I knew this was coming along, I knew I had to be ready for it, but even with the best mental preparation, I still wasn’t quite ready for this to happen.
There was a knock on the front door. Package delivery service, bright and early, and me, looking my haggard best.
“Sign here,” the driver said, and I wasn’t sharp enough to say, “Sagittarius.”
It’s an Apple box. Apple Crate? Sure. Off goes the main computer I’ve been using for most near two years now. Close to 18 months.
I held onto a much preferred “sub-notebook” as a back up unit, hopeful that I would never have to actually use it. No such luck.
This little PowerBook was the end of Apple’s “duo” line. Quite a performer, in its day. I spent hours wrestling – unsuccessfully – to get an inexpensive ethernet card to work. Failing at that, I’m back to using a dialup modem for most of my work.
To be fair, my emergency plans are pretty well thought out. Got the basic astrology engine running. Have the website all rolled up and prepared. I can work off this baby machine for the next few weeks, if need be.
Everything is backed up in triplicate. No worries, it’s just the inconvenience of doing it this way. Not the way I’m accustomed to working.
The keyboard is tiny, and yet, the little machine – its actual size is almost identical to the new 12-inch Aluminium PowerBook – feels robust enough. It’s just that I can’t hit the usual surf spots. Even my own page barely renders correctly on the tiny screen. Although, it is pretty crisp, I think it’s 96 dpi instead of the usual 72.
And having to step back in time, that’s what I’m doing. No printer. No trackball, just a broken clicker on the trackpad of tis little machine.
No calendar. And frankly, after some of the self-imposed hoops I’ve jumped through for this, I’m not interested in going through whatever it takes to get from “here” to “there,” at least, not digitally.
There are two pocket-sized hard drives with backups. Another free standing unit with a backup. Camera – webcam – phone, organizer, calendars, all of that, not here now. No CD burner.
I could plug in an old CD drive, but even then, there’s not much room for that. This is going to be a challenge. Just how used to certain conveninces are we? And what happens when it’s gone? Even if this is only for a few days – the rep said it would be back in five days? Sure, I believe that. We’ll see.