Corrupt or Incompatible iPod Backups

I am the proud owner of a 1st generation 8GB iPod Touch, Model MA623LL, iOS 3.1.3 (7E18). For the past couple years, I have been receiving the following error message when trying to back up its contents through iTunes:

The Apple Support web site for this particular issue simply says to Contact Apple Support. Upon searching help forums, most experts recommend deleting the existing backups (either through iTunes or directly via the operating system's directories) and then doing a clean backup which is exactly the same recommendation as stated in the error message. I have done that, but I still get the error message.

I don't have anything important on this old iPod. Few modern apps work on it anymore, so I use it only to play music, and I have backup copies of my music elsewhere. Therefore, it is not worth it for me to pursue assistance from Apple Support. That being said, I wonder if I am getting the error message because the iPod is so old that it is no longer supported by the backup methods in more recent versions of iTunes.

Just curious...

Uber vs. Taxi

One week ago, I flew to Orlando for the annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition. With an attendance of more than 41,000 attendees across the United States and around the world, ground transportation at Orlando International Airport was in high demand. Therefore, I should not have been surprised to see this when I tried to request a ride from Uber:

In fact, there were no cars available in any Uber category at the time:

After several attempts to request an Uber car, with each attempt timing out, I decided to take a taxi to my hotel. The passenger queue for taxi service was long, but the line moved quickly. I waited about 15-20 minutes before hopping on board (just a little bit longer than my usual wait for an Uber vehicle), and I was able to pay with a credit card and add an auto-calculated tip percentage of my choice. The total came out to $49 which was about the same as I would have paid for UberSELECT (the least expensive Uber option at the time).

While Uber gets my vote in most circumstances, sometimes a good old fashioned taxi cab comes through in the end.

PSA: An Ounce of Prevention

Recently I ran some diagnostics on my external backup hard drives, and there are signs that they are starting to fail in their old age (they are about a decade old). You know what they say about an ounce of prevention, so before they crash, I decided to move my backup files onto some newer external hard drives with more storage capacity.

One of my new drives is a WD My Cloud drive. Its setup included plugging in a power source and connecting an ethernet cable between the drive and my router. There is no physical connection between my computer and the backup drive, so the data are streamed over my network connection. I am backing up 2.99 TB of data, and the estimated time to complete this task is currently "About a day":

I don't know how that compares to the data transfer rate of physical USB or FireWire connections, but the setup was pretty straightforward, I don't have to babysit the process, and incremental backups will take merely a fraction of the time.

In any case, I hope you are not only periodically backing up your data but also (1) using multiple backup devices, (2) storing them in multiple locations, and (3) periodically checking the integrity of your backup devices.

Jump Rope for Heart

My daughter's school is participating in a "Jump Rope for Heart" event on February 24, 2017. They are raising funds for the American Heart Association, and online donations can be made here:

http://jumphoops2017wsa.kintera.org/madelinelee

USB Flash Drives - Sudden Death

Even though floppy drives had fallen out of favor a long time ago as file transfers over the Internet became commonplace, I have to admit that I still frequently use USB flash drives. Usually I use them to transfer large files from computer to computer, and sometimes I load videos onto them so I can plug them into the USB port of my HDTV and watch them on a large screen. Another use for my USB flash drives is my Ceiva photo frame. I simply dump my favorite photos onto a USB flash drive and plug it into my Ceiva photo frame for a continuous slideshow.

It is common knowledge that you should never rely on your USB flash drives for long-term storage. In my experience, the risk of "sudden death" is much higher in USB flash drives than traditional hard drives. I've seen many USB flash drives fail without any warning signs, including the one I've used in my Ceiva photo frame which recently stalled on a single photo. Suspecting an issue with my USB flash drive, here's what I saw when I plugged it into my Mac:

After several attempts, I was able to get the USB flash drive to mount so I could attempt to rescue the flash drive using Disk Utility. In that process, I encountered a variety of errors:

Even after I successfully formatted the USB flash drive, I decided it would be safer to just discard the drive altogether. In all fairness, the USB flash drive that failed had been displaying photos on my Ceiva photo frame from 8 AM to 5 PM every day for many years. Given their small size, inexpensive price, and reasonable performance (i.e., as long as you don't expect them to last forever), I will continue to use USB flash drives for a long time to come.

Mac 'Filter Failed' Printer Error

I have a Canon imageCLASS MF4350d multifunction monochrome laser printer that is connected to my wife's 24-inch Mid 2007 iMac, with network printing enabled so that I can send print jobs from my 27-inch Late 2012 iMac. The printer has served us well for many years, but all good things must come to an end. Recently I have been encountering sporadic "Filter Failed" errors like this:

After asking Google repeatedly for solutions which range from updating Canon printer drivers (I have the latest) to resetting the printing system in System Preferences (tried that), to installing open source Gutenrpint printer drivers (unfortunately they don't have one for my model), I discovered that the problem seems to be limited to printing from Apple's Preview application.

For the problematic PDF document pictured above, I could open the document from a graphics application (in this case, GraphicConverter) and successfully print from there. I don't know where the root cause of the problem resides (eg, it could be Apple or Canon or something else), but I'm just putting this out there in case it helps someone else.