Just a little type A

DOA

Did you know that an Apple Magic Mouse can die?  Neither did I, but apparently they can and mine did. It only took 45 minutes on the phone with tech support, running through a barrage of tests including replacing batteries, etc., and a visit to the Apple store, to confirm that yes, indeed, my Magic Mouse was DOA.

And the weird thing, when I went in to the Apple store, it took all of 1 minute to diagnosis the problem, 

Cool Apple Employee: "So, what seems to be the problem today?"

Me: "My mouse isn't working. I've already spoken with tech support and run through a bunch of tests including Command - Option - P - R, but that didn't work."

Cool Apple Employee: "Great. We'll get you a new mouse."  turns to another Cool Apple Employee and hands him my mouse and says, "DOA."

So I'm guessing this is not an uncommon problem.  Next time my cursor is locked in position at the left corner of my iMac, I'll know to avoid the 45 minutes of trouble shooting and just head to the Apple store for a new Magic Mouse.

 

Steve Jobs is Dead

Just heard on the news that Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, died today.   :(

Just Call Me a Geek

Since I went to a Mac I rarely turn on my "old" PC.  Mostly because it's a hassle to get it running; it turns on fine but I would have to open Outlook Express, send an email and only then could I launch Internet Explorer or use other programs/applications.

Obviously it was an OE problem but no one could figure it out.  Yesterday I stumbled across some articles that talked about file corruption in OE and provided solutions, one of which was to rename the Folders.dbx file and then try to restore it.

Even though I'm not very technically inclined yet in my brilliance I choose to fix my PC. It must have been the heat: 107 in the shade at my house, no air conditioning. (Ok, we do have A/C but only in the new part of the house and I'm really cheap and didn't want to turn it on.)

 So I renamed my folders.dbx file and then closed OE.  Then tried to restart and viola, all my subfolders vanished.  So not what I wanted.  I create folders for each item and then subfolders, makes it easier to find what I need.  I also tend to keep every email that I might need in the future.

Given that I have/had two businesses (Days Off Travel, Crop Addict and Scrapbook Cruises (scrapping division of Days Off Travel so it doesn't count as separate business ), am on the Board of Directors forRancho Buena Vista Little League, going to school fulltime, both boys are in multiple sports, etc. etc. To say that I have a LOT of email is an understatement.

So in my wisdom to attempt to do this on my own I successfully managed to delete all my subfolders. Oh the primary folders remained but given that I don't store any emails in them, it did me little good.  Since I use an external backup (Carbonite) on my PC, I was a little stressed but knew they could be recovered, or so I thought...

I did a restore files, selecting only the folders.dbx, was given a successful message from Carbonite but when I launched OE again, no such luck.  It was back to the Internet (Thank you Al Gore) to find an answer.  But I was stymied and now seriously stressed.  I'm not talking, stressed because I couldn't recover the "great to see you the other day" emails but stressed because I'm talking the emails with invoices (since everyone is going green and no no sends paper invoices anymore) that are required for my tax returns stressed.

Thankfully, in my OCD wisdom I had backed up all my emails on a physical EHD and had downloaded it all to my Mac.  I realized I could email my folders.dbx file to myself, save it to the appropriate location and I'd be golden. 

Not as easy as it sounds.  I tried an extraction program and that didn't work. Back to the internet to find the answer. Thankfully found a completely different thread and answer.  Left out a crucial step...to import my files.  Imported my files and viola, all my emails back.

Patting myself on the back, yes, just call me Chuck or Chuckette. Maybe I can get a job with the Nerd Herd.

And if you're wondering exactly how many emails I'm talking about it, I have exactly 75,503 emails in my OE on my PC. And yes, I do delete emails but apparently not enough. But I know what I'll be doing this weekend....

 

 

Venturing to the Dark Side

I've been a PC user for so long that Mac wasn't in my vocabulary. But when my last PC began to act whonky and show signs that it was struggling for life, I decided to see what Apple had to offer.  Hard to not be enticed by the lure of how pretty Macs are...

I am now a Mac convert, proud owner of a beautiful iMac, and loving every minute and bit of it.  Of course, I haven't completely cut the cord since I'm running Windows via Parallels on my Mac but I've taken a big step.

Isn't she a beauty?

I'll write a full review soon...