1:33 AM. Backed up the SkyTools data on John Charles.
2:00 AM. Approximately. I stopped. I stopped trying to perform the sync procedure. I was falling asleep. And I knew I needed to be fully alert.
Read the manual again. The main Sync process merges data from the slave into the master. Got it. Make the Sync database on the computer you're transferring from. Oh ho. What's this? It can be done directly through the LAN with the main data folder? Interesting... But upon consideration, I decided to stick with plan A: moving the Sync database about. That would let me keep the netbook a little more secure.
6:07 PM. Asked Greg for some help on syncing. He advised me to not follow the path I had guessed at. He assured me the sync was pretty smart and would honour the edited dates. If the merge process found a stale item going over a newer one, it would prompt me.
10:30 PM. Something clicked. For the sync and merge to work well, both ways, I'd need to "clean" the data on John Charles. I planned to removed all the log entries. The log entries was a surprise from the get-go. All the entries were dated Sep 30 or Oct 1, at the CAO, with the C8. Strange. Middle of the week. When I was in the city... 75% of the logged entries were for objects I had viewed years ago. So, I interpreted it as test data. Maybe I had done it to do quick filtering? I reduced the custom telescopes and custom locations leaving only those that I wanted to keep.
The exercise was helpful in a surprising way. I stumbled across a couple of mucked up entries. For example, I had not added Nova Del 2013 to the master list on John Phil. Added a missing NGC. Updated an item on the double star life list web page...
11:40 PM. Performed the SkyTools data backup on both computers.
11:41 PM. Sync database created on John Charles. Stored it in a shared folder. The output.
Examined the contents under logs. Found 64 files in the lists folder. Good, all my observing lists that I wanted to merge into John Phil's data. Saw 2 entries in the cons folder. What's that for? Noticed that the CAO loc was dated today. So I "touched" the corresponding entry on Phil to make it more current. Saw 2 entries in the night folder but I wasn't too worried about them. Found notes associated with the Most beautiful double stars imported list—good.
(Don't know why now there were no notes for the RASC double star list. That's a different issue...)
Transferred the SkyTools Sync folder to John Phil.
Started the sync process. The input. Chose only the Observing Lists and Notes. Feeling a little nervous. And pulled the trigger!
11:57 PM. Sync stage 1 complete. Looks like it went OK.
During the sync I was asked about updated SN 2013eu. I thought that odd. At first glance. I did not recall viewing that supernova. And when I checked the log history in John Charles, of course, there was nothing. Then it occurred to me that perhaps the "Current" lists on Charles were more current than those on Phil. I hit Skip All and the merge proceed. Quickly!
I immediately checked the Group menu. Woo hoo. There were the custom groups from Charles. And their respective contents, custom observing lists. That's what I was after... Found the notes for the imported double star list. All right.
12:21 AM. Tried the sync again with the User Preferences turned on this time. I wanted the custom locations and observers. That worked. OK!
Again, during the sync, I was prompted about supernovae. Weird. I was also prompted about the column configurations, it seems. And if I wanted to replace the Current lists from the remote. No thanks.
Checked the locations merged in. The location and elevation data is all good. The Time Zone went a little funny, switching from EST to GMT. The offset is still minus 5 so I think it's moot.
So, I'm pretty happy. Looks like everything from John Charles I wanted to keep is now in SkyTools on John Phil. Sweet!
12:50 AM. For an experiment, I moved an observing list out of one of the imported groups to a master group. And I renamed it.
12:57 AM. Recreated some of the nice column configurations still on John Charles.
OK. Time for stage 2.
1:05 AM. Created the Sync database on John Phil.
1:09 AM. Transferred the database to John Charles. Bigger this time...
1:17 AM. Didn't understand all the prompts about supernovae. A lot more this time... Maybe due to a large supplemental database from John Phil? I finally hit Replace All.
1:25 AM. Done. Hey. Nothing transferred! Looked at the merge options. None checked. Oooh. OK. That explains why nothing was brought in. Kinda weird though—you'd think a warning would pop up. Checked everything this time: lists, notes, logs, preferences, links, and images. Let's go!
1:45 AM. Something weird happened. It appeared to freeze about half way. And when I used Alt-Tab aka the Cool Switch, SkyTools was not shown. It beeped when I clicked on the dialog. And then I wondered if a Replace/Skip dialog had appeared but was hidden. I hit Enter. Nothing. I hit Escape. The Sync dialog cleared! The program was accessible. Now all the locations, telescopes, and observers are listed. But the observing lists are missing... Try again.
1:50. Error! It said "See the status area for details." Huh? Oh, the Status Bar in the Data Manager dialog. It showed "Error synchronizing logs!" Crikey.
Hmmm. When I hit Escape, the app did not restart on its own, like it normally does at the end of the Sync. Manually shut the app down. Restarted. Tried Sync merge again. Tried not to touch the machine or change the focus. No error. Went further... but seemed to stall again. I left it alone.
2:03 AM. Activity. Woo hoo. It was on notes. I guess the logs (with 600+ entries) takes a while.
Prompted for the location of some DSS image files. Weird. I thought that wasn't any issue.
Told it to replace all the other DSS images.
2:05 AM. Done! Stage 2 complete.
Wow. It's all here. Lists. Including the one I just moved. Logged entries. Beautiful.
Not for the meek...
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