Technical Difficulties

You don't realize how much you depend on something until it gets taken away from you. So it is with me and technology. Or, more specifically, the internet.

My laptop's been in the shop for a few weeks getting checked out for excessive fan activity. The guys at the local Apple store noted this when I took it in to replace one of the little rubber feet that keeps it from wobbling. Since the extended warranty runs out in March, I figured it was best to take care of things now.

My desktop, which I've had for 3.5 years, and which I've been meaning to replace for a while now (I do a lot of photography and could use a much faster processor, more RAM, and bigger hard drive), lost its ethernet port a few days ago. At first I thought that my server was down, but after two days realized this was not the case. After an hour of crawling under and behind the computer desk, with tech support on the line, plugging and unplugging cables, a diagnosis was made--dead ethernet port, a very expensive repair.

The computer is otherwise pretty much OK, so I can still use it for non-internet-related activities. But I was off line. Argh!!!! I dug up my antique laptop (8 years old with a blazing 267 MHz processor) and reconfigured it. I got online, and soon remembered what the days of dial-up had been like. It's not quite that slow, but close. And the operating system is two generations removed from my current one.

That's why, in case you were wondering my e-mail volume and posts are way down. I did go to the Apple Store online and click the "buy" button, so my new iMac should be here in a couple of weeks.

Then I'll start to catch up!