The past week has been one that most of us who live in the cyber age dread – connectivity problems, dying computers and “upgrades”. I use the term “upgrade” loosely, because it was an upgrade in our internet service that started a cascade of problems that ended with me getting a new computer. Our local internet company promised us new whizbang faster internet speed and upgraded HD television service, so we said yes (who wouldn’t?!). The problem was they came out when husband/tech guru/maintainer of the home network was out of town.
They came out to install on Monday, 2 men and multiple calls back to the home office. They came again on Tuesday, 2 different men and multiple calls again to the home office. Panicked phone calls from me to the office after they left, because not only was I not on-line, my computer was crashing. Granted, my computer was 5 years old. I saw a definite cause and effect between their installation of the new service, removal of my computer from our secure home network and firewall, and the subsequent crashing of my computer. They did not.
Anyway, husband got home, after several anxious hours of text messages, phone calls, desperate attempts to rescue my computer or at least keep it alive long enough to transfer the files off it. And 1 relatively sleepless night on my part. My whole business, after all, is on my computer.
We bought a new computer, husband restored the home network and reinstalled my computer behind the firewall, all of our computers now talk to each other again and to the printers (most important!). He also transferred all of the files off of the old computer and onto the new computer, and insured that all of the graphing software, diagramming software and etc. will work – key for a designer, because no one is making new graphing software or updating the old software any longer (no market in it). And it all works!
So that led me to think about my graphing software, and I promise I’ll write a blog post about it next time. I get asked all the time about it. I’ve always listed which programs I use inside every chart I produce, on the Resources page. But I’ll write about it in more detail in my next blog post. In the meantime, I’m happily clicking away on my new laptop, with a Windows 8.1 OS. So far so good! And all’s right with my little world once again.