Change of environment

Weird day. The computer that crashed last night was joined this morning by my own - same problem - Darwin Kernal. For those that don't actually know this rather common terminology (all of us) this is the equivalent of DOS for Mac, or put it this way - ever had food go down the wrong hole? So did my computer's start up process. I have never seen this happen in 15 years of dealing with Macs, nevermind twice on two machines in two days. Freaky. My first thought was a virus, but the company firewall wouldn't let anything through, chock it up to coincidence. Off to the repair shop. Now I have known this guy for years so I had no issue just walking in a barking orders. When I was refuted, I was annoyed as any customer would be. He was too busy to look at them right away, It would have to wait. Nay nay said I, I work in publishing and today is deadline day. They get fixed now. 

So there I am, in somebody else's shop, fixing my own computers with his stuff. He better not charge a service fee. I spent all day in there, between the machines, the repairman, on the phone with my boss (who owns one of the machine, see yesterday's post), and on the phone to our tech support in Vancouver. Did I mention anywhere that I live in Windsor? 2,500 Km away some guy is giving me instructions. His coin, not mine, talk away.

I left briefly to take my dad to his radiation treatment at the hospital and headed back to "work". By 4:30 this afternoon, I had a G4 tower running on a new operating system, but all software needs to be reinstalled, and the Macbook Pro has a new hard drive ordered. For the two days it will take to arrive my boss must work on his machine via a firewire portable drive forcing the computer to keep it together. It's jerry-rigged at best. Gotta love technology. I hate computers, with all my heart. They are the most annoying pieces of crap ever dreamt up by devious little people. They toy with our emotions by promising us effieciency, enjoyment, fun, relaxation, information and the like, then deliver us into the vile hands of the repair man when all hell breaks loose. The hard part of all of this is explaining to the powers that be why they break. I don't know, I would say, maybe micro bots from our competitors have been inserted into the mail slot and followed their pre-programmed course through the office to the machines, scaled the desks and climbed in through the air vents, concluding their work in the drive sectors. Or maybe, they were just pieces of crap! I don't know, they frickin' broke. Leave me alone. 

The weirdest thing about the expedition was watching him clean out my tower with a shop air hose - the type used to power air tools in your average auto repair centre. You see, the Mac repair shop in this town is also the Volvo Recycling centre. Don't put all your eggs in one basket I suppose, he took that advice to heart. 

Back to work at 5, the paper ready for press by 8. Makes for a long day, especially when my computer is still sitting on the floor at work, unplugged and needing everything installed. (I used another workstation for the paper). Tomorrow I get to finish it off, spending my day doing the same thing I did today in more comfortable environments. Another deadline looms on Thursday, when one of our magazines goes to press. Should be fun. One day I will have a normal job, predictable and comfortable, with no computers and no deadlines.

And I will be bored stupid.

"I love deadlines. - I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." – Douglas Adams