This past week I have learned several lessons. . .first and foremost, when your computer occasionally blue screens, it might be a cause for concern. Last Wednesday, my computer went into a mechanically-induced coma (hibernate mode) and never came back. When I hit the power button to wake it up, it went to sleep for good!!! I took it in to the computer shop and they told me the motherboard was completely gone. They were so honest with me and told me it would cost just as much to repair it as it would to get a new computer. They refurbish computers there and told me they wouldn't even try to sell me anything because my computer was way more powerful than anything they had. So, I spent the rest of the day trying to locate a computer that would fit my needs and located one an hour away. Picked it up and the whole time I'm am running through in my mind how to recover from this disaster. I do run backup software, but the issue that I had - for two weeks before the failure I had been trying to install an upgraded version of my backup software. That installation was HORRIBLE. . .reputable software from a big software firm should NOT be that problematic and their staff should be trained better!!! So, needless to say, I didn't have a good backup for the last two weeks. . .and add to that the tech told me that the old backups would not work with the new software - UGH!!! Having been a programmer, the first rule of development is to never REMOVE functionality, just increase functionality!!! So, after I got the new computer, I developed a plan of restoration. First, I called my computer guy and asked if he could transfer all the data from my old hard drive to an external hard drive. . .he could do that since the old hard drive was intact. That process is being done now. Then, my next plan was to develop a punchlist which included the order that software should be installed. I installed my backup/recovery software and the tech was completely wrong. . .the new software can read the old backups. . .my only issue is it can't search the recovery points, I have been able to recover some software but just because I know the location. I still need that data from the old hard drive!!!
I think I may try to upgrade to Photoshop CC. . .not that I like it that much (again, they took away functionality), but my version of Photoshop is getting dated and with new actions and styles, I want to be able to take advantage of those things. I also decided to update Microsoft Office to 2013 - I had 2003 and found that the disks that I had were a 2003 Upgrade. . .can't really upgrade the 2013 trial of Microsoft to 2003!!! Of all things, the new version of Office is extremely problematic. I use Excel extensively for tracking my scrapbooking work and have developed VBA code to build my credits, show me pending work and things that need to be uploaded. Once the product was installed, I opened my spreadsheet and found that none of the objects worked!!! I googled the problem and found it is a widespread issue that started after a Windows update from mid-December!!! I did everything that was suggested and the problem persisted. Yesterday I established a chat session with Microsoft and the "tech" knew absolutely nothing!!! Needless to say, they got a scathing feedback report!!! On a whim, I decided to see if the problem existed on my husbands computer which has Office 2010. . .my spreadsheet worked perfectly over there!!! During the night, I started thinking - that is when I do my best work which is probably why I can't sleep most nights!!! I took my spreadsheet to his computer, opened it, saved it with a new name and brought it back to my computer. You will never guess what happened!!! My objects now work perfectly!!! There is definitely a bug in the Excel product itself and for the life of me as widespread as the problem is on internet, you would think they would fix it PRONTO!!! Let me just say, the young programmers today just aren't up to the quality that we were. When I came up through the field, we could submit a program once a day and we had to wait 4+ hours to get results back. . .it forced us to be accurate!!! It is completely different from the "instant gratification" that the younger generations are used to!!! Qualities like accuracy and efficiency were drilled into us right out of the gate!!! Not long ago, my husband was having issues with someone's code at his work. . .their staff worked on it and got it down to running 13 hours. On a whim I asked if I could take a look at it. . .made a suggestion to change the code and it ran in under 30 seconds!!! Yep, 13 hours is a LOT longer than 30 seconds!!! I do still have it!!!
So, today I have a lot of pages to upload. . .that will likely be a 2 day process!!! But we are having snow and I have plenty of groceries and no need to go outside. Think I'll make a pot of soup today and then for the big game tonight there will be homemade pizza. . .yum!!! So, sit back and take a look at my latest creations :-)
First up. . .
This was created using
These were created using
These were created using
And how about a couple of heritage pages
These were created using
And a couple of general pages
These were created using
And how about some serious cuteness!!!
These were created using
And, last up. . .
These were created using
And, with that I am outta here to go finish setting up this computer. . .at least I am now caught up on my postings!!! Until next time. . .
1 comment:
I enjoyed reading your comments about your computer woes. I learned a few things. I've avoided all of the Microsoft products I possibly can. After reading about your problems, I intend to keep avoiding them. But I started using Word Perfect many years ago and have stayed with it. My PC is getting up in years, and will probably need replacement in the not far distant future, but now I have some ideas of what to avoid. Hope things go well with your transfers.
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