They had no computer to offload the photos to, but they did have their iPad.  Off went the photos and videos to the iPad.  Photos were deleted from the camera and they had room for more photos until they bought an additional memory card.  Problem solved, right?

Well, not so much.  Recently, they saw that their iPad was going to be upgraded to iOS 5.  From reports we’ve heard, this can cause data loss at times.  In any event, it is always a good idea to do a full backup before any major upgrade.  Indeed, it is a good idea to backup your files on a regular basis.  Besides, iTunes was reporting that they didn’t have enough disk space free to install iOS 5.

After freeing up some disk space, we went through the process of getting their photos and videos off the iPad.  When we plugged the iPad into the computer’s USB port, I expected it to show up as a drive.  This is what happens with pretty much any device I hook up to my computer.  My camera shows up as a drive.  My phone shows up as a drive.  Even Kimberly Kindle lets me transfer files via a mounted drive when it is connected via a USB cable.

The iPad does show up as a device and we can use a file transfer wizard to get the photos, but the two problems that persist are:

1) The photos are renamed.  Instead of being named along the lines of P12345.jpg, they are named “Disney Photo 001.jpg”.  To make matters worse, the photo order is messed up.  “Disney Photo 023” might have actually been taken before “Disney Photo 022” and after “Disney Photo 024”.

2) The videos aren’t transferred.  This is huge.  They captured some really nice videos at Disney and loss of them is just not an option.

NOTE: We can’t simply sync using iTunes because iTunes insists that it needs to load iOS 5 during the next sync.  We also can’t, apparently, stick in a blank SD card and transfer files to that. The Apple store representative told us that file transfers from SD cards are one way only.  To the iPad.

Luckily, I’ve done some research and I’ve come up with two possibilities.  Note, I’m just presenting these as options.  I haven’t tried these (as of this writing) so they may or may not work properly (or they might work properly but not solve the particular need I have).

The first option is an app called GoodReader ($4.99).  This app, among other things, lets you sync your files across an FTP folder.  I could set up my father-in-law with some FTP space, sync up his files and then FTP them back to his computer.  This seems a bit convoluted, though.  It’d be better if I could just sync directly with his computer.  Enter option 2.

The second option is iPad Manager ($25).  This looks like it could be what we are looking for.  It claims to allow the user to plug the iPad into a PC’s USB port and transfer videos, photos, songs, etc.

While this sounds good, a more standards-compliant approach, such as showing a mounted drive on the computer, would have been preferable.  Then, we could have used the built-in file explorer that every computer (Mac or PC) to copy the files.  Alternatively, allowing you to copy files to an inserted SD card would have sufficed.  To require you to jump through hoops or use additional programs just to retrieve your own photos/videos seems completely unnecessary.  For a company which prides itself on a smooth user experience, this has been quite the bumpy ride.

Have you ever transferred videos/photos off of an iPad?  If so, what did you use?

At this point, I just want to step aside and say that I got a bad feeling about this drive from the moment we unboxed it.  No, it wasn’t banged up or anything.  Instead, I looked at the USB cord and saw this.

Notice the indentation on the cord?  That’s not a standard cord.  With the external hard drives I have, if I lose the cord I could use any standard cord (of the same type) and access my data.  If my father-in-law lost this cord, or if it went bad, then he’d have to hope the hard drive manufacturer would sell him a new one.  And that it wouldn’t be too costly.  Otherwise, he’d be SOL.

Putting aside my concerns, though, we proceeded with the backup.  Everything was working fine until we got to a few of the last files.  Then the computer reported having trouble writing the files.  My Computer reported that the drive simply wasn’t there.  We checked all of the plugs, both in the computer and in the drive.  Nothing.  We tried plugging it into B’s computer.  Nada.  Less than two hours after opening the box and the drive was effectively dead.

Before the drive died, it copied files.  We didn’t want to simply return the drive, with my father-in-law’s files on it.  Neither, however, could we erase those files prior to returning it.  Had the cord been a non-proprietary one, I could have swapped out a different cord.  This would have at least narrowed down the problem to the drive or cord.  Instead, we’re at the mercy of the hard drive manufacturer’s support to figure out what’s wrong and figure out how we can delete our data prior to returning it.

Tomorrow, I’ll post Part 2 where I discuss the frustrations of retrieving data from an iPad.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you regularly take vacations from social media/computers?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #109

I also purposefully didn’t show them their superheroes from the previous year.  I didn’t want them to simply recreate their old heroes.  I wanted to see what more recent influences might being to their heroes.

Let’s start with JSL.  Last year, he made this hero:

He named his superhero “FireGuy.”  So what did he make this year?

Meet Super Agent JSL Buzz Lightyear.  Breaking down the name first, the “Super” part comes because, to JSL, a superhero must, obviously, be names super-something.  I’m not sure why he thinks that.  Most of the superheroes he knows don’t have names that begin with “Super.”  “Agent” comes from Agent P, from Phineas and Ferb.  We had recently watched the Phineas and Ferb movie so he wanted to be a secret agent.  Buzz Lightyear comes from his favorite Toy Story character.

The shield is based on the one that his favorite superhero, Captain America, has.  The color scheme incorporates his favorite colors.  I’m not sure if there was a particular rhyme or reason behind the rest of the outfit, though.

Next up, was NHL.  Last year, he made Disco Man, so named because he had “disco eyes.”

This year, NHL made Toolguy/Mathman/Cordman.  Yes, you read that right.  This superhero has three names.  I tried to get NHL to shorten it, but he was adamant that it needed to be all three and include the slashes.

The name is based off his love of building things, his love of math, and the fact that his superhero has a whip.  The head was based loosely on Hulk.  For the body, NHL insisted that his superhero was part-robot and so it needed to be grey.  In retrospect, I wonder if this comes from Perry the Platyborg from the Phineas and Ferb movie.  It was interesting that NHL picked out the same tail that he chose last year.  He also chose the same eyes at first, but then changed his mind.

Have your kids used HeroMachine?  If so, what kinds of superheroes have they made?

My first backup plan was burning CD’s with the data.  Unfortunately, as the amount of data that we needed to back up grew, the backups became more and more of a pain to do.  First, I had to locate all of the files.  Then, I had to figure out how best to fit them on CDs.  Finally, I had to man the CD burner to take out the old CDs, put in the new ones and check for errors.  Eventually, we got a DVD burner but this just temporarily lightened the load.  Soon we needed to back up multiple DVDs every month.

After researching various solutions, I hit upon a cure.  We bought two external hard drives, each 1TB in size.  All of our data was backed up to one of the drives.  The data on that drive was then backed up to the second drive.  While the first drive would remain at home (for easy data access), the second drive would be moved to an “undisclosed offsite location.”  This way if our house were burgled or burned to the ground, our data would survive.  In addition, we’re protected against a single drive just up and dying.

Recently, a few companies began offering “cloud” backup services.  You pay a monthly (or yearly) fee and get a certain amount of space to store your files.  This might work nicely for a few important documents (and, in fact, I’ve been known to import important documents into Google Docs for quick access and guaranteed backups), but try backing up 10GB of new files to the cloud.  Worse yet, try restoring 200GB of files from the cloud to your PC.  Besides, while Amazon Cloud Drive (to pick a service at semi-random) costs $200 per year for 200GB of space, two 1TB external hard drives cost about $120.  A $120 one-time cost beats a $200 recurring fee any day of the year.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How do you backup your important files?  Also, how often do you back up?

Don’t forget to enter my Outback Steakhouse $45 gift certificate giveaway!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #94

So there you have it.  NHL’s thoughts are “I think everybody should have this game.”  I’m pretty sure that would be a two thumbs up if his thumbs (and the rest of his fingers) weren’t typing out math answers.

Disclaimer: Math Rider provided me with a complimentary copy of the game for review in conjunction with the Family Review Network.  This video post, however, was my own idea.  All of the opinions expressed above (both in the text and video) are mine and NHL’s.

So there you have it.  NHL’s thoughts are “I think everybody should have this game.”  I’m pretty sure that would be a two thumbs up if his thumbs (and the rest of his fingers) weren’t typing out math answers.

Disclaimer: Math Rider provided me with a complimentary copy of the game for review in conjunction with the Family Review Network.  This video post, however, was my own idea.  All of the opinions expressed above (both in the text and video) are mine and NHL’s.

Unfortunately, he really isn’t being challenged in math this year.  Thanks to his gifted brain, he picks up math concepts nearly instantly.  Other classmates, of course, need reinforcement.  So while the teacher goes over simple addition again, NHL is ready to move onto multiplication and division.  Seriously, he is.  I did some sample multiplication and division with him and he “got it” within seconds, even giving me the answer before I could tell him.  He then asked about fractions when I made an offhand remark about them.  I still think those will be above him, but not for long.

When I was given the opportunity to review Math Rider, I jumped at the chance.  NHL loves using the computer and he loves math, so he was sure to love this.  And man did he love it!  More on this later.

The basic premise is that you are a villager in “Math Land” with your horse Shadow.  Depending on which level you choose, you’ll get one of three missions.  The mission is introduced with drawings and a narrator, but the words are printed underneath.  (Nice side effect of boosting reading skills here.)  After the introductions are over, the mission begins.  For this, the child will need to solve math problems.  They aren’t just displayed on the screen, however.  Instead, your horse is galloping across the lands, racing to reach your goal.  In your way are hurdles with math problems (e.g. 5 + 3) on them.  Typing in the right answer (e.g. makes your horse jump over them.  You can type the answer early.  Shadow is smart enough to jump at the right time.  Type the answer too late, though, and Shadow is forced to stop while the math problem and answer are read aloud.

This alone, would make for a nice game, but Math Rider goes further.  On a Statistics page, you can find out just how well you are doing and which problems are the ones that give you the most trouble.  These problems will also tend to appear more often while Shadow is running, helping to strengthen the child’s math skills.

Of course, being a full-featured math game, Math Rider lets you work with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Each of those can be attempted on “Easy”, “Medium”, or “Advanced” mode, indicating whether the math goes up to 5, 10 or 12.  Finally, multiple riders can be set up so Child 1 can tackle easy addition and keep his statistics separate from Child 2’s advanced multiplication stats.

When NHL began his first mission, getting a magic flower to help his character’s sick mother, he quickly picked up on what he needed to do.  Before long, he was laughing with joy every time he got a problem right.  He was getting most of them right, too, so there was a lot of laughing!  Occasionally, he would get one wrong and he would groan in frustration, mainly at himself for not knowing it, but then he would get it right the next time it came up.

It was interesting watching the program zero in on the math problems that he took the longest to figure out.  Those would wind up appearing more and more so he would quickly pick up on the answers to these.  Confession time: I also tried it out on Advanced Multiplication and messed up on 9 * 12.  Sure enough, 9 * 12 came up quite frequently after this and I knew that it was 108.

If your child is struggling in math, loves math or maybe just needs a source of entertainment that doesn’t involve mindless video game destruction, I would definitely recommend Math Rider.  I, for one, know that NHL will be borrowing my computer quite often to advance his rider into new and exciting quests.

Disclaimer: This post was written for Family Review Network & Math Rider who provided the complimentary product for review in exchange for my honest review.

For the past week, my car’s been making a rattling sound when I turned on the fan.  The higher I turned it on, the worse the sound.  At first, I thought water had gotten into the system (with all the rain we had), so I ignored it hoping the sound would go away.  When the dry weather arrived and the sound didn’t leave, I knew there was a problem.

So I brought my car in and the guy mentioned offhand, “I hope it’s not a mouse.”

“A mouse?", I asked.

“Yes, they look for someplace warm and dry and find their way into cars.”

So he went to check on my car.  Sure enough, it turns out I was paid a visit by a certain mouse.  Personally, I would have rather had a visit with Mickey Mouse… in Disney World!  The mouse crawled into my car’s heating/cooling system, built a nest and got all comfortable.  Then I turned on the fan and made minced mouse.  (No, this will *NOT* be a future Cooking With TechyDad installment!)  I was told fixing it would take some time as most everyone had gone home and they needed to remove my dashboard and go through my systems.  We were looking at about a $160 hit to my wallet.

I was loaned a car for the next day and went home.  That night, I went on my computer, started to Skype with my parents and…. my computer went dead.  Completely off.  I turned it back on and noticed that the battery was running low.  Yet, I was plugged in.  Perhaps the outlet was bad?  No, the baby monitor plugged into it worked just fine.  I even tried another outlet.  No dice.

There could only be two possibilities.  Either my laptop’s AC adapter was bad (possibly fried when I left it plugged in overnight) or my laptop itself had a problem.  So I spent last night frantically backing up my PC before the battery ran out.  Luckily, I had run a backup recently and so just had to update that backup.  Now I’m looking for a new AC adapter to see if that’s the problem.

With all of Thursday’s events, I think I need to consult with a mouse, a duck, a dog, a pooh bear, and a tigger in Disney World.  Who wants to join me?

This sparked an idea. I understand this technical stuff and pride myself on the ability to explain complex items in simple terms. So why couldn’t I take a subject like “How Does The Internet Work” and, perhaps using some crude graphics, explain how it works without delving into the details of TCP/IP, request headers and other topics that would cause peoples’ eyes to glaze over?

I still have some work to do before I can pull this off. The words will come easily, but I’ll need some graphics. And those might be trickier for me to do. So this might be a once every-other-month type of feature. My other concern is the selection of topics. How am I going to figure out which topics people want to learn about? Well, as this is an Aloha Friday, I bet you can guess how. I’m going to ask everyone out there!

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What computer/technology subjects would you like explained simply?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #53