Re: "Macs just WORK" - Indeed they don't, or not for long
True, Judy, I've got a software background; but I was just as blown away
as you when we started using micros (in 1982 or so) and discovered we no
longer had a computer room full of people to keep the dang things
running from day to day, we had to do it, including setting up networks.
We were software people, not systems and hardware. It got to be such a
heavy load that 10 years ago we hired a couple of techs.
However, the main thing that's key is to get a feeling for a given
program's paradigm, then it makes sense when you need to do the next
thing. This is easier for the operating system and peripherals than
application programs like Photoshop. It's very intuitive, but it does
require a quiet mind and patience. I know you can do this.
Pam
Judy Seigel wrote:
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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