possible solution would be found after Apple reviewed files uploaded for analysis.

The very good news is that this week, there has been a determination of what caused the problem —The PC would go into restart mode when a certain CD was inserted into the drive, but not when the CD/DVD unit was connected without a disk.

A callback from Apple support this week determined that the issue was caused by a Universal Disk Format (UDF). Rather than try and explain it, there's info here. Thankfully, the external drive and the PC are both OK. This was verified when a music CD was inserted and the tracks were recognized and read. (So all is good with both devices.)

As it was explained to me, the computer was trying to access information on the inserted disk, then came to a bad area and went into shutdown mode. The term used referred to a "panic kernel." (Yes, it does sound ominous.) As alarming as the term sounds, Apple support explained that it's a self-protection mode for the computer. 

Images on the CD had been backed up on a Windows desktop PC and that was presented as a "possible" reason for the conflict. Thankfully, the bulk of the CDs in this project have already been transferred onto several external hard drives.

Ironically, the same CD could be read on other Apple computers in our household: Grenville's desktop and a notebook PC. That being the case, I was advised to use an alternate computer to read the "problem" CD. Hopefully, this will work; however, if the CD (or others) don't read on another computer, the (unwelcome) advice was to discard it. Disappointing to learn as there's more CDs to go through to complete this project.  

The good news is that copying CD images onto external hard drives is much "safer" in terms of failures, corruption and long-term storage. That said, I'm working on this project the next month or so until completion, then CDs are destroyed and trashed.

There's much speculation on how long CDs/DVDs "last." Several years ago, National Public Radio (NPR) aired this program on All Things Considered. It was interesting to read that there's "no average life span...as there's no average CD."

How do you store digital images — computer, CD/DVD media, external hard drive(s)?

It Could Happen to Anyone

UPDATE: Since this post was composed, Diane has posted a comment below that her original blog at lavenderdreamstoo.blogspot.com has been restored without any explanation. However, the story of what happened is still relevant and might provide useful information to fellow bloggers.

Over the weekend, a fellow blogger (Diane) sent an email and a link to her new blog lavenderdreamsnew.blogspot.com to alert fellow bloggers that her former blog was suddenly and unexplainably terminated.

In her first post titled "The Behemoth squashes the little Lavender Dreamer" on her new blog, Diane writes: "Why and how was it done? It wasn't someone reporting us. It was Google's automated piece of software (a bot) that roams the blogger world looking for pre-programmed words of woe. Once it detects something it kills the whole blog without warning. Without any notification about these supposed offending words. Without an opportunity to fix anything. Just ZAP and your digital life is deleted. Everything is gone! Ten years of blogging, thousands of posts, many thousands of photos, over 10,000 comments and a hundred thousand heart-felt words all gone in an instant. Devastating! Be warned all you innocents in blogland."

Diane states that this had happened twice earlier and the aftermath. She also describes what she's been trying to do since this latest removal and adds this request: "Please let people know where I am and what has happened to me. I will post updates on the process at our new blog."

What happened to Diane is not an isolated incident in the blog world and isn't just confined to folks using Blogger. There's been many similar cases where a blog has been removed without notice.

In one case, a blogger on another blog platform had an account focused on art, photography and fashion removed. The blogger learned that the blog platform had received complaints about misuse of copyrighted material under terms of the 1988 U.S. copyright law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which you can read a summary of about here and in its entirety here.

Another example was a 10-year+ blog that included posts about art, fiction and often sensitive topics. Goggle deleted the blog without notice and it's no longer accessible to its author. The blog writer had posted about male escorts but wasn't sure if this triggered a Google censor; the site included a warning on its adult content. The author didn't believe the blog violated Blogger policies which prohibit ads for or links to pornographic sites. Since then, the blogger has taken legal measures to try and retrieve the blog contents.

Last week after clicking on a bookmarked link to Diane's former blog this notice from Blogger showed that the blog had been removed. This wasn't the first time I had seen this same notice. In a few cases, I had read elsewhere (on another blog) that the blogger had passed away. In other cases, I "assumed" that the blog author had stopped blogging, but now know that may not have been true for everyone. 

There are many reasons why Blogger can shut down/delete a blog. Some of those listed  on a Blogger Support site are easily understood; others were less known to myself. Here's  a few red flags that could led to a blog shutdown:

Content Scraping refers to copying content from other blogs to your own blog to make it look like your post is unique, when it is not.

Sharing Illegal Content refers to info that cannot be publicly shared such as tips on hacking, cracking software codes, and spam. Google has deleted blogs that it "sees" as Spamming. (It's why I have become more diligent on deleting spam comments from our blog, but it does require daily checking as low-life spammers are very persistent.)

Copyright infringement means exactly what it says. If the blog platform receives complaint(s) that your blog contains copyrighted material, your blog account can be shut down, erasing all the posts, photos. In complying with the DMCA and other applicable copyright laws, Blogger will remove content considered copyright infringement and, in some cases, Blogger accounts have been terminated. 

Promotion of regulated goods and services refers to the fact that Blogger prohibits the promotion or sale of regulated goods and services: alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals and unapproved supplements, tobacco, fireworks, weapons, or health/medical devices.

Frequent Publishing sounds unusual, but If you publish too often on a daily basis, Google might not think you're a bot vs.human and will delete blogs it considers as bot-controlled. 

Hate speech while Blogger doesn’t remove blogs that post insults or negative commentary, even if some think it should, it will remove those promoting or condoning violence against or have a primary focus of inciting hatred against an individual or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender/gender identity, or any characteristic associated with discrimination.

Harassment or bullying are prohibited and (quite definitely) causes for removal.

Child safety refers to when a blog has content exploiting children, and Blogger will delete it and report it the blog to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Nudity, or adult content has two sides. Blogger prohibits posting adult material used for commercial gain or containing ads and links to commercial porn websites, illegal sexual content, including image, video or textual content that depicts or encourages rape, incest, bestiality, or necrophilia. Other adult content is allowed, however, anyone can flag content he/she finds offensive and Blogger may display a warning before anyone can view flagged material.

In any of the above instances, Blogger can do the following:

• Remove the content.
• Place a warning page before the content in question.
• Notify authors and administrators by email/message on their Blogger dashboard.
• Post a message that the content has been removed.
• Provide a link to a copy of the removal notice.

When reading about Google/Blogger's reasons for removal, the ones that struck me as crucial were the copyright infringement and sharing illegal content reasons. I plan to be extra careful in future blog posting.

It's been argued that bloggers don’t have sufficient rights. There's no clearly defined recourse for those who believe their blog has been unfairly removed. In most cases, a blogging platform doesn't tell how to protest a blog removal. Hopefully, Diane will be able to get her information recovered.

That's WHY it's a good very important practice to backup your blog weekly or monthly — whatever works for you. It's like insurance which you hope never to use. I did a backup after reading Diane's story. Depending on your blog platform, online websites can provide step-by-step instructions on how to do a backup. (You can also refer to instructions provided in the comments below by fellow blogger, AC of The AC is On. Thanks, John)

How Sweet These Treats

Do you have a favorite sweet treat? 

Maybe that long-time favorite is now a vintage candy. Recently, I came across a store display with boxes of some of these treats. A lot were popular in my "younger" days and apparently many are still being marketed. The display made me curious to learn more about the history of some of these candies.

See how many of these you can remember having enjoyed over the years.

Black Crows (now called Crows) are licorice gum drops dating to the late 1890s. These popular, anise-flavored black gumdrops still enjoy a strong following. In the 1950s, they were known as Mason Black Crows and were invented in the 1890s by confectioners Henrique Cataldi and Joseph Maison. The Black Crows trademark was registered in 1911. There's an urban legend that Crows were to be called "Black Rose," but that the printer misheard the name as "Black Crows" and printed wrappers incorrectly. Later research, including the fact that the name was copyrighted before the candies ever came with wrappers, has shown this story isn't true. In 1972, Tootsie Roll Industries acquired the Crows brand by purchasing the Mason Division of the Candy Corporation of America. The same company also made Mason Dots which today are also made by Tootsie Roll Industries.

DOTS are a brand of gum drops marketed by Tootsie Roll Industries and are also called Mason Dots (trademarked DOTS). For more than 50 years, Black Crows were produced as a standard gumdrop flavor until these fruit-flavored siblings were introduced after World War II. DOTS candy was introduced and trademarked in 1945 and is now marketed as America's #1 selling gumdrop brand. Here's a couple of interesting "facts" — DOTS are considered a vegan candy and are also labeled as kosher. Maybe those facts have contributed to estimates that over four billion DOTS candies are produced from the Tootsie Roll Industries Chicago, IL plant annually.  Tootsie Roll Industries acquired the DOTS brand after buying the Mason Division of Candy Corporation of America in 1972. Before then, they were manufactured by Mason, AU and Magenheimer Confectionery Manufacturing Co. of Brooklyn and later Minneola, NY. The candy is still packaged in familiar, yellow cardboard boxes. 

"Original" DOTS flavors include cherry (red), lemon (yellow), lime (green), orange (orange), and strawberry (pink). Sour DOTS have five flavors and are created with a sour sugar. There's also Tropical and Yogurt DOTS and a holiday line for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and Halloween.

Charleston Chew is a candy bar made of flavored nougat covered in chocolate flavor coating. It was created in 1925 by the Fox-Cross Candy Company, founded by stage actor Donley Cross and Charlie Fox. The  candy's name comes from the Charleston, a popular dance of that time.

The company was purchased in 1957 by Nathan Sloane and sold to Nabisco in 1980. Sloane changed the candy's original blueprint of chocolate-covered vanilla taffy. In the 1970s, he introduced new flavors of chocolate and strawberry. Warner-Lambert purchased Charleston Chew from RJR Nabisco in 1988. In 1993, Tootsie Roll Industries purchased the brand from Warner-Lambert.

Sugar Babies were named after a song titled Let Me Be Your Sugar Baby. These bite-sized, chewy milk caramel sweets are an American confection originally developed in 1935 by the James O. Welch Co. in Cambridge, MA. Welch produced them with the rest of the "Sugar Family" which included Sugar Daddy and Sugar Mama. The candy patriarch, Sugar Daddy, is a hard caramel candy on a stick invented in 1925 by chocolate salesman Robert Welch, brother of James. It was originally called the Papa Sucker before it was renamed in 1932.  A chocolate-covered version, the Sugar Mama, was produced from 1965 to the 1980s. The company was purchased by the National Biscuit Company in 1963. 

Junior Mints were introduced in 1949 by the same James O. Welch Co. that introduced Sugar Babies, Welch's Fudge, and Pom Poms to sweet tooths everywhere.

The product name is thought to be a pun on Junior Miss, a collection of stories by Sally Benson that were in the The New Yorker magazine. The stories were adapted into a successful Moss Hart play which ran on Broadway from 1941 to 1943. According to company history, when Welch developed and launched the candy, he named it after his favorite show. However, the candy debuted six years after the Broadway play had closed. 

Welch, who was born in Hertford, NC, founded his Cambridge candy company in 1927. His partner and brother, Robert Welch, retired from the confectionery business in 1956 and two years later founded the John Birch Society.

Mike and Ike are oblong chewy candies that were originally all fruit-flavored, but now come in different varieties introduced over the years. The candy was first introduced in 1940 by the company best known for Peeps candies, Just Born, Inc. located in Bethlehem, PA. The origin of the candy's name remains unknown, but there's several theories on how it was named.

One is that it was named after a comic strip, Mike and Ike (They Look Alike) which ended in the 1940s. Another is that it was named for the Matina Brothers, circus midgets who were nicknamed "Mike" & "Ike" and had a role in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939) as munchkins. Other possibilities include a company-wide contest, a vaudeville song titled “Mike and Ike,, and the the Eisenhower era which was nicknamed ("IKE"). Despite these speculations, the origin of the candy's name remains unknown. 

M&M's are colorful button-shaped chocolates. Each candy piece has the  letter "m" printed in lower case on one side surrounding a filling. The candies are the flagship product of the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars, Inc. and originated in the U.S. in 1941. More than 400 million individual M&M's are produced daily in the U.S. in different colors, some of which have changed over the years. Since 2003, they've been sold in over 100 countries.

Forrest Mars, Sr., son of Mars Company founder, Frank C. Mars, copied the idea for the candy in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War after seeing soldiers eating British-made Smarties, chocolate pellets with a colored shell of what confectioners call hard-panning (essentially hardened sugar syrup) surrounding the outside that prevented the candies from melting in warm temps. Mars received a patent for his own process in March 1941 and production began in a factory in Newark, NJ. When the company was founded it was M&M Limited. The two "Ms" represented Forrest E. Mars Sr. and Bruce Murrie, son of Hershey Chocolate's president William Murrie, who had a 20 percent share in the product. This arrangement allowed candies to be made with Hershey chocolate as Hershey had control of rationed chocolate at the time.

The company's first big customer was the U.S. army, which saw the invention as a way to let soldiers carry chocolate in warmer climates without melting. During WW II, the candies were sold exclusively to the military. Demand for the candies caused an increase in production and the company moved its factory to Newark, NJ, where it remained until 1958 until relocating to a bigger facility in Hackettstown, NJ. In 1949, the tagline Melts in your mouth, not in your hand was added. In 1950, a black "M" was imprinted on the candies giving them a unique trademark. It was changed to white in 1954.

The original candy had a milk chocolate filling, now branded as the "plain" variety. "Peanut" M&M's which feature a peanut coated in milk chocolate, and a candy shell were the first variation and remain popular. Numerous variations have been introduced, such as peanut butter, almond, pretzel, crispy, dark chocolate, and caramel. Some other varieties are limited in duration or geographic availability.

If you're curious about my favorite candy from this post? 
Hands down it's M&Ms, especially dark chocolate and peanut butter varieties. I've never been a fan of "chewy" type candies and am very mindful of how they can destroy dental fillings.

Do you have a favorite candy treat?

Enjoy a sweet weekend, Everyone

Who Ya Gonna Call?

For me this week, it wasn't the scientist trio in the popular hit film, Ghostbusters, from which this post title was taken borrowed. Instead it was Apple support and speaking with several support reps is how my day was spent.

Grenville and myself are unabashed Apple users and we each have our own devices as we don't share well. Our 2-person household contains: two desktop PCs, notebooks, iPhones and tablets. At the very least, we're “standardized" in our product line. We even invested in the company's stock (on a very, very limited basis).

Whenever either of us have bought a new and/or refurbished Apple product, we've always added AppleCare Protection which extends the standard 1-year product warranty to 3 years with 24/7 priority access to Apple experts by chat or phone. Of course, it's more costly  to do so, but it's proven useful for us. It covers hardware issues with unlimited phone-in support for software issues/questions, which have been the focus of most calls. 

For myself, the expense has been worth it. This week, I experienced an issue when a 2-year old iMac desktop PC (with AppleCare) and an external Apple DVD drive no longer "played together." Short story is that the DVD caused the PC to "crash" when a CD was inserted. This DVD drive was working when used about 2 weeks ago and to verify that it was still working, we tested it on Grenville's PC and a notebook PC, where it worked as expected. 

Over 6 hours, I spoke with support reps in NC, TX and FL on this issue. The reason for so many calls was there were procedures the PC needed time to complete and Apple support sets a callback time — and always called back. AppleCare support centers are nationwide in the U.S. and the case number and detailed information was available to each rep. Unfortunately, the issue is unresolved and on the last call was escalated to a senior support analyst who guided me through running PC diagnostics and uploading files for analysis by Apple. After it's reviewed, the analyst will call back (no doubts about this). 

I'm hopeful optimistic this issue will be resolved to allow completion of my VERY large project of transferring images from (too many) CDs to several portable hard drives. It's a tedious and time-consuming project. I've mentally set a  mid-2019 completion timeframe.

As for buying extended warranties for major appliances, we're now apartment dwellers so if something breaks down, we notify the management office for a repair. As former homeowners, we never bought extended warranties and never had an issue even during what would have been the "lifetime" of an extended warranty. However, with delicate electronics that can be costly to repair, we get extra coverage to ensure that nothing "bad" happens, sort of like buying auto and house insurance — you dislike the expense and pray you don't have to use the coverage

No, I'm wondering curious about your views on extended protection coverages.
Have you ever purchased a support plan for a product — electronics or not?
If so, did you ever use it and was your issue(s) revolved?

Friday Funnies

Here's something to perhaps make wonder WHY, as we did, when we saw this unusual signage in Salt Lake City, UT, on our cross-country road trip last year.

This very large display was in front of the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center, commonly called the Salt Palace. (Rampton was the state's 11th governor).

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day, which we refer to as Hearts Day. Not that we follow "traditions" of buying candy hearts, stuffed toys or going out to dinner.  

Our "celebration" consisted (as usual) of card exchanges throughout the day as "Card Fairies" left them throughout the apt with specific opening instructions: open in a.m. in bed with coffee, or open at dinnertime and open before bedtime. (There's usually an open anytime somewhere in the mix.) Yes, we have fun and our celebrations last longer than a single day — why not?

Weather in Nashua, NH, is a snow-free weekend after a 5-inch snowfall earlier this week.

Enjoy Your weekend, Everyone

More How I Spent My Bday

An earlier post described how I spent my actual birthday and mentioned that we would be going on a weekend trip. We did so this past weekend and visited family in the  New England states of CT and RI. The CT family visit was also to drop-off our our no-longer-needed 26-inch TV to Grenville's aunt and uncle. 

After our CT visit on Saturday, we traveled to RI to spend time with the grandchildren and their mom. We met up at the Biomes Marine Biology Center in RI.

This was a first-time visit for us and we learned that this facility is New England's only private marine education facility and the most hands-on aquarium in the region. Since 1989, it's focused on teaching children and adults about the marine life of Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. 

Biomes features over 120 species of animals on display and is said to house the largest collection of local marine life in the world. It provides unique marine exhibits and hands-on interactions and is a popular family destination. (A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment in which they exist.)

The facility features lots of touch tanks and hands-on exhibits. Families can freely explore the exhibits which feature printed information on the marine life. Biomes boasts the original shark-petting tank in New England. Grandson was apprehensive about the touch tanks, but soon became "friends" with a sand shark that he named "Buddy."

Biomes is a private, locally-owned education center and as such it's not funded by grants, donations or corporate sponsorships. The facility is self-sustaining and is funded solely by admissions and program fees. All marine animals on display have been collected in Narragansett Bay by staff and volunteers; no animals have been purchased or imported.

Biomes founder, Mark Hall, is a 1986 graduate of the University of New Hampshire. As a teenager, he began a wholesale collecting business to supply marine specimens to high school science classrooms across the country. After college, Hall traveled to schools throughout southern New England to demonstrate his collection of living ocean life. In 1995, he opened a small educational facility in North Kingstown, RI to house the marine life used in the traveling shows and to provide a venue for class field trips. The present facility we visited was opened at the end of 2013. 

Both grandchildren and their mom had a great afternoon at this facility. Grenville was a very happy parent and grandparent. (Does it show much?)

We grandparents had a fun afternoon too. This was a wonderful "birthday" getaway weekend. We're planning to give the grands a membership as part of their holiday gifts this year. Their mom introduced us to gifting "experiences" instead of gifts which re often soon forgotten. It was a wonderful idea as last Christmas we gifted several experiences: ice skating, roller blading and an Audubon membership.

Friday Funnies

Look who was hoppin' down the bunny trail in a local store this week. It seems to me that holidays are coming faster and faster this year. 

An earlier post noted that just days after Christmas 2018, holiday goods were discounted on store shelves alongside Valentine treats as Feb 14 was just 6 weeks away then.
Now, Valentine treats are being upstaged. This week, I spotted lots of color choices available for marshmallow "Peeps" — now there's chocolate "Peeps" too. (Remember when choices were yellow marshmallow chicks and chocolate marshmallow eggs? 

After all, Easter is only 11 weeks away (April 21), so it's not too early to start filling those baskets according to retailers. St. Patrick's Day didn't merit similar shelf space, except in our local dollar store, which had lots of plastic trinkets.

Are the holidays coming way too fast for you as well this year?

Enjoy Your weekend, Everyone.

Stay clear of any bunnies or chicks. 

How I Spent My Bday

First, a BIG thank you to fellow bloggers who posted birthday comments on my recent post. My birthday weekend was spent helping out at a CERT training session where I received many birthday wishes and this surprise too. (Readers may or may not know that "Beatrice" is an alias used on the blog. Dorothy is my actual name.)

CERT stands for Community Action Response Team and this program educates volunteers about disaster preparedness for natural disasters and/or hazards that may impact their community. In a 20-hour training program, participants are taught disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. CERT programs are available in all 50 states. More information is available on this website.

My husband "Grenville" (real name Patrick) is a retired firefighter who provides some of the course instruction. He's very involved in the program where his speciality is fire safety and preparedness. My contribution is helping out with various administrative functions.

There wasn't any birthday party afterwards as later that evening, there was a certain major football competition which Grenville enjoyed on the new TV. It was the TV he said was "for my birthday" that was shown in the previous post. 

My real "present" is yet to come as we're going on a weekend getaway as time spent together is the best gift. However, I did buy myself the gift of a new notebook PC to replace a nearly 8-year old model as "it was time."

It's That Time Again

Today is my birthday today. I'm 36, 815,040 minutes young. My birth date was on a Thursday and that was 25,566 days ago. 

I’ve been alive for 613,584 hours and have slept for 8,522 days (23 years).

It's amazing the things one can learn about a birthday just through some quick Internet searches. For example, I'm sharing the day with some well-known folks and some rather infamous ones as well

• Pretty Boy Floyd (Charles Arthur Floyd) a bank robber and alleged killer who was killed in a police shoot-out in 1934. 
• Amal Clooney – lawyer, activist and wife of actor George Clooney.
• Blythe Danner, actress and widow of the late actor Bruce Dern.
• Norman Rockwell, American painter and illustrator (think Post magazine covers).
• Gertrude Stein, American novelist
• John Meehan of “Dirty John” fame, a conman killed by his stepdaughter
• James Michener, American writer
• Nathan Lane, American actor, singer and writer
• Horace Greeley, American journalist, publisher, editor
• Henning Mankel, Swedish crime writer, playwrite, screenwriter
• Shelley Berman, American actor, screenwriter, writer, television actor
• Melanie, American singer

Here's a few more things I learned about my birth date, most of which I obviously don't remember:

• The US president was Democrat Harry S. Truman. 
• I Shot Jesse James, directed by Samuel Fuller, was one of the most viewed movies released in 1949.
• Casper was a popular TV show. 
• The #1 song, A Little Bird Told Me by Evelyn Knight and The Stardusters, was the top song for seven weeks and stayed on the charts for five months.

Sadly, it was also the date that claimed the lives of several Rock 'n' Roll legends. On Feb. 3, 1959, singers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) and their pilot died in a plane crash when their chartered plane crashed in Clear Lake, Iowa, in wintry weather conditions. 

And, speaking about weather, I was able to find out the weather on the day I was born.

There's no birthday celebration in the works today. I'm thankful for the cards that friends and family sent and these are on display and shown here.

A major football competition — SuperBowl with the New England Patriots/LA Rams — is also happening on MY special day. We've postponed dinner out together until next week. As for birthday gifts, dining out is a gift with no dinner prep or clean-up.

Grenville is happily anticipating this evening's football event. Last week, he bought a gift which he said was for "just for me." Hmmm, I have my doubts about that claim.

The gift is this 50-inch TV is the first new one we've bought in well over 15 years, so it was probably "about time." As you can see, it fills up the space on our entertainment cabinet so there was no "going bigger." The 37-1/2 inch TV inherited from my late mother's estate was formerly in this space and it's now in our bedroom. So, I have an alternate to watching football on my birthday. A movie sounds like a great idea because, after all, it is MY day.

Frozen Friday

There was definitely nothing funny this Friday about the view outside our living room window early today. Many states are under a deep freeze including parts of New England. The overnight temperature dipped to 0 here in Nashua, NH, icing over the Nashua River in many spots. Daytime highs are expected to be in the teens.

It's not frozen solid and a warming trend is expected next week. By comparison, this was how the river looked a few days earlier this week from our window view.

Enjoy your weekend and stay warm, Everyone.