Be Back Soon

I’m almost afraid to drive our new Prius to California after my experiences the last few days with modern technology.

First, I’ve been seriously considering buying a new Macbook to replace my aging iBook. I finally talked myself into purchasing one, even though financially it’s not the best time to do so, but when I went to configure mine with 2GB of memory, it suddenly said it would take 1-3 days to ship, too long to get here before we left on our trip. So I called up the local Apple Store a few miles up the road and discovered that they would upgrade the memory, but they would also charge for both the new and the old memory. No thanks, Apple already charges too much for memory upgrades. So I guess I won’t be taking a computer to California with me.

Even worse, I’ve been trying to add the line “Powered by Wordform” to the bottom of the page to give proper credit to my blogging tools, but in order to do so I had to change the permissions at the unix level.

It’s only now that I’m recalling the last time I ran into permissions was when I used an old ftp program to install Movable Type and it automatically changed all the permissions. As a result Movable Type wouldn’t run, and I ended up paying Ben Trott to install the program for me after days of struggling.

I still do not, DO NOT, understand permissions and what all the numbers mean and how check boxes and unchecked boxes actually change permissions. I managed to actually change the file I wanted to, at least I could download it with my ftp program and it showed the changes, but it would not show up on my site.

I got so mad that I managed to give myself a splitting headache. Now I remember why I chose early retirement from teaching several years ago. I haven’t been this mad, and that’s saying quite alot since I’m often heard muttering to myself about our President and his cronies, not to mention those who seem unable to comprehend that their actions might actually have an effect upon the environment, for at least six years.

Luckily, saintly powers rescued me from my own stupidity and my site still seems to be functioning.

I’m truly thankful that I can usually limit my technological skills to Photoshopping pictures and learning how to use some of the functions on my camera that I still generally ignore.

Despite it all, we’re going to risk driving to California. Since I won’t have a computer of my own with me to process photos or type blog entries, things may be quiet around here for a week.

Meanwhile, we’ll leave this guy in charge of the bird feeder since he seems to have taken up occupancy in the tree where the feeder hangs:

8 thoughts on “Be Back Soon”

  1. Buy the MacBook with configured memory, use it on your trip, by more RAM for much cheaper online and upgrade it yourself later! It’s easy installation…

    Have a great trip!

  2. …meant to say MINIMUM configured memory…

    Usually the Apple Store will honor the online Apple Store’s RAM prices, too. It’s weird that they’re making you pay twice.

  3. Yes, I also vote for getting the new Mac. I bought my Dell xps 400 last summer and haven’t regretted it a moment. It works blazingly fast and has memory big as Texas. Have a great trip. 🙂

  4. I am using a macbook in a motel room with wireless internet right now in Portland. I bought it in December when my old ibook gave up the ghost. I love it. I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful mac store in my town and the people there have been selling me mac products for years, so they always do nice things for me. It’s too bad the store you went to didn’t help you out. I went to a store in Tacoma to buy my ibook when my mum died and it was a disaster. I ended up returning it and having my home mac store send me a computer. Anyway, have a good trip. I look forward to the pictures.

  5. Could you possibly wait until March 10 to invest in your new technology? This may sound unlikely, but if you plant by the moon, you know this stuff works. By those lights now is an especially bad time to buy a new computer, or any other communication technology. I write this at risk of being misunderstood (or mocked).

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