Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Computer Angst, Part II

Too much writing, not enough knitting.

I received another prompt reply from Mr. Inamdar. (Thank you, Mr. Inamdar.) He actually had quite a good suggestion this time, one that I intended to try myself, i.e., download the Norton Removal Tool to my second computer and copy it over to this computer to run. How did he know I have a second computer? Does everyone have a second computer these days?

Last night I successfully downloaded the "Tool" to the computer in the den, but I probably won't get to the next step until the weekend.

I not only have a second computer, I have a third computer, and a fourth computer if you count my laptop. My husband left me well endowed. My impossible mission is to keep all these machines running. Both of my children have suggested, logically, that I put all the programs I like to use on one computer and get rid of the rest. My reply to them is that I keep them all just as they are because of situations such as this. Even though all four computers are PCs and run with Windows XP, they each behave quite differently. If I can't get on the Internet on one, I usually can on another (remote wireless problems). Some software will not work on this computer but works fine on the computer in the den. But the computer in the den has been having CD and DVD drive problems. The computer in the front bedroom (formerly my daughter's and soon to be my knitting room) is the old computer and the only computer with SCSI. My favorite scanner is SCSI.

But there is a deeper issue at work here, which you may have guessed. This computer that I am typing at right now was my husband's computer. It has his favorite programs on it, his emails, spreadsheets, databases for his various hobbies, etc., and I am having a hard time parting with his things still. (That's his chair over there in the sidebar which I have only recently begun to sit in to knit.) As he approached retirement, it became obvious that I would need my own computer because we both tended to spend hours at the computer working on our hobbies--for me it was genealogy. So we bought the computer in the den just months before he died. It was my first very own desktop computer. I insisted on setting it up myself so I would know how to take care of it.

Now it does makes sense to consolidate the two, but not just yet...

Too much writing and not enough knitting.

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