Monday, July 28, 2003
WHY I WANT TO BECOME A GEEK
Four months ago I didn't have a computer to call my own. Today I can make mine belch, moo, heehaw like a donkey, croak like a frog, and say "Bite me dough boy" among other sounds to mark various computer functions . I can make it play David Letterman's mail song when I have mail. It impresses the kids anyway.
I can also uninstall and install drivers. I can fix the printer when it won't print. I can fix the mouse when it gets all squishy. When the computer gives me error messages, I can pop the hood and take a look-see and sometimes fix the problem. I never expected to go beyond the keyboard.
I'm doing it because I don't want to have to depend on someone else. There really is no administrator to run to here but me. I don't want to wait on hold with Dell tech support so they can tell me to do yet another system restore regardless of the problem. I figure I don't want to be stuck in the middle of trying to do something and not be able to do it because of computer problems that I don't know how to fix. So I read books, visit techie sites, hang out at news groups, try to get beyond the beginners' doors of help and support for Windows XP.
And I'm not the only one who is surprised to find herself becoming a computer repair person. Here's an article I came across the other day about how other people are finding themselves in the same position. But the truth is I want to be the person other people call to come fix their computers. I enjoy it. I lose all track of time when I'm working on mine. I get deeper into its secrets and I get lost. I'm in another world without time or space, and then it's five in the morning and I have to be at work in a few hours. It's a high. I was out in the garage last night (over at help and support) running diagnostics on this baby. They do a long list of tests. She passed them all. But I am working on a project. I can't find out what to do about event 24--"signalling command completed with ATMOS error." But I will.
I have been to the soft environment and I know things. I have seen some of this computer's secrets. Last night I saw a new place where it keeps its information about me, but not the registry file. It's always spying on me and there's no spyware detector for that. Somewhere it has a password that I don't know. It happens when I try to run a new program. It will show my real name instead of a screen name and then it tells me as I run through every password that none of them is the right one. I have to get to that password. User accounts doesn't have it. I doubt that McAffee Privacy Services has it. I think the computer is just playing with me.
The computer plays lots of tricks on me. The more I learn the more interesting the tricks. I confess that I do keep statistics on this blog. Its fun and interesting to know how many read it, what search terms bring people and all of that. I was trying one day to put Blogpatrol, the service, as a link on the taskbar. I guess I had been hitting it a lot. I went to the desktop later and there was my new wallpaper: a giant logo from Blogpatrol. The computer did it. I didn't.
But the worst thing the computer does is really embarrassing. Dell wants me to do a repair reinstall. I'd rather not yet. I've been to newsgroups and no one has answers for me. I've been everywhere and can't find an answer. Here's the problem. My text files turn into pictures. I can file a piece of paper that I type or from the internet, and an hour later it is a picture of a safety pin or a shoe. It's bizarre. And I don't believe it's a virus. I've gone through and changed every single file association "open with." The computer just prefers gif to text.
I suppose I don't want some big fix for this problem because I am determined to find a rational answer and fix it myself. I have two files (paper) of information on fixing files. I collect it. I download material all the time on fixing files. I am gonna get this son-of-a-bitch.
So What Do YOU Think? COMMENTS
Four months ago I didn't have a computer to call my own. Today I can make mine belch, moo, heehaw like a donkey, croak like a frog, and say "Bite me dough boy" among other sounds to mark various computer functions . I can make it play David Letterman's mail song when I have mail. It impresses the kids anyway.
I can also uninstall and install drivers. I can fix the printer when it won't print. I can fix the mouse when it gets all squishy. When the computer gives me error messages, I can pop the hood and take a look-see and sometimes fix the problem. I never expected to go beyond the keyboard.
I'm doing it because I don't want to have to depend on someone else. There really is no administrator to run to here but me. I don't want to wait on hold with Dell tech support so they can tell me to do yet another system restore regardless of the problem. I figure I don't want to be stuck in the middle of trying to do something and not be able to do it because of computer problems that I don't know how to fix. So I read books, visit techie sites, hang out at news groups, try to get beyond the beginners' doors of help and support for Windows XP.
And I'm not the only one who is surprised to find herself becoming a computer repair person. Here's an article I came across the other day about how other people are finding themselves in the same position. But the truth is I want to be the person other people call to come fix their computers. I enjoy it. I lose all track of time when I'm working on mine. I get deeper into its secrets and I get lost. I'm in another world without time or space, and then it's five in the morning and I have to be at work in a few hours. It's a high. I was out in the garage last night (over at help and support) running diagnostics on this baby. They do a long list of tests. She passed them all. But I am working on a project. I can't find out what to do about event 24--"signalling command completed with ATMOS error." But I will.
I have been to the soft environment and I know things. I have seen some of this computer's secrets. Last night I saw a new place where it keeps its information about me, but not the registry file. It's always spying on me and there's no spyware detector for that. Somewhere it has a password that I don't know. It happens when I try to run a new program. It will show my real name instead of a screen name and then it tells me as I run through every password that none of them is the right one. I have to get to that password. User accounts doesn't have it. I doubt that McAffee Privacy Services has it. I think the computer is just playing with me.
The computer plays lots of tricks on me. The more I learn the more interesting the tricks. I confess that I do keep statistics on this blog. Its fun and interesting to know how many read it, what search terms bring people and all of that. I was trying one day to put Blogpatrol, the service, as a link on the taskbar. I guess I had been hitting it a lot. I went to the desktop later and there was my new wallpaper: a giant logo from Blogpatrol. The computer did it. I didn't.
But the worst thing the computer does is really embarrassing. Dell wants me to do a repair reinstall. I'd rather not yet. I've been to newsgroups and no one has answers for me. I've been everywhere and can't find an answer. Here's the problem. My text files turn into pictures. I can file a piece of paper that I type or from the internet, and an hour later it is a picture of a safety pin or a shoe. It's bizarre. And I don't believe it's a virus. I've gone through and changed every single file association "open with." The computer just prefers gif to text.
I suppose I don't want some big fix for this problem because I am determined to find a rational answer and fix it myself. I have two files (paper) of information on fixing files. I collect it. I download material all the time on fixing files. I am gonna get this son-of-a-bitch.
So What Do YOU Think? COMMENTS
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