Re: "Macs just WORK" - Indeed they don't, or not for long
Look!, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Macs suck less than PCs... Just the idea of having to separate left click from right click when I'm WRITING (which takes more concentration than remains to me in this world) makes me want to throw a bomb... In fact I used to be one of those insufferable mac fans, whose lips curled reflexively at the letters "PC." When my daughter got a PC, I felt she was deliberately rejecting mom... (though, she's a journalist & I realize now that's a tool of the trade). I nursed my original Mac Plus until it literally burned up in my face (Just after I'd spent $200 for an upgrade -- another INCREDIBLE 2 megabytes.... now needless to say I get 175 gigabytes for $125.) So then it was onwards and upwards...systems 4,5, whatever, up to system 8.6, which was sooo kind and motherly, and NEVER crashed. If it was going to do something that might be a tiny bit rude in case you had a headache, it sent a sweet note in advance, to apologize. Now clearly, not everyone has been tortured by the 9 & 10 dysfunctional marriage as I have.... but obviously Pam, for instance, has far far far more techno savvy than I do. I'm sure (I think) that doesn't mean she's a better PERSON than I am, though that of course is possible, but she's been working in parallel technology for 36 years, so she knows what some things -- that aren't explained in the "manual" -- mean. I'd even bet that, like the old joke, she thinks "doesn't everybody"? No, everybody don't. She would have understood the message suggesting that her keyboard was entering rigor mortis. I assumed it was complaining about my external UBS hub, which was clearly or seemingly or supposedly working fine, while I struggled on for weeks, trying to get my book to the printer, while every time I moved the cursor the whole thing froze. Knowedgeable friends told me G4 is OVER, you need to go G5 -- but that meant the end of the program I was writing the damnn book on (& all the rest of everything else). Until, as an absolute desperate last hope, I managed the telephone tangle at the Apple store (they should hang their heads in shame) and made an "appointment" to speak to a "genius" at the "genius bar." No comment on the appelations. I brought my keyboard & the intermittent screen message copied by hand (in pencil, if you must know). After a half hour suffering "music" from a group called I believe "The New Jersey Wrecks" on a nearby stage, so loud you couldn't hear a Boeing 747 taking off overhead, I flipped. Everyone in or around the "Genius Bar" some waiting for an hour, some working there all day, was miserable, hating it while they were trying to think much less speak -- but my instant survey showed NO ONE not one single person had complained. I felt it my debt to the human race (and my own remaining faculties) to stop this nerve destruction asap, and worked my way (and my indignation) up the chain of command, finally speaking to a person (fairly deaf IMO) who claimed to be the boss of the whole operation... She explained that nothing could possibly be done, that this was the way it was. Interestingly, however, within 3 minutes the sound had been turned down to a surprisingly civilized level, which is some kind of message about chain of command, if not about Apple. A few minutes later my number came up , the "genius" took one look at my note scribbled from the screen and announced "Your keyboard is dead." By sheer persistence (clearly the Apple Store is not for the faint of heart) I got about 20 words of explanation --- for the general info: there's ANOTHER USB hub in the keyboard -- so I set about trying to replace the keyboard with one willing to do 9 & 10. (And NOT on E-bay, especially since I was still unbrowsered.) As mentioned yesterday. Nor has this been the only saga... some I braved alone, some with a guide a few levels up, but nothing has been easy... even the airwave thingy that's supposed to (and now does) latch into my daughter's DSL line took 5 trips to the Digital Society, $105, and a loaned copy of Disk Warrior (used by the "guide," not me) after it knocked my system into some kind of loop. It turned out that the row we'd put it into was for reasons of its own, or no reasons, "dead" in the tower, but capable of infinite mischief none the less. AND SO ON ! Now I've got to get to the PO, mercifully analog, at least my end of it. But, as we say on the list, "hope this helps.' Judy
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