Homebrew and Bash on Mac

 Fans of gfortran (that's the Fortran I've used most in my life) on Macs say you should install Homebrew first, then it's easy.

Homebrew recommends installing BASH before installing Homebrew.

BASH recommends installing Homebrew before BASH.

This is the kind of issue that drove me from open source systems to Mac.

Fortunately, there's now a pkg installer from Homebrew for Apple Silicon macs.

(I wonder if they could have worked out a command that would work in zshell.)

Update: The solution is that there's a pkg available with sh.

 

Migration Nightmare followed by Success

In three days, record time for me, I migrated to my new Mac, the first one in 12 years.  (It's a Mini M4 Pro.). This was a bigger job than any previous migration by far, and it went very well but only after I abandoned the official Apple way of doing it:  Migration Assistant.  Apple should rename their Migration Assistant app "Migration Nightmare."  Basically it doesn't work well (or at all) over Ethernet and requires a direct Thunderbolt connection which is only easy if your old Mac has Thunderbolt 3 or higher, which came out in 2015.

One guy tried to do a migration similar to mine and it required 5 attempts which took him 3 days in all.  He carefully documented all his steps.  Ultimately he abandoned Ethernet completely (even with a direct Ethernet cable between the machines, it still crashed) and used a hodge podge of 4 different adapters to make a direct "Thunderbolt" connection (from Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 5) between the Macs, and that worked.  He managed to scrounge up all the adapters at "work" (which I can't do anymore).  He concluded that Migration Assistant simply doesn't work over Ethernet (in addition to being about 10-20 times slower than it should be...it said my Ethernet was clocked at 109MB/s but transfers were only occurring 6-35MB/s and mostly less than 10MB/s).

I've now had my two 8 hour attempts to get it to work over Ethernet, and now I'm planning to simply restoring my files the "old fashioned way" I've always done in the past using ethernet and scp (or at least that's what I tried first, and after it failed and I realized it wouldn't have been a good idea anyway, I used Finder.)

Each time I ran Migration Nightmare it crashed in the same weird way.  The New Mac says it is trying to reconnect, the Old Mac is back on its starting page asking me what kind of migration I'd like to do.

At that point, the ONLY option I have on the New Mac is to cancel migration completely, and there does not appear to be any way a canceled migration (which may have run for a whole day or more) can be restarted.  If I only restart the migration assistant on the source Mac it does not continue the migration at all, the Migration Assistant on the new Mac doesn't notice it being available again.

Then, I'm presented with the option to RESET the New Mac to factory settings.  I first tried NOT doing that, and I discovered that despite having copied a million files (over about 5 hours), NONE OF MY FILES WERE EVEN VISIBLE!   So I ended up having to reset the New Mac from an option in Preferences (which I didn't even know existed before, and I didn't see it until I pulled down the scroll bar, my scroll wheel not even working yet).

This is the kind of crap I would have expected from Microsoft.

The first time the Migration died, I presumed it was because it detected an issue with an old Logitech app (which I haven't even used in ages, if ever).  It had reported that error beneath the "Trying to Reconnect" dialog.

Before I actually tried it, I had figured that Migration Assistant would either (1) nicely tell me I could not use these old applications and/or refuse to copy them (but not summarily abort the whole process) or (2) nicely guide me through the process of obtaining newer versions (now I'm sure that would be dreaming, but that was indeed the kind of thing I thought about when I worked briefly in Software Migration...indeed I wrote a program that translated scripts written in the old CAD language to scripts written in the new CAD language).

But reading other horror stories of users attempting to use Migration Assistant, it appears my issue probably was not related to the Logitech app at all, it was just coincidence that Migration Assistant had warned me about that sometime prior to hanging up.   Funny it didn't warn me about any others.

The second time, I disabled the Migration of apps altogether, only including My Files, Other Files, and System Settings.  But it still died the same way (and I still saw the warning about the Logitech app too, but it was more clear to me now that was just a warning and not necessarily why it failed).

I was thinking of trying a 3rd time, just asking for migration of My Files, but seeing other reports online, even that probably won't work either, so I didn't bother.

I found out later Apple does make a Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter for the princely sum of $49.  That, plus a regular Thunderbolt 2 cable could connect my two Macs.   But Apple no longer sells Thunderbolt 2 cables.  You can get a used Apple one for around $49 on ebay (I think that was list price) or a number of cheaper ones.  There are single cables with the right connectors on both ends, but they are only intended for mini displayport and not lightning 2 (though the connector looks the same).

*****

After wasting a day and burning a lot of stress calories over Migration Assistant, I decided to do it myself "the old fashioned way" just as I have migrated to new systems all other times during my 55 years in computing.

Pretty much everything about that was fine if not better than I've experienced before.  Generally I'm still a happy Mac camper.  Migration Assistant was an exception.

Not that I necessarily recommend doing this sort of manual migration to others, especially computer neophytes or the easily spooked.

Basically I just used Finder.  I connected to my old Mac via the "Connect to Server" option under the "Go" menu tab.  (Not entirely intuitive but I've done this before.)  But in order for that to work, I needed to turn on File Sharing in the Preferences under Sharing on the old Mac (which I'd never done before, though I'd done it for earlier Macs so I could access their files on the old Mac back when it was the new Mac).

I had also previously turned on remote logins thinking I'd use ssh and scp to do the copying, but then I remembered one major flaw of using "scp -rp".  The scp command unhelpfully follows soft links, which I use a lot these days for "virtual playlists" for dumb programs that don't accept .m3u playlists.  Following soft links a lot of junk might be copied over and over.  The regular "cp" command has an option to NOT follow soft links, but "scp" apparently does not.  This is a major flaw in scp (and in cp itself, IMO, I believe soft links should be treated like text files whose data should be retained exactly). 

And actually, if I had tried a mass "scp -rp" into the home directory, there may have been many other issues, as I discovered using Finder.

I did first try selecting everything in my old home folder and then dragging it to the new home folder.  That failed because Mac doesn't want me to write over certain previous folders, including especially Desktop.  (Perhaps I could have used the option+drag to do a "copy" instead of a "move" but I didn't think of that.)

So what I did was copy the home files in batches around each of the built-in folders, then I copied all the files within the old built-in folders to the new ones.

I think the built-in folders were these:  Desktop, Documents, Download, Applications, (Library), Movies, Music, Pictures.

When I ran into conflicts with pre-existing files, I kept the files originally on the new Mac figuring the others might not be compatible.  There weren't many of these except for in the Pictures folder, and the Library folder which was invisible to Finder except when I tried to copy over all the files from my home folder.  (Library becomes visible when you show Hidden Files.). Then Finder told me I could not overwrite the Library folder (which I hadn't previously seen).  So I took a look at all the files in the Library folder and determined they were ALL files created by various programs I run or have run and that I'd probably better leave them alone. They may not be compatible with the newer versions of those programs I am installing.  When I re-install programs, they will re-install whatever they need in Library.  It's fine that Mac normally keeps this invisible and refused to write over it.

When all was done, I compared what was on the old and new macs generally using Terminal CLI command which I'll explain.

I first made lists of the files in the new and old home folders like this:

(On old mac):

cd; ls > allhomeold

(On new mac):

cd; ls >allhome

I then dragged the allhomeold file from the Finder window pointing to the old mac into the Finder window for the new mac.  Then I went back to Terminal and gave the "diff" command:

diff allhomeold allhome

For the home folders this was very simple.  Every file was there except a few I had skipped and some editor temporaries marked with #.  I repeated the process for all the built-in folders and it got pretty complicated, so I redirected the output to a file and examined that file in emacs (which was one of the first things I installed on my new mac), like this:

diff allpixold allpix >pixdiff

emacs -nw pixdiff

But then for the built-in folders I decided to be sure that no subfolders had been lost.  To do that, I used commands like this:

find -s Pictures >allpixold

I first tried this without the -s (sort) option and it didn't work at all.  Then I repeated it with the -s and it still didn't seem to be working, because was was mistakenly copying the new mac file back to the old Mac instead of the other way around.  At this juncture I might point out that I really like how the new MacOS helpfully keeps the shared folders open and accessible with tabs in Finder.  I don't remember it working that way in 10.13.6, shared folders only existed in one Finder window and when that window closed they went into limbo.  Perhaps I hadn't set the Finder Preferences to keep showing shared locations in the sidebar.

When there were differences, I decided what needed to be copied over and what didn't.

Because of poor planning, I ended up copying over one folder (alttunes--a folder I created for rock music) twice, once onto the home folder and once onto my expansion drive.  That made it easy to do a bit-for-bit test like this:

cd; diff -r alttunes /Volumes/X2/alttunes

I had previously tested the bytes used with "df -k" on both folders and was disturbed by the fact they were slightly different.  This recursive diff scan revealed the presence of .fseventsd files which added a few more bytes to one of them.  This was illuminating.  Other than that, there was noting else of importance.  No files I had deliberately placed were missing, just little hidden files that Mac adds.

That reminded me that I had overlooked the hidden files in the home folder itself.  Somehow I had never been able to remember the keyboard shortcut for that, but I looked it up and actually it's pretty intuitive: OPT-Shift-.  which intuitively means "toggle the dot hidden files option".

One of the key ways that doing the migration "by hand" was better than simply using Migration Assistant, other than the fact that it actually worked, was that I learned a few things (like .fseventsd) in the process, and since both systems were running during the process I could easy search for answers in an open browser, and I was doing a fair amount of that during the "by hand" migration.

Once I displayed the dot files in my old home folder, I individually coped the ones over which are still relevant.  Many of these I created myself (my program "mplay" creates a hidden file named .mplay for example).  Others were for software I no longer use (such as .Activeperl) so I didn't copy those.

Finder seems to be at least slightly aware of what files should not be overwritten (as when it refused to let me move over folders like Desktop).

Doing the deep scan with "find" command revealed that I had missed all my old Photos when I skipped over the pre-existing file "Photos Library.photoslibrary".  So I copied over the three old libraries from the old mac into a new folder on the new mac and then tried to import them into the new Photos application.  That worked for one of them, the iPhotos library.  But it did not work for the old Photos library from my old Mac.  Photos said the library was not compatible and the photos in it would have to be exported on an older Mac system.  So, on the old Mac, I "exported" all the photos into a new folder, which I then copied to the new Mac.  And then I could import that folder of actual photos (.JPG and .HEIC files most) into the photos application.  I'd actually never merged my older photos like this before.

I reinstalled all my programs by downloading them from authoritative websites, including the App Store.  This all went smoother than I expected.  I was especially afraid my slide viewing program Phoenix Slides would not be supported anymore since it's original developer abandoned it a decade ago.  But I found a new version at an authoritative website.

One thing however remains a big problem.  I could not install Java.  Every attempt to install Java ends with a Mac dialog showing "System Error 0."  I see lots of people online complaining about this but have not yet found a working solution.  Every posted solution I've tried didn't work.  It's as if Apple has a team dedicated to keeping Java off Macs, and Oracle doesn't give a damn about non-commercial Java users.  So that's at least one thing I'll continue to need my old Mac for, at least until I get it fixed, if I ever can.

I was jazzed by the fact that Apple still includes Tcl (tclsh) so all my Tcl programs worked without a hitch.  Apple has long threatened to remove Tcl, and when you start tclsh the first time under Sequoia it warns you about that.  I could always re-install Tcl just as I did for Emacs under Sequoia, but it's nicer for people who download my programs from Source Forge that they do not have to.

Another nice thing is that my favorite video editing app, the very simple Video Edit Pro - Video Trim still works on Apple Silicon Macs thanks to Rosetta, which I downloaded from apple.

I haven't actually migrated everything.  I also need to recompile programs I've written in C++, for example.  But I'm now using the new Mac as my primary computer, and as I'm writing this I haven't even logged into my old Mac in 10 hours, even though I'm planning on keeping it around for the foreseeable future for the things I know I'm missing and others I may not know about yet.

And there was also the usual logging in to websites.  I now keep a physical book of passwords.

I'm disappointed that Apple has removed the optical digital output from the Mini and other computers (I see it's not even available on the Studio).  It used to be so cute how Macs had an optical digital output built into the headphone jack.  Now I'm buying a KanexPro HDMI de-embedder to extract optical digital output from the HDMI.  This will mean one more box on my table and it cost almost $100 including tax and shipping.

Update: Java installed today, I did exactly what I did two times before, I downloaded the ARM version (bit identical to what I downloaded before, I determined later) and went through the usual steps.  This time, Java installed ok as I confirmed by the command "java -version". I have no explanation.  Perhaps the anti-Java team at Apple lightened up a bit.  I was prompted to try again after seeing an article that Google may now require it, but that can't be true I wondered later because Chrome can't even use it.

However I did get a "Privacy & Security" message saying Java was prevented from modifying apps.  I think I've usually imported Java into browsers when that was necessary anyway.  Chrome no longer supports Java directly anyway.  I later noticed there was an "allow" button and I tried it.  It opened the App Management tab in the Privacy and Security preferences where I could turn that on or off.  I turned it on briefly then turned it off.  No new applications appeared in my Apps.  Apparently Java also deletes its own apps if you haven't used them for awhile.  I don't like that, but I don't see any Java apps anyway.  My need for Java however is satisfied.  My Universal Devices launcher now connects to my ISY994i the way it should and I can edit my home control system.  So wherever it is, Java is there when I need it.  (I notice on Terminal there is a Java in /usr/bin.)

I installed both Roon and Sonos easily.  The problems came in getting them to work right.

When I opened Roon on the new Mac, it warned me that it detected another Roon server.  But it gave me the option to exit the old server and create a new server on this machine.  Great!  That's the kind of handshaking I pay plenty to Roon for.

Unfortunately, the same did not apply to importing playlist files.  I used mplay, my playlist generating program, to create a new playlist and it did not show up in Roon.  But strangely, a bunch of previously generated playlists, from my last system in which I had the "itunes" folder on the main harddrive, were there and still worked.

So what gives?  I tried many things but apparently the answer was that the old playlists that worked used a path like this:

/Users/charlespeterson/itunes

Whereas the new playlist used a path like this:

/Volumes/XP/itunes

(Where "XP" is the name of my external drive.)

Well, it turned out the old playlist worked precisely because I created a convenient soft link on my home folder that links to the XP drive, so the old path "still works" through the soft link.  But the new one, which is technically more correct, didn't?

While I was first running Roon, multiple Mac dialogs appeared asking me if I wanted to give Roon access to my files, then access to my media, then access to my XP drive.  I said yes to all of these.

But perhaps the part of Roon which searches for playlists did not get this access?  I did not answer this question, instead I modified my playlist script to use SED to edit newly generated playlists back to the old path.

Later when I finally found the solution to the SONOS problem described below, I noticed that RAATServer had not been granted full file access.  So I gave it, but that still did not fix the problem.  Playlists seem to have to use the soft linked pathname rather than the real one that goes through /Volumes.  Though I'm suspicious this could be an example of Apple securanoia and/or a MacOS bug, but it could also be a bug in Roon and/or Raatserver.

After getting Roon to work with my playlists using the SED modification, I discovered that Sonos wasn't working either, even though at first I thought that it was.

Using the Sonos app on my Mac, I was able to add my four music folders to Sonos without much issue.  But when I updated my music library, no music appeared.

Before I discovered this problem, I mistakenly deleted all the music folders on my old Mac.  I went back to my old Mac, and found that the now obsolescent Sonos app refused to add the folders back in.  So I had screwed myself to the wall on this, either I get Sonos working on the new machine, or it doesn't work at all--the very sort of situation I'd been planning for years to avoid.

I tried all sorts of tricks, including using the soft links instead of the direct path.  Somehow Sonos figured out the trick, and always resolved it to the direct path, which didn't work.

Finally I read this thread and understood what was going on.  There's a new security preference called Full Disk Access which needs to be enabled for every application which needs such disk access.  After giving this access to Sonos, AND the SonosLibraryServer, Sonos on the new Mac was able to load my music.

Unlike Roon, Sonos seems to allow you to have multiple servers, but not on obsolescent machines.

I don't really mind securanoia in the form of hidden files, or dialogues that you have to approve various kinds of access.  The problem comes from when those don't work properly, and stuff doesn't run even though you have always said "yes" to every dialog.  It should not be necessary, IMO, to plumb all the depths of the preferences to get your apps to run.

I personally would prefer to have a slider, much as with the "Energy" preference, where you can select from "Most Secure" to "Least Secure."  Every time, I would choose the "Least Secure" option so that I could run all my apps and programs without secret (or hard to find) detention centers operated by the security czar.

I've been running computers for 55 years and never had a problem with viruses, etc, but endless problems (including those reported here) with software features intended to make me more "secure" (including essentially trashing one Windows machine because of the Virus Protector...I am totally opposed to third party virus protectors because such companies have an incentive to create more viruses).  I am also not worried if spooks and hackers somehow see my files.  As far as I'm concerned, you could consider all the files on my computer a giant blog for which the more exposure the better, as long as those spying on it would be too insecure to ever admit it to my face.  I don't believe there is such a thing as computer security anyway.  As Unix pioneers determined a half century ago, the place for security is at the entrance to a LAN, not so much between the computers within it (and even moreso their attached drives).

I have never believed that securanoia is intended to protect US.  Mainly it's used to protect the vendor, perhaps in some cases to give them CYA for other faults.  Also it's used in Desktop Warfare to make apps and programs made by others less useable if they can be used at all.  So as long as you stay within the fold everything is fine, but start loading stuff made by others, especially by the smaller operators and individual programmers, and you will pay, and not because of them, but because of rules which prevent them from running anymore.

Still, I have been able to solve all my most pressing issues within a matter of days.  So far, I haven't been prevented from running anything, though it may have seemed so for hours on end, eventually fixes were found.

Speaking of Energy preferences, I went to load a folder on one of my external drive, a brand new Lacie with USB 3.2 and a USB-C connector, was taking a long time to load.  Funny because I had already turned off the drive sleeping (another default).  This encouraged me to try the "most" energy setting, though it seemed to make little difference and I went back to "auto" and I'll see if I have the slow folder loading problem again.  I don't want my machine running hot.

Generally things seem a bit faster with the 13 year newer mac (a bit faster, but not ten times faster).  I know from past upgrades, that overhead is usually added to software (usually for greater cuteness or securanoia) that cancels out much or all of any change in "responsiveness" even when the hardware gets thousands of times faster.  Go back to old computers, especially without windowing systems, and you will see they are usually very zippy.  I'll be on the lookout for more things that seem weirdly slow on the new machine.  

(I notice that Apple now warns about having large folders.  They should fix their OS to work as well with large folders as with smaller ones.  There's no excuse for an expensive computer like this to not be able to handle large folders!). Whenever possible I change folders to list view (which should be the default, but even though I've tried to make it the default it doesn't seem to stay that way).   Apple seems to be intent on stuffing their cuteness (and securanoia) down our throats regardless of the cost in useability.

But it also shows that whenever you run into snags, it's useful to search the internet in fairly sort order, because it's usually likely someone else has already experienced the problem and found the solution.  (However that wasn't useful for Roon playlists since hardly anyone makes them the way I do.)

I live in constant fear that features I rely on today will be broken by the updates of tomorrow (and largely for cuteness or securanoia).  But so far I'm still rolling along, and I just underwent one of the bigger upgrades ever, spanning 12 years.  This is much better than the primary competition.

I'd love to be free from the yoke of corporate imperialism and go full open source.  That way, in theory anyway, I wouldn't be subject to corporate indifference to my concerns, I could carry on no matter what.  But my experiences down that road were much worse over shorter spans.  I couldn't get things to work for starters.

Update: It does seem to be picking up, and getting considerably faster than my 2012 mac.  Finder windows open snappy now, and web pages render quicker.  Initially there was a lot of indexing going on, both by Mac apps (like Spotlight) and other apps like Roon.  Also the security operations are more quiescent both visibly and probably under the hood as well, reducing overhead.   I've loaded nearly every app in my mind, that I use on any regular basis, and also XCode and the XCode command line tools.  I did Hello World in both.  Next I'm going to get Fortran, so I can recompile programs from my past.  There were snags, but this has gone well and better than expected, the first time I can remember that.

Let Us Find the Con Just Right For You

Clickbait ads show promising tables of different options, such as different sets of exercises for people of different ages, shown in a neat little table.  But they're not quite legible.

Inevitably, such clickbait ads lead to your being asked something like 20 questions before you get to any actual information you can look at.

A lot of these questions are not entirely answerable.  Do I exercise every day, 5 times a week, 2 times, or none?  Well it depends on the week, and what you mean by "exercise."  Whatever answer I make I'm soon wishing I could go back and try the other answer.

We know that a profile of us is being built not only for their purposes, but for being sold (no doubt how they make most of their money).  Nevertheless, I've often been interested sufficiently in the final information that I answer these questions until they finally get too overwhelming and I just decide to bail (which seems to be happening in about 90% of all cases now).  

I'm thinking of setting a personal limit, like 3 questions.  If I haven't gotten any information after 3 questions, that's it, goodbye.

Zero might be better.

Another approach is to have you watch 30-60 minutes of glossy information-free "infomertial" before you get to any options, or you can even see the price of the magic elixir at the end of the tunnel.

I've sometimes watched these for quite awhile, but I'm getting tired of this approach too.  So 3 minutes and you're out.

Generally of course what I really wanted to see was not the product or service tailored to my needs, but the entire list of available options I can decide which one I want.  The farther it gets away from this, the more I'm going to lose interest.*

(*Sometimes I can find out such information with a web search in another window.  That's what I'm doing more and more, and not bothering with the clickbait ads.)

Everything does not need a rechargeable battery

 I'm becoming more and more annoyed by the way that rechargeable batteries are being included in everything.

Rechargeable batteries are not the ideal solution when:

a) the device is used infrequently, largely unpredictable intervals.  It may be a year or two down the road that you need that tire inflator with a rechargeable battery.  And when was the last time you recharged it?  If you have rechargeable batteries, you'd better have a calendar marked with recharging intervals so you don't forget.  Furthermore, without regular use (not to mention charging) rechargeable batteries will go bad long before they would otherwise.  Rechargeable batteries are like a pet, they need a custodian, it's an awesome responsibility.

b) you have something that you'd like to leave on the whole time, or have it come on when external power is provided.  Nowadays, with rechargeable batteries, you often can't even operate the device when it is connected to external power.  You have to wait to charge up the batteries first, then disconnect power, then you can use the device.  And go through that same ritual next time the batteries need charging.  In this case, it would be better if the device in question had a "time-out" feature, to time out after 3 or 6 hours or so, in case you left it turned on, you wouldn't want the frequent rude experience of learning you can't get started again the very next day without recharging again.

For things used infrequently, disposable batteries are the better solution, they can last for a decade (best stored outside of any device with trickle usage) or more.  So you just keep the batteries there next to the device, ready whenever you need it again (and not discharged again, dammit).

For things you'd just as soon keep running all day or a good part of it, they should be designed to run on widely available power (USB 5V, AC 120V) and only have optional batteries.

Amazon becoming impossible

Unless you know exactly what you want to order, you are not likely to find anything you want just by "searching" on Amazon anymore.  (And it's not much better on Google either.)

Searching for something more and more resembles calling in your song request to a 1950's "Top 40" radio station.  Whatever you ask for, it will get translated to one of those Top 40.

Speaking of which, something very much like that is true for virtually everything that sells or serves, including streaming music services.  No matter what you ask for, you will get steered to something they have an extra interest in selling.  You will have to try really really hard to find something with which you were previously familiar, unless you remember the exact title and artist, and perhaps even then.

And on Amazon, this almost always means being steered to a very similar looking set of Chinese knock-offs.  I remember when I was looking for motorized window shades.  Many with different names looked like they could have been made in the same Chinese factory. 

Most people are long familiar with these things, and perhaps one of the reasons why brick and mortar stores haven't entirely faded away, just all become big chains.

Today I wanted a glass jar with a glass top.  Without knowing the exact name for what I was looking for (a Bell Top Jar), it was simply impossible to find.  Actually, on Amazon, even if I do type in "Bell Top Jar" it still can't find it.  Google does find them.  Amazon will find everything BUT what I want.  It will even find Bell Jars, but not Bell Top Jars.

If I type in the name of a specific bell top jar made by Anchor Hocking, the Anchor Hocking Heritage Hill Jar, it will find that.

When I tried constructions like "Jar with glass top" hardly any of the jars actually had a glass top, and if they did they were inevitably Mason Jars.

Amazon was happy to show me endless varieties of mason jars, but not any other kind of jar with a glass top than a mason jar, no matter how I phrased it.

Little else online was helpful either, though finally I stumbled upon the correct hame.

Blocking

Curiously, but perhaps not surprisingly, some "Family Therapist" on X who endlessly rails about free speech, and says things I agree with 100%, has nevertheless blocked me.  His byline is "Freedom of speech gives me the right to hurt your feelings and it gives you the right to cry about it."

Several times now I've tried to like his posts, but I can't like them, nor can I repost, nor can I quote.   I suppose I could photograph them (I've seen people do that, it's a hassle).  He's a favorite of some other guy I follow (who in fact follows me) so I see these posts a lot.

I might have said something that pissed him off, but I don't even ever remember disagreeing with him.

I think what happened is I replied correctively to another poster who was criticizing him.*

(*Sometimes in these sorts of situations people don't like it when outsiders stupidly try to "help" with an argument.  I might have said something stupid, based only on partial understanding.  But it was certainly not threatening, I never do that, and probably not even inflammatory, just perhaps slightly mistaken.  I was thinking of the Three Pashas were zionist figures in the Ottoman Empire who were favorable to Zionism, and were much hated by Turks later.  So in some thread I called Erdogan the "Fourth Pasha" after he unleashed the "rebels" in Syria.  I think that statement may have been the one that got me banned by Mr Family Therapist because I noticed immediately afterwards he had blocked me, but possibly he had blocked me before.  I thought of it as a clever joke, but perhaps it was peculiarly offensive to people who have views similar to mine but know more about the background and context.  I was hoping that, in that case, I might get a reply to correct me, but I didn't, I only got blocked, or so it seemed.)

Ever time I get shown this guy's posts, and try to like them because I agree, which I always do, and find I can't like them for reasons that I can't understand, I feel very dejected.

I feel like turning off X.  And that's probably a good thing.

X could just stop showing me these posts, and that would be fine with me, I'd probably spend more time on X.  But block him?  No way!  I believe in free speech.

It surprises me that X doesn't already do something like that.  Why endlessly show me posts from someone who has blocked me only because they are reposted by someone who hasn't?  Also why does this guy with cranky ideas like mine, combined with a penchant for blocking on the slightest provocation, have 65k followers?

Amazon has no "not delivered" option

If an item from Amazon has not been delivered, but Amazon says it has been delivered, there is no option provided on the "returns" page to account for this.  I had to ask google what I should do, and it brought me to a page which suggests I should wait, look around, and look for delivery stickers.  Then, if 3 or more days have passed to "contact" Amazon.  It does not give any information how to "contact Amazon."

Normally Amazon delivery through Amazon is quite reliable, and they take photos to prove their deliveries.

But if another carrier is used, they do not take photos, and it appears Amazon simply takes their word for a successful delivery.  It's also possible that Amazon might not understand what the carrier is actually telling them.  (Later evidence suggests that's exactly what happened.)

(This has happened to me before...  That time, the product was eventually delivered a week late.  This time I am already over a week after the original "attempted" delivery, but only 3 days after the supposed "actual" delivery, and there has been no box, notice, or anything.)

*** Update: It seems that my formerly "delivered" item is now being shown as a return.  So I think what happened is that it was damaged in shipment which was detected by the carrier, and they returned it to the sender.  When Amazon was previously saying it was "delivered" it was not delivered to me but back to the manufacturer.  Then the manufacturer processed it as a credit, and it seems that Amazon got that message.  So I'm good, except this was supposed to be a replacement, and I still need one, but so far I've only paid and been refunded so it looks like I have to start all over.