Making instructions crystal clear

[regolith]

A while back my new laptop needed repairs.
It had been bothering me a little that when the old laptop finally stopped turning on there were three big files of photo folders I hadn't backed up, covering the two months prior to the laptop's death. So I decided I would take the old laptop and my external hard drive in as well and ask them to try and access those photos and put them on the ext. drive.
I gave them the approximate names of the folders and the dates.

Called them the next day and they told me yes, they'd managed to break into the laptop's hard drive and transfer my photos over. It was taking a bit longer to figure out how to turn the new one on.

I've just accessed the external hard drive for the first time since then. There's a file there called 'pictures from old laptop'. Clicked on it, anticipating that I would see all those really good photos I took in Jan 2013 again.
"Are these even my photos?"
No, they weren't. The laptop had been passed on to me from three previous owners within the family and not one of those pictures in the file was more recent than 2009. The computer techs had simply taken a file that some previous owner had labelled 'pictures' - the thousand or so photos I'd hoped to find on the ext. hard drive aren't there.

First lesson: back up frequently.
Second lesson: if you ask a second person to do something, make your instructions idiot-proof.

 

[regolith]

I took around forty photos this day and only transferred about half a dozen to the desktop computer at the time.

different day

 

[Ryder]

Nice pictures. Nice cows.

 

[Jogeephus]

Ditto that!

Saw an advertisement for a device which will serve as your own personal cloud. I don't know if its any good or not but the idea sounds pretty neat.

Sometimes things go wrong even when you give perfect instructions.

 

[Ryder]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Commercialfarmer]

SkyDrive may be an option for you. Don't know how much memory you can store, but you can pull up documents and pics from any computer. I can save pictures directly from my phone.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

regolith.....that pic of all the cows going away, really like that one.

Jogee....thanks for the laugh!!

Katherine

 

[D2Cat]

General McArthur said to his communications officer, "Don't ever issue a communique that can be understood. Always issue a communique that can not be misunderstood." Sounds simple enough, but often times very difficult to do.

 

[Jogeephus]

In my business we call it "making it idiot proof". Doing that is much much harder than it might seem because there are some really impressive idiots out there.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Ditto that!

Saw an advertisement for a device which will serve as your own personal cloud. I don't know if its any good or not but the idea sounds pretty neat.

Sometimes things go wrong even when you give perfect instructions.

I wonder if this was a photoshop prank? Notice the misspelling?

 

[regolith]

I just thought it meant the painter was an idiot twice over...
Good laugh Jo.


The cows walking are on their way home for milking, we do this twice a day, every day for most of the lactation. They don't really need the dog but she likes to think she's doing something.

 

[dun]

There are those that even with the instructions written on the heel as to how to pour pee out of a boot they still wouldn;t get it right

 

[piedmontese]

Just curious as to why you milk so many different breeds? Here n the US most dairyman milk Holsteins,no doubt because they give the most milk.

 

[regolith]

Just curious as to why you milk so many different breeds? Here n the US most dairyman milk Holsteins,no doubt because they give the most milk.

I like variety.
It's a crossbred herd. Lot of farmers here milk the cross between HolsteinFriesian/Jersey.
I started out aiming for a 3way cross that included Brown Swiss. I still use a bit of BS but the calving difficulty is too high for an average crossbred cow - so now doing a bit of experimenting with other breeds for the second outcross. Most of the matings are to Jersey, about 1/3 to Holstein and other breeds.
Plenty of Holstein herds here doing fine on all-grass but I can never keep more than a handful of the purebreds in the herd; they keep dying or getting culled. I've got two ten year olds and an eight year old in the herd that are straight Holstein, some younger ones too but they don't look like they'll be here for long.

 

[piedmontese]

I have a lot of family in the dairy business and that's where I came from too yrs ago. An 8 yr old Holstein is rare around here. I like the looks of your herd a lot. They sure don't look as boney as a lot of dairy cattle I see. I got a lot of respect for you dairymen. Not many are willing to work so hard for so little. I don't know what it's like where you're at but over here milk prices are BS. Sad to see many family businesses give up after yrs and have nothing to show for it.

 

[dun]

Rather then BS why not try Montbeliard, that crossed on Holstein has been a pretty popular cross. The rap on BS has been that they eat like a Holstein and milk like a Jersey

 

[piedmontese]

Does anyone still milk shorthorn? From what I remember they were big and ate a lot but didn't milk that much.

 

[dun]

Does anyone still milk shorthorn? From what I remember they were big and ate a lot but didn't milk that much.

We have a Milking Shorthorn dairy just down the road. Cows are about midway in size between Holsten and Jersey

 

[regolith]

I only have the one Montbeliard:

Still got nearly twenty straws of her sire in the bank. She's easily the largest animal in the herd, but she's also out of a pretty big cow. Two year old in that photo, she's three now. I absolutely mean to put some more of those straws in cows but they've been sitting there for three years unused.

I used a shorthorn/red Holstein cross sire and got two heifers, that would be the same age as 36 above. I wouldn't use that bull again. Won't hold him against the breed though. There was a milking shorthorn herd not far from where I was farming before. Liked the cattle, moderate size, very placid. The milk was poor but they were grazing on a very hard farm.
Got a few Swedish Red and Ayrshire cross calves on the ground this year, used more Ayrshire at mating and plan to order a different Swedish Red bull (who should transmit better udders) this autumn. I think temperament is going to turn me against the Ayrshire even though I've been careful to pick docile sires.
I've just used 5 - 6 straws Brown Swiss a year the last three years and got two heifers last spring and two the spring before. All the ones I'm milking are by one sire and all above average production but not at the top level of the herd. They're big, but similar in size to the larger H/J F1s.

btw the 'lack of bone' is why I really wanted those photos back. I put a lot of work into getting the weight back on them after their first spring on that farm, and not long after the photos were taken we were heading into a long dry spell.

 

[Rafter S]

In my business we call it "making it idiot proof". Doing that is much much harder than it might seem because there are some really impressive idiots out there.

I know what you mean. Every time I think I have something idiot proof someone else invents a better idiot.