Yesterday was one of those very-interesting-computer-days. First, I have to confess that I have a stable of computers, though none qualifies as impressive. There is the iMac desktop, about 6 1/2 years old, the 5-year-old PC laptop which I use for all my writing, the Netbook which is maybe two years old, and my newest little addition, my Droid Razr phone. Which is a long way of saying, no need to feel sorry for me. I’m not suffering or anything.

But anyway… my iMac still runs an old OS–whatever the OS was before SnowLeopard–and it’s reached the point where it doesn’t get software updates, Firefox no longer supports it, and Chrome won’t deal with it. So yesterday I clicked on a twitter link, to someone’s blog as I recall, and Safari crashed. Okay, well, this happens, and I really wanted to read that blog post, so I pasted the link into Firefox and crashed that browser too. Ever since then, both browsers refuse to work. Even worse, when I try to use the browsers the entire computer goes non-responsive and I have to restart by holding down the power button. Everything else on the computer works fine, including email and tweetdeck.

So while all this was going on I booted up the Netbook and discovered it needed twenty-six updates. So I let it update–only it failed to start after that. It did go through a repair/restore and booted up. It seems to work fine again, except there are error messages. And I need to try to do those updates again.

So today I talked to the Mac store, and I may well take my machine down there on Monday and have a pro clean it up and maybe upgrade it and try to get it to work for another year or two.

But if I seem extra confused or disorganized — over and above my usual level — for the next few days, please blame it on the computer woes!

Posted on: Friday, June 8th, 2012 at 10:59 am
Categories: General.