Technical Problems- Also known as life with a computer is more complicated

My family got a very simple Texas Instruments computer that used a tape cassette drive when I was about 13 or so. It wasn’t very sophisticated and it couldn’t do much, but it was kind of fun to use. The best part was the little speech attachment that I could use to make the computer speak.

At that age I thought that it was funny to make the computer swear, but I digress. A few years later we got an Apple and I thought that I was in heaven. My friends and I played games and I was actually able to use it for school. And slowly my computer knowledge and experience increased. Every few years or so it seemed I was able to convince my father to upgrade and we would get a new computer.

Fast forward to my first job after college and I am working for a family business where the owners are afraid of computers. They cannot imagine working without their Smith-Corona typewriters and notepads. And I cannot believe that they are so provincial in their POVs. Of course in my early 20s I knew more than almost anyone. It was amazing to me how stupid some people were. Fortunately age and life experience helped to mature me and I realized that they were not all stupid.

And now more than a decade later I find myself tied to this electronic leash. When the computer has hiccups I get a little irked. I know enough to fix basic problems and can even take on somethings that are more sophisticated. The problem is really that I know enough to be dangerous. And given my nature of trying to fix things myself it takes a lot for me not to really delve in further than I should and create more problems.

But I am currently having some “minor” issues that are making me crazy. I think that it is time for me to delve into the registry files and to mess around a bit. If I am careful I think that I can polish some of the rough edges and make this PC sing on key again as opposed to the tired warble it currently uses.

So if for some reason this little corner of cyberspace disappears you’ll know that I shook the shack too hard and am trying to find a way to rebuild.