Tag Archives: Apple

Cleaned Out

Posted in Life, The List by

Earlier this year my faithful laptop died… it was unexpectedly painful because I didn’t realise how attached I had become to it, even though it was an inanimate object. In fact I wrote a little obituary for it back in January which you can read here if you like.

The day before my computer died, I finished my list for the year which had included two computer specific tasks…
No. 56 Clean out my computer properly and…
No. 73 Tidy up my iTunes library

The truth is, while I didn’t think my computer would die… I knew it needed a good clean up, it was like someone how had been living on fatty foods and had been clogging their arteries, with so much plaque and crap floating around it was only a matter of time before my poor little computer had a computer heart attack or stroke… little did I know it would be the next day. I had planned to give it some TLC and a massive purge of data so that it could once again live a healthy and I had hoped long life… but it was not to be… perhaps it was a case of too little too late.

Anyway, it is now June and earlier this semester I finally replaced my computer… I got my new laptop at the end of March and I have been very careful about what gets transferred across and what remains on the hard drive from my old mac, which now lives on like a brain in a jar… supplying information as I need… As part of this process I have had to choose which music I take and by default cleaned out my iTunes library. The hoarder in me is secretly happy that all the information is actually just sitting right there on another drive if I change my mind and what it back, but I still feel able to tick it off the list all the same. The same with no. 56 – my computer has well and truly been cleaned out… not the way I had imagined… but off the list all the same…

As part of this whole process, I feel like my new laptop has given me a new opportunity to keep the file situation down to a minimum from the beginning. And while it may have gotten a little file crazy during uni, now that my uni semester has finished… a long and painful semester… but that’s another story… I have stopped and taken the time to do another mini clean out… just to make sure everything stays organised and not just repeated piles of things I really didn’t need to keep in the first place. I have actually found this quite cathartic and I think I will have to sit down and do it regularly so that is stays neat and tidy… but I guess still a little by default these can come off the list…

Oh and here is a selfie with me and my computer… cos everyone does that right?

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Serve me a Slice of Humble Pie

Posted in Life by

I have a confession… I brought an iPad mini… this isn’t really that big a deal except for the fact that a couple of years ago… in fact some time in 2010… when the original iPad was released I made a ridiculous declaration about how unnecessary they are… and to make it worse I made it in church… but it didn’t stop there… I then told everyone who was there that night that under no certainty was I going to get one… In fact I’m pretty sure that I said it was a complete waste of money because all it was, was a glorified iPhone and because I had an iPhone there was absolutely no reason for an iPad. Yet here I am, sitting here writing this on my iPad… So why have I got one? Well would you believe me if I said that I needed one? No? Well ok… let me explain…

I still stand by my original sentiments, because they remain true, no one needs an iPad… But… I have been using one at work which I had to give back, and while it is also true that I could do everything I needed the iPad for on my iPhone… Apparently that doesn’t fly in the workplace… So surely I could just go back to the way it was before… well since then I have become the iPad guru at work, continuing with a project that uses our iPads in place of my old bulky dietetic folder… so it would be a little silly for the iPad project girl not to have an iPad… sure I could work around it, but the reality is I just decided I needed one… So I have succumbed and purchased one… but it doesn’t just stop there… the truth is… I love it… I still don’t need it, but I am glad I have it and now I have to eat my words… Because even though I said I wouldn’t… I did and I am not even really that sorry about it.

Goodbye My Friend

Posted in Life by

Today is a sad day, a really sad day… Today my computer died… well, it actually died last night, but it was pronounced dead by the apple store today. It’s not really a shock because my computer was getting old, but I didn’t expect to just die, without warning or a goodbye. Nevertheless it is gone and I have to get used to it.

I have blogged before about the fact that I get attached to inanimate objects… and to date the most painful has been my car…which I said goodbye to in 2010, but I am pretty sure this will come close. Thankfully I backed up my computer yesterday so all of my stuff is still there, but it will never quite be the same. Sure in a few months I will have a shiny new computer, with more space, enough to fit everything, one which I won’t need to fight with to just put a few more photos on, or to update my software… but it won’t be the same…

I know it seems ridiculous to be so sad about losing a computer, of course it isn’t a person, or a pet, but it had shared with my some pretty big journeys and has helped me to achieved quite a few things. This computer was my first apple… now I know not everyone loves apple, but I do, I really do. I loved how easy it was to work, the fact that it all just made sense and the fact that it just did what it was supposed to do, no silly warnings, just what I wanted when I wanted it… I also loved it’s shiny silver keyboard and how smooth it was to type. It was the first computer I had that didn’t get bugs all the time. The first computer I had as an adult. It got me through my first degree. It kept me connected to my friends and family… and shops during my journey to Castlemaine. It held hundred’s and hundred’s of photos and reminisced with me whenever I wanted. It made more slide shows, photos, invitations, movies and blogs than any of my computers before. And even though it was 4 and a half years old it still worked a treat (well until yesterday). I was such a trouper that even the apple guy was surprised to see it. It only had another 6months until it would have been considered vintage apple… but it won’t make it that far now.

Even now as I type I keep going to check things on my computer… like the first pictures I uploaded on to it and my music collection, but then I remember this isn’t my computer, this is Dave… my computer is dead… I am not sure how this will effect no. 56 ‘Clean out my computer properly’ on the list… because now it’s dead, it just seems a bit cruel. I suppose like all things that die I will have to organise and sort out the things it leaves behind… a hard drive that I am hoping to save full of data… perhaps that will count instead… I don’t know…

All I know is that it’s dead and I am sad. I now have a ‘Emma’s Mac’ sized hole in my heart that hurts… and I feel a little disconnected without it…

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Mission: SMS Rescue… Part 2

Posted in Life by

So here is the update… but if you have no idea what I am talking about, you best go back a few days and read part 1

I went home and attempted to fix my iPhone myself, but no such luck.  I found out later I had come pretty close, but just not qutie there.  So instead of resolving to tears… again, I decided that it was time to bring in the experts… or should I say Geniuses… so tonight, Dave and I (Dave had to come coz I told him I needed for moral support) have sat at the ‘Genius’ bar at the apple store for 3hours trying to get this problem fixed.  And I am very pleased to say that after a number of attempts at restoring, clearing out some files and then a final restore, I now have all my messages back.  Well not all, truth be told, I lost the SMS’ I had received since the 19th of July, but I figured that losing a week of SMS’ wasn’t so bad if I got 18months worth back, including all my nice little keepsakes from our engagement and wedding.  So while Dave may not agree, I am pretty sure that the hours spent in the Mac store tonight and those afterwards at home backing up all my SMS’ in pdf format, were hours and time well spent.

Anyway, I figured… perhaps as a celebration of all that I have got back, I would share with you one of my favourites message threads from Davo… (oh and I am the green writing… the one with all the cool, nerdarific, pictures)

Mission: SMS Rescue

Posted in Life by

I am shattered.  Seriously upset.  On Sunday my phone had a small melt down and has deleted all of my messages.  Now for most people this wouldn’t be a problem but I am a message hoarder.  In fact back in the good old days when inboxes only held a limited number of messages, I had little books which I would copy the messages into so that I could keep them forever (and yes I still have the books, and probably more embarrassingly I often flick through them just to see what I felt was important enough to record forever).  But with my iPhone, I stopped the habit, because the messages are stored conversationally, they weren’t in order for me to write out.  I had also been told that it was impossible to ever completely delete things from my phone, so naively I just left them there unprotected and now they are gone.  The thing is though I have only had my phone for 18months, so normally not that much stuff would have happened in my life over 18months and I could probably just get over it.  But in the last 18 months massive things have happened including getting engaged and getting married and all my favourite texts over this time are now gone and this makes me really sad.  I know that is ridiculous, but I am actually really really sad about the thought of them being gone.

Here is the thing though, knowing how hard it is to actually delete data on an iPhone, part of me believes they are still there… so the computer nerd in me is determined not to be defeated by this silly little phone.  A about a week ago, while backing up I lost a whole heap of photos, but after a few tears and some investigative research I got my pictures back and I am really hoping that I can do the same with my messages.  I am not holding my breath, but just in case I have stopped backing up my computer and my iPhone (only temporarily) in the hope that I can rescue my texts from an old iPhone sync… so tonight (I hope) I am going to start mission ‘sms rescue’ a stealth operation to retrieve lost data…

I will let you know how I go.

Wish me luck.