Technology Update

Thanks to all the commenters on the previous post who advised to get a Mac.I'm sure I could break one o' those too.

I had a brainwave the other day: why not resurrect my old laptop and see if FTP works on that? So I did, and it did, mostly. There's a few sites that it cannot connect to but it can connect to sites that I'm working on now. So, for working at home I now have my new laptop that I do the work on, my old laptop with its non-functional screen beside me, connected to a 17" monitor that is sitting on a chair because I don't think our glass-topped dining table would take the weight. So when I need to upload a file (this only happens about 500 times a day) I copy it onto a memory stick, plug the stick into the old laptop, swap the LAN cable from the new machine to the old one (reminder to self: get another long LAN cable), and then do the upload and swap the chip and cable back to the new machine. It's an almighty pain in the ass, but it works for now.

On the mobile phone front, I bought the cheapest phone I could find: a neat little black Motorola for a paltry Dhs 99! Sadly, it would only offer SOS/emergency service. Ping! went a thought in my head. Maybe I should pay the bill, it's that time of the month (although the Interweb and landline were still working so it would be a bit odd for them to just disconnect the mobile). First thing the next morning I go to Itisalot in Gerbil Alley, and before handing over any cash I ask a clerk whether I've been disconnected. No, he says, not yet. Ah, so why do I only get SOS service on this phone? He asks me how long I've had my SIM card, and I have no idea - 7, 8, 9 years? Ah, he says, it'll be worn out. You need a replacement: dhs 50. Surely, I say, it should be free: it's not my fault it's worn out! But, he says, you've been using it for 789 years haven't you? Hmm, can't win against Itisalot.

So I fill in the form for a replacement SIM card, wait in a queue for a bit, and get the new one. The guy says it will be active in half an hour. Actually it was activated 10 minutes later when I got a flurry of voicemail alerts.

Anybody want to buy a Motorola C113a: never used?

Technology Hates Me

My apologies for the complete lack of blogging for almost a fortnight, I’ve been having serious problems with my laptop and the Interweb.

I blogged earlier about my problem with using FTP from my ‘broadband’ connection at home. After two weeks of whingy emails from me, Itisalot finally sent an engineer to have a look. Of course, when he plugged in his laptop, everything was fine. His conclusion was that I might have a virus on my machine, so he downloaded AVG and set it off on a mighty scan. I have gazillions of files and after two hours it was only halfway through the scan, although it had found a worm by then. The engineer took that as his cue to leave, saying ‘it will work after the scan is finished’. Hmm, well no, it bloody well didn’t work. And he had not explained to me why it works just fine using my Media City connection.

I had forgotten about the clever Windows feature known as System Restore. This lets you roll back the configuration of your system to a point where you know things were working fine. I decided to do a restore to a few days before I had the FTP problem. It made no difference, but it did stop the Interweb from working at the office.

DMC’s IT dude had a play with it and got nowhere.

Then I thought it would be a bright idea to re-install Windows. I had forgotten, of course, that when you do this you lose all the emails and the address book that you have built up over the years, and the Registry forgets about all the software you have installed. The software is still there, but the computer no longer knows where to find it so you have to install everything again.

Re-installing Windows did not have the desired effect. FTP was still not working and wi-fi is totally buggered. I can connect using a LAN cable at home, but not at the office. Strangely the computer tells me, with great delight, that it has found some new hardware every time I boot up. I offer the drivers for the Ethernet Controller, but it declines to take them because that device is already installed.

So, my Interweb is muxed ip big time. I cannot even access the Blogger edit page from home right now, and when I’m at the office I don’t have time to do any posting.

I cannot begin to describe how frustrating this is. It looks like I’ll be doing a format c:/ on the beast(ard) this weekend and then re-installing all my software and files. And, as if that wasn’t enough shit, my bloody phone packed up three days ago. The Palm Treo 650 that was my pride and joy when I bought it almost 2 years ago, is now reduced to being a PDA without the phone facility. I cannot get a signal of any kind, no matter where I am. I did some research yesterday on cheapie mobiles: the cheapest one is a plasticky Motorola at Dhs 117. Next up is a blue plastic Nokia at dhs 130. I’ll have to get one of them, because nobody will touch a Palm in this country and to get one fixed you have to send it to Slovakia or Slovenia. Dammit.

And, and, and...I have the world's worst cold! Ah well, mustn't grumble.