So far I’ve had no more computer meltdowns, but then again I didn’t shut it down last night. I have mostly been trying to organize files in preparation to back up everything in case we need to drop a new hard drive into the box. I currently cannot access the email I had on Thunderbird, which includes a lot of stuff that had languished in my “to reply” folder for too long already. I don’t think it’s lost, but I don’t have any sort of word processing software working to test that. I also do not have PGP/GPG working, which hampers comm further. My Firefox is dead, but I was able to extract a backup of my bookmarks file, so that all the basics for the next Salon are still preserved somewhere. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until I can read the file to complete the issue, which is probably just as well. In short, I do not trust this machine in its current state to do much of anything beyond web browsing. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to solve the problem this weekend.
In poking around here more, I have also noted that I need to do some housekeeping. Aside from the expected stuff, for some reason the search box doesn’t work, and apparently all the posts got tagged as being authored by me, which certainly isn’t the case. As I encounter niggles, I’m trying to fix them, but it’s going to take a while to get to everything – if I even decide to try. Is it really worth the time investment to go back through each post and categorize it? Last, Drupal seems to have some serious issues with image inclusion in blog posts; it can be done, but it isn’t straightforward, nor easy, especially for non-techy bloggers. That is holding back some posts I have in mind, but it is being worked on.
One might be tempted to think, with all these computer problems I’m experiencing, that I’d be down on Linux and open source (Drupal is open source). Far from it. If I were on a Windows box and had the kind of problems I’ve had twice now, I most likely wouldn’t’ve had any kind of working machine; and a wipe of the hard drive and reinstall would’ve probably been mandatory after the first meltdown. Yes, it’s frustrating to be having hardware and software problems, but for most problems that are solvable, there’s a lot of community out there willing to help even n00bs. In all the forums I’ve browsed looking for information, I have not once encountered “RTFM” or something like, “Google your problem, luser”. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky in my browsing; but I think it goes beyond that. Linux stuff, so far in my experience, seems to be built with a user in mind at least somewhere in the process (although sometimes the target user is someone with more skills than I have); and many tools I’ve used are very good at doing their jobs. For example, the Krusader file manager system opens up as a double pane, making it much easier to move information around. Plus, it has a nifty compare and synchronize feature which made it a snap for me to minimize the number of duplicated files in various folders, and not inadvertently lose any material while cleaning up for backing up. You couldn’t pay me to give it up.
So anyway, that’s where I am with my various computer adventures. Thanks for your patience with me; with any luck, I’ll be buried under all my to-do items again tomorrow or Sunday.
RTFM!
I have found that the people on most Linux forums are very cool. I have read a couple of RTFM types, but they are a minority. Ubuntuforums.org is my favorite place to go for help. It was the helpful and friendly people on the boards that was a big selling point of Ubuntu for me.
I once ran into a jerk (a DOS developer) that spewed "RTFM, a******!" at me, then I politely informed him that there was no F'ing M for that application in existence yet to RT! I told him that if he (or anyone else, for that matter) would write a F'ing M for that app, I would have gladly RTFM'd, and he could go F himself! Obviously, I no longer use that app. As a matter of fact, I don't think that that app is being developed anymore, since it was a DOS app. I don't think that it ever went to Windows. Nobody wanted to pay reg fees to a jerk like that for his crappy shareware app.
Fortunately, most people on the Linux boards are very cool and patient, even when they have been asked the same question multiple times.