Showing posts with label files. Show all posts
Showing posts with label files. Show all posts

Thursday, March 04, 2021

Working with a diva who loves putting files into folders

I work with a colleague whom I have nicknamed Diva over the years. She is one.

It's crazy that she recently celebrated eight years with the company. I trained her.

From the moment she set foot with the company, I noticed her thing for putting files in folders. It is to the point where it's overkill and an obsession.

For over a year, she wanted to put files in a repository into subfolders. She was the only person who complained about the setup. I explained why I put everything in a single folder. I set up all documents. I need to make sure that they are all there in a glance. I also assign document numbers to them. It takes me a week to do all that work for each major software release that we have. It would take more time if I had subfolders to switch between views.

Well, she went ahead and did her folder thing. That's fine if she wants to waste her time and claim that it'll reduce errors made by her. It's more because she has a folder obsession. I'm wondering if it's OCD.

It's not a showstopper to me. She will live with or without putting files in folders and subfolders.

This week, she faced an issue and couldn't solve it herself. She goes with asking people first. I'm the complete opposite. I'll try and troubleshoot it before I poll people. I normally don't poll folks on my team because, often, no one has the experience. There are finally a few people who do. I went ahead and ignored her. She needs to put in some effort, rather than taking a shortcut by simply asking first.

She is a diva. She expects everything to be done for her. Thank goodness she did her folder thing herself. Such a waste of productivity!

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Looking back through external drive files

I have spent a good hour looking at files on an old external hard drive. It's interesting looking back at a snapshot of my life.

I looked at files from 2007. There were photos that I had taken. Music that I was listening to. A resume that was developing. It was cool looking at me back then and how much I have grown since then.

Things seemed so simple then. I wasn't heartbroken. Then again, there was so much drama at work that perhaps things weren't as simple on the surface.

Life is definitely mine to discover. I wouldn't change a thing from my past.

Wednesday, April 01, 2020

Deleting large files is painful on an old Mac mini

I have an old Mac mini. It took nearly a day to move my 2.12 GB photo library to trash. I am now emptying this file from the trash. It is taking a long time. I suspect that it'll take another day.

On a good note, I got rid of roughly 3 GB of old files. I expect my Mac mini's performance to be a bit better.

It's nice that I can find activities to do while I am staying at home. One of these days, I hope to get a new Mac mini, but we'll see if I can make my current one stretch a bit.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Issues with my Mac mini and file backups

I had a bit of a scare with my Mac mini a couple of days ago. It was one reason why I didn't post anything in my blog for a bit. Yesterday, my Mac mini was still out of commission. I used my laptop to make my update.

The last time I used my Mac mini was the night before I went on vacation. When I came back, I uploaded all my photos to my computer and then shut it down.

The next day, my Mac mini would not boot up. You typically get a white progress bar and then your screen to sign in. I ended up with a black screen with four options to restore my computer. It wasn't a good sign.

I rebooted it a few times. I got something different each time, including a circle with a slash across it. My Mac mini was also trying to detect the power button and my wireless mouse, but was unsuccessful.

I decided to unplug my computer's power cable from the wall outlet, wait for roughly five minutes, plug it back in, and start my computer up. Guess what? My computer came back to life. Yay!

I did some research online. This incident happens when an automatic software update starts, but doesn't install completely. It must have happened while I was uploading my photos, but I had no indication that an update had happened. Powering off my computer cleared this installation process up and allowed my computer to boot up properly.

The last time this computer died on me occurred when I was upgrading the operating system. I went to the Genius Bar at my local Apple store. For some reason, genius sounds sarcastic in my head. The solution was to reinstall the operating system, which meant that whatever files weren't backed up would be lost.

I was bright back then to have the majority of my important files, the bulk of which are my photos and music, on my external hard drive. Wiping my entire hard drive was fine. I restored them just fine.

However, after restoring my Mac mini, my music remained on my external hard drive, but my photos had to be on my computer's hard drive to sync properly with my iPhone.

This recent scare made me decide to do the following:

  • Move my Photos library back to my external hard drive. I don't own an iPhone anymore, so I don't have the need to store this library on my hard drive.
  • Back up my Mac mim's hard drive. 
The second point is significant. I don't know why I never got around to backing up my data. The photos that I take on my Google Pixel phone are automatically backed up to Google Photos, so I"m good there. My photos taken with my DSLR camera are not backed up. Should I lose them on my hard drive, I have nothing.

Right now, I am in the process of moving my photos from my hard drive to my external hard drive. I have 170 GB of photos. It will take a while!

I also have Time Machine set up to back up my files at long last. Better late than never, as the saying goes.