Computerless for what seems like an eternity.

Call me a Luddite, but I love my desktop.

There’s something…civilized about sitting at a desk and writing. Nice big monitor, upright posture, movable keyboard (in case one’s posture becomes less upright), desk lamp (no green shade, though), space for the cat, no sore thumbs or cooked lap.

A little over a week ago, my elderly desktop finally died.

It’s been coming for a while. It got slower and slower, had to think about things longer and longer, and eventually became unable to play internet cat videos, which we all know spells doom.

So, I backed up my data (learned that lesson the hard way), and started browsing eBay for another tower.

The new tower got here the day the old computer died.

So I started to hook up the new tower and then noticed something odd about the monitor output. It was white, not blue, and had extra pins.

Great. More fuckery.

A friend lent me DVI-D monitor, and I turned on the new computer expecting blazing fast cat videos and… nothing.

Not even a peep. Not even BIOS. I tried opening the tower and checking the connections, I tried a different monitor, I tried screaming, I tried threats. Nothing.

So the new tower is DOA – which, I suppose isn’t a surprise given they shipped it parcel post wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap and no ‘fragile’ sticker.

I have a smart phone, but I hate trying to write more than one paragraph on it – the whole picking out letters on the tiny digital keyboard makes me want to find the cutest puppy in the entire world and kick the ever-loving crap out of it.

I now have a newer, much more expensive computer (with a warranty from a higher-rated seller) in transit, but it won’t be here until Monday and that’s the day I’m starting a new show – at a lot close enough to the house to bike!

So hopefully I’ll be back online before too much more time passes, and too many more puppies get kicked.

Filed under: computer, cranky, humor, mishaps, Non-Work, Off-Topic, rants, computer, ebay, intel, monitor, secondhand, upgrade

My weekend in photos

Filed under: computer, mishaps, Non-Work, Photos, computer, frustration, Frys

Technical difficulties prevent a Friday photo

For some reason, my computer and my camera can’t see each other, which is a recent development. I keep getting weird error messages and I have no idea why, and I have to be at work in two hours so I don’t have time to troubleshoot.

You know, I’m actually sorry that I switched over to Linux. Really I am. Sure I don’t have to worry about spyware or viruses, but I’m now in a whole new world of hurt and no one’s coming to rescue me.

Don’t tell me to buy a Mac. I’m not made of money.

Oh, well. At least I’ve got one day this week, which is a very good thing since apparently California’s unemployment offices are dealing with the state’s budget crisis by simply ignoring claims. I was talking to one guy who filed three months ago and has heard nothing back, despite calls and emails.

I’ve been getting a few days a week, which is enough to keep the proverbial wolf at bay, but not enough to have any extra money to spend on operating systems or a plane ticket to Vail, Colorado for the World Cup downhill skiing this weekend.

On second thought, it’s probably better I can’t go to Vail. It’s probably really cold there.

Filed under: camera, computer, mishaps, Non-Work

This can’t be real, can it?

This is getting sent around via email – for some reason, I thought that the results were even kept secret from Academy members, so my initial response is to assume that it’s a joke, but there’s a teeny kernel of doubt, so I thought I’d share.

Well, I guess we’ll find out tomorrow night, won’t we?

Secret email

Filed under: computer, Los Angeles, Non-Work, email, hoax?, oscars

Everybody just be patient, please.

Part of the problem with taking a shitload of photos on any trip is the going through and uploading of said photos.

There’s at least 1500 of them on the data cards and I have to look through all of them, decide which ones are worth keeping (they can’t all be winners, after all) and then figure out which of the remaining photos will go on flickr.

In my current state of being jet lagged and impatient (I now remember that for me it’s always worse when I’m traveling west) I can barely tolerate this sort of thing, so while I initially thought I could get all the photos uploaded in a few days, now I’m guessing it’s going to take the better part of a week.

I was going to do a big virtual slide show (you know, the one where I put up a bunch of photos and natter endlessly about my vacation), but right now I can also barely tolerate sitting in front of the computer for any length of time.

I need a martini.

Filed under: computer, cranky, Non-Work, impatient, jet lag, Photos, tired

Portable computing not at its best.

My poor little laptop – I bought it cheap off eBay so if something bad happened to it, I wouldn’t much care.

Perhaps that’s not the right way to phrase that – I’d care about a $200 laptop, but not nearly as much as I’d care about a $1200 laptop. So, today, when my computer refused to boot up, I was surprised to find that I cared very deeply indeed.

Not so much for the computer, but for the data which was now completely inaccessible – including drafts of some posts for LAist, about a million photos, a script and a half, and three quarters of a book.

Also, I’m back on the dimmer board tomorrow, so a laptop really helps with quick answers when the gaffer starts asking about obscure movie trivia in between set-ups.

Turns out, all I had to do was re-set the BIOS, which I found out on a computer forum after I’d freaked out and bought another cheap laptop off eBay (the idea being that I’d get the new laptop here, pull the hard drive out of the old one, burn the relevant data off to a CD and then sell the old laptop on ebay “for parts”).

Whoops.

Honestly, though – my laptop’s old so it’s probably not a bad thing to change it for a slightly newer (but still old) one before something even worse happens.

Filed under: computer, 2007, BIOS, boot, California, computer, crash, data, ebay, IBM, LAist, laptop, Los Angeles, old