May 14, 2003
Dear Everyone:
Long time, no “Jeannie”-bashing. We are so overdue.
A couple of weeks ago, she called to complain about her POC computer. (“POC” stands for the “Piece Of Crap” that she bought from “Big Computer Warehouse Place”. Lesson learned: The few dollars you save by buying Brand X isn’t worth the aggravation of trying to deal with the dealer. In future, only buy national brands that are likely to have somewhat competent staff in technical support. As opposed to a store whose “technical” people can barely operate a cash register.)
As yet, she has not given the POC computer a name. It’s just the “new, new” computer, to distinguish it from the “old, new” computer that she uses for work.
So she was having a problem with the POC computer in that the cursor (that little arrow that you move around with the mouse or trackball) wasn’t working correctly. She could move it around with the trackball, but when she clicked somewhere, nothing happened. Also, the computer was starting up strangely.
The following weekend, I went up to her place and we turned the computer on. Sure enough, it was starting up strangely. It wanted to know if we wanted to boot the computer up from a diskette, the “HDD” or a CD? Guessing that “HDD” stood for Hard Disk Drive (commonly called the “C:\” drive), I selected that. Once the computer was up and Windows was running, I tried using the trackball to use the Start Menu.
Just as “Jeannie” had said, the Start Menu would flash very briefly, then vanish. Something appeared to be wrong with the way the trackball was working. So I decided to use the keyboard instead.
Some of you may know that many Windows mouse functions can also be done using the keyboard. For example, holding down the Control key (Ctrl) and pressing the letter “P” will bring up the printer window. Alt+F4 will close the current window. Etcetera. Likewise, using the Ctrl key in conjunction with the Escape (Esc) key will open the Start Menu.
I held down the Ctrl key and reached for the Esc key. And that’s when I discovered the problem.
Never let it be said that “Jeannie” lets any space go to waste. In fact, every square inch of her desk is covered with stuff. Much of this stuff is additionally covered with more stuff. There are complex layers of stuff. Everywhere. And a large chunk of Steno paper had slid partially off its assigned pile of stuff and was resting on the Esc key.
Know what most computers are trained to do if you start one up while holding down the Esc key? Ask you if you want to boot from a diskette, the hard drive or a CD. Know what they generally do if you try to open an application while holding down the Esc key? “Escape” equals “cancel”. No wonder the POC computer acted confused.
Solution: P.I.C.N.I.C. “Problem In Chair, Not In Computer”.
Now, “Jeannie” isn’t the only PICNIC around. A couple of weeks ago, I was training a class. For training purposes, we use specially set up ID’s and passwords. In the application, if you type the password incorrectly three times in a row, the ID is locked to protect against hackers. One woman in the class locked up not one, but two ID’s because she couldn’t type the password correctly. It was “password”.
If only they were all that easy. Meanwhile, at the “old, new” computer, I still haven’t figured out how to get Setup to work to install the software for the “new, new” printer. I’ve tried copying the contents of the CD to the hard drive, but double-clicking on the Setup still doesn’t do anything. Today I spoke with someone at work who suggested starting the “old, new” computer in “safe mode” and trying running Setup from there. We’ll try it next weekend. Beyond that, the printer is looking more and more like $100 worth of plastic with no real use.
On the plus side, I finally tried using the writeable CD drive on my computer and it works like a charm. So here’s the plan: “Jeannie” finds all the diskettes that contain old jobs that have to be retained for legal reasons. I copy the files from the diskettes to my computer’s hard drive. Then I copy them from the hard drive to a CD. One CD can hold as many files as about 486 diskettes.
This not only safeguards the files, but frees up the diskettes for future use. Since more and more lawyers are asking for their transcripts on diskette, this could be a significant cost savings.
In other news…
Here we are already halfway through the second quarter and I have taken only one day of Vacation so far. I’ve decided to take next week off for some sorely needed rest and relaxation. Also maybe a little “spring cleaning”. So there probably won’t be a Letter next week. But the week after, there could be lots more movie reviews. Keep a good thought.
Love, as always,
Pete
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