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Macintosh iPhoto Library Images Lost With Yosemitie Upgrade

05/08/2015 Score Card

I have a friend who recently upgraded his very old iMac to Yosemite. He then realized that he could not find his old iPhoto images. He had made a number of mistakes which I list next:

He did not back up his hard drive prior to this major system upgrade.
He did not use Time Machine.
He did not have an iCloud backup solution
He did not have an external hard drive or USB finger drive copy of his photo images.

We checked the Internet for a solution but we could not find one. It seems that with the recent software system upgrade, Apple changed iPhoto Library. I was able to find the images for him using this method.

NOTE: This method might not work for you. Proceed with caution.

Please note that the folders you will see will not exactly match my images.

Following are the steps taken for recovery:

1. Do a Finder search for iPhoto Library and select it when it shows. (Do NOT choose Library.iPhoto).

2. Highlight the file when you find it with your mouse or track pad. press Control key to reveal hidden files and folders.

3. Press your Control key while iPhoto Library is selected and “Show Package Contents” will appear within a large menu. Highlight “Show Package Contents” so we can see what is inside that folder.

4. Mouse click “Show Package Contents” and it should open to show a whole long list of more files and folders as seen below. Select “Masters” folder and open it.

5. Make sure you open “Masters” and once you do, it should show another long list of sub folders with year dates.

6. Inside each year folder will be month and day sub folders and then your .jpg images.

I hope this works for you.

Aside comment: I keep running into people who have important photo images on their cell phones and computers with no backups. You might think we have vastly improved our technology with digital cameras but film cameras archive way better than digital. Think of hard drives as light bulbs; they burn out. Think of solid state hard drives as longer life light bulbs. DVD disks are a long term possibility but not as good as film. Right now, I have no idea of how to solve this archive issue other than shoot film. When storing DVD disks and film, make sure you treat these media properly so you can retrieve the data way into the future.

Apple Farm, San Luis Obispo, California, United States of America

04/03/2015 Score Card

Our family loves the Apple Farm Inn located in San Luis Obispo, California. We have been coming here for years.

Front view of the restaurant to your right and the gift center to your left. The inn portion requires that you drive into the parking lot behind the buildings you see in this image and enter the hotel behind.

Note: this review is for the hotel and not the motor inn. We have never stayed at the Apple Farm Trellis Court portion of this property. We were told that rooms are half the size and only one bed. They do cost less than the inn. You are next to the Apple Farm Restaurant.

The Apple Tree Inn is the hotel which we review in this post. The inn sits behind the gift shop and restaurant. You need to drive into the parking lot beside the gift shop to view the inn shown in the image above.

What we like about the Apple Farm Inn:

Its location is very good. It is right off the 101 highway. You can walk about 20 minutes down Monterrey Street to get to the downtown. There is also a trolley that costs 50 cents one way and stops right in front of this hotel. There are other restaurants that are not too far away you can walk too. Caution: When coming up from the south on the 101 make sure you take the correct off ramp, Monterrey. We failed once to do this once and because this hotel is at the north extreme of town and where the 101 enters a canyon, there were no roads to turn around for quite a few miles.
Rooms are really cute, spacious, clean, comfortable, quiet and not too expensive. The room air conditioner is very good. You can set a temperature for the room and we have not found any past AC units to be noisy. The windows can also be opened for fresh air. Every room has a gas fireplace which, by the way, does heat up the room.

Room-323 — Room 323. Note that the Apple Farm is conducting renovations so this room may look different in the future.

Parking is convenient and easy to navigate.
There is a very good restaurant on the property. The menu, service, and ambiance is good. The food we had here was better than places we ate in town. We noticed that food dishes now have a way higher quality. The cooks really are doing an excellent job.
There is also a gift shop that is quite large.
They also sell bakery items for sale.
You will get 2 very large chocolate chip cookies when you check in.
You get complimentary wine each night (one glass per person) from 3 pm to 7 pm.
Each room has two 10 fl oz of Martinelli’s Apple Juice. Two 500 ml purified waters are provided. Coffee for the coffee maker is also in the bathroom with the coffee maker. We use the coffee maker to make tea. Tea bags of various flavors are offered near the front desk along with small packets of honey.
A free local newspaper, the San Luis Obispo Tribune, is just outside your door each morning.
Look carefully in the basket holding the juice as you will find some chocolate kisses.
In the closet are two rather thick terry cloth bathrobe you can use during your stay.
Free WiFi.
There is a heated pool and hot tub.
Each night from 3:30 pm to 5 pm they feature a different local winery for a wine tasting. They also offer some simple snacks along with the wine.
The hotel lobby rotates different drinks depending upon what part of the day it is. Morning you can find coffee with cream and sugar. Evening you may find tea and coffee.

What we do not like:

When we make tea in our room and use tap water we noticed large particle floaties. This typically means the water is not that pure. The Apple Farm provides two 500 ml free purified drinking water each day for each room. We use that water and purified water we bring from home to make our tea. It would be nice for San Luis Obispo to do a better job of filtering their water.

2015 Monterey Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
[email protected]
Phone: 1-800-255-2040 or 805-544-2040
Web site: http://www.applefarm.com/

I would like to thank Gustavo who works at the Apple Farm front desk for proofing the content of this post (April 3, 2015).

August 2016 update for one hotel room #100: Room 100 Allegedly Flawed

July 7, 2017 update: The Apple Farm offers a $5 dining credit with their Green Apple Program. I do not recommend it. We put the door knob placard out and found that nothing had been done to our room We did not get apple juice, nor water, nor new towels, nor fresh sheets, etc. The placard appears to tell room service not to enter to do anything!

Room 209 has a few minor flaws. The commode does not properly flush. The activation handle needs to be raised upward after pushing down to activate the flush. If you fail to do this it never stops flushing, thus wasting lots of water.

The second mistake is the electrical wiring in the bathroom. The light switch over the sink also turns on the vent over the shower and tub. The second switch illuminates near the tub only. The tub light should be married to the exhaust vent.

When I come to this hotel, many of the rooms have sink faucet handles that turn the wrong way, quite odd.

I did not enjoy the guest wine tasting reception held every night, July 7, 2017. They moved this event to the Garden Room. This is a much smaller space and lacks enough tables. I like to bring my study materials such as books or laptop and writing materials and place them on a table to conduct work while drinking their free wine. The Garden Room was way too small and lacked enough tables in their patio area.

Novo Restaurant Lounge, San Luis Obispo, California, United States of America

04/03/2015 Score Card

My wife and I were taking a walking tour of downtown San Luis Obispo and decided it was time for lunch. We had no idea of where to eat so we walked into an upscale clothing store and asked one of the sales ladies where a good place to eat for lunch. She recommended Novo and told us where it was located. We thanked her for her recommendation and once out of their shop I looked the restaurant up on my cell phone and the restaurant indeed had a very impressive consumers collective score.

Novo-Restaurant — Front of restaurant, street view. There are two doors on either side of the front window. You can enter either door.

When we arrived at this place, we found two similar doors on either side of the front. We could not figure out which door to use. Both open into the bar. Once inside you find yourself in a dark illuminated bar with some dining tables in front of the bar.

20150404_125653_resized — This is what you will see when you first enter the restaurant from the street. (There is a second entrance from the creek side). When we first arrived the front of the restaurant was quite dark, which is why I described the bar as being dark.

If you want to eat on the patio, take the long hallway back past the bar, the restrooms and kitchen until you come out of the building again on to their patio. It was slightly interesting to find waiters and waitresses standing along both sides of the wall between the kitchen door and the back patio.

20150404_125821_resized — This is the narrow hallway that links the front bar area to the back patio. Along this hallway are the restrooms and kitchen. This image was greatly brightened. It is normally quite dark. (This shot actually is taken from the patio side looking toward the bar).

Once out of the main building, walk up to the hostess station in front of you and they will seat you.

2015-04-04 13.32.32_resized — As you end your walk down the long dark hallway to the patio, you come upon a raised deck where the host station is. Check in here to be seated. Note the chairs along both sides of this deck for people to sit and wait their turn to be seated.

20150404_140543_resized — This view of the patio dining at the back of the restaurant is taken from a rather high bridge which links both sides of a narrow creek, behind the restaurant.

What we liked:

This restaurant has a large back patio which we enjoyed. They put up large umbrellas because the day was hot. I noticed that they have rows of heaters along the creek. One umbrella was slightly burned probably being placed too close to the heaters.
Service was good.
The salmon bisque was very good. This one dish, for me is the reason to go here. It was full of seafood and vegetables.
The sandwiches were good.

What we did not like:

The table napkins were too small and light. I would really like to see much larger napkins with a heavier weight to them.

Location: 726 Higuera Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Phone 805.543.3986
Web site: http://www.novorestaurant.com/

Minor Lessons In Life.

03/24/2015 Score Card

Never put drink, keys or cell phone on roof of vehicle to help you get into the vehicle. Instead, put objects, that you care about, on the front hood of the vehicle.

Never ask a women how many months it will be, if she appears to be expecting birth.

Parents should not tell their children of their really stupid acts when they were younger.

Open letter to Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz – by Ani Zonneveld

03/18/2015 Score Card

Ani Zonneveld sent an open letter to the current Saudi King. She “has correctly highlighted Saudi Wahabism as a major source of extremism and the foundations for terrorist groups like ISIS.”

Some items she mentions in her letter:

The Quran liberated women from subhuman status, gave us rights to choose whom to marry, to work, to be in leadership positions and to ultimately live in full dignity.

There is nothing Islamic about the way many countries in the Muslim world are run today.

The Muslim world remains corrupted by power and money, the very dynamic Muhammad spoke against.

______________________________

Dear King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz,
Assalamu-alaikum.

I am a 52-year-old Malaysian-born Muslim. I was raised in a harmonious interracial and interfaith society that accepted and respected other religious practices. The existence of different faith groups was viewed simply as different ways of connecting to the same God. Saudi Arabia started exporting its Wahhabi ideology in the 1970s, and it spread around the world, turning existing interpretations of Islam into one that is dogmatic and violent.

The result is a nearly unrecognizable form of Islam. It appears to get worse by the day. Murders, suicide bombings, sectarianism and religious hatemongering have become commonplace. We cannot continue on this path of religious-based mayhem in the name of Islam. The Muslim world needs a change. You are in the best position to take us out of this misery.

As a child, I remember celebrating Mawlid — the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday — with uplifting songs, prayers and even a parade. Now it is taboo to observe Mawlid even in America, and adherents to the Wahhabi brand of Islam would rather emphasize his death. The same clerics tell us we cannot critically engage with the Quran or use our God-given right to think in order to reconcile the contradictions that exist between the Quran and hadith, the collection of record of the prophet’s sayings that serve as a source of religious and moral guidance.

When I was growing up, weddings and community events were colorful and featured music and dance, without segregating the sexes. This is no longer the case in many Muslim communities. Music, dance and unsegregated gatherings are deemed haram, or forbidden. Artistic expressions must be Sharia-compliant, meaning no depiction of humans or animals.

The Quran liberated women from subhuman status, gave us rights to choose whom to marry, to work, to be in leadership positions and to ultimately live in full dignity. And yet in 2015, Wahhabi imams have relegated women to subhuman status by allowing husbands to cane their wives into obedience and promoting a version of Sharia that permits forced and child marriages and condones honor killings. Women have become sexual objects through forced veiling, which makes our voices, skin, hair and faces off limits, and even a handshake is deemed a potentially arousing sexual experience.

How is this Wahhabi chokehold different from the practice of burying daughters alive?
Our society is increasingly looking like the age of jahiliyya, or ignorance that preceded the birth of Islam. You have the power to change that by lifting the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, abolishing the male guardian system, granting full voting rights for women and promoting equality in all spheres of life for all people. This would deflate the theological foundation of the criminal beliefs of the ISILs, Talibans and the Boko Harams of the world.

There are many reform-minded Saudi men and women whom you should include in discussion rather than imprison them. This will have a profound effect on millions of women and men in the Muslim world and beyond.

Enough with the vilifying of minority sects and non-Muslims. You should sit down with the supreme leader of Iran and sign a covenant of peace till the end of time.

The divisive sectarianism and ideology of Islamic Sunni supremacy is sickening. We are tired of the infighting, the dehumanizing of “the other” at the minbar (mosque pulpit), the talk of takfir (excommunicating of fellow Muslims) and the slaughter of “the other” by assuming a God-like role as the judge and the punisher. There were no Sunni, Shia or other sects during Muhammad’s time, but there were believers of many faiths, nonbelievers and even pagans, all residing in dignity in your country — protected by the prophet.

The Quran teaches us all people are equal in the eyes of God: “We have created you men and women, into nations and tribes for you to learn from each other. Surely, the most honorable among you in the sight of God is the most righteous.” (Quran 49:13). Imagine a Saudi Arabia where all people can come together to exchange ideas freely and share in our humanity.

The Muslim world remains corrupted by power and money, the very dynamic Muhammad spoke against. Imagine a Muslim world void of corruption and endowed with good governance. Such an environment would ensure that the ISILs and Saudi dissidents would not flourish. There is nothing Islamic about the way many countries in the Muslim world are run today.

Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi ideology is the root of all the ills in the Muslim world. You have the power to uproot it once and for all through your influence in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the hundreds and thousands of madrassas the kingdom funds. As host to millions from around the world during the annual hajj, the kingdom can send a message of change to Wahhabi-influenced ideologues.
We do not have a pope in Islam, but by adopting the official title of custodian of our two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, you have assumed a unique position of influence to shift our Muslim world onto a positive path.

I recognize that my letter is an idealistic plea. After all, you are a king with all the earthly needs one can imagine and so powerful that you have Muslim and non-Muslim nations at your feet. But do what Muhammad did: Promote equality and a just system that benefits all people. That is the true meaning of the straight path we recite in al-Fatihah.

With deepest sincerity,

Ani Zonneveld

___________________________

She is appealing to a medieval Saudi monarch who’s one and only pursuit is self preservation of the oligarch ruling class. The Saudi monarchy abhors democracy. It works quite well for the rulers of Saudi Arabia to use religion to control its people. It would take a remarkable man to measure what she says as the truth. Truth has little value in the minds the oppressors.

Obtained a copy of the letter October 15, 2019 at this web site: http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/2/open-letter-to-saudi-king-salman-bin-abdul-aziz.html

Mexicoleaks May Be A Threat To Mexico’s Political Elite.

03/17/2015 Score Card

The start up of Mexicoleaks seems to be similar to seeing two old wood war ships side by side shelling one another. Mexicoleaks appears to be a large cannon aimed at Mexico’s top politicians. Here is their stated purpose:

“Méxicoleaks is a tool that allows you to send information of public interest media and civil organizations through secure technologies that guarantee the anonymity of the source. Under transparency and citizen participation in society seeks to build justice and democracy.”

The web site is in Spanish but if you use the Chrome web browser, it offers you the ability to translate. Use Google Chrome and enter this web site address:https://mexicoleaks.mx/

Then make sure you choose the option to translate from Spanish into English. After you successfully do that, the web site should read perfectly in English.