Took me 5 hours to get a new iPhone – and it’s NOT because of any line.

got the iPhone 6s+ with max memory. 2 year upgrade price $640
So…….

I thought I’d leave around noon, get to Stonestown around 12:30, get the phone and be home around 1. WRONG.

I got to Apple store around 12:30, and they gave me a 1:30 appointment to talk to someone. I had lunch, and back at 1:30. 1:45 I’m queued up and talk to the guy about what I want.

He runs it thru, and it doesn’t finish. So, he runs it again, and it doesn’t finish, he calls his boss, they run it thru and it doesn’t finish – by the way, no where in all of this did I yet give them credit card.

They run it thru 4 more times or so, and it never finishes. Apple store tells me to go upstairs to Verizon, and they can’t do anything more for me.

I go up to Verizon, and tell them what happened, and he pulls up my account – it says I HAVE a 6s+ and I’ve used my upgrade eligibility. Verizon guy walks down to Apple store with me, and we get the manager.

About 5 phone calls later, Apple successfully cancels my half – placed order, verizon no longer shows 6s+.

Now my phone quit working. So, I go upstairs to Verizon, they re-enable the upgrade eligibility, reset my old phone so it works, and basically fall all over each other being as nice as they possibly could. They gave me discount on a case, and a loyalty discount.

Next time I will go to Verizon.

So, I left condo at Noon, and got home at 5:30 with the phone. Yep, 5 1/2 hours basically. I’d give the Apple Store an F, and Verizon an A+

(By the way, Verizon did offer $150 for my old phone, which I didn’t take)

Well, to be more specific, Mail.app did. It keeps showing the beachball. I tried a search on the internet, did some things, and finally installed Thunderbird and Firefox.

MUCH happier, I like the calander integration, and installed some firefox plug ins (noscript, stuff like that).

Maybe I’ll go back to Mail.app after next update but at least I can happily work now.

Here’s the “secret” 

jdbc:csv:////data/request_in?_CSV_Header=false;_CSV_Quoter= 

Basically, you need both Header = false and Quoter set to nothing. 

Now, when you have a user like this: 

Robert “Bob”, Smith 

It imports it correctly (because quoter is now set to nothing, and quotation marks are treated like any other character.) 
We had WAY to many problems with nick-names in the first name column… 
However, cos our header row is quoted, you have to set it Header to FALSE. 

Next, you have to change the query so it’s based on column number, like this (I’m not sending the full query, but you’ll get the idea…): 

SELECT 
  column1 AS First_Name,
column2 AS Last_Name
FROM File_name 

This also means that they can’t touch the query that generates the file (ie, re-arrange columns) or things will break. 

I bought a few classes from Udemy (bought one, liked it, bought another etc..)

I like it. The videos were good, on the point, well paced. Thats why I kept going back.

The discount coupons they offer were an additional incentive to come back again and again.

Took
Apple Mac OS X Mavericks – Beyond the Basics (I will be re watching parts of this, especially automater section)
Programming Java for Beginners – The Ultimate Java Tutorial
and a few others, but these 2 were my favorites.

As soon as I find something I need (or they send me another coupon) I will be signing up for more.

The IOS app was also excellent, didn’t have to always open my Macbook just to watch a lesson

I now have a MacBook Air as my main computer.  Anyone considering it, I recommend it.  

It’s rather unlike Linux and Windows in 2 major ways 
Everything just works
The focus is on getting stuff done – not HOW to get it done

I think thats what Microsoft was trying to do with Windows 8 – refocus away from the computer and the desktop to the getting stuff done.

More like ‘World of Crashes’ I haven’t been able to run the app for more than about 30 seconds at a time (I finished the training that way).

Now I can’t actually play, every time I try to go into battle, it crashes.

Bought seat covers for my car from coverking.com.

They were a pain to put on.
They were NOT labelled driver and passenger (even though the instructions say they would be).
The instructions show straps A, B, C, and D – but there were only 3 straps.
So, because of those 2 things, I put them on the wrong side, looked like crap.

They feel scratchy, and they aren’t THAT nice after I swapped them to the correct sides.

Someone sent me this link:

http://www.a-zmusic.net

and I was REALLY impressed with it. Made with Go Daddy’s website builder.

Looks great on my computer AND on my iPhone.

I installed Windows 8 on my laptop ($40) in an effort to stay current. Even if I don’t like the results.
First off, it was an HP and it didn’t go so well, looking at HP’s website, they don’t have drivers. So, doing this wasn’t a great idea.

I didn’t like the user interface at first – and probably would say I still don’t – but I understand it! Its about getting things done, not about the computer. Your mail is right there, your internet is right there, etc. It’s NOT a hobbiest, techno fan operating system – it’s the operating system for your mother who just wants to do things.

We had an iPhone that wouldn’t play thru the built in speakers (the little ones at the bottom). You could send stuff to the headphones (if you plugged in a set), or Apple TV, or thru the Dock – but that is all.

Even when it wasn’t in a dock.

I did some looking around the internet, but didn’t find a solution that worked. So, what I did was to plug it into a dock connector, then apply a little pressure up on the connector while removing it. Repeat, while applying a little pressure down on the connector…  Oh, yea, and use a nicely fitting connector (the one that came with the phone appeared to be a little use after all the wear and tear – so I used a different one)

Repeated 4 times, and then checked. Sound came out the built in speakers.

Other solutions I have seen on internet involved a q-tip and rubbing alcohol, I didn’t have either one handy. So, I agree with the idea that it’s crud on the dock connector – just I basically scrapped it off.