Got Those New Computer Blues

A Stodghill Says So blog:
Since last Friday, blogging has held as much appeal as leaping into a pit of vipers. That was the day we took my computer in for a tuneup. We got it back on Monday and that meant hooking everything up again plus all the other annoyances that go with the job.
Then on Tuesday we went back to the same place and bought a new computer for Jackie. After experiencing the joys of hooking up yet another computer came the job of transferring a few thousand files from CDs to it. These were the files transferred from her old computer to the CDs in question.
Jackie took one look at the finished product and didn't like it. The background wasn't pleasing, she said. So I changed it to the basic blue background. She said the blue was too dark. I explained that Microsoft did not offer much of an assortment of blues. Take it or leave it, that's pretty much the way it goes.
Now when the Internet is called up the display doesn't fill the screen. I spent a couple of hours trying to fix that problem but all that happened was I somehow lost the toolbar and haven't been able to get it back.
The owner of the shop is going to stop by and see what he can do. Jackie is feeling nostalgic about her old computer even though it was about as fast as a 1929 Essex sedan running in this year's Indianapolis 500.
Blogging again? When my life returns to its dull, undramatic routine. If that ever happens. Right now I'm not placing any bets.

Marie,
I'm with you. I get accustomed to one thing, find my way around easily, and then it get changed. Some new benefit, new features placed in different locations, etc. It's supposed to be simpler, but to me it's more complicated.
As long am my PC still has a heart that keeps ticking, I'm okay. It may not be the fastest PC on the block, but then neither am I. They don't understand that as we get older we slow down. Why do we need faster? Where's the fire?

I work for a district office of a religious organization and they have an itinerent system (pastors get moved to a new church about every six years, as do district superintendents, i.e., my boss). Last July, my new boss came on board and decided that our computers were much too old and we should get new ones. I did not relish the thought. Our computers were only three years old and were working perfectly fine. But, I'm not the boss, so I ordered new computers.

Oh my gosh!!! I will spare you all the horrific details, but it took no less than three weeks to get everything straightened out. In the meantime I had two computers set up in my small work area and maybe 1' by 1' of actual writing space on my desk.

Even now that all the files have been converted and we upgraded to high speed internet service, every once in a while the new computer will do something wonky and I yearn to have my old, reliable computer back.

** sigh **

I've never had a PC break down or crash. I've had four become obsolete (Six if you count Dave's VIC20 and Commodore 64). I started with a 286, then a 486, a Compac Presario(?) with an amazing (for the time) 16 megs RAM and and a 40 meg hard drive.(wow)

In between a couple of them, I've had two laptops. Writers need laptops, right? I've had major problems with both of them. The first kept crashing, apparently because of bad hard drives. The second lost a motherboard, then a hard drive, twice. I ended up replacing the last hard drive myself, and upping the RAM to 400-something. So far it's working fine, but I use it more as a back-up, and keep all my data backed up on an external drive, just to be safe.


Ann

You all need Macs, and laptops.

Mine has worked fine for about three years now, (unless you count the time I fell into a chair on the porch with computer in one hand and glass of wine in the other. Actually I didn't have to pay anything for that little fiasco as the screen which stopped working during that incident was being recalled.)

If something goes wrong with the laptop, like a miner problem where my battery wouldn't charge, we just put the laptops in their little cases and drive to the Mac store.

The thing that makes our server cringe is when we show up at their offices about ten miles away with our laptops in hand when something on the internet just doesn't work correctly. I think most people there sneak out the back door. One time the server had a problem they were not aware of and thanked us for bringing it to their attention.

I love my computer.

Carol

Marie, if your toolbar is still hidden, hit the Alt key and it will pop up but won't stay there. While it is up, hit "tools" and then "view menu bar." That way it stays visible. I figured that out all by myself.
I also figured out how to get the internet screen wider. Now I know more about computers than I ever wanted to.

Carol, my problem with getting my laptops fixed was either I had to call and ask for a special mailing box, wait for it to arrive, pack my computer in it, mail it back, then wait for them to mail it back to me and hope it was working (sometimes it wasn't); or, after the maintenance contract ran out, take to to the computer shop and pay a huge amount for them to fix it. That's why I learned to work on it myself, even though David told me it was not a good idea. So far, I've been able to keep it running without paying a lot of money.

So far, I've never had a problem with a PC that involved a service call. (God, please don't get me for saying that.)

And David tells me, next time, get a MAC.

Ann

I've never had a pc or laptop crash (like Ann, I'm almost afraid to say that. It's as if I am tempting fate by merely mentioning the words). I'll knock on wood, just in case. ** knock, knock, knock ** I've been using pc's since about 1984.

Oh, drat! I have to take that back. I did lose one pc when we had a power outage at work that spiked on and off three times within about 45 seconds. That one fried my computer, but it wasn't the computers fault.