Waves

In the cycles of life, sometimes all sorts of things take it upon themselves to converge on one's bay of tranquility. One day, you are sailing on smooth waters: the next, you are baling and tacking and doing all sorts of desperate manoeuvres to keep from being pulled under.

We have been thrust into a vortex of projects: kitchen renovation, computer reassignments, outside work being done, and web projects requiring full attention. Fortunately (or it is?), the weather has not cooperated long enough to beckon us to our bicycles, so, at least we have been spared that distraction — welcome as it may have been.

Let me pull back the curtains on just one of these windows — the new computer. I blogged about it somewhat proudly the other day, but I didn't tell you the rest of the story at that time. It's just that moving data and programs from one computer to another can be problematic.

One of the problems is caused by this newfangled thing called "software activation." In the good old days, you bought your software and installed and reinstalled it to your heart's content. No so any more. Late last week, after installing Service Pack 2 on my old machine, I was forced to call Adobe to reactivate Photoshop. Supposedly, one can reactivate, painlessly, over the Internet, but this never works for me, and, so, a call is always required.

I say "always" because this is the third time than system changes have rendered Photoshop inactive and in need of re-activation. Meanwhile, my Macromedia software accepts the changes and keeps on running without a hitch.

This was on my old computer. A day later I bought a new one.

That required two more calls to Adobe to install Photoshop on the new machine — one to begin the process and one to end it. They are always nice enough about it and give me no hassles but it takes time. To install my two Macromedia products — Dreamweaver and Fireworks — I had to call about each separately, and would you believe that Macromedia has no 800 number for Canada? Gee whiz guys, you'd think Canada was across the planet, and not just an hour or two away. The good news is that Macromedia is being bought out by Adobe, so they will get an 800 number at some point. The bad news is that Macromedia is being bought out by Adobe, so those products will likely become more sensitive to system changes too and require re-activation more frequently.

Whatever! Not only does Macromedia not have a toll free number for those of us in the nether regions of faraway Canada, but it doesn't talk to you directly either. They just have you punch thirty thousand, thirty digit codes into their system. Then they give you a six million digit code to punch into your computer, and the software is ready to function once again.

Thank goodness for small mercies: both companies complied with my needs without question, but I confess to not enjoying the disruptive and time-consuming process.

Then, just as I suspected I would, I encountered problems with my router. Firefox connected fine, but Internet Explorer didn't. Called the router people, Linksys. They said that it was my computer company's, Toshiba's problem. After a while, Toshiba deduced that it was my ISP's, Sympatico's, problem. Of course you know the rest. Yup. Sympatico sent me back to Linksys.

Actually, it was my problem, but it was the Linksys people who finally figured out how to help me out. Thanks Linksys. In the end, the problem was simple, and the second support technician figured it out in no time flat and told me what to do. Everything is simple when you know how.

That's not the full story but a glimpse through the porthole of one of our frantic paddlings in a sea choppy waters.

It's why I haven't tended to my blog like I should.