Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: computers (Page 1 of 2)

Happy Dazed.

Ahhhhh… the miracle of a good night’s sleep!

After giving up for the night, feeling like an entire day was wasted trying to get the computer network back up and running, I could only hope that things would be better the next day.

Lo and behold!

Fired up. Screens awaiting command. Cautious clicking. Boom!

All the things that ought to be there, are. Another self-curing computer problem completed by waifish elves in the night hours.

I have my fingers crossed though, and I’ve already knocked my wooden head.

Steve Jobs, we hardly knew ye.

My wife wanted to know why her television program was interrupted to announce the death of a man whose name she didn’t remember. He had been sick with cancer, she said.

I don’t know why, but my first guess was Steve Jobs.

“Yes, that’s him,” said my wife.

Two things became clear when I tried to explain why he was important enough for the network to break into programming to relate the news of his death. It was just too simplistic to call him an inventor who made electronic products, and – as I wrangled for words to define the man behind the Apple – I struggled also to keep my emotions in check.

It was like losing a brother or dear friend.

I gave up my Selectric typewriter in favor of an Apple IIe, a prehistoric computer that I thought was sensational. For the time, it was. Spelling errors? Just back up the cursor and type over them. Move sentences and paragraphs. Frustrated? Just punch the delete key. Or save and come back to it later. No more wadded up pieces of paper littering the wastebasket.

On the back window of my Honda hatchback was an Apple logo sticker, the only adhesively applied object ever attached to any car I have ever owned. It represented a clique, of sorts. Like a Harley, only geekish.

Over the years, I wound up in bed with Microsoft. Not necessarily happily so, but nonetheless. Budgets had a little something to do with that. Apple and its proprietary rights. After the IIe, I tried an Apple IIc before going IBM. There were so many programs that were much more affordable.

But I never lost my affinity for Apple. I was one of the club with a lapsed membership card, still admiring the group and its products and its cultish approach to business.

For guitar players, there is Eric Clapton. Among electronics owners, there was Steve Jobs. An early message put it in terms I consider most appropriate, likely delivered from an iPhone or a competitor inspired by the Apple product:

He was our da Vinci.

And he is gone much too soon.

Drinking and Driving: Ooopsies.

When several computer programmers are gathered around a single machine working out a problem, the person at the keyboard is said to be “driving.” When I drive my laptop at the desk here, I don’t keep a glass of water nearby in case I get thirsty – no mugs of hot chocolate on cold mornings either.

I’m too worried I might do a knucklehead thing like spill it right into the electronics. I know such an accident might cause problems for my computer’s continued functioning. I also know that accidents DO happen, so any drink near the keyboard has a twist-top or cap. Only makes sense.

United Airlines

United Airlines: Good to the Last Drop

That’s why it’s a wee bit troubling to learn that airline pilots are slinging cups of coffee in the cockpit, and the inevitable accident forced an emergency landing.

From the Associated Press:

The report on Transport Canada’s website said the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration reported that United’s corporate office had indicated that the pilot “had inadvertently squawked a 7500 code after spilling coffee on the aircraft’s radio equipment, which interfered with the communications equipment.”

“The flight crew had advised that they had communication problems and subsequently reported that they had some navigation problems as well and from there the pilot in the command diverted the flight onto Toronto,” Maryse Durette, a Transport Canada spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson acknowledged Wednesday that one of three cockpit crew members caused the mishap by spilling a drink.

In fact, the shorted electronics caused an message to be sent that the jet’s cockpit was under assault by hijackers. Other communications were knocked out. The pilot decided he’d better divert the flight to the nearest airport. They landed safely.

I’m guessing the control panel on a United jet is just a tad more expensive than my mid-range laptop. You’d think there would be some common-sense rules applied, if not for the sake of the airliner, then maybe for the lives of the passengers, who are required to turn off their electronics – for safety.

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