Dream with Our Eyes Open

Putting Fanfic on the Mini

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 01:55:50 GMT

So I'm loading my iPad Mini with favorite stories. Stories that are on AO3 are easy: I download them as ePub files and then I can open them in iBooks.

Stories that aren't on AO3 were a bit more challenging. But then I discovered Pocket. Pocket captures HTML files and puts them on your mobile device so you can look at them when you have no connectivity. I've downloaded four files, and it seems to work like a champ. One of the great things about it, from my point of view, is that it downloads them as clean HTML with minimal layout, graphics, etc.

One problem is, it uses whatever the HTML page title was. This is not always a good thing: if the LJ or DW entry with your story was titled something generic rather than the actual title of your story, then the Pocket copy will be titled that way too. And there's no way to edit the titles, although that seems to be something that lots of users are requesting, so maybe someday.

Anyway ... this ends my commercial for Pocket. We'll see how it pans out when I put, say, all 27 chapters of "Cupidity" on the Mini.

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The End of the Apple Computer Story (for Now)

Sat, 07 Sep 2013 21:02:40 GMT

Thanks everyone who commented on my post about trying to decide whether I could safely upgrade my 6-year-old iMac.

I proceeded unwisely but in the end, effectively, while comments were still coming in.

( Cut for the rest )

ETA: And I just successfully set up the new printer/scanner that I got for Mothers Day and had been unable to use! Wheee!

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Apple Tech Woez

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 01:21:26 GMT

Part of the reason I am posting this is so that I have all this info in one place.

( Cut for many technical details and whining )

Oy vey iz mir. Dammit.

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Of Course, Life Is Not Perfect

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 01:09:50 GMT

So I mentioned at one point that I had received a shiny new printer for Mother's Day. The box said it was compatible with Mac OSX 10.5, which was good, because I'm at 10.5.8, and I'm not sure I can upgrade any farther. (This is an oldish computer.)

It turns out that the HP installer program for the printer drivers requires ... 10.6.

Oh, Hewlett-Packard, you so crazy!

Anyway, The Young Lady worked over her old printer, which is usually just sitting here collecting dust unless we need to make copies (she has a newer, smaller printer that she took to college), and made it work, and then helped me install the drivers for it on my system. So now I can print and scan using that. (I had been printing with a little Inkjet, but I had no scanner.) So that's what she gave me for Mother's Day.

There remains this lovely new large printer (with scanning and duplex printing). Either the Mr. will take it (in which case maybe we will try to move his current one down here for me - it's newer than the one that the Young Lady just fixed up), or the Young Lady will take it to school with her: she has more room now than she had her freshie year, when we got her the little printer.

I should list my Inkjet on the neighborhood listserv - it still works, and likely someone can use it (maybe for another kid who's off to college in the fall).

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Rogue DNS: You All Know About This, Right?

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 03:52:55 GMT

"The FBI has uncovered a network of rogue DNS servers and has taken steps to disable it. The FBI is also undertaking an effort to identify and notify victims who have been impacted by the DNSChanger malware. One consequence of disabling the rogue DNS network is that victims who rely on the rogue DNS network for DNS service could lose access to DNS services ... ."

Basically, this malware gets into your system's DNS (domain name server) lookup tables and routes all your network access through their server. The idea was (I believe) that they could create a botnet this way. The FBI nabbed them and has kept the server up for a while, but they are taking it down Monday. So if you were hit with this malware, you won't be able to get online after that.

Check out this page on the FBI site for more, including links to pages that will check your system for you and how to check your system yourself, manually. (I did both for the netbook - I still need to do it on this box.)

https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using-rogue-DNS

And if you are really paranoid - not a bad thing in this case - don't use that link but just go to the FBI site directly by entering the URL (which is exactly what you think it is - remember, .gov) and use the news link on the front about this.

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