Bloody Computers

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 11:00 am
caddyman: (Bloody Tech)
[personal profile] caddyman
This morning I made an elementary computing error: I decided to upgrade something, something that should have taken ten to fifteen minutes. Guess what?

Back in the days of yore, I used to visit one of my friends on an almost daily basis – what Furtle calls “poppage” and on occasion I would get mildly freaked out at when he would swear and rant at his uncooperative computer. This morning I came perilously close to emulating him, though I managed to hold back from whole scale violence toward the machine.

The background is thus: there is clearly a software conflict on my main PC between iTunes and something else. This conflict was not apparent while I was simply operating an iPod, but became quickly obvious once I purchased and registered my iPhone. The PC insists on identifying the camera on the iPhone and suggesting a range of applications to transfer photographs. ITunes does not like this, so it sulks. It sulks to the extent that it gives the iPhone a headache and then, like any old married couple with communication problems, they won’t talk to each other half the time. Moreover, iTunes insists that I can only make ringtones out of tunes I have downloaded, but then refuses to connect to the internet (which it need not do) to identify the song I select. I have reinstalled it once, but to no avail. I shall remove it entirely from my PC and reinstall from the ground up to see if that makes a difference.

Anyway, in anticipation of downloading and installing OS3.0 for the iPhone, which should be available today (it isn’t), I decided to update the iTunes on my laptop and configure that to work with my iPhone as an alternative. Of course, this is where I made the rookie mistake: I forgot that I hadn’t booted up the laptop for close on a year, so apart from feeling rudely awoken, it was anxious to update everything it could think of. I stopped that – I can do that later – but I *did* download and install iTunes 8.2.

Hah. Fifteen minutes my arse. By the time Norton had put it through immigration control – and this is with me hitting the cancel button almost continuously, it took FORTY-FIVE minutes. I am not confident enough in my computer knowledge to abort the process after a certain point for fear of creating worse problems, so I allowed it to continue.

Why do updates ALWAYS get to 95% completion and then sit there innocently while the last centimetre of the update bar sits there unconcernedly taking a break?

Oh well, I shall allow more time tonight. Doubtless it will take all evening.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-17 10:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com
And here lies just one of the reasons I own a Mac :)

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-17 10:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ellefurtle.livejournal.com
Yes - a new mac is very very high on my list of things to get when I can afford it. Sadly 'get a mortgage' and 'pay of debts' are also on the list!

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-17 10:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] snorkel-maiden.livejournal.com
I was a bit late to work one day last year with a previous software update that I tried to do in the morning! It was installing and phone was plugged in- I didn't want to unplug it so I just had to sit there! I'll try for 3.0 tonight when my phone doesn't need to go anywhere for a couple of hours.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-17 10:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sack-boy.livejournal.com
According to the Register it's been delayed a day ...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/17/iphone_3/
Edited Date: 2009-06-17 10:44 am (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-17 11:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] romney.livejournal.com
he would swear and rant at his uncooperative computer

I used to resemble that remark - but I is too scared of me new computer to even raise my voice to it.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-17 12:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caddyman.livejournal.com
I was being politely circumspect so as not to highlight your mental instability...

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-17 12:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] romney.livejournal.com
I'm much better now I'm taking the tablets!

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-17 12:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladkyis.livejournal.com
OH that's me! Mr M has to remind me that ranting at high volume is no longer allowed because it would teach the gelfling too many bad words so I have to resort to Billy Connollyisms

(no subject)

Date: 2009-06-18 07:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nortysarah.livejournal.com
I get a message saying that it wants to open my scanner (I don't have one) then it opens the photos from my iphone and asks me what I want to do. It's a pain, but once I've closed that all down I can get on with the itunes stuff.

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