Computer Woes

Why is it lately that everything I try to do on this computer takes ten times longer than it should? I promise I am (normally) a very computer literate person. But recently I have felt completely useless when it comes to technology and it's a very humbling feeling. And I think that Morgan, my truly brilliant and very patient friend, is getting a little fed up with me messaging and calling him so much.

Case #1: iPhone and iTunes

Ahhh iTunes... My dad has said before "the worst thing about the iPhone is iTunes" and I wholeheartedly agree. Now I've got the whole music/podcast/videos thing down. And I even was fine with apps and syncing everything when we just had one iPhone. But now we have two, and I've also recently been trying to be more diligent about backing up data.

Upon Morgan's advice I set Chris up with a separate iTunes account with the idea that we could have separate contacts and apps, but point the music library to the same folder so we could share music. But for some reason I didn't really like that. It actually involved three separate music folders and transferring new purchases to the main library folder, and it just sounded complicated. So when I did the whole reinstall of Windows (see next story), I went ahead and got us back onto one account.

I figured out the apps pretty easily and we just check and uncheck what we want to sync to each phone. It seems to remember each of our preferences based on which phone is plugged in. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that continues. But the contacts and calendar don't really have a great way to sync or backup in iTunes and the only solutions anyone talks about on the web involve Outlook which I don't have on this computer. I tried Windows Contacts but the fields aren't all the same and it didn't remember half the numbers or notes I had entered. And in that process I managed to delete ALL my contacts, so I'm ditching that option. But recently Google has made it possible to sync contacts/calendar with iTunes. Hooray a solution! Now my contacts (re-entered manually for the most part) and calendar are backed up and everything is looking good. Oh wait... the photos.

My seemingly simple task for today was to set up a way to sync photos. My intuition (backed up by multiple message board posts) is that you can point iTunes to one folder on the computer and it will sync whatever is in there. Not so much. I set it up, put pictures in there, and plugged in the phone. iTunes even said it was optimizing each photo that was in the folder, but they have failed to show up on the camera roll. And the ones on the phone failed to show up in the folder. I don't even know where to begin. Another call to Morgan...

Case #2: Logitech Universal Remote and CD/DVD drive

After the dogs chewed up our old universal remote, we got a new one and it sat on the counter for about six weeks until today when I finally got around to programming it. So I threw the software CD in the computer and waited for it to load. All I got was the all too familiar grinding sound. But let's rewind a moment...

About 2 months ago I realized that my computer's warranty would expire soon and there were quite a few things wrong with it. You know, things that you live with because you can't be bothered to actually do something about them. But I figured I might as well get them taken care of while they were free. The CD/DVD drive was one of them. It hadn't been reading discs very well for about a year. It wrote to them fine, but when I tried to play a DVD or rip a CD, it gave this horrible, broken-record, teeth-gnashing sound that has now come to represent several incomplete projects which clutter the house and the failure of which rests on my psyche. (Perhaps I should have repaired this sooner?)

So I called the support number and the friendly representative suggested I reinstall Windows. Sure... no problem... So after the reinstall I had a 3-year old "new" computer complete with all that junk software I hoped to never see again. A three-week process of uninstalling junk and reinstalling useful software (as well as messing with iTunes - see above story) and I actually thought it had worked. Until I put in that Logitech software CD.

Instead of really trying to problem-solve, I went ahead and called the warranty number again in fervent hopes that they would tell me this time "it's definitely broken, please enjoy a complimentary new computer for your troubles." No such luck but the friendly representative had me uninstall the drive and reboot. So now the drive will play DVDs and CDs, but continues to have a little problem with software CDs. It read one printer CD but thought the other was a blank burnable disc. And it still refused to read either copy of the Logitech. I ended up downloading the software from the website and it took all of 90 seconds to set up the remote since it had pre-loaded the settings from the last one.

What conclusions have I come to from all these issues? 1. Morgan is a wonderful person. 2. iTunes sucks. 3. My computer is old and crusty. 4. User error can be ONE factor but is not the ONLY factor. 5. I will probably break down and buy a new computer within the next 6 months.

Swimming Lessons

Well this weekend we went to the lake again and I was so proud of Jake because he (almost) learned to swim like a real dog! We had previously blamed his obvious lack of swimming ability on his breed, whose purpose was to track and fight lions in Africa. Not too much water there. But the lake was really low so both the dogs could walk pretty far out and Jake was more adventurous in the water. At one point he actually swam without being cajoled, and there was much less thrashing and splashing.


The weekend was pretty relaxing, and we spent a little time wakeboarding on Saturday. The rest of the time was spent just sitting around. Though at one point we discovered a bat that had chosen the eaves on the back of the house to spend his day sleeping. He was very cute, but he didn't come back the next day.