PG apologizes for his failure to post yesterday without advance warning.
As he has mentioned, the PG’s are in the process of downsizing in preparation for a move to more cozy surroundings in less than a month. (Downsizing = They are currently filling dumpster #4.)
Yesterday PG was engaged in the not-inconsiderable task of dismantling his usual computer setup. It’s amazing how many little items have been hiding in dusty places PG didn’t realize existed behind various and sundry pieces of hardware. The mother of all computers has been broken down into its constituent parts, ready to be boxed.
PG is now working from a laptop. He’s also dealing with the lack of lots of little apps, scripts and programs he has used since time immemorial that were on his desktop setup and aren’t available on the baby computer.
Despite the fact that he moved the keyboard and mouse from his usual setup, PG feels like he’s blogging in rubber waders half-filled with swamp water.
The biggest change is the lack of three good-sized monitors that allow him to drop things from the middle monitor to one on one side or the other and bring them back later without conscious thought.
PG understands these are first-world problems and he is entitled to no sympathy from anyone, so commiserations are not necessary in the comments (but he won’t mind if they show up).
As a fellow First Worlder, I both sympathize and empathize with your travails, PG.
(I also envy your normally having the desk real estate to accommodate three monitors.)
ALL my sympathy. I’ve been trying to move as much as possible to the brand new Mac Air since last October – and am still suspended in mid-air.
I have to keep the old computer – which was overheating – working, for the old software I depend on which won’t work on a 64-bit machine.
My tech guru Caltech CS grad eldest is a bit too far away to come help – so I do it in bits and pieces, and reserve her for the emergencies. All the while getting older. And without a reliable brain.
Kudos for doing it at all, and may you be back up to three seamless monitors as soon as possible.
If I may: it’s actually a fairly common problem. On macintosh it’s non-trivial but it seems Parallels can be used to create a virtual machine running a copy of your old machine. It took seven years to figure out:
https://forum.parallels.com/threads/create-virtual-mac-os-from-existing-computer.282980/#:~:text=Create%20Virtual%20Mac%20OS%20from%20existing%20computer%201,Eject%20the%20old%20Mac%20and%20shut%20it%20down.
“I’ve done it in Parallels 15 – here’s how:
1. Create a new MacOS VM the standard way, verify it works, install Parallels tools. Shut down.
2. Configure a new HDD the size of the actual machine you want to clone.
3. Boot and install Carbon Copy Cloner. You can use the trial license.
4. Use CCC to make the new HDD a bootable clone. Shut down when done.
5. Change boot order to use the new HDD with the CCC clone on it.
6. Boot and install Parallels Tools. Reboot using cloned disk and you’re done!
FYI I also used an existing VM to set up an external boot device and set the boot order to boot from that, just to try it.”
You might want to fly this by your tech guru. They might be able to guide you long distance.
I don’t think that works unless one does the setup using a one-button mouse and wearing a black turtleneck. And it’s too hot right now for that.
Alright, you had me rolling on the floor and laughing out loud, I admit it…:)
Thanks, Felix. I appreciate both your advice, and you kind belief that I can follow ANY of it.
I might have been able to learn this when I was in my salad days, and before ME/CFS took my brain and poked Swiss-cheese holes in it, plus made it impossible to depend on it two days in a row. Heck, I used to do plasma physics research on the CRAYs at Livermore from my office at PPPL in NJ.
I write fiction now. I can make it do what I want, but extremely slowly – and I like the results. But the computing side is gone, even if they ever find a cure. HOWEVER, I’m proud that I can keep the two-computer system going, RUN the old software I need on the Pro, and write on the Air – as a user.
Except today my monitor died. Husband has ordered me a new, even-bigger one – and it will be here in a week…
Now I know how my poor mother felt when she visited us from Mexico while I was still working, and managed to type her whole new Mexican cookbook into my Mac+ – while I held her hand, from work, and formatted it for her on weekends. Lost, but game. I couldn’t do it all for her – work was busy – but we made it happen before she went back. I’m glad I was able to help her and she was happy it was editable.
Had much the same with my mother.
IMPORTANT question – is that cookbook published?
Inquiring minds.
We are STILL working on emptying out some storage units from the move from SC to OH.
My husband was stressed, and found it difficult to weed out stuff; his solution was to box up pretty much everything, and store it.
Not a great solution, but it took the pressure off him. Now, having moved, he is going out and downsizing/clearing out the junk, donating it, throwing some away, and bring in what remains.
Still too much stuff, but a more manageable task.
Good for him, still.
I’ve told the wife that I am not moving from this place until I move to a Miracle Whip jar on someone’s shelf (barring picking up a multi-million lottery ticket on the street). But after the massive project of clearing my mother’s house and three storage locations, I am working at reducing the “stuff” that my children will have to deal with. The only bottleneck is funds to replace dead trees with electrons, but I should have enough years left for that, at least.
We moved storage around the country with us, too.
I may have to die here. My storage contains the contents of a house perhaps 20 times larger than my current 1812 cabin, plus later accretions, including 2000 book boxes and 100 library metal bookcases. We’re on a trajectory to run out of time & energy before I gird up my loins for a cleanout.
I was hoping for one last domicile move (as a spur) but that’s looking iffy. Oh, well…