Not coming on with power up is fairly critical with computers and so as soon as I got it to work I backed up all of the data files successfully to an external hard drive.  OK with that type of backup I am actually in a pretty good position in case the hard drive did in fact fail.  If you have a hard drive failure and you have no backups the chances of losing your data can be very high.  Sometimes the data can be recovered by copying files to another computer, or external hard drive or network server, sometime when a hard drive fails the only way to recover data is send the drive to a recovery facility.

Always at least in my experience a hard drive failure means attempting to recover the data and storing the data someplace else.  Then one has to get a new hard drive, install the operating system, get all the drivers to make things work again and then reload all of the programs and finally put the backup data on.  This process takes days and normally while you do get the computer to work again things up getting lost or not working.   Things like browser bookmarks, emails, settings and a lot more end up taking a lot of time to fix.

I know there are ways to take an image of a hard drive and copy that image to a new drive however in my experience this very often does not work.  It the computer will boot at all after attempting to use a cloned image normally thing just do not work or things are missing and you still end up reinstalling programs or fixing the settings.

I did a lot of research and was seeing some good reviews on several new backup programs.  Finally decided to give Acronis True Image Home 2012 a try.  The computer once booted was staying on and working all day.  I had what I knew to be two good data backups so the old way of reinstalling the operating system and then all of the drivers and programs and data was possible.

Went up to Cincinnati to get a new hard drive to replace the one that was failing last evening.  This morning I pulled the failing hard drive and installed the new one.  Inserted the Acronis boot CD that I had made yesterday – connected the failing hard drive to my cables and power supply that allow a hard drive to run outside of a computer and connect via a USB port and turned on the computer.

Something to note – my computer at this point had a blank hard drive – a different brand and size than the original and I did nothing more than install the HD in the rack, connect the cables and connect the original failing hard drive to the computer via a USB port and force the computer to boot from a rescue CD done in the Acronis software menu the day before.

Even through I did have a full backup I decided to try the Acronis Cloning procedure.   Cloning means everything from one hard drive is placed on a new hard drive.  I have tried this sort of thing in the past and it has never worked for me before.  After the computer ran for a couple of hours the Cloning software said it was finished – remove the boot CD and remove the source HD and reboot.

The amazingly good news is the computer did in fact boot, it had a couple of minor errors which were easy to fix and I rebooted it again.  This time it came up fine.  The really good news is the Clone worked,  all of my programs are working, my email is all there, it knows how to connect to the network, run the printers, go to the internet, and it even has all of my browser bookmarks.  In other words my computer with a brand new hard drive looks and works exactly like it did with the failing hard drive.  I ended up being back up and everything working before lunch.

The old hard drive certainly did not have much time left before it failed.  It was so hot after the clone to the new drive that one could barely touch it plus right at the last of the clone you could hear “that terrible sound” which means a hard drive is going to fail permanently.

All I can say is Acronis True Image Home 2012 did exactly what the manufacturer and the reviews said it would.  I was able to back up a failing hard drive and verify the backup.  More importantly this morning I was able to clone the failing HD to a new drive and everything not is working, everything is there.  I have tried to do this a number of times in the past and never had any luck at all before.

I then of course did a full backup using Acronis on the newly installed HD so now I have two back ups – the one done before replacing the failing hard drive and the one on the newly installed and cloned hard drive.  This was just a near hard drive failure with a new replacement hard drive installed.  All of the “hardware”  was the same.  The only thing that was changed was the hard drive.

Acronis has an add on option that can take an image from a failed computer and put that image onto a different computer and make everything work (of course with different hardware one would need to either get or have the drivers) – the main point here is the operating system in this case Microsoft XP Professional actually booted and worked with cloning.

Had I had say a motherboard failure or something that would require using a different computer with the add-on option I would have been able to have everything from the failed computer up and running on a totally different computer.  Acronis also works with laptops.  Have a totally full laptop hard drive – this program can migrate everything to a new larger laptop drive.  What a totally huge time saver.

So for years and several moves the Mah Jongg set went with me – I had seen this played in the orient a number of years ago and had even play a “street version” {sort of like Poker} sometimes.  So far as going to the Mah Jongg halls I never had the opportunity.  Anyway a couple of months back I saw a post on Facebook by a person I know and who is local so I actually see them in person quite often that they had just had some people over to learn and to play Mah Jongg.  I asked if I could get invited the next time.  Last Saturday night I got a long-standing wish granted.  I went to their house – there were several other people there.  The experienced players went over how thing work in a practice session and then there were enough people to have two Mah Jongg sets with 4 people per set.

While I am still a very long ways from learning how to play this very old game I was able to begin to understand some of the basics.  I am hoping to be able to continue to learn and hopefully be able to get invited to where others are playing.  I was able to learn some things that I will share.

Mah Jongg is played normally with four players, the game is played with 136 tiles, there are a number of ways or styles that this game is played, even the number of tiles has variances.   I had thought this to be something that was played only in the orient at least that was the only part of the world I had ever seen Mah Jongg halls (sort of like coffee houses – in way except there are a number of tables each with four people and a Mahjong set)  – the Mahjong halls or houses in the orient are closed in so far as they do not allow people to come in just to watch.  I had seen people playing Mahjong in a few big city coffee shops here in the USA – the type where people are playing Chess, and Go and other “intellectual” type of games but Mah Jongg is not very common at least in my experience.  Also sort of like the Chess players the Mahjong players were there to play and really did have an interest in teaching people how this game is played.

First of all the computer games of solitaire Mahjong have almost nothing to do with the four player game that uses real tiles.  In the computer solitaire version all one does is match pairs and they are removed from the “pile”.  The only similarity is the Mahjong tiles used in the computer game are marked the same as the ones in the “real” game.

The most interesting thing is that Mah Jongg (BTW either spelling is correct) has been played in the United States since the 1920s.  There is a really interesting article here on Wikipedia – There are several different ways to play and it appears to be regional – here in the United States there are actually two organizations  Mah Jongg – Worldwide Site and The National Mah Jongg League  -  As i write this the National Mah Jongg site is not working.

The people I met and got to learn some of the basics from are connected to the National Mah Jongg League – this organization has been around here in the USA since the 1920.  The people who play the League’s way each have cards which has a number of way to win or complete a “hand” of Mahjong.  The cards are the same and each player studies their cards attempting to find a “hand” from the list that they might be able to attempt to play out.  Part of this game is skill for certain and part is the luck of the draw.  The League produces a new game card every year and each year the ways to win are changed.  The cards cost $7.00 and buying a card gives one a years membership to the league.

The League’s site has a number of things for sales – the playing card or guide for the year, Mah Jongg sets, and a lot more.  There is also a software simulation ($40) that can be purchased and downloaded – while I have not had the time to really get into the software game play – there are 4 players, 3 are computer generated and yourself.  This seems to be a really good way to learn and practice how to play.

The game on the League’s site is sort of outdated so far as computer games go, however they are working on an updated version.  You cannot play this game on you computer  by itself – you must be online and connected to their site to play.  Getting it downloaded and working is not necessarily easy – it took me several tries to finally get it working and while I am not a computer “gamer” I am very familiar with online software and computer software.

For now I will attempt to learn from the league’s online game.  Mostly because at least with the group that I met up with they use the Leagues rules and standards as well as their annual “game cards” – the online version on the leagues site uses these same “standards”.

The main thing I have learned is attempting to learn Mahjong from a book and having 4 totally inexperienced people attempting to follow the book is not the way to go.  I had tried this approach several years ago with my set.  The way to learn is to find people who are playing and join them live.  The real plus is if one or two of the group take the time to teach new players.  This is a complicated game, and being able to watch people play plus being able to work with people willing to teach how to play is a huge plus.

It looks like once one has learned the basics then working with the online simulation appears to be a good way to continue to learn.  I have looked and am not finding any sort of directory or listing of people or places where one can go to learn or play Mah Jongg – it seems to be just word of mouth.  There are no links that I can find anywhere that lead to instructors, groups, players, places to learn or places to play.

The thing to know is that there are different ways to play and differences in the various Mahjong organizations.  Learning the play here in the US the Leagues way may not be helpful if you happen to end up in the orient at a Mah Jongg hall or house.

In my case I am just grateful to have had the opportunity to finally see how this is played and to have been invited to sit in on a beginners session.  Finally after years of owning a Mah Jongg set I have begun to start to understand how this very old game is played.

This morning my second main computer would not boot up, I finally got it going and found my internet security software was failing and not allowing Window to boot.  After doing the normal security system “fixes” none worked.  So now I am in the process of removing the security system totally and re installing it.   That is not a big deal – what takes time is re downloading all of the updates and then running a full system scan.

Pretty interesting day when both of my main computers decide to give me difficulties with the same 24 hour period.

My DSL internet connection has been going through periods of the DSL internet dropping out several times an hour and sometimes several times a minute.  The DSL light would begin to flash and then the internet light on my DSL modem would go Red which means that the internet is not available.  Phone calls to AT&T mean getting through their voice mail system and then waiting to talk with a technician.  I have had the phone line people come out 3 times so far this month and the DSL technicians also have been out 3 times this month.

DSL only travels a certain distance from where ever the exchange is.  DSL 6M has the shortest travel distance around 1 1/2 miles from the exchange – 3M DSL travels farther and 1.5M DSL the furthest.  I do not know the distances but what I have been able to learn is that I am about as far from the exchange as is possible to receive a stable 6M DSL signal.

In the process of my phone line going totally dead and my DSL on that phone line being totally unstable I have learned about something new – at least new to me.  The major cellular companies offer something called MIFI or Mobile Hotspot or it also can be called Mobile Broadband.  Here is what I have learned – AT&T offers this service – you have to sign a two-year contract for $50 a month for 5G of data.  I already knew I had a very good AT&T 3G connection at my house so I first went to AT&T.   They are easy enough to deal with they just add a $50 a month data plan to your AT&T mobile account and you get 5G of data – if you go over 5G in a month they charge $10 for each additional 1G.  They charge around $120 for the device which you pay upfront.  There is a $50 mail in rebate and they said I could return it within 30 days but there would be a restocking fee.  I was fairly desperate – I really needed to get online work done and orders on line processed so I added the $50 a month to my data plan, signed a two-year contract and paid for the device.

I brought the package home.  Enclosed is a very small electronic box which is about the same size as a smart phone.  Turned it on (it runs on an internal rechargeable battery) and within minutes my MAC Pro and one laptop was connected to the internet.  These devices put out a WiFi signal which any laptop with WiFi and deal with-just go to your WiFi panel find the device and enter a security code.  I caught up with some much-needed on-line work (I am an online marketer that had been without a working phone line or DSL for 3 days)  The MIFI box can connect up to five computers or devices at the same time.  If  your computer or device has WiFi you can make this work.   With the AT&T box if you are using a desktop that does not have WiFi you can plug the device to your computer with the USB cable that is included.  In this configuration the AT&T device will only run the computer it is directly connected to so when directly connected you can run only the computer you are connected to.

I was able to run several speed tests – the AT&T devices was getting 1.7M to 2.1M on AT&T 3G.  This is somewhat faster than I get with my iPhone from the same location.  The box will run AT&T 4G LTE but I was not able to test this – 4G LTE is not available at all anywhere near where I live.  AT&T is saying “LTE will be available any day now”.

Does this thing work?  Yes it actually does, I had a total of four computers connected to it and the speed was certainly usable.

How much is 5G of data?  That is really a very key question, for every 1G you go over 5G in a month there is an additional $10 charge.  I had one computer playing an hour-long video webinar, another one streaming an internet radio audio channel, and was using the other two for “normal for me” online work, this includes web surfing, uploading images, website development, invoicing, printing shipping labels and so on.)  The AT&T device has a meter that show how much of the 5G is available.  During the 24 hours of having the AT&T device and using it fairly heavily for 12 f those hours the meter was showing 4.5G remaining.  So I used 0.50 G.  So in a fairly normal 6 day work week I would be using somewhere around 3G or somewhere around 14G in a month which means I would have to pay an additional $90 a month were I using this full-time in my normal work environment.

I got to thinking about the coverage I get with my iPhone and took the device and a laptop to an area where AT&T 3G is not available – that is pretty easy to do – all I have to do is go down the hill to where my driveway connects with the road.   Edge is 0.4M to 0.6M which is totally unacceptable, this is just a little bit faster than dial-up.  I then was reminded that a number of places where I go to several times a year my iPhone either will find no service or I get only Edge or I am roaming and have phone but no data service at all.

OK the AT&T box works, it got me out of jam, AT&T 3G is giving me somewhat less than 2G speed – it will in fact run at least 4 computers at the same time fairly well.  I decided to run back into town and talk with Verizon – knowing that Verizon has better coverage in the areas I have to travel to several times a year.  Verizon has MIFI the deal is about the same as AT&T – $100 for the box – $50 a month for 5G of data- $50 rebate  – Verizon does have a 10G plan for $80 a month plus they have some no contract option – you pay around $300 for the box and $30 for 300M  – that might work for a home user that is not doing much with their computer it certainly would not work for me.

The thing to know with these boxes is you must know if they will work where you are going to be using your computer and the only real way to know that is to get the device and take it to where you will be using it and give it try.   So I signed up for a Verizon MIFI box and took it home.  While the plans are similar Verizon has a huge plus – they let you try it for 14 days, if you do not like it or it does work for you you can bring it back and there is no restocking fee.

I had no idea if the Verizon box would work at my house or not.  Turned it on and it connected to Verizon 3G – here is something to know Verizon 3G is sort of like AT&T Edge – I was getting 0.4M  to 0.5M – Verizon 3Gs numbers were very close to AT&T Edge, not much better than dial-up.  I did find that by changing where the Verizon box was located I was able to get Verizon 4G LTE and was  getting 4-6M in both download AND UPLOAD – Verizon 4G LTE is nearly twice as fast as AT&T 3G.  I took my laptop closer to town and began seeing 8-10M speeds on 4G LTE.  Now that is really fast – cable internet runs at speeds like that.

Two downsides with the Verizon MIFI box, first it does not have a usage meter – the only way you can tell how much data you have used is to go online to the Verizon Website in into you account.  Verizon emails you when you usage is at one half  (2.5G) and again when at 3/4 used.  The other down side is the Verizon box will not connect to your computer when using the enclosed USB cable – all that cable does is recharge the device  from a USB port and allows access to the settings inside the box.  To connect to the Verizon box you computer must have WiFi.  Verizon does have a tiny device for around $20 that goes into a USB port and gives a desktop WiFi – both boxes run N wireless and so does the little USB wireless device that Verizon has.  So yon can connect a desktop to the Verizon box.  Like the AT&T box the Verizon box will run five computers.

Verizon has a lot more places available for their 4GLTE than AT&T does and cover a lot more of the country.  I took the AT&T box back – less than 30 hours after I got it, they did cancel my contract and they did charge me a $36 restocking fee and are funding the rest.

Something to know is if you are considering an iPad the data charge is $25 or $30 for 2G of data and iPads that are come with the cellular radio cost a lot more than iPads that just have WiFi.  With one of the MIFI boxes you can use your iPad and get 5G of data for $50 a month or you can travel with both you laptop and you iPad and use the MIFI boxes to run them both.

The really important thing to know is these things work.  If you live in an area where DSL is not available   (of course those of us in the country will probably never get cable TV so the cable option is simply not available) you might want to try out MIFI.  I do suggest you try Verizon first – they have a better return policy than AT&T and they have a lot more 4G LTE coverage than AT&T has.  If it works where you live this little device could give people high-speed internet service where it has not been available before.   I did not try Sprint – I am certain they too have a MIFI option.  I know that where I live Sprint phones show that they are on digital roam which I would guess they are roaming on Verizon.

This is an interesting option and it will depend on if you have cellular service or not and what level of data service you have.  I have used “Air Cards” in the past with laptops, the price is about the same as MIFI but they only will run the computer that they are connected to and by what I was seeing the MIFI cards work better than Air Cards.  I always had some major speed problems with Air Cards if I was any distance at all from the cell tower, often they would not work inside the house – just outside.

So for those of you still on dial-up in rural areas the MIFI box is certainly something to try.  Also if you happen to have to stay in hotels that charge $12 to $15 for 24 hours of high-speed internet service the MIFI could be a very interesting option.  Something to note is that is you do travel and you use WiFi on public WiFi spots – you know, the airport, the coffee shops, the bookstores, hotels and motels with these MIFI cards you are on your own secure cellular connection – you do not have to worry about the near by hacker getting into your laptop or mobile device.  Public WiFi is often the only solution for a lot of people.  These devices offer another option which is more secure and probably faster.

A few day ago I called Central Payment to inform them that I was closing my store and no longer needed the Merchant Credit processing.  I was told to fax in a notice to them that I wanted to cancel.  A day later I got a call from one of their representatives who told me that there would be a $300 cancellation fee and that fee would be automatically taken out of my bank account.  The representative said that if I got my landlord to submit a letter to them that I was closing they would refund $150 – making the cancellation fee come to a total of $150.00  – I had been a customer for 5 years and had not problems with this company -  this cancellation fee made no sense to me and certainly seemed to be a total rip off.  What I got back was an email from the representative – restating what had been said on the phone:

Dear Ronald Headly,

Per our conversation. In order to reduce your early termination fee of $300.00 to $150.00, we need a signed letter from your landlord stating that the business is closed. Once information is verified, we will be able to reduce your fee.

Best Regards,

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Merchant Relations

1-800-449-8012 ext. xxxx

Needless to say I was “not a happy camper” in fact I was furious – some of you may have seen the original post, and tweet – it just did not make any sense to me that I was going to get hit with a cancellation fee with a company I had done business with for 5 years and that I would have to get my landlord involved by writing them a letter that  in fact my business was closed just to reduce the fee by half.

I am HAPPY TO REPORT that everything changed today!!!   I got an email from   Nery Espinal – Merchant Relations – Central Payment asking me to call.  I phoned him —–  He apologized and offered to remove the cancellation fee TOTALLY – THANKS SO MUCH NERY ESPINAL.

I can once again recommend Central Payment as a Merchant Credit Solution for in-house credit processing  as I have in the past – there was a problem and Mr. Espinal made it right.  Here is the email he just sent me;  plus he spelled my last name correctly-that is good customer support and paying attention to details:

Mr. Headley,

It was a pleasure speaking with you this morning. I appreciate your remarks and am glad we were able to correct any misunderstandings. As per our conversation your account has been closed with no cancellation fee. You will only be responsible for the monthly processing fees for the month of October 2011.

If you don’t mind, please email me when you have addressed the postings online so that I may update my executives. Feel free to keep my information in your records should you find the need to accept credit cards again in the future.

Best regards,

Nery Espinal

Merchant Relations

Central Payment

Phone: (800) 449-8012 Ext 7369

Fax: (866) 618-8284

Email: nespinal@cpay.com

The entire post has been updated with the original link in tact so anyone clicking on the link will see this update rather than the original post – so far as I am concerned I am happy to report I have had a change of mind and the Mr. Espinal has made that possible today.

The live event started with some announcements of new Apple stores, then went to some hype on how well Apple is doing internationally.  They then went to the iPod, some enhancement to the Nano,  some improvements to the iPod Touch, including better price points.

Then a review of the new features of iOS 5 and iCloud,  this is “old” information to anyone who followed the WWMD keynote this spring.  The only real announcement is they now have a release date for iOS 5 and iCloud – it will be a free update available on October 14 th.

The much-anticipated “new” iPhone 5 announcement DID NOT HAPPEN.  Yes Apple did announce a “new” iPhone the 4S – it appears to be just an iPhone 4 with some tweaks and enhancements.  It has a faster processor, a better camera, improvements to the antenna system, faster downloads, battery life improvements  – things to make the new operating system iOS5 work better.   This is NOT a new iPhone – just an upgraded iPhone 4.

Sure there were some new features – there is a new voice recognition system – Apple phones are beginning to work hands free – you can now “talk” to you phone and it does what you tell it.  These are some pretty interesting AI features.

Next – the  iPhone will be available for Sprint and will work world-wide.  That is a good thing – the iPhone will work with Sprint, Verizon and of course AT&T providing cellular service.  You can now take you iPhone with you on international trips and not have to go through major changes for the phone to work.

I have an iPhone 3GS which has worked really well for me for several years.  Apple today gave me no reasons at all today to abandon my 3GS and get a new phone.  Certainly I will be upgrading the operating system to iOS5 and using the new features that are in iOS5 – my 3GS phone will be able to do more.  So far as getting a new phone – Apple did not give me any reason to get their newest phone.  I had hoped they would announce and show a brand new phone the iPhone 5 which did not happen, so I will continue to use and enjoy my iPhone 3GS until Apple comes out with something new and interesting.

If you use a PC and Mobile Me there are not as many choices for what can be shared through Mobile Me and the only thing this will synch with on a PC is Microsoft Outlook.   If you do not happen to have Outlook or do not use Outlook for your calendars and contacts you will find that the information from you Apple Mobile device will not show up on your PC plus changes you make on your PC will not show up on your Apple device.

There appears to be a way to get Calendars and Contacts on an Apple Mobile Device using Mobile Me to show up in the contacts and calendars of G Mail.  It the moment this is something I am attempting to make work.  I can add events to my G Mail calendar and they show up on my Apple mobile devices, however changes made on my Apple device are not showing up on my G Mail account.  I am hoping that when the new Apple IOS with iCloud comes out that some of these issues will work better.  Note when the new IOS comes out everyone will have access to iCloud so hopefully it will become more transparent.  Ideally when you change or add a contact, calendar event, note, and more these changes should show up on your computer and it should not matter if you use a PC or a MAC.

This is not a good solution at all and is easily fixed.  You can and really should force iTunes to make backups that are not overwritten by whatever is on the device when it is plugged into the computer.  The easiest way to do this is after the device synch has finished right click on the device name in iTunes – it will say something like “names iPhone” – like a lot of computer things when you right click there is a hidden menu.  One of the choice in this menu is backup.  Click on this and iTunes will made a backup of your device.  This backup will show up with a date and is not destroyed when the device is reconnected to the computer and the normal iTunes synch.

It is a good idea to right click on the device in iTunes and click on this backup every time you connect your device to your computer.  This way if you do happen to have a failure or disaster or get a new device, or your device gets wiped out, you will have a series of backups to choose from when you go to restore from backup.  You can actually see the backup dates available by hovering over the restore from backup menu found by right clicking on the device name.

When I first opened the store I was bringing in consignment items for clients to sell on eBay, plus I was doing classes and audio video conversion as well as computer repair.  I had full and part-time employees who worked at the store.  When the economy failed in the fall of 2008 eBay sales also dropped.  I became necessary to lay off employees and to change my business model.  I had figured that the difficult economy was something that would not last long  – maybe 6 months to a year.  It is now three years later and it appears the economy will not recover anytime soon.

Most of what I do now is on-line marketing and internet related.  I no longer need a store front, I no longer have employees that I need to provide a work place for.   Being self-employed is always about change, stopping doing things that are no longer working and creating new things that are work.  The store is no longer working so it is time to close and leave it behind.  Everything I do now can be done from my new office in my house.

I will miss the store and working here, however I am looking forward to working from my house.  If the economy gets better and or I regrow my business in different ways to where I again have employees I can always find another store or office later on.  Actually with the improvements in technology I can use VAs (virtual assistants) on-line rather than actual employees at workstations at a store or office to help get things done.

My latest newsletter will going out to my clients and customers in the next few days.  Click this link SEP 2011 newsletter to go to my latest newsletter.

NOTE:  closing the store and moving to my house will have no effect on my online customers.  I have several store fronts these days they are my online web sites.   I am just closing my Brick and Mortar store and so this newsletter is really for my local walk in customers and  clients.  Fact is not have the physical store will help my online clients and customers.  I will have more time available to put more effort into my online services and sales and clients and customers.

Turns out what was being done is fairly simple.  Two people call the cell phone at the same time.  That will put one of the incoming calls into voice mail.   Once in voice mail all the hacker has to do is enter a PIN (Personal Identification Number) like on you bank card.  These are normally just four digits.   Even though the voice mail pin is 4 digits that is a lot of possible combinations, so how were they able to hack into the phones?

It seems that there are default PINs used – things like 1111 or 1234 or the last four digits of the phone number and here is where it gets interesting.  The cellular providers enter a standard PIN when they activate a new phone.  The customer is supposed to change this PIN right away to something else.  It appears that very few people change this PIN and so the default easy to use or remember PIN stays on the phone.  All the hackers were doing was running the default PIN once they got into the voice mail.

Bottom line Change the PIN on your cell phone – make sure you are not using the default PIN – that one simple step can make hacking your voice mail on your cell phone a lot more difficult.  Of course do not use things like 1111 1234 4321 – use a mix of numbers and do not use the last 4 digits of your phone number.  While this will not stop hacking it does make it more difficult for the hacker to get in.