It Was Easy to Backup My PC Computer With Acronis 2018. It Was Much More Difficult to Restore From a Backup

It's been a frustrating week for my law firm's IT Department (I am my own IT department).  My generic desktop PC's ability to use Wifi stopped working. I tried various repairs, but after nothing worked, I decided to restore my computer a few days back with a backup program called Acronis 2018.  I had been diligently making backups for the past couple years with this program, but I was living in blissful ignorance. This week, I attempted a full metal-to-metal restore twice but it twice failed.  I was also confused by the entire Acronis process. It wasn't entirely clear to me how to make the boot disk or whether a boot disk was necessary.  For my third try, I contacted Acronis support.  No live people were available on a voice line unless you were willing to pay an additional $20.  A support person on a chat line had seen my several previous emails to Acronis discussing my concerns and questions, as well as my failures.

This person on the chat line walked me through the restore, step by step.  This took an hour.  After the restore was underway, he assured me that when it was finished, my computer would look exactly like it did when I last backed it up.  When the restore was complete, however, my PC screen read:  "RESTORE FAILED."   The Acronis people responded again when I reported this failure by email, but they were asking me to refer to computer logs when my computer would display one and only one screen: "RESTORE FAILED." No thanks. I had given up on Acronis, especially after spending 8 hours trying to get these restores to work. 

Luckily, Dropbox and Onedrive were working like champs, so most of my data was safe. But this episode was a big frustration for me.  My work around was to purchase an iMac. I appreciate Apple's Time Machine more than ever.  Easy to use and bulletproof.  And here are my words of warning.  If you buy a new backup program, find some way to test it before relying on it.  I don't know whether there actually a way to do a test restore.  I personally wouldn't want to mess with my PC like this. It takes too much damned work and if it fails, you'll be up shit creek without paddle.  I have used Time Machine on other Macs over the years, and it has been bulletproof.  Apple's Time machine is one of the most impressive apps out there.  That's where my money is now. 

Continue ReadingIt Was Easy to Backup My PC Computer With Acronis 2018. It Was Much More Difficult to Restore From a Backup

Dr. Diana Fleischman Discusses Sex Differences Between Men and Women

You are invited to join this lively discussion with Dr. Diana Fleischman. The topic: significant biological and psychological sex differences between men and women.

One of the most stunning differences discussed in this video was described in Attraction Explained: The science of how we form relationships, By Viren Swami:

In classic studies conducted by Russell Clark and Elaine Hatfield between 1978 and 2003, college students were approached by a fairly attractive member of the opposite sex, who was really a confederate of the researchers. This confederate would hang around campus and, once a target had been selected, she or he would walk up to the target and say, ‘I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be very attractive’. Next, the confederate would ask one of three questions: (l) Will you go on a date with me? (2) Will you come back to my apartment? or (3) Will you have sex with me?

For the first question, there was no clear sex difference - across studies, 56 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men accepted the date. But for the other questions, which could be interpreted as questions about casual sex, there were clearer sex differences. For the question about going back to the confederate’s apartment, 69 per cent of men consented compared to only 6 per cent of women. And for the final, 75 per cent of men agreed to sex, while not a single woman said yes to sex. In fact, every time the study was repeated, not a single woman agreed to sex at any time. In a more recent study, fairly attractive psychology students approached a member of the opposite sex in public places in four cities in Denmark and asked: (l) Would you go on a date with men tonight or during the week/weekend? (2) Would you come over to my place tonight or during the week/weekend? or (3) Would you go to bed with me tonight or during the week/weekend? When individuals in relationships were excluded from the count, 68 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women agreed to a date, 40 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women agreed to go to the student’s place, and 59 per cent of men but none of the women agreed to casual sex.

There are many other differences between the sexes discussed by Dr. Fleishman. It's important to add some context to these sex difference studies, however.  Yes, there are differences, and many of these seem dramatic, but men and women are not from different planets.  They are extremely similar in many ways.  How many?  Hundreds of ways, as documented by Donald E. Brown.  All of us are mostly the same. 

Continue ReadingDr. Diana Fleischman Discusses Sex Differences Between Men and Women

Happy Neanderthal Father’s Day

I'm speaking up for the much-maligned Neanderthals today on this Father's Day, but not merely because many of us have a bit (1 to 2%) of Neanderthal DNA in our chromosomes and not merely because this population lasted until only 25,000 years ago. It's mostly because I just now stumbled upon this pretty cool Neanderthal reconstruction by Tom Bjorklundart of what a Neanderthal parent and child might have looked like.

Continue ReadingHappy Neanderthal Father’s Day

Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying Discuss the Intersection of Transgendering and Biology

I've been struggling to understand the contours of the recent dispute involving J.K.Rowling's tweets regarding transgendered persons. This issue caught my interest in that I know several people who transitioned and one who is transitioning as a 30 year old adult after being in a marriage. In the process of trying to understand the issues, I've read about a dozen articles from varying perspectives plus hundreds of tweets, many of them claiming to be authored by transgendered persons.

Interestingly, those postings claiming to be authored by transgendered persons seem to be much more sympathetic to J.K. Rowling. Many of the postings on social media are intense reads, leading me to wonder whether there is any way to satisfy all of the sides to the dispute. I doubt it and I think I now better understand why after watching the attached video featuring two evolutionary biologists, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. I found their comments on gender ideology and biology quite helpful to understanding these issues. I especially appreciate that their comments are well founded on biology, but also sensitive to the need to treat transgendered persons with kindness. I also appreciate that they both deal head-on with the political aspects of this issue, including the need to recognize over-stepping by the authoritarian left.

Continue ReadingBret Weinstein and Heather Heying Discuss the Intersection of Transgendering and Biology

Pew Study: Religion Still on the Decline

Interesting stats on Religiosity from Pew, published in October, 2019.

 

In my view, there are also many other forms of groupishness that I see as religious or quasi religious that are not considered by these surveys. I also suspect that as traditional religions melt away, other groups that don't look like traditional religions at first glance, but which have similar functions, take their place.

Continue ReadingPew Study: Religion Still on the Decline