#mac vs technology

[depizan]

Well, I have Guild Wars 2 up and running. (And am somewhat horrified to discover I haven't played it in like four years. This has got to be my longest MMO slump ever.)

Now I just need to figure out why I can't get SWTOR to launch.

And then figure out if I can do FFXIV the same way I did Guild Wars 2. (Download through Steam but make it launch the real log in to play it.)

Games. The only real challenge to switching to Linux.

[depizan]

Technology!

I got to work today, pressed the key fob to lock my car, and nothing happened. I tried it again. No luck.

I've had the car for eight years and never used the actual key, except in the ignition, so what followed should probably have been set to Yakky Sax, as I attempted to get both doors and the hatch all locked at once. (Messing up at least the hatch and driver's side door, if not any of them would unlock all of them. Brilliant design!)

After work, my fob had magically started working again, but I wasn't about to trust it. Off I went to get a new battery.

I read the instructions. I watched a YouTube video. I did surgery on my key fob. I once again have reasonable confidence that my car will lock and unlock on command!

I don't really object to key fobs, since it has kept me from locking my keys in the car, and does still have the actual key when the battery gives up the ghost. But I remain very skeptical of the fob only variety. What would someone with only a fob have done in my situation this morning? Had to leave their car unlocked? Had to go get a battery? Can you even drive a car with a dead fob? I have concerns.

[depizan]

After spending an hour or so fighting with my printer, thanks to Windows 10, I find myself wondering why technology doesn’t heck up more in fiction.

I mean, it does in comedies (or so I assume), and there’s Star Trek’s reliably unreliable holodeck, and, I suppose, the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive, but in general, fictional people are spared our everyday technological inconveniences.

Supervillains don’t have to reboot their death rays, heroes aren’t thwarted by network outages, the self check doesn’t blow raspberries at them as they try to buy their plot relevant supplies*, no one picks up their datapad to look something up and find it insisting on installing an update right now...

I suppose it’s part of the fantasy of fiction, along with skipping bathroom breaks, and often food and sleep. But there are times when I kind of want fictional people to suffer the same technological annoyances I do.

Hell, you don’t even get the kind of amusing technology things... like that person who posted on twitter or wherever while charging their prosthetic at an airport phone charging station.

I know it’d be easy for it to tip over into absurdity, but just once in a while it’d be nice for fictional tech to be a bit like real tech. Or, alternatively, it’d be nice if real life tech were as well behaved and convenient as fictional tech.

Okay, that way might lead to “Everything works perfectly, except when the entertainment system accidentally spawns villains into the middle of your starship.”

*Okay, there’s the hilarious scene in Innerspace, that kind of comes close...

[depizan]

On the other hand, I suppose this is excellent IT practice.

Repaired Application, check.

Updated OS, check.

Googled the general problem, check.

Tried not having my internet browser open while using PowerPoint, check.

Tried running it as an admin, check.

Moved picture I need to insert into the same file as the presentation I’m creating, check.

Finally got a specific error message and googled it, check.

Disabled MalwareBytes protection for the #%#$% $^&^ing program, check.

My god, it works now.

[depizan]

Well, I'm going to be getting myself a printer for Christmas, I guess. My current one has finally actually bit the dust (it seemed to have died twice before this, but revived at a thorough cleaning).

I really need to find a different place for my next printer. The current location is a cat path to my window, so the printer ingests far more cat fur and cat litter dust than any printer should. I even got a wifi printer in the hopes of finding a spot somewhere in the apartment that wouldn't be a cat issue, but then failed miserably. I need to rethink and figure it out this time. Printers aren't horribly expensive, but I'd like to get as long a life out of them as possible, you know.

And, yeah, unless anyone knows of a small, reasonably priced, non-shitty all-in-one inkjet printer (decent for both text and images), I'm probably going to get another HP, much as I hate everything about their current business model. As a printer, I've wanted to throw this one out the window far less than its predecessor (a Canon that had to be manually reconnected to the network every fucking time I wanted to print - even if the damn thing hadn't been turned off %^$#$#$^). As a company, I would totally throw HP out the window.

Bah, technology.

[depizan]

Oooh, I found a rechargeable gaming mouse with a scroll wheel that has space all around it. Considering the scroll wheel is where my cat hair problems happen, this is very tempting...

(basically, it’s...like Sauron’s tower, I guess...the left and right mouse buttons are sort of separate thingies with the scroll wheel suspended between them. Instead of being inset into a solid space where fuzz can collect.)

[depizan]

I need to find a rechargeable computer mouse that’s meant to be taken apart periodically for cleaning. I just dissected my current one to remove giant quantities of cat hair, but taking apart things that aren’t meant to be taken apart (even if you get them back together again) is always a bit of a crapshoot. I should probably plan for a replacement...

(I realize if I weren’t so fond of wireless mice, I wouldn’t have this problem. But, while I don’t mind a wired keyboard, I really like wireless mice. And the rechargeable kind seems better than using loads of batteries - even rechargeable batteries. *sigh*)