RIP My Desktop Computer
Well, as ill luck would have it, my desktop computer perished yesterday morning, fortunately before I'd had a chance to do much work; and the good news is all of my other work is well backed up.
Still, this is not a good time for such a sudden death, in what appears to have been the power supply. I'm in the final stages of a book manuscript, and preparing for leading a retreat in San Francisco, and one in NY for the Deacons of the diocese, and then a preaching engagement in Maryland for the dedication of my latest icon. This is not the time to engage in the laborious process of reinstalling software, and becoming acquainted with the mysteries of Vista (which will no doubt be installed on the successor to the current desktop; repair to which would cost close to what a new one will. A fact I was appalled to discover.) But I have little choice in the matter, so onward and upward.
If all goes well with the new machine, I will be back up and running by early next week. In the meantime, thank goodness for backups, external hard drives, and the trusty laptop.
Tobias Haller BSG
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21 comments:
And the sighing whisperer said
"Macintosh"....
....just ask the former Fr Jake, who made the move recently. And if you want, you can even run Windoze.
;-)
Oh, I'm tempted; but even Macs are prey to power supply failure, so I've heard...
In the meantime, Get thee behind me, thou Satan, ever wont to tempt with an Apple...
Glad you backed everything up. Most people don't even do that!
Gallito Mescalito would say ¡¡¡SSSSHHHHRRRRRRIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEKKKK if he were here...I'm sorry you've had a nasty time of it, brilliant Tobias...be glad you don't live in The Global Center of power-surge (and MORE)...it's hard to remember what to worry about...so, we don't!
Good luck to you, carry on, pretend can be a handy, multi-purpose kind of thing!
Abrazos
I am a Mac user also. I never have had anything else since the first one in 1984. I also have installed MS Windows XP and Vista on a separate partition on my iMac Intel just to see if I could. Many folks say that Windows runs better on their Mac than it ever has on any PC that they have owned.
It is my understanding that MS has relented and either you get a choice of which OS is installed, or they will supply you also with XP, because so many folks do not want Vista.
I had a power supply failure once on my road apple Performa. None since. Yield to temptation!
I know how it feels to suffer through the death of a computer. I recently suffered my second computer crash in a few months - my 4 year old eMac finally died.
Unfortunately, I had hundreds of pages of articles written for my website, which were not backed up so I lost all of that work.
By stretching my budget a bit, I was able to purchase a 24" iMac and absolutely love it.
Hope you get a machine you'll love that will multiply your ministry around the world.
Rick Brentlinger
Or you could get a quality replacement power supply. Installs with a screwdriver.
I am only going to comment on this one because my own wounds have not yet quit bleeding ...
There are several vendors, Dell among them, that will sell you a license for Vista but downgrade the actual installation to XP. I urge you to seek one of these vendors out and avoid Vista at all costs.
I have almost 30 years experience with small computers and currently support 140 PCs and users. For 'professional development' reasons (read "You might as well get familiar with it") I recently installed Vista on my work and home PCs. I have pretty robust hardware but I immediately experienced a 25-to-30% slowdown. What's more, I'm still sorting out the things that don't work like I'm used to or don't work at all.
I won't argue that you probably need a new computer but you REALLY want to spend some time and effort and find a computor vendor that will supply it with Windows XP!
My greatly-annoyed $0.02 ...
All advice I've been given is to insist on a downgrade to XP, which is still possible to get. Vista has too many teething problems and just cannot be recommended yet.
well, i'm working on the new computer -- which was the imporatant bit. It was probably time for an upgrade anyway. Yes, it is Vista, already on service pack 1 with lots of other updates. I've made it look as much like XP as I can, and so far it is unobjectionable.
Thanks for all the other suggestions -- I do hope to rescue the old hard drive as there were a few files that didn't make it to the last mirror backup. It may work as a second hd in the new case.
I do remain tempted by Mac, every time I see Karekin's I drool a little. But I need to get this work done asap, and will think about this the next time upgrades to hardware come along...
Hugs to all..
Oh Tobias, I am so sorry. There is never a good time, but this seems particularly bad.
As one who made the Mac move, I can highly recommend it, but it is more change at a time when you really need to keep things moving.
preaching in Maryland, eh?
bookguybaltmd
Tsk, tsk! You had your chance for a Mac. Oh well, here's to success on your new PC.
CP
No advice. I'm glad to see you operating again, Tobias, as only you can operate. For the sake of the book, I mean.
Just say no to Vista. Ask for XP. (Says the person who has a Mac at home but has to suffer with windoze at work)
I am bummed for you about having to reinstall stuff. That is a total bore!
Thanks to all for the encouragement. I've got all my most immediately needed software installed (WordPerfect, Firefox, Thunderbird, Bibleworks, Adobe Acrobat Pro) so I'm back to work on the book. Then as I need them will come the rest of the stuff, so that should take the edge off!
Thanks again for the shoulders to cry on!
Have you all seen the newest Mac Ads? They are funny.
WordPerfect still exists??
I run a lab that has numerous Macs in it, so my experience is wide. As biologists we do lots of graphics and Mac Rules.
My trusty 4 year old powerbook has fallen on the floor a few times (it's even dented). The worst it has suffered has been a graceful hard disk collapse (meaning I got everything off first) but has been in great shape otherwise and has traveled with me around the world. We still have an old gumdrop iMac alongside our new terrabyte Mac Server. My desktop G5 zooms. Apple probably hates us because we keep our Macs so long. But they keep on ticking...!
IT
I hate technology!
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