Spent some time rereading Wikipedia's rules...

I worked a bit on a Wikipedia article (stub class, of low importance--so I couldn't mess up much). I think I pared down some of the speculation and made the content more objective. I added references to the historian who (apparently) got the whole moon-eyed mess started. I truly hope I'm not the one who propagated moon eyes by putting them in the Wikipedia article in the first place. But if so, it would have gotten there anyway. The "fact" of an old myth has been picked up and repeated in state-park brochures. I think the stuff was already in the article when I first edited it a few years ago. I just tried to cite the facts and remove the speculation, or qualify it by adding historical references (to show how the "fact" came to be repeated). Even in doing that, I guess I broke several Wikipedia rules, which are pretty complicated. They don't want "original research," which is hard to avoid, since they also don't want plagiarism. (It's hard to rewrite a thing or summarize it without accidentally putting an original thought or statement in there). Cite a newspaper, but not if the newspaper cited Wikipedia (circular citation--and I'm supposed to track down the newspaper's sources)? Cite a website, but only if it has been archived. (And I know that... how?) They beg for citations, but then scold if citations are: primary (better to use secondary); not authoritative (but--isn't primary more authoritative than secondary?); too old; too new; too in-between. Yesterday, I dug up a citation from Official Records to cite something on a Civil War event, thinking, "Wow, O.R., best citation you can get on anything Civil War." Now, I have to wonder--did my reference to O.R. (Official Records) break Wiki's rule on "O.R." (original research)? Isn't my very quest to look up a citation for Wiki "O.R."? Is a published letter from U.S. Grant too "primary" for something on the Civil War? But... the very fact that it was collected by the War Department, edited by a bunch of guys (don't even get me started on how to cite five authors), and published in O.R. makes a source secondary, doesn't it? Or does it? Sigh... I'm so confused. No one has complained yet about the use of Official Records to cite the article, and no one has reverted my citation. I really am trying to do things right. The only time I ever log in to W in the first place is to fix some obvious grammatical error, such as "The man went the the store." I go in and fix it. Then I get drawn into some old article I edited five years ago. I did (I hope) manage to set up the auto-archive thingy on my "Wikipedia Talk" page, so maybe I won't see those old articles when next I log in. It's difficult to know what to edit in the first place. The editors seem to want people to lend a hand, and say they can use a person's special knowledge; but really, can they? My knowledge is only useful for O.R., I think--or maybe that's just what I enjoy.

Here's what Wikipedia says: "Don't be afraid to edit – anyone can edit almost every page, and we are encouraged to be bold!"* Saying it and meaning it are two different things. Big controversies get started over picky little things! How anyone ever manages to deliver 5,000 words on J-Lo's new lipstick color (with citations, no less), I'll never know.

Windows 10 - my first experience with Windows Phone-Tech Support. Meh.

I took the plunge. I upgraded to Windows 10. The devil kept asking me to do it. And now, I've just had my first experience with Windows phone-tech support. Meh.

Microsoft products are notoriously user-unfriendly, perhaps because so many features are generic, and are intended to work over a variety of apps, instead of being designed for one app, with specific, intuitive features. I, a lover of computer technology (in theory) have grown to fear technology (in practice).

In spite of my lingering fear of technology ~ and perhaps because of my love for some Utopian idea of it ~ I accepted that twenty-fifth offer from the Devil Himself and upgraded to Windows 10. I actually did this because my niece kept bugging me to do it, saying, "It's free! You'd be crazy not to!" And because my late Daddy always said, "Dang, girl! You always take what's free. You take a b'iled monkey, if it's free!" (That's "boiled monkey," for those of you outside of Appalachia).

After installing Windows 10, my first impressions weren't totally negative, as they often are with Microsoft products. Still, I had some issues. Windows 10 claims to let you add multiple email accounts. That option really just lets you add aliases. Sounds good in theory; but in practice... The "aliases" don't seem useful. Only certain email addresses can be used, apparently. The app refuses to accept my main Yahoo Business account, or my Windstream (ISP) email account. It accepts and recognizes my GMail address, my Hotmail address, and an alternate Yahoo Business Mail address. Clicking on "Mail" doesn't actually give me the option of using an alias, though. It just takes me straight to GMail. When I click on a link for a different alias, it treats the alias as a mail recipient, not a sender. Why would I want to send an email to my own alias?!

I battled these aliases for awhile, but realized that creating them didn't solve my problem. So next, I used the "Ask me anything" thingy that Windows 10 provides. "How can I merge two Microsoft accounts?" I asked. The thingy took me to a forum. Answer: two Microsoft accounts cannot be merged. One tech wrote that they can be linked instead, but the instructions lead nowhere (literally and figuratively). His instructions must not be for Windows 10. I was discouraged, but not devastated.

I hated logging on with Hotmail (which I rarely use). Still, I knew I could log on that way, whether I wanted to or not, and just feel inconvenienced about it. Frustrating, Mr. Spock. But not fatal.

Being stubborn, I persisted. I even managed to change my log-on to my main Yahoo Business Mail address. I thought that solved the problem. Truly, I still thought the problem was one of log-on preferences.  I didn't realize the problem was one of accounts. As I've learned, I have two separate Microsoft accounts, under two separate email addresses. In changing my logon, I only changed what I have to type to get to my desktop. Yes, I do enter my favorite Yahoo email address to log on--but it still doesn't give me access to the OneDrive account associated with my old Hotmail address.

I also didn't realize that the problem would be compounded as apps were added to my machine. The real problem became apparent after my first restart. The restart required a log-on (my Yahoo Mail address). Trouble is, that logs me into my newer Microsoft account, established under that email/user name. At first log-on, up came the option to install OneDrive on my computer.

Glad to do it! Wait a minute. My OneDrive is empty! Where are all my files?! See, I have used OneDrive online for quite some time, but ~ you guessed it. OneDrive (online) is under my other, older Microsoft account, my Hotmail address. I suppose the second account would require a totally different logon, if such is allowed in Windows 10. (Ack! Flashback to nightmares of merged forums and newly unrecognizable logons and passwords!)

The problem has manifested itself in this way: I have my old online OneDrive at Live.com, which is full of files and backups. I now have a new, empty OneDrive app on my computer, which is pretty useless unless I want to spend the rest of my natural life backing up old files and adding new files to this new OneDrive. (I can still get to the old online Drive and my files, thank God ~ just not through the OneDrive computer app).

Back to forum. How do I merge Microsoft accounts? Again, they cannot be merged. What to do? Call Microsoft. Yes, for the first time ever, I used Windows phone support. It was a complete washout. At first, Support just disconnected me, perhaps by mistake, or perhaps with foreboding, because the pre-recorded voice guessed what was to come.

Not to be so easily quashed, I called again. The second time (after hold please, hold please, hold please and literally the worst canned music I've ever heard) I got a human being. I started my question as a problem about logging onto Windows 10. "I've created two separate Microsoft accounts by accident," I said. "My new logon for Windows 10 is linked to one Microsoft account, but not the other. I need both." Sorry...

When the first phone-tech guy couldn't answer my question, he transferred me to another tech. Hold, hold, hold. Human! Yay? Nay.  I had to start all over and describe my problem anew. That's when I made a critical error. I did not tell him that I was having problems with my Windows 10 logon. I told him that my OneDrive app won't let me access my online files, because I have two separate MS accounts. He dispensed with my problem immediately: "Microsoft does not provide phone support for OneDrive." Thank you, goodbye. He was actually nicer than that, and seemed sad that he couldn't help.

Now, it occurs to me that, if I had thought to re-frame my question as a problem with Windows logon, I might have gotten some help. And now for another question... why can't these techs read my mind? Okay, silly question. But, why couldn't this supposedly intelligent, experienced fellow realize that my problem could be described as a Windows logon problem? I'm not the first user to stumble into the sad realization that two Microsoft accounts exist, and that multiple complications will arise from this.

Later, in my "start" folder, I played around with account settings. I've found an option which seems to have allowed me to "link" two Microsoft accounts. We'll see. If I have solved the problem, it is without any help from Microsoft Support.

Oh, and by the way... after the tech call, and after the restart: that search thingy will not work for web searches anymore. No ideas, there. Perhaps I have inadvertently blocked Bing.

Mild-mannered rant over.

My advice is, don't accept a boiled monkey, even if it's free.

Ghosts, Phantasms, Customer Service...

So, Yahoo customer service does exist. Heretofore, I had thought that this was a figment of Yahoo's own imagination. I just spoke to a tech. Like the M&M in the Santa Claus commercial, I may just faint. Perhaps the problem was that I was using the wrong help screens. I was searching for help using the Yahoo Mail tutorials, rather than the Yahoo Business Mail tutorials. Apparently it makes a difference. Either that, or the new kid on the block (Marissa Mayer) made them reinstate customer service. Whatever the case, after hours of searching through that interlocking maze of tutorials, I found myself within the business-mail pages and there, upon my screen, appeared that elusive phone number. I called, and voila! Immediate assistance. The Yahoo tech was polite, knowledgeable, and helpful. She fixed a problem (partially of my own making) that had caused me much frustration. I really do hope that Yahoo regains their standing in the world. I've used their hosting plan for a long time now. It works for me! It's three a.m. on the east coast. I go to bed now...

We Own the Web...

For non-techies, the WYSIWYG editors gave us a ray of hope. I found out right away that SiteBuilder and similar tools were sticky and complicated. They were easy to break. Once broken, they weren't always easy to fix. Yahoo used SiteBuilder (I think). Sometimes, what I saw wasn't what I got. There'd be big gaps between sections, maybe. (I was still hung up on the idea of designing a tight, but clean, "layout.") Not only was "what I saw" not what I got, but what I saw wasn't what other people got, either. My site still looked way different on different machines. This about drove me crazy. It wasn't that every little aspect of it had to be the same. Little tiny style differences wouldn't kill me. They might keep me awake at night, and thus shorten my life, but they wouldn't kill me. What bothered me was that my site varied a good bit from one machine to the other. Sometimes it just looked horrible. I went back to HTML right away, but it was never satisfactory. Tables were the only way I could control margins, and yet w3c and others were screaming, "Don't use tables! Tables are not meant for layout!" I didn't even understand what they meant, back then. I mean, everybody was using tables for layout. If they weren't for layout, what the heck were they for? (Oh, like scientific tables? Elemental tables? Geological tables? That kinda thing? Bor-r-r-ing!) Anyway, I couldn't understand how all these other sites managed nice, clean, brochure-or-book-like pages, but I couldn't do it. And meanwhile, all the tech gurus out there were warning me not to use WYSIWYG, not to try to control style, not to create any broken code. I mean, essentially, they were saying, "Shut up and go away. You don't belong on the Web, and you don't have a right to say or design anything. We are the techs and we own the Web!"

GoDaddy's Instant Page Changed My IP?

It strikes me as ironic that I made the same mistake again, after all these years. I did just what I said I'd never do: bought names from one provider, and bought hosting from another. I did it because that's what everybody said to do. Of course, most of the people saying that are these SEO-minded, get-rich-quick schemers who want to park a bunch of ads. Buy lots of domains! they say. Buy them on GoDaddy and host them elsewhere! Nothing wrong with that, if you know what you're doing. Obviously, I'm one of those people who don't; and there are many, many like me, for I found literally hundreds of me, my Doppelgangers, crying like week-old noobs on numerous forums: Wah! GoDaddy hijacked my domain. I can't move my site. Wah, wah, wah! It's not that simple. GoDaddy gives you that old, familiar, ugly cPanel, all defaulted to workable IPs. They leave it entirely up to you to mess with their default IPs at your own risk. They provide lots of tutorials. And other hosts (Weebly, Google) give you tutorials telling you how to redirect from GoDaddy. But since GoDaddy's whole site seems to be in the process of redesigning itself to suit people like me (tech illiterates) half of the instructions in their tutorials (and in everyone else's tutorials) tell you to click on .... some button that doesn't exist. I've spent a lot of time on their site trying to find the Google Webmasters Tools icon, the Webhosting button, the Whatever thingy. Those things have migrated. GoDaddy's entire site is now devoted to selling cheap hosting plans along with cheap domain names. I *think* that might be why it's so hard to find the button you're looking for ~ they're not going to make it easy for you to click on "Somebody Else" as a host.

For the record (and it could change tomorrow, so do some massive searching before you plug in any IP from Clueless, here) these were the IP numbers that were used for my A Record on GoDaddy:

Default (GoDaddy Shared Servers): 64.202.189.170
InstantPage Server: 97.74.42.79

I haven't a clue as to whether those are good, bad, or indifferent. I still don't know whether the problem had to do with shared servers, or just my redirecting after the fact. I suspect it was the latter. I probably just did things in the wrong order. If I had it to do over again, and if I were going to have one registrar and another host, I wouldn't do it with the same domain. I'd use something like "mydomain.org" for my static page and I'd build my site on a different, but slightly similar name (not a sub-domain): say, "mydomain.com" or "my2nddomain.org." Yep, that's what I'd do. Hindsight ~ what a concept!