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Yeah, I agree, and even would have done so in this case (despite the files not being that "important") but it wouldn't have arrived in time. While I wouldn't s

by veidr 5y ago

Yeah, I agree, and even would have done so in this case (despite the files not being that "important") but it wouldn't have arrived in time. While I wouldn't say my dad's "not smart" like the title of this thread, he is 70 or whatever, and not technical, and would probably not be able to convert a fedexed HDD from his old iMac to a working setup on his new Mac Mini.

mindslight 5y ago
I don't know how your relationship is, but when I was in your position, I set up a remote access solution. For me it was tinc+ssh, but I'm sure there are many equivalent solutions in GUI land that will let you login remotely. It's easy to talk someone through physically plugging in a hard drive, and then you can do the copying yourself. This of course relies on your dad not expecting his computer to be private from you, but I doubt there are many people who aren't technically engaged but expect the utmost in digital privacy.
- veidr 5y ago
  No, he is fine with me having remote access, it's just that he lives in USA and the internet there is so bad (not everywhere, but where he lives there was only AT&T 2.5Mbps DSL and "12Mbps" (it wasn't) Comcast. So the remote option technically did exist, and if my dad was gonna die or something if we didn't recover those files, I could have done it. But there was like 20-30 second menu latency with remote access (partly Apple's fault, the Windows machine is 5x better with the same connection, but it seems macOS can't forego its stupid animations no matter what).
  - mindslight 5y ago
    I didn't mean to continue pushing you on why you didn't restore the backups, just making a general suggestion. As technical people we've got this tendency to think that we can set up systems for people to take care of themselves and then walk away. And that's great, but sometimes you just have to stay fully involved and take things over. On the technical side, it's probably because RDP is well optimized. There has got to be something for Mac that works similarly well, but I can't give you any pointers. I was dealing with DSL as well (6M/384k), so ssh was an advantage.
    - veidr 5y ago
      Yeah, you are not wrong. Also, although I recently moved off of Mac to Linux for most desktop computing, I think I tried every single remote desktop solution for macOS over those years. The best thing I ever found (in terms of being able to remote desktop into a 5K display and have usable latency and at least eventually show the screen at full resolution) was AnyDesk. For my last year on the Mac, that is what I recommended for remote desktop. (It does work on Linux too, but on Linux I find xrdp works fine, just like on Windows.) One tip: If you are connecting from macOS, using Microsoft Remote Desktop, that app crashes with 6K and 8K screen sizes. But there is an app called Royal TSX which can be an RDP client, and it handles those resolutions fine.
  - causi 5y ago
    How is any of that Backblaze's fault?

by veidr 5y ago

mindslight 5y ago

I don't know how your relationship is, but when I was in your position, I set up a remote access solution. For me it was tinc+ssh, but I'm sure there are many equivalent solutions in GUI land that will let you login remotely. It's easy to talk someone through physically plugging in a hard drive, and then you can do the copying yourself. This of course relies on your dad not expecting his computer to be private from you, but I doubt there are many people who aren't technically engaged but expect the utmost in digital privacy.

veidr 5y ago
No, he is fine with me having remote access, it's just that he lives in USA and the internet there is so bad (not everywhere, but where he lives there was only AT&T 2.5Mbps DSL and "12Mbps" (it wasn't) Comcast. So the remote option technically did exist, and if my dad was gonna die or something if we didn't recover those files, I could have done it. But there was like 20-30 second menu latency with remote access (partly Apple's fault, the Windows machine is 5x better with the same connection, but it seems macOS can't forego its stupid animations no matter what).
- mindslight 5y ago
  I didn't mean to continue pushing you on why you didn't restore the backups, just making a general suggestion. As technical people we've got this tendency to think that we can set up systems for people to take care of themselves and then walk away. And that's great, but sometimes you just have to stay fully involved and take things over. On the technical side, it's probably because RDP is well optimized. There has got to be something for Mac that works similarly well, but I can't give you any pointers. I was dealing with DSL as well (6M/384k), so ssh was an advantage.
  - veidr 5y ago
    Yeah, you are not wrong. Also, although I recently moved off of Mac to Linux for most desktop computing, I think I tried every single remote desktop solution for macOS over those years. The best thing I ever found (in terms of being able to remote desktop into a 5K display and have usable latency and at least eventually show the screen at full resolution) was AnyDesk. For my last year on the Mac, that is what I recommended for remote desktop. (It does work on Linux too, but on Linux I find xrdp works fine, just like on Windows.) One tip: If you are connecting from macOS, using Microsoft Remote Desktop, that app crashes with 6K and 8K screen sizes. But there is an app called Royal TSX which can be an RDP client, and it handles those resolutions fine.
- causi 5y ago
  How is any of that Backblaze's fault?