You say that like complexity is a bad thing.
On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 8:29 PM, Owen Densmore <o...@backspaces.net> wrote: > Just an observation: Things are Getting More Complicated .. when it > comes to computing. > > I have two friends, both quite bright in terms of computing. One a > PC, the other a Mac user. Both have what I call Rotten System Syndrom > (RSS). It is NOT a PC vs Mac issue. Its just that things are getting > way too complex. The cloud, backups, sluggish systems, how to > uninstall apps, knowing what's on the computer, knowing whether or not > there is a problem. It goes on and on. The same for Linux, Mac, > Windows. > > I'd love to say: Oh, just get a Mac. Or Ubuntu. Or Windows 8. > > Nope. It all boils down to systems being so complicated that even > experts have problems. > > My solution has been along the lines I mentioned to Nick earlier: in a > phrase -- System Hygiene. > > So how do you keep your system clean and nice .. and not even need to > do a clean install? > > There are several things that contribute to your system being healthy. > > The most important is: know what is on your system and being able to > remove it when no longer needed. Nick hit one one right away: a > system utility like the Task/System monitor he found. So rather than > being a noob, Nick turned out to hit on the right issue right away. > > On my system, I always have the "Activity Monitor" running, and yes, > as Josh mentioned, run "purge" often. So I can see visually what's up > with the system. All the Big 3 have these, just look for performance > monitor etc and you'll find it. > > Next: after understanding how your system is running, look at your > disk. Again, all the Big 3 have something like Omni Disk Sweeper for > the Mac: a program that lets you see, by size, where everything is on > your disk. I had to scrape my Mini clean recently so that Time > Machine (the incremental backup system) wouldn't fill up immediately. > I found over (blush) 40GB! that I no longer needed! That's a lot of > cruft. And I'm supposed to be hip. But no, cruft happens. > > So after (2 days believe it or not) of figuring out what needed to be > done, I applied yet another tool available on all of the Big 3: an > un-installer programmer. There were several available. I deleted a > large amount of the 40GB blush that way. Amazing just how much TeX > takes up on legacy systems. > > What next? Well, I still had WAY too much on my system to have a sane > backup/TimeMachine strategy. DiskSweeper again. Man did I have a LOT > of stuff I no longer needed. What to do? I chose a mixed strategy: > - All working docs were put in the cloud. How? Dropbox for a lot of > it. Music? Both Google Drive and iTunes Match. Again available for > the B3. Whew, that was a lot. I had over 80GB music, and now it's > all in the cloud, multiply backed up. Next photos. As mentioned > earlier, Arc and Amazon storage helps there. Mail: IMAP/gmail .. > that's solved (and now with 2-factor authentication). Movies? again, > not too difficult. A larger dropbox might help but I decided on > simply finding .torrent files, so that I can get lost movies in a few > hours if needed, the rest on local storage (redundant, via a NAS, but > really not needed) > - Loose a lot of apps I really don't use. AppZapper was seriously > busy for quite a while. And even then, I had to find out how to keep > my /usr/local clean due to the mixed strategies of Linux/Unix systems > for package management. > > So, no Nick, you are not odd having to figure out what to do. And you > hit almost immediately on the important issue: how to monitor your > system. What's running now and what's it doing? Check the net for > what causes these odd daemons/services running. See if you can get by > without that option. Find the cruft. Buy a disk or two for backup > and pushing data not needed 24/7. > > It really is that simple: Things have gotten really complex as my two > friends, Mac & PC know. Decide on a strategy. Don't worry if its the > best. It just has to satisfy your requirements. Follow a plan after > deciding on the strategy. Don't be in a hurry, its not easy nor > obvious. Do NOT think you are odd, noob, ignorant, weird, and so on. > As I say, my two friends are very intelligent yet still struggling > with their two systems. > > My recommendation is to think out a Machine Hygiene strategy first, > then a plan that implements it. You will have to haunt Best Buy for a > couple of disks, and sign up for Dropbox and/or similar systems. > Decide what data is really, really important, likely using a Disk > Sweeper to find out just what you DO have on your system. Then just > devote a taks a day for a couple of weeks and you'll be fat, dumb and > happy! And not dumb at all. > > -- Owen > > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Nicholas Thompson > <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > > Hi, > > > > > > > > My Dell Studio (yeah, yeah, save the Mac cracks) has been cranky of late, > > particularly when streaming stuff, and since I am reluctant to put out a > > couple of hundred dollars to have it “tuned up”, I have been trying to > see > > what I can do on my own. This has led me to the resource monitor, a > truly > > fascinating little gizmo, a couple of levels down in the Task Manager. > > The help files that are attached to it are pretty lean, and I was > wondering > > if someone knew of a “Resource Monitor for Idiots” source. > > > > > > > > One thing that I immediately learned which was STUNNING was that mac > I-tunes > > has a chum that it loads called AppleRemoteDevicesManager.exe which > grabs 25 > > percent of your resources off the top and doesn’t let go unless you > whack it > > over the head with a brick. It’s purpose is to manage your relationship > > with your mobile devices, but relentlessly demands resources even though > you > > don’t have any mobile devices. I think of it as essentially an Apple > > Trojan. (Ok, now, you can make Mac-cracks). > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > > > Nick > > > > > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > > > Clark University > > > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > http://www.cusf.org > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > -- *Doug Roberts d...@parrot-farm.net* *http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins*<http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins> * <http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins> 505-455-7333 - Office 505-672-8213 - Mobile*
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