Toucha Toucha Toucha Touch Me

I wasn't too terribly excited by the iPhone when it was first announced, or after I saw one in person, but for some reason, the iPod Touch has me all aflutter. It's basically an iPhone without the phone part (and the added ability of being able to download songs directly to the device) so I didn't understand why I was so excited by it until it dawned on me: It's because I won't need to rub my face on the iPod Touch and get it all greasy all the time (unless I'm watching a Mark Ruffalo movie on it, of course).

Me MacBook Got

So, today, my work PowerBook went crazy and suddenly decided it wouldn't let me connect to the Internet in any way, shape or form. I couldn't even access my network settings. It was whack. This time I can't place the blame on myself and my butterfingers; I didn't drop the damn thing, it just...happened. So I had to relinquish it to IT and do without my own computer for the majority of the day.

Which also meant I wouldn't have a computer once I got home, since my iBook still sits sadly in its broken state. NO COMPUTER ALL NIGHT? How could I possibly get through an evening without any Internet access? What am I? An ANIMAL?

So, the temporary loss of my work computer finally drove home the point that I really shouldn't rely on or use my work computer for anything but work. I needed my own computer again.

And those new MacBooks are so shiny and pretty...

And BART practically exits right inside the Apple store...

And Chuck graciously accepted my request for some Apple consumer enabling.

I HAD to do it!

I didn't go crazy and buy the more expensive MacBook Pro, instead opting for a white MacBook. I figure I've got the work PowerBook for anything I might need a larger screen for (which isn't much, and usually only happens for work things anyway) and the main things I'll be using the MacBook for are Internet writing and crap like that, so I didn't REALLY need all the bells and whistles the Pro offered.

Of course, a year from now, when this computer is obsolete, I'll probably kick myself for my choice, but for now, it's just fine.

Now I need to get a back-up drive, AND bring the iBook to a recovery place to see if they can save anything on it...which won't be cheap either.

Computers. Can't afford 'em! Can't live without 'em!

In a related humorous note, while I was trying to configure my email account, I realized I couldn't figure out the names of my Pacbell account's email servers, so I went to their Web site to try and figure them out. I was met with this bit from their FAQ:

You can configure AT&T Yahoo! Mail to retrieve messages from any external mail account to which you have POP access. An account with POP access is one that you are able to access through an external email client such as Outlook, Eudora, or Netscape Mail.

To configure an external mail server, you must enter your external (POP) mail server's name, your user name for that POP account, the password for that account, and the mail server's port number.

Unfortunately, AT&T Yahoo! Mail Support doesn't know and can't provide you with any of this information. For further assistance, you need to contact your Internet Service Provider or Network Administrator.

Thanks! That solves everything!

Sad Mac

I finally ventured to the Apple store to talk to one of the "geniuses" at the Genius Bar, and I'm not sure it was really worth my time. She basically pressed start on my iBook, put her head down onto the keyboard, and said, "Yeah, the disc is failing." As Chuck pointed out, she came off as more of Mac Whisperer than any kind of genius.

Of course, I'm the genius who had the thing for two years, and never really took the time to back any of it up. Including the one document that contains all of my Musty TV movie write-ups from the last 10 years. I have some saved copies of that document, but I think the most recent I saved is about a year old, at best. It would have been so easy to just email myself a copy of that doc every week, but I didn't. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I'd also like to get all my pictures, and my address book. The rest I can say good-bye to without many tears. Luckily my iPod has all my music, so none of that was lost....

I've tried many suggestions for accessing the failing hard drive and trying to transfer files one by one, but so far nothing's worked. Miss Genius gave me some names of places that do data recovery, but she told me she didn't think anything like that would cost less than 600 bucks (!) and doubted it would even work.

All I can say is, do not suffer my fate. People. BACK YOUR SHIT UP!

The Most Horrible Thing to Happen to Anyone, Ever

My iBook is broken.

OK. Perhaps I'm exaggerating with that title up there, but it certainly FEELS that way right now. I'm hoping it can be fixed without any loss of data because I'm an idiot and haven't backed anything up in about three months. I wish there was something out there that would just automatically back everything up at the end of the day, with no effort on my part. (IS there something like that out there?)

Anyway, it's unlikely to be dealt with until this weekend (so there probably won't be a "Musty TV" newsletter going out this week). I don't dare venture down near the Apple store until all the Macworld stuff dies down.

Luckily, I have my work-issued PowerBook to help prevent complete Internet withdrawal...ironically, it had to be repaired today, too.

I've got a post up on SFist that requests reader-participation. Go there now and start participating!!!

Never Again

Yesterday I bought a printer/scanner at Target, along with some expensive sheets--no more two-thread count for me!--some towels, underwear, and a pair of work-out pants (for the life of me, I will never understand the need for "low-rise" work-out pants. Is your ass crack THAT sexy that you need to show it to the entire gym every time you bend over to stretch? I bought some plain old track pants at Old Navy, only to realize once I wore them to work-out, that there was no way anyone who walked by wasn't going to be seeing my underwear. Hate! HATE LOW RISE PANTS!)

What was I talking about?...Oh yeah. About how great Target it. Anyway, I got the printer/scanner thing (this model, which apparently uses too much ink, but I don't plan on using the printer feature that much, and having a scanner with it for the relatively low price of 80 bucks made it seem like a good one to get) and even though it's pretty compact, I still didn't have any room for it on my desk because of the monstrosity that was my unusable PC, a Compaq Presario I got about six years ago. I have been wanting to get rid of the thing ever since I got my iBook, over a year ago, but for a long time I had to use it to send out some emails because I couldn't figure out a way to transfer all of my email addresses. Eventually I managed to do that, but there were still a lot of photos and files I needed to transfer as well. So, needing the space, I finally decided to sit down and clean the computer out.

I was up until 4am.

I will never, NEVER, voluntarily purchase or use a PC again. I should have known the computer was going to lead to nothing but pain when getting it delivered was directly responsible for me falling on my face and getting a bloody nose. (A story for another time.) I knew the machine was hopelessly slow now because of all the adware and spyware I had picked up over the years by doing nothing more than searching the Internet, but I can't believe how evil and insidious that crap is. No matter how many remover programs I used, I could never get rid of all of it. (I'm also so, SO happy that when I started my new job that I opted to use a Mac instead of a PC. The majority of my job requires that I look at a lot of really bad, spammy Web pages, and I can't imagine the horrors that befall a PC when exposed to that crap.) Anyhoo, because of the sluggishness of my PC, it took forever to just boot and open folders, but I managed to transfer all of my photos and files to a Seagate pocket drive. Once that was done, (it took about two hours), I was ready to toss out everything else, and uninstall programs in the hopes that I could then do a restore and "return the PC to its factory condition." Uninstalling things led to a lot of freezing everytime I'd try and unistall some bit of adware. Needless to say, that took several hours, too.

In order to do the restore I needed the restore CD the machine came with. I thought that meant I was screwed, but after some searching, I actually located it. The rest seemed like it should be easy enough. Pop the CD in, restart the computer, and follow the prompts.

Ha. HA HA.

Everytime I would try and restart the computer with the CD in the drive, I got this nice mess.


Basically, I couldn't read anything on the screen, and it would keep flashing on and off. I don't know WHAT the hell that was about, but the whole restore thing was no longer an option. I had to just unplug it and get it the hell away from my desk once and for all. I was hoping I could donate it, but I really don't think it would be usable unless some PC wiz was able to do some kind of voodoo on it. That also leads me to the worry that somewhere on there my email password and other personal info is still accessible, so I might just have to drop the thing out a window and into a giant garbage can.

For now, it is sitting outside my front door, along with an unusable printer, an old typewriter, a REALLY old Mac monitor, and a rotting bookcase. Which leads to another thing. A month ago, my landlord slipped a notice under everyone's door stating that we are not allowed to store personal items in the building's common areas. We had until July 2nd to move the stuff, and anything that remained on that date would be taken to the dump by our landlord. Along with the aforementioned junk, I also keep my bike chained up outside my front door, but that's the only thing that's out there that I'd want to keep. All the other stuff is there because I don't have room for it in the apartment, and don't have a way to bring it to a dump or Goodwill myself. In other words, the landlord would be doing me a favor by taking all that crap to the dump.

I prepped for the second of July by bringing my bike inside, and tossing some of the junk that was easy to get rid of, like boxes and books (which I brought to the Laundromat next door. It's kind of become a little book trading area in the 'hood).

The second of July came and went, and my junk is still out there. I don't know what happened. Maybe they saw my pile of junk and realized that by taking the stuff they wouldn't just be being mean, but would, in fact, be helping me out, and decided, as landlords so often do, that there's nothing in it for them if they do a tenant a favor. Either they're going to show up some day, unannounced, and take it all away--including my bike, which is back outside--thus ruining my life, or send me a notice saying I need to get rid of it all myself. Which just leads back to the issue of not knowing where to bring this crap. I could use a place like 1-800-Got-Junk, but their minimum charge is $129, and that's a lot of cash to get rid of not a lot of stuff.

So. Here it is, July Fourth, and I've got a residual headache and backache from last night, I have even more junk I need to get rid of than I did a week ago, and I blame it all...on...PCs.

Update: One of the sheets was full of stains...Damn you, PCs!!