Fight the powers that be(an)!

Is this a blog entry by someone with too much time on their hands, whipped into a frenzy by the very caffeine they're concerned with the delivery of?  Am I being naive and for too long beholden to a faceless corporation, as almost everyone I can think of here in coffee mecca Portland will tell me I am?

Yes.  Well, except for the "too much time" thing.  Try being a stay-at-home parent.  It makes one rant like this during naptime about things other than toys, and babies, and doggies.  Indeed, another part of my frenzy is trying to rush this out before the kid wakes up.

So, a certain coffee empire ruled by a two-tailed mermaid is currently offering up a promotion we'll call "The Moon Shot."  Essentially, you make X number of qualifying purchases, and you get Y "shots" to get free merchandise out of them.

I like free stuff.  Who doesn't?

Being a large corporation, it's one of the ways they've kept me loyal, even though there are more coffee shops struggling in our coffee snob town than you can swing a grounds-filled filter holder at.

So I signed up.  Whee!  I'm on the gravy train to spend money on jitter-making gravy to… get more jitter-making gravy for free.  It's how they getcha, and I guess by contrast to drug dealers, subsequent hits are free?

Whatever, lots of coffee shops have loyalty punch cards.  I'm not calling anyone out.

Yet.

So the day after I sign up, my wife gets a similar email inviting her to join "The Moon Shot."  Only, the numbers are a bit different.  If she makes (get this) less than half of X worth of qualifying purchases, she still gets Y "shots."

It should be noted, that my wife doesn't make nearly the purchases I do, at this place.

So I try to sign up for hers.  No dice.  Their website excitedly tells me that I'm (still) signed up for mine.  Whatever.  I'm on the gravy train, why leap off it for the gravy rocket?

And this, also, is how they getcha.  You're getting something of promotional value out of having agreed to their terms and joined their little "Moon Shot."  So shut up and enjoy it.  Yet, why do others get more out of the same agreement?  Indeed, isn't a rocket to the moon more useful than a train?

OK, enough with developing new euphemisms.  I don't want to get into equating gravy with green cheese…

Anyway, so I think on it.  She finally convinces me to contact their customer service to ask them what gives.  Their response?  I heavily paraphrase (and shorten… who knew I could do such a thing?):

"Sorry for any confusion about our Moon Shot promotion.  We offered you your rate of reward, because you come in so often.  We offer faster rewards to the customer we see less often, to interest them in coming in.  Thanks for your interest in our products, and do not hesitate to get in contact with us, if you have any future questions."

Oh, I did have some questions.  I paraphrase (in part) below, this time simply to "protect the innocent."  At least, that's how the saying goes…

I […] believe [your company] has made a strategic mistake, by allowing customers who use their accounts less, to earn more in [Moon Shots] than loyal customers. I understand that you're a business, and you need to get people in the door to make money. I would urge those who make your promotional marketing decisions, not to make your loyal customers work at a promotional disadvantage as compared to those you're trying to woo with said promotions. I need to make more than twice as many qualifying purchases as my wife does, to earn the same promotional reward. I understand that's by design, but it doesn't make it right.

A [Moon Shot] promotion that equitably rewards customers across the board would be far more compelling towards keeping your loyal customers, who are the very foundation of your repeat business and your success over the years. 

As it is, I'll need to reconsider in light of this non-equitable treatment of customers by your [Moon Shot] promotions, exactly how loyal a […] customer I am [of your company]. If I get more out of your promotions if I make fewer qualifying purchases, by golly, maybe I should show up less often to make those purchases. Maybe instead, I should show more loyalty to my local, non-incorporated coffee shops who are struggling to stay in business next to such successful but unfair marketers. 

It seems I have a lot to consider, wouldn't you agree?

I'm not sure how (or whether) they'll respond.  I am after all, the crackpot they caffeinated, who in return is trying to teach their marketing team a few things by email and via their customer service lackey.

That said, I'm impressed that they got back to my original concern in less than a day, and on a weekend, no less.  And I should say, among large corporations, I generally like them pretty well: they treat their workers well (I hear, though not directly from the workers on the premises during work hours) with good benefits packages, and they at least try to promote that they're into fair trade practices with regard to how they get their sweet, sweet nectar/gravy/green cheese itself.  And besides that, I don't just want to be the squeaky wheel; I want their marketing team to seriously reconsider how they run their promotions.  Anything less wouldn't be very equitable of me.

But to so cavalierly be told, "Oh yeah: you pay the bills, so you're not eligible to be sweet-talked (as much) anymore.  We gotta get out there and make some new mon-ay!!!" feels a bit like being told to get back in the kitchen and make them one of their yummy artisanal (and yet always exactly the same) breakfast sandwiches, while they visit the cute new neighbor for some, uh, sugar.

Okay, you may now tell me that I should have been going to local coffee shops all along, and that I, single-handedly, am the reason that local coffee culture is failing. Go!

Local snapshots turned off after update to OS X 10.8.5?

Here's a weird one I haven't seen corroboration of, on any web searches.  Since (not necessarily because of) installing OS X 10.8.5 on my laptop, I have noticed that I don't seem to have any local backups, also called local snapshots, being made on my internal HD.  I went into Terminal and manually entered the "sudo tmutil enablelocal" command to (successfully) turn them back on again.  But, what gives?  Why would they be turned off, when they've historically been on and I definitely have not manually disabled them?

As above, it is again possible that these local snapshots haven't been happening for a while, and I simply hadn't noticed their absence up to now.  I've only noticed them specifically not happening since upgrading to 10.8.5.  Network backups to my Time Machine drive have continued just fine.  Has anyone else experienced the same issue?

As an aside, I also find it odd that within the CLI command "tmutil", there is not a specific verb argument to tell you whether local snapshots are currently enabled or disabled; you can simply enable or disable them without the chance to find out what the previous state was.  I'm not asking Apple to add a big, obvious local snapshot toggle switch to the Time Machine Preference pane GUI or anything.  I'm happy to use Terminal for something that shouldn't be set from (but, I should point out, also shouldn't be broken for exclusive users of) the GUI.

I just wanted to know what my previous local backup state nominally was, before forcing it to… err, "awaken" Schrödinger's cat, I guess, would be the most apt analogy here.

Backups on the go

As you know, I'm a tinkerer.  In fact, I'm working on something right now that may soon see the light of day in some form, to teach those of you interested in having a bit more online security while out and about, one good way to get it.

But that's not what this post is about.  Well, not exactly.  It's about using your mobile devices, and a type of security.  Specifically, your feeling secure that you have a backup of your data.  Sure, many of us do (and all of us should) let our computers do the automatic backups to an external or networked drive on the premises, that many of them (like the Mac, ever since OS X 10.5) offer to do.  But most of us figure one backup is enough.

But what if it's not?  What if something happens not only to your computer, but to the backup hard drive? Fires, floods, neighborhoods in Arkansas filled with oil from an interstate pipeline that it took the national news media a good day to report (see http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/31/us-exxon-pipeline-spill-idUSBRE92U00220130331)… lots of things can happen.  Sure, nobody wants to live in constant fear.  Our culture has been tilting way too far in that direction for a while, anyway.  But the unexpected can happen.

So how can you be prepared for the unexpected loss of your data?  Back it up online.  Or in the au currant parlance, "in the cloud".  There are several companies who offer this service: Mozy, Carbonite, CrashPlan, and to a more limited extent (ie. not even possibly the entire drive of a modern Mac, PC or Linux box… rather they let you pick and choose), Google Drive and Dropbox, to name a few.  I do not offer endorsements for commercial products*, but I can tell you what works for me, and why.

Most of these services have limits to how much data you can store with them, or where that data is on the computer.  Some require software packages, like Java, that you may not want to install on your computer due to security or performance concerns.  The one I went with, Backblaze, does not have those limits, and does not require any software except their client that installs itself in your System Preferences and on your menu bar.  Being a tinkerer, I've checked out how much of my computer's system resources the Backblaze software takes up, and it's generally below 10% of a single processor core's capacity in my dual-core machine, and I've never seen it get above 25%, even when it's working as hard as it can on a task.  Your mileage may vary.

One thing which would be nice (here's where the mobile thing comes in, for those who like to skim ahead) is once that data is backed up, being able to access and/or manage it from anywhere on your mobile device.  Sure, there are some kinds of your data you may already be able to access from your mobile device, even if it's not (or no longer) stored there: Apple's iTunes Match service handles music, their Photo Stream service handles photos, as a few examples.  If you want to go Google or Amazon, they have their services too.  But those individual services each back up just that one kind of data.

So how do you get to all of your personal data from your computer, on a mobile device?  Why, "there's an app for that!", of course!

And that's true for many of the above-mentioned online backup services.  Sadly, thus far, it hasn't been true for Backblaze.  This has been the one drawback of of my otherwise stellar experience with them.

But fear not!  They've had an iOS app in development for a while (see http://blog.backblaze.com/2013/01/30/backblaze-mobile-for-iphone/) that they're putting the finishing touches on an initial release for, I would imagine while waiting through the App Store approval process.  In fact, as someone who has shown interest in its development (the sign up link is somewhere in the text of the page I link to at the top of this paragraph), they've just emailed me an offer to be considered for selection to beta-test the app before its more general release.

Well, I've said I'm a tinkerer.  As you'll see from some of my previous posts -and from my upcoming one(s?) about mobile security and a good way to provide it-, that's a pretty accurate description.  I think I'd be a great beta tester!  If you think so too… well, you can't do anything about the possibility unless you're Backblaze.  But you can cheer me on, and you can also expect information on how, and how well, the final app works once it's out (Not the beta, of course.  I'm sure there are NDAs I'd have to sign)!

So if you like that, great!  If you're Backblaze, #BackblazeMobile !

___
* Until and unless it's my job to do so, and then I would do so in another forum.

I can feel myself slipping (and I like it?)

How do you know that being a stay-at-home parent is starting to make you lose sight of what's "normal" in adult discourse? Some might go traditional with the fact that you have entire one-sided conversations with them because they don't talk yet.

Pish tosh, I say. I was happy when Bluetooth headsets came out, so I wouldn't look quite so crazy walking down the street talking to myself.

No, the new bellwether seems to be whether you have those one-sided conversations to the tune of the Macarena. Extra points if, once the baby goes to sleep, you continue the conversation (to the same tune) with your dog. And even more points if the dog performs tricks on the chorus.

Down-the-grade, Darling, Down-the-grade…

By the way, it has concerned me that at least a couple of threads on discussions.apple.com have said that an iOS downgrade such as I described two blog posts ago is "not possible".  I feel that that's misinformation, and I don't know where it's coming from, but I don't like to end it on that note, simple to understand as it may be.  This is because, while "no" is a simple answer, it's not (always?) the correct answer to this question.  As my previous post states, I was able to downgrade.

You don't have to do anything illegal, or anything which will even void your warranty (because you're putting Apple-approved software on it).  That said, even though I will give you a basic overview of the steps you'd need to take, I will not tell you how to get any of the individual steps done beyond what's simple to jot down here.  Partially that's to avoid taking on your responsibility, partially that's because I don't want to keep writing forever.  If you don't know how to do get a step I describe done, the responsibility to find out how falls on you, to research it.  Search engines are your friend.

What you need:
I will say that you need to put some forethought into it.  Specifically, you need to have kept a backup of your iOS 5.1.1 install file.  It will be named something like "[model of your iOS device]_5.1.1_9B208_Restore.ipsw", and while 5.1.1 was the latest iOS you've used your computer to install, it will have been kept inside your "~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates" folder.  That's where it is on a Mac, I don't know where it is on a PC.

If you didn't already make a backup of this file before you upgraded to iOS 6, Apple told the computer to automatically delete it and replace it with the one for iOS 6.  I can't tell you where to find a replacement, sorry.

Also, be aware that anywhere inside ~/Library is not somewhere Apple wants you tinkering around in. That's why as of OS X 10.7 and later, they don't make it directly accessible.  Anything that goes on in there is really designed to be done by the OS and by the programs you run, not directly by you.  Changing things in there willy-nilly can make all kinds of things not work right.  You have been warned.

That said, backing up a file you're legally entitled to (by the fact that you own an iOS device that will run it) is fully within your rights, and copying it (as opposed to changing it in any way) shouldn't present any functionality problems.  So to get to the correct folder, just go to the "Go" menu in the Finder, select "Go to Folder," and type in the correct path to that folder.  As long as you typed it in correctly, a Finder window for that folder should open.  Again, I heartily recommend against deleting, moving, or changing any files in there.  Just copy what you need.

As above, if the computer has already replaced and deleted this file, then you've missed your chance.  There may be other ways out there to find one, but it's not one you're legally entitled to (you're legally entitled to your copy).  Maybe you can see if it's available via your Time Machine backup.  Beyond that, I can't help you.  Sorry.

Moving on, if you want your iOS device to look and work how it did before you ever upgraded to iOS 6 (with your sounds, wallpapers, apps, music and photos, etc. in the same places), then you will also need a backup of your own data on the phone, done as close as possible to just before you upgraded to iOS 6.  If you generally back up to the computer, you would have just hit the "Sync" button in the iTunes window.  If you generally back up to the iCloud, I still recommend before any major iOS device upgrade, to back up to your computer by option-clicking the iOS device's icon in the left column of iTunes' window, and selecting "Back Up" from the contextual menu that pops up.  This is because if you rely on Apple's iCloud backup of your iOS device alone, it will have changed things when you upgraded to iOS 6, and Apple hasn't set iCloud up to allow easy downgrades, because they want to keep the ball rolling forward.

If in doubt at all, back it up yourself.  And also realize that any content you've put on the iOS device or changed since upgrading to iOS 6 (particularly irreplaceable, personally-made things like videos you've shot) won't be in that most recent iOS 5.1.1 backup of your data (because you shot it after you upgraded to iOS 6).  So back such things up some other way (say, to iPhoto), before downgrading back to iOS 5.1.1.

What you do:
If you did happen to make a backup of your iOS 5.1.1 install file, then you can put your iOS device into DFU mode (if you don't know how, you can search for how to do it) and then restore the 5.1.1 install file onto the device.  The way to select the 5.1.1 install file as opposed to the 6.0 install file is to hold down the "Option" key as you press the "Restore" button in iTunes.  This will allow you to navigate to the 5.1.1 install file, wherever you've put it, and select that (as opposed to the most recent one in the folder discussed above, that Apple uses by default) as the source from which to restore.

Once this iOS 5.1.1 software is restored to your device, you're half done.  Then, you'll want to use the most recent backup of your data from before you upgraded (discussed above), to put back onto your iOS device.  Once that data is put back on, it should then be back to how it was before you upgraded to iOS 6.  Be aware, how long it will take is related directly to how much data you had on your iOS device: the more data, the longer.  Once that's done, you can then make your own decisions about what and how to put back content you added/changed under iOS 6.

Finally, one more point to be aware of: if iOS 6 upgraded the firmware on your device in some way that iOS 6 needed to work, but which iOS 5.1.1 is not compatible with and it can't be overwritten by the iOS 5.1.1 install file, then downgrading won't work.  I don't know which devices, and in fact whether any of them, this will happen to.  It didn't to mine: my downgrade just worked, and it put all of the versions of firmware that are available to view under in the Settings app under General>About back to what they had been before under iOS 5.1.1.

As far as I know if the firmware is changed by iOS 6 in a way that is not downgrade-able, then iTunes should just not allow you to perform the downgrade, and return your phone to working (such as it does) with iOS 6.  Keep in mind that I am not in any way affiliated with Apple, ie. not an Apple software engineer, so I don't know that for sure.  Your mileage may vary, and the fact that it worked on my iOS device doesn't mean it will work on yours.  You're responsible for your own decisions and actions.

So I've said my piece.  I don't think it should necessarily be simply and flatly said that "you can't" downgrade from iOS 6.0 to iOS 5.1.1.  Maybe you can't on some devices, in some configurations.  But I did, and I did so completely legally, without invalidating any of the services Apple provides through iOS 5.1.1, and without any highly technical or questionable shenanigans.  I just know how to do some things, and researched how to do the parts I didn't.  And I was open to trying it.  There may be iOS devices and situations for which the method I used won't work, and I can't help you with those.  But the Internet may be of help to you.

Good luck!

On the other hand…

This and other pages like it make me consider going back and essentially being a beta-tester for Apple (well, that's what it would be…) in my own town.  I wouldn't do it in a town I didn't already know pretty well, or where I wasn't pretty sure I could find an alternate method of figuring out where the heck I was or where the heck I was going.

This is the most comprehensive page on it I've found, but as I mention, there are other pages out there.  Another consideration is that there are other apps out there (Why, oh why, Apple, would you break out a perfectly good unified solution into the need to go and find others?) to fulfill the features that Apple has taken out of iOS 6 Maps (and even one they never put in, but should have).  A list of a couple I'll likely use with iOS 6 is below, but look at what's on the App Store, cuz you may find one that's better for you.

For public transit, Transit ~ Directions with Public Transportation. Note that this requires iOS 6, won't run on any previous version.  You may also want to investigate if there's an app that works better for you, in your particular town.

For bicycling routes (which even the iOS 5 version of the Maps app doesn't have, but Google's provided over the web for years), CycleMap.

For Google Street View, StreetViewerLite.  Note that at least on iOS 5.1.1, it seems to be slower than the Maps app at this feature, but at least it has this feature.

So I'm considering going back up to iOS 6 at some point soon, due to its features and security over iOS 5.1.1.  Haven't yet, but wish me luck!  And of course, as always, realize that your mileage may vary.

"We have to go back, Kate. We have to go back!!!"

After more than 24 hours of checking the final version of iOS 6.0 out, I was so frustrated with their implementation of Maps that I downgraded back to 5.1.1. Do Not Disturb was neat, alternate options to either refusing or picking up a phone call you're really not ready for were neat. And the overall interface polish was evolutionary, but neat. That said, I find it unlikely that I'll upgrade back up to 6.x.x until Apple (or TomTom, or whoever has to) does some serious work on making Maps usable, intuitive, accurate & inclusive of all the methods of transport it used to be, at least (and while we're at it, why not add in bicycles, with the obligatory stern warning & legal rejection of responsibility about people being idiots while staring at their phones while on them?).

Alas, not yet. The iOS 6.0 iteration of Maps was as if Apple had burned their bridges with Google & marooned themselves on an uncharted island.