I returned home from walking Hadrian's Wall in a buoyant, elated mood - to be met with complete computer chaos. Doesn't life have a habit of roughing you up just when you've been smoothed down? My own cyber-version of Hadrian's Wall (Norton, to name names - not the most impermeable of firewalls, I know) had been breached, and a couple of Trojans had wreaked havoc all over the registry. How did that happen, then? The only other times I've had viruses were when I foolishly allowed others unrestricted access to both my hard drive and the Internet.
Anyway, to cut a long and tedious story short, I somehow managed to evict these woad-smeared Pictish invaders, kicking them back into Reiver territory with my Roman legionary army boots. But I still couldn't boot up. I took a little professional advice which was of little help. Then, with desperate impatience, I backed up all my stuff and restored the system to its original factory settings. You can imagine the hours I've spent reloading Adobe and Word and Excel and reinstalling my printer and reconfiguring my email and all the rest. And I still can't figure out how to reinstate all my saved pictures, documents and audio files - which are languishing here in front of me on six DVDs.
Computers. Don't you just love and hate them? I'm thinking of simplifying my life and retreating to Donegal - with a few books and the most basic of Internet connections - and digging a vegetable patch and contemplating the Eternal Mysteries.
19 comments:
Own personal tech expert in-house. It's the only way (without mine I'd have disappeared off here long ago!).
x
Ouch! You probably need another holiday now. Glad you're back online - although that dial up connection in Donegal sounds good.
Andy
you obviously haven't got a mac.
(wouldn't it serve me right if I got invaded by those woadsters now?)
Don't scare me stiff with such awful happenings Robert. All is forgiven though with that fantastic header - my home territory. Love. Glad you enjoyed you few days on the wall.
Isn't it a pain? I once sorted out a PC's registry "by hand". It took me all day and the computer survived. I was amazed, as I hadn't the faintest idea what I was doing. Not to be recommended.
Have you still got my toothbrush? If so, feel free to keep it. There are 101 uses for an old toothbrush. :)
Actually I think I have probably used dial-up in Donegal :-) http://kiwinomad06.blogspot.com/2006/08/in-donegal.html Excuse the colour- changed blog format but never went back to fix such things!
Oh, and here's a link I mentioned on the wall.
http://theswisslounge.blogspot.com/
Oh sweet Jesus, that sounds like a nightmare. Welcome back! Looking forward to your Hadrian's Wall report when you can stomach more time staring at the infernal cyber-beast.
Well…I hate to second the "get and Mac" advice, but that's really the solution for those of us who don't like spending hours or days sorting through such technical matters—or couldn't, even if our lives depended upon it!
Glad you're back up and running.
Just returned home last evening, Robert, still filled with elation about the great walk with you and Dominic. Sorry to hear that you have returned to technological chaos. Since switching to a Mac a few years ago, I have been relatively free of those types of problems. With the world in love with all things Apple, however, my relative safety from virus attacks may not last.
Yes, I understand the desire to seek refuge in Donegal. I hasten to add, however, that those "woad-smeared Pictish invaders" would likely find you there as well. Indeed, you and your computer may be the Eternal Mystery they are seeking to penetrate.
When you get a chance, please send me some of your photos of our walk together. I will reciprocate, of course. Have a great week and give my best to Carmen!
"Oh the pain . . " as Dr. Smith used to say on "Lost in Space." So sorry to hear of these miseries and annoying tasks, Robert, especially after the elegant elation of Hadrian's Wall. Yes, why is it Life throws us wrenches at such times?
I hope all will be well.
Sorry to hear about the terrible weather with your computer. Good to hear that your sense of humor is thriving.
It occurred to me some time ago that with computers we can experience what it is like to be a farmer at the mercy of the weather. Sometimes things go very well, and other times not so well at all, in fact awful, but as our ancestors did, we keep on farming. What else can we do?
(I have a PC for my job and a Mac for everything else. My job with its speech recognition platform isn't compatible with a Mac. There are benefits to having both.)
Thanks for all your sympathetic comments. I'm writing this via my son's computer. Mine is in bits on the desk.
I've been considering a platform change for a while so today bought an iMac. Two hours later I was back at the store as it wouldn't power up properly. A rare fault with the motherboard, apparently. The replacement was OK - then the system went into a loop as it wouldn't accept some download. After half an hour on the Apple helpline trying all kinds of abortive solutions, I was advised to return it to factory settings. So now I'm waiting three hours while it does this.
Good God, I think I'll get a foolproof abacus, and some tried-and-tested pens and notebooks, and head across the Irish Sea right now ...
are you sailing by coracle?
No, just by the seat of my pants, as usual, Andy ...
I depend on my son to sort out the mess when it happens...actually only once so far!!! ....dongal rains a lot...my sister has just come back from a week there!
Thanks for the visit, Gerry. Don't mind rain!
I have a tech guy at home--although not always that helpful! I feel the need to ran away from my computher everytime I get tackled up in the cords--oh all the cords, I can't stand them--even with wireless they're still everywhere!
I feel your pain.
Yes, i know what you mean, Grace - although I have a wireless mouse and keyboard with my newly bought iMac, there are still enough cords and cables at the back of my desk to keep Houdini busy for a week ...
Post a Comment