Monday, June 25, 2012

Technology and Stuff.

You gotta love it:  Technology; computers; all of that stuff.  It touches every aspect of life and I am completely at its mercy.  So when it's not working properly, it drives me pretty much around the bend!

I'm very easily in over my head when it comes to understanding how technology works - embarrassing, but true.  It has been a relief, since buying my beloved Macbook a couple of years ago, to have had virtually no issues with it - especially after having to deal with my finicky and virus-pronte old Dell notebook.  That old thing was just plain cantankerous in its final months and I'm sure my fear of technology was magnified during our last year together.

I love my Macbook.  I wish, however, that I had purchased a Macbook that was one level up from the basic model, simply for more hard drive capacity and a little more flexibility with photos and videos.  As it is, I have now run out of internal hard drive space - likely because of all of the pictures I take!  So for the past month, I have been unable to download my photos from camera to computer...there's simply no space for them.  Hence you have seen no photos on my blog for a little while!  Later today I am taking in my computer to have the hard drive upgraded, and that should help matters significantly.

For this non-techie, I was rather proud of myself on one front...  Just before leaving on our trip for Alberta, fearing a theft of my computer (and all of the pictures I have stored on it) I finally backed up everything on my computer onto an external hard drive...something I've dreaded and procrastinated for two years.  (Note: I thought I'd backed it up a year ago, but discovered that it didn't actually work.)  Now I just need to go and rent a safety deposit box to store the external hard drive in.

I hate thinking about this stuff.  It feels like it should just be my right to be able to use my computer for some pretty basic stuff without fear of the technology going belly up or becoming obsolete or needing an upgrade.  But that's a pretty unrealistic view given how quickly things change and given how complete my dependence is on the very technology I fear.  So I'm trying to overcome my issues and fears and get better at this stuff, in part because it's just a part of life now, and in part because my kids are going to be all over this stuff as they get older and I'll need to be informed enough to somewhat be able to keep up with them.

Hopefully my hard drive has been expanded by this time tomorrow and I'll be back here.  Otherwise I'll be posting from my iPad, which is ok but doesn't have the keyboard that enables me to fly through my writing the way I can on my Macbook.  Yikes, I guess I can be pretty fussy, too.

3 comments:

  1. Good to hear you have everything backed up on an external drive, always smart to have things in 2 places! Have you considered buying a fireproof safe? It is cheaper in the long run than a safety deposit box and can come in helpful for any other important documents. Just thought I would throw it out there as I am currently in the process of buying one to keep all those important adoption documents I now have in.

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  2. Hey Ruth, this keyboard for the iPad is pretty awesome. Actually makes typing comfy. http://www.zagg.com/accessories/logitech-ipad-2-keyboard-case

    Heidi

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  3. Agree with Heidi, the wireless iPad keyboard is fantastic!

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