Saturday,
March 9, 2002

My Tech Cup runneth over

Remember how the Man from McKinney and I stopped off at the Apple Store yesterday so that I could pick up Mac OS 10.1 and turn this Powerbook into a hot, happening piece of kit?

Well, if there's anything I've learned during my years in the tech industry, it's that you should always back up your hard drive before adding any serious system-changing software to it. Actually, you should always back up your hard drive, period, but I know all of my beloved readers are intelligent people who regularly hook up their favorite choice of backup hardware and make copies of their vital files and applications.

(And if you don't, that's a gentle hint. You can thank me later.)

I, however, had an eensy problem. We've been using this old, old, old Epson Zip drive for large backups since, oh, 1995? The poor drive has bopped back and forth over the Atlantic more times than the Concorde, that I do know. Anyway, I hooked it up again earlier this week to do a backup, and discovered that while the device was showing up on my hard drive, it kept freezing every time I tried to read or write files from my Zip diskettes. Not being able to read stuff isn't that much of a tragedy, since Lyndon's G3 has an internal Zip drive that works just dandy.

Not being able to write stuff, however. . . This was not good.

This kicked off the following chain of events:

1) I informed Lyndon that our external Zip drive had joined the choir eternal, and said that we needed to buy a new one so that I could back up my Powerbook. "Although I'm tempted just to buy a CD-ROM burner," I mused.

2) Lyndon mentioned that he'd seen a rather nice Yamaha CD-ROM burner at Fry's, with FireWire connections (read: bloody fast), and that all we needed to do was buy a FireWire CardBus PC card in order to connect it to my laptop.

3) Yesterday, I mention this to Steve while we're on our way to Fort Worth, and we talk some more about burners and FireWire desirability. The only drawback is that it's fairly expensive, as compared to a $50 burner for a PC. But hey, isn't it worth the extra dosh?

4) This morning, we go out with the idea of finding an optometrist that can give me an eye exam and sell me contact lenses, preferably at Stonebriar Mall. Turns out that nobody has an available slot, so I decide to put it off until next week when I get paid. HowEVER, I say, we could go to Fry's and see what they have WRT CD burners and all that.

5) GMTA struck again, because my hip started buzzing. "Hi," says the Man from McKinney, "I'm out with my son, and we're going to Fry's -- wanna come?"

6) I inveigle him to come to Stonebriar for lunch first, during which time he makes sarcastic comments about the decorations around the food court and MfM Jr. and Lyndon engage in a staring contest (because that's just what guys do, I presume). Afterwards, we hop in our respective cars and head out to Fry's, aka the tech/geek/gizmomonger's Mecca.

7) Lyndon proceeds to purchase a Yamaha 16/10/40 3-in-1 CD-ROM drive/burner (since we'll both be using it), while I buy a Western Digital FireWire CardBus PC Card and a box of fifty CD-R CD's. And a "Quilt" magazine (hey, it was calling my name), while Steve and his son go shopping for a case and other odds and ends.

8) Since we get finished first, I call Steve to tell him I'll see him later. This transmogrifies into my going to Six Flags tomorrow morning with them to celebrate the beginning of the new season. Well, I'm a sucker for roller coasters, what am I supposed to do?

9) We get home, and I start setting up the software and other stuff I'll need to use my FireWire PC card and CD burner. Poor Lyndon -- he was standing over my shoulder being perfectly reasonable when I was grousing that my screen didn't look like the screen in the installation guide, and I finally flapped my hands at him to leave "and let me install my own tech, dammit!"

10) While I'm discovering that I don't need to download FireWire software because it's part of Mac OS 9.1 (would be nice if they'd MENTION this in the user guide, sayeth the technical writer), the phone rings. "Ah, good, you're home. I'll be there in twenty minutes or so -- I have something for you," the MfM says. "It's practical, so don't get all silly or anything."

11) Twenty minutes later he's in my garage port, handing over. . .a new radar detector. He's been telling me to get one ever since we started driving together, and decided to take things into his own hands (I think the fact that I finally took his advice and got a TollTag and credit card must have encouraged him. I also suspect that the fact I volunteered to take him to Ft. Worth yesterday so that he could get concert tickets for his wife had something to do with it). In any case, it was a very sweet thing to do, so I thanked him kindly and promised that I'd take it to Best Buy to have it installed.

12) I go back upstairs and back up my hard drive. In something like 10 minutes. Life is sweet.

So now I'm ready to load Mac OS X and let it do its worst on my system. Click your heels and think happy thoughts for me, kids.