A soothsayer said to Julius Caesar:"Beware the Ides of March".
Imagine my surprise today, when I got to fire up my "dog" system (PC clone), and lo and behold...I get some stupid-ass error I haven't seen before.
It tells me that "it" has a CMOS - checksum error, and that "I" should press F1 to continue.
So, being the obedient person I was raised as, I do so, and the system boots normally. Problem solved. But wait, the fun is JUST getting started.
After I boot the system, I have a QUICKTIME icon at the bottom of the taskbar....never seen that before, and since I know where it's located (startup programs), I wander into the system config utility and UNcheck the box. The system then tells me to "restart" the system, which I proceed to do with abandon. It's at this point that our tale of interest become a lot more...shall we say...interesting.
The system comes on, but REFUSES to boot...no beeps, no monitor with all the gobbledegoop on it telling me everything's hunky-dory with the memory check, etc. NOTHING. I can't even hear the drive attempting to read anything. I am now the proud owner of a beige-colored DOORSTOP...complete with keyboard AND mouse!
After repeated tries to get this POS working (including MY favorite style of BOOTING a system....with my FOOT), I'm figuring it "might" be some type of PWR SUP problem, but hey, what the f$ck do *I* know? I only used to work on REAL systems back in the 70's...the kind with DISK PACKS and room-filling mainframes...none of this microchipped-subatomic crap that bows to the winds of discontent on the slightest whim.
So...since we DO need (yet) ANOTHER CD-ROM drive for this "dog" (it seems to enjoy eating them at the rate of one every other year), we're going to have to take it to the local shop AGAIN (another trip UP NORTH...so much for all this redevelopment on the SOUTH-side, Mr Mayor), and see what kind of gremlins are currently inhabiting this thing.
Now I said all that to say this.....I have come to detest a lot of our "modern technology". Well, let's say I hate the fact that every single piece of this system is made OVERSEAS with a level of planned obsolescence unrivalled in human history. Apparently, no one can make anything to LAST anymore. It makes you wonder why we CAN have printing presses manufactured in MASSACHUSETTS way back in 1902...STILL running, when we can't even have a damn computer system that lasts more than FIVE years without some type of failure onboard or even the ability to "keep up" with further advances in this tech. I would prefer RELIABILITY over SPEED most any day. It doesn't matter HOW FAST it runs...IF it "don't run"...you're pretty much S-O-L, right? The same can be said for most anything we utilize these days.
We have what is basically the ultimate disposable society. Just TRY to get a vintage stereo/radio receiver fixed...or (heaven forbid) a BETA VCR! NOBODY repairs these things, and if they DO, they're keeping it to themselves damn well. And just watch the slack-jawed "WTF?" look you get from the freshly graduated (and probably tattooed and pierced) Tech-school "specialist" when you take your 24 year old car (still pretty much in MINT condition) to a "repair facility" (we just called them GARAGES...and they KNEW their trade) to get something "fixed". Yeah, that really instills a level of confidence in having my car fixed RIGHT...the FIRST time...NOT! Hell, most shops don't even bother to REBUILD an alternator (40 minutes max) or carburator (under two hours...btw, they still HAVE those?), because it takes TOO much time, and time is (nowadays) all about money. Say good-bye to the friendly neighborhood garage in any major city.
It's become more of a crap-shoot whenever you attempt to get something fixed...maybe the tech didn't come in hungover, and things might get put to rights. Then again, maybe he just got pissed over something trivial, and YOU are the lucky one to reap the benefits of his "expertise" today...you never know.
While making money is good for business, we have to stop and realize the complexities created by farming out work, replacing things instead of repairing them, and forcing the national trade deficit higher by the minute. It's been going on for so damn long, we've forgotten HOW to do things right and at a decent price (like HERE in AMERICA). They used to call it exceeding the customers' needs. But today, it depends on what the "bottom line" allows.
But getting back to my "plight"...I've got a backup system here (probably now just as obsolete as "the dog"), so I won't miss that many beats in this perverse technological two-step we call "progress". What I will be doing REAL soon is backing up (or transferring) every damn personal file onto the other (newer) system (when the dog comes back from the "vet"), and get a "flash-drive" or two, as a backup TO the backup, because this crap gets REAL old, REAL fast.
Like we used to say..."You might slow me down, but by Christ, you're NOT going to stop me".
And that's as good a moral to any story that one could possibly find.
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