In which technology both frustrates and delights

[katiefoolery]

I’d be interested to know how people manage to use laptops for significant periods of time without utterly destroying them, I really would.  How on earth do you do it?

I won’t deny that my laptop’s incredibly handy from time to time, especially when staying at one’s parents’ place for a few days, but...  It really has no idea how close it came to utter and irreversible DESTRUCTION over this last weekend.  How many times did it annoy to me to the point where I had to sit and breathe very deeply for a few minutes, whilst the urge to ANNIHILATE THE DAMN THING faded away?  Lost count.  And sometimes, that fading away process took quite a while.  I think a little bit of it might still be lingering, actually...  It’s probably a good thing that there are several rooms separating me from my laptop right now.

But in other news involving less mass destruction of items of technology... my iPod lives.  My little (unfortunately pink) iPod mini has come back from the dead... and is working.

I can’t explain this at all.

Last October, it was completely dead.

And now it’s not.

The story begins a week or so ago, when my iriver player decided that it wasn’t going to accept any more music, no matter how I reasoned with it.

“But look,” I’ll tell it, “I have all this new music and I don’t know, wouldn’t it be kinda neat if I could listen to it on my long and tedious trips to and from work?”

To which, my iriver player will simply point at the music already on it and insist that it needs no more.

I beg to differ but I’m fighting a losing battle here.  Also, its shuffle still sucks.  A lot.

If my iriver player could manage an indifferent shrug, it would probably employ one at this point.

Which brought me to thoughts of my dead iPod and the fact that a new battery would bring it to life.  So I plugged it into my computer, just to check how dead it was, and instead of the absolute, underwhelming nothing I was greeted with last time I tried that, a low battery symbol came up on the screen.  It didn’t look like it was going to charge via the USB, though, so I got my wall charger back from the Bindi and... it charged.  And then I connected it to my computer and updated all of my music... and it was still alive this morning.

I have no idea how long this situation will last, but it’s making me very happy while it does so.

Comments

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

I like my laptop, but what was irritating you about yours?

and no! curse that ipod working again. I thought I had managed to drag you away from the evils of the ipod. Then again, it came back from the dead, so it has to be evil. Frankenpod.... not that that really makes much sense...

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's the keyboard mostly. It just does the daftest things and if I happen to type at my normal speed, it has a little heart attack and refuses to accept that I'm actually touching it at all. Gah!

You know, I do quite like my iriver but many things about it drive me insane. Is it so hard to do a proper shuffle? I mean, really? I don't mind having an evil iPod as long as it works. :D

[morbane.livejournal.com]

Gah! I've wanted a laptop of my own for some time now. I can no longer ignore the snickers of my friends when I tell them of my 8GB hard drive and other lesser features, because the CD/DVD drive has become querulous and I don't think it's worth replacing. But you fill me with anxiety.

That said, hurrah for your iPod. I hope it benefited from its shamanistic trance journey.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Actually, I got on quite well with my old IBM laptop, so perhaps it's just Compaq that's to blame. I still wouldn't want to use one for extended periods of time, though. You definitely need a computer with a functional CD/DVD drive. I had to exist without one for a couple of months and that was very frustrating indeed.

Indeed, huzzah for my iPod! I just wonder how long this re-animation will last. :D

[bethamphetam1ne.livejournal.com]

Argh, the dreaded curse of the laptop. Marvellously convenient, deviously temperamental. The soundcard in mine somehow committed suicide some months ago, the email notification envelope has got lost in the mail and Limewire never connects any more. I really must get it fixed before taking it on our travels. The indignity is that I have it on Flexirent so I will eventually pay out three times what it is worth and still not own it in the finish. Gah.

I hope my forthcoming iPod is not as finicky!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

My soundcard still works but it's absolute rubbish. Gah. And I Rentsmarted mine, too - worst mistake I ever made. Next time, I'll just get a personal loan.

I hope your new iPod behaves well, too. :D

[crazedturkey.livejournal.com]

I love my laptop. Love it so much that I no longer have a desktop.

AND huzzah for the iPod! About bloody time! Even it's pinkness is good in the face of that!

(Oh and be on msn tonight...I miss you!)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Maybe one day I'll find a laptop that tempts me away from my desktop computer... but it'd have to be pretty damn good. Then again, you know exactly what my current laptop's like. :D

I've only had one pink phrase in my entire life - so why, why did I have to buy my iPod at that time? Now I'm stuck with its stupid pinkness.

I shall be on! *hugs*

[murfgirl.livejournal.com]

I also agree with you about laptops. So damn hard to type on, haha!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

And all the control and shift keys are in the wrong spots, too. Gah! So frustrating.

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of a pink iPod named Frankenpod. Or Zombiepod. It could roam the night groaning, "Music! Muuuuussiiiiic!" The pinkness just adds to the image.

Wicked, wicked laptop! Behave thyself or be turned into a toaster!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Elfie, I adore your imagination. As far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what my iPod's doing at night now. :D

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

My imagination has not been getting enough exercise lately, due to school, so it occasionally throws up weird images that make me giggle. I'm glad it amused you. I should collect those images someday. Some of them are just silly, like my imagined Intense Interrogation where a Shadowy Figure was asked the following questions and answered the following way:

"Were you once a treehouse?"
"Yes."
"Did you live in a cake?"
"Yes."
"Did you ever see what made the orange slay the rake? C'MON, FESS UP! YOU TOTALLY SAW WHAT MADE THE ORANGE SLAY THE RAKE!"
"How many times do I have to tell you people?! I never saw what made the orange slay the rake!"

...

You have seen the Llama Song, haven't you? This really makes no sense if you haven't.

[morbane.livejournal.com]

I love and admire your icon of tea.

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! katiefoolery made it for me, and it's my favorite.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I only brought to life the icon you described, good Elfie, and I refuse to take credit for it. :P

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

Well, you put it together with the perfect font and pictures and everything, so your artistry was involved. So there. And I love it, and so does everybody else. You must at least accept this cookie. *offers cookie*

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

You know, I haven't seen it.

*looks embarrassed*

But I shall remedy that lack and things will all make sense again! :D

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

The Llama Song is here:

Llama Llama Duck! (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php)

I warn you; this one's a brain worm.

[alankria.livejournal.com]

If my laptops suffer, it's not because I intend them to but because I'm a touch on the clumsy side. Like my firt laptop, over which I spilled an entire cup of juice. Remarkably it lived (after a visit to the laptop-repair place) for another two years, although the up and left arrow keys no longer worked, and there was another key that deleted everything in the open MS document and tried to save. I'm really, honestly not joking. My second laptop has fared better, though the quantity of crumbs and other food-related build-up betweenthe keys is increasing.

Here's hoping your iPod keeps working. The mysteries of those strange little devices will never be solved, I suspect.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

You know, given my own incredible clumsiness, I'm surprised more things of that nature haven't happened to my laptop. That deleting-and-saving key is special, though. You must have enjoy hours of fun with that one...

I hope the iPod keeps going for another couple of months or so at least. Then I think I'd be OK with getting the battery replaced. :D

[emerald85.livejournal.com]

I too love my lap top! I've had it for almost 2 years now and it's still going strong! (Though i have killed the battery by having it plugged in all the time...) I must admit the keyboard is a little frustrating to type on. It makes my already bad typing even worse.

Glad to hear your ipods back in working order. My friend has been through 4 of them in the past 2 years... :S

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

The keyboard on my laptop drives me absolutely insane, especially when it decides to ignore me entirely.

Wow - four iPods in two years! That must be incredibly annoying for your friend. They can be quite fickle devices, really.

[drscruffy.livejournal.com]

I used to have a compaq, and it and I did nothing but bicker from the moment I brought it home to the moment it fell into pieces a few years later. It just delighted in being obnoxious and difficult when I wanted to do the simplest of tasks, but whirred happily as soon as I tried to get someone to fix it!!! I then had a little toshiba laptop that was so incredibly obtuse that it would only turn on if you held it upside down and jiggled it left-wise. Now I have a Mac. It's pretty, and reliable and knows exactly how to make me the perfect cup of tea! ;)

As for your ipod - maybe it just got jealous?

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

The laptop I have at the moment is a Compaq and I will never, ever go near one again. I didn't mind my old second-hand IBM one at all - it actually behaved itself and had a marvellous keyboard. I'm sure your Toshiba didn't amuse you at all but your description of it made me laugh. :D

You know, it's quite possible that's what prompted my iPod to revive itself. Hopefully that jealous'll keep it running for a while.

[drscruffy.livejournal.com]

It makes me laugh now too... At the time, I wanted to through it off the top of a very tall building. There's always a funny side to these things - mostly only ever seen through hindsight.