Updates…
Unending, perpetual updates, each and every time I turn on my laptop computer. And, when I turn on my laptop computer, it takes at least two, often three minutes, for it to fully boot up to a ready state for use–memory tests, loading up software from the hard drive into the usable region of RAM. Between the boot time and the updates, whatever fresh thoughts I had intended to record in my word processor have been grown cloudy, fogged by the complexities of popup windows asking me if I want to install one of many software and antivirus database updates.
I remember the days of times gone by when I could generate a meaningful thought, then scribble it down in a few paragraphs on a piece of paper…with a wonderful communication device. It’s called a pencil. Even a typewriter would be ready to receive my finger taps, no waiting necessary, and I could allow my immediate thoughts and ideas to flow through my fingers onto a blank piece of paper.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the marvel of computers, now much more than calculators or word processors, they have become invaluable communication tools to access the seemingly unlimited amount of information and resources on practically any subject from nearly any region of the world. I can write and research my facts and figures at the same time. It has become a fluid process. Yet, I am ever aggravated at the amount of maintenance time I seem to have to spend on my various software appliances. Yesterday, I spent half a day repairing my www.truthwalker.org website, as well as repairing and reinstalling my Microsoft FrontPage 2003 web editing program. Again, I am only half-complaining, because MS FrontPage is an amazing web editing tool that cuts corners and monitors every single minute change one makes in a page. If you want to make a change in the background or formatting themes of all of the pages of a web site, it takes only one step and then it ripples the change throughout all of the web pages in an instant. Then, the changes can be published to the remote server in seconds. I’ve used other web editing programs. There are others that can manipulate graphics and benefit knowledgeable HTML users. I don’t want to spend a lot of time behind the scenes of my web content, I just want to produce and edit it, so I wanted the best of WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) web editors, and I’ve always returned to Microsoft FrontPage for this reason.
Finally after a day of web site repair and program reinstalls, not to mention a week to transfer my www.michaelhovey.com website to a new domain registrar and server, I am ready to get back into the groove of productive work. I just purchased an inexpensive external portable drive to back up my data, so I won’t have to retrieve my web site too often in the future.
Computer maintenance = tedium ad nauseum
Amen
MH
The Pathfinder
