What's the latest in people's lives?

[Bryan Moore]

Man, that's gotta be lucrative in NYC. Just the sheer convenience of having someone doing that for me... Hell, even in Connecticut, I'm often tempted to send mine off to someone because of my work schedule rather than sit and do it myself.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Man, that's gotta be lucrative in NYC. Just the sheer convenience of having someone doing that for me... Hell, even in Connecticut, I'm often tempted to send mine off to someone because of my work schedule rather than sit and do it myself.

Actually it's been quiet for the last few years. I can't speak for how it might be in denser parts of the city (Staten Island here is legally part of NYC but not like the rest of it) but it's been a while since the shop was regularly busy. In part we're hurt by the growing availability of super-cheap PCs: even though we can say they're garbage a lot of customers don't care. A lot of people aren't using as many PC (whether Windows or Mac) these days in favor of phones or tablets and while we repair those, many aren't worth repairing. Of course there's some general economic anxiety at play too.

[Bryan Moore]

Man, that's gotta be lucrative in NYC. Just the sheer convenience of having someone doing that for me... Hell, even in Connecticut, I'm often tempted to send mine off to someone because of my work schedule rather than sit and do it myself.

Actually it's been quiet for the last few years. I can't speak for how it might be in denser parts of the city (Staten Island here is legally part of NYC but not like the rest of it) but it's been a while since the shop was regularly busy. In part we're hurt by the growing availability of super-cheap PCs: even though we can say they're garbage a lot of customers don't care. A lot of people aren't using as many PC (whether Windows or Mac) these days in favor of phones or tablets and while we repair those, many aren't worth repairing. Of course there's some general economic anxiety at play too.

Oh man, Staten Island is about as much NYC as New Orleans is NYC lol.

I can imagine how the ultra cheap PC market can make a dent - even if they're garbage, the one I use at home is utter crap because I don't really need anything good these days.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Well the week passed and I wasn't quite literally bored to tears (or death). On the plus side, I'm paid by the hour and these weeks alone are by far my longest.

Now it's been so unnaturally warm this week, I was in a tee shirt at times and just moments ago a thunderstorm started. Tee shirts and lightning in February is definitely not standard fare; as to the latter it seems to be a passing thing this evening after a day which was really beautiful.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

* I've heard of but never seen (to my recollection) thundersnow but even if lightning can happen in cooler than expected conditions, that's not what this is.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

* I've heard of but never seen (to my recollection) thundersnow but even if lightning can happen in cooler than expected conditions, that's not what this is.

Just be careful if it does happen...

You might get a bit excited.

[Graham Kennedy]

There's a man who really enjoys weather!

I gotta admit, I'd prefer the $500 million powerball jackpot, though.

[Mikey]

Jim Cantore, depicted in that vid, is a sort-of celebrity over here. He's a reporter and meteorologist for The Weather Channel which is common on basic cable in the 'States, and has built something of a rep for delivering reports from dangerous weather situations that saner er, less dedicated people would avoid.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

There's a man who really enjoys weather!

I gotta admit, I'd prefer the $500 million powerball jackpot, though.

It's good he enjoys his job so much.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

It's a good thing for his sake Sharknados don't happen in real life.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

It's a good thing for his sake Sharknados don't happen in real life.

Are you kidding me? He'd probably punch those sharks right out of the sky!

[Captain Picard's Hair]

There could be worse problems, CPH. But seriously, hope it goes well for you.

Well, the weather looks more spring-like than February in NY weather. I was out in a tee shirt today. Though it does look quiet to start my work week (not much to start with, pending whatever comes in) I have dealt with this kind of week the last two or three winters.

I'm temporarily locked out of mg Google account, and phone until Google can authenticate me. It's really my fault, and though I'm not a heavy user, it's frustrating as I wait for the email back from Google. This happened because of an Android upgrade, from 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) to 7.0 (Nougat). Being the kind of geek who's curious to try the upgrade, I was looking out for it. On Friday morning it became available for T-Mobile variants of my handset - though I'm on that network my handset is a factory unlocked version and didn't pick up the over-the-air update. I successfully flashed the Android system manually but ran into a roadblock when I had to re-enter my Google account on the phone. Though I know my password, I had set up a second security step dependent on an app from the phone. All would have been alright if I'd had the foresight to disable that feature in my google account ahead of time but I can't log into my account from a different PC or device of any sort without the code generated in the authenticator app. Of course, the point is to lock others out of my account but it locks everybody in the world out when that app can't be accessed. But, Google will probably disable it after verifying my story.

At least I have a backup of the content of the phone I can restore once I get back in, so the apps and content are safe.

I waited the whole week for Google (still waiting, really) but the solution was staring me right in the face the whole time. All I needed to do was temporarily switch the SIM card into my old phone so as to be able to receive an account security code by phone call. Then I could turn off the second layer for now, to log into the phone and now I'm up and running. Google cloud did immediately restore my apps and my data was on the SD card so it was a seamless recovery.

Well, it's a relief to have solved it even if I should have thought of this a week ago.

[IanKennedy]

Nice. If you're stopping at Grand Cayman, you can visit Hell!

We did. I'll post a picture at some point.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Day off. I go outside the clean up dead leaves at the front porch. Wind picks up, and it doesn't even look like I did any work.

[Mikey]

So, first day "live" - that is, working my own real leads, not in a training capacity - at the new job... and I'll know for sure in a week, but I think I landed a client big enough to be based in British Columbia, Canada, but to need collections and credit management from upstate New York to Seoul.