Today, I don’t love Apple Computer.
I was in the middle of one of the fifteen different time-critical digital projects I’m working on lately last night when my MacBook froze and that was it. I rebooted and found the dreaded flashing folder/question mark combo which 99 times out of 100 means your hard drive’s failed and everything’s gone.
“Did you back up everything?”
You see, I’m a pretty conscientious digital citizen…I tend to like working in The Cloud, where pictures and documents and whatnot are stored somewhere other than my computer, mostly because I don’t like being tethered to one machine.
But no, I didn’t back up my MacBook.
Backing up my work computer is a big enough pain and worry; my MacBook was supposed to not die. My former life in the Microsoft world really focused it’s defenses on viruses and outside harm. I understand that the Mac world isn’t impervious to such danger, but the concept of a piece of technology just “quitting” wasn’t really in my vocabulary. I expect things to work. I trust technology. I wasn’t prepared, as a result.
It’s all very naive, and I know that, and I’m not looking for sympathy because I’m the one who’s supposed to know that it’s bound to happen.
I’m the one who tells other people that they should back up their laptops and be careful with weird emails. I’m the one who sets up people’s webpages, fixes people’s email accounts, tracks down passwords and throws together graphics and webtools so we can get our cool ideas out to our friends, families, and readers.
I did all of that from the laptop I’d always have on me.
Which is really more to the point, in the sense that losing my “stuff” isn’t really what’s bothering me. What’s bothering me is that something I feel is a part of me…a part of my connection to so many people and ideas all over the world…would just up and fail on me and leave me with a piece of worthless metal and wires.
I can deal with the loss of music. I move through music…I don’t sit around in it.
I can deal with the photos. Lots are online and on this blog.
I can also handle the more useful, work-like stuff; the documents and the graphics and such. I can rebuild a lot of that. It won’t be easy, but I can.
It’s dealing with the betrayal that’s taking me toward’s upset. The breach of confidence.
And yeah, I am kind of pissed that I was such a naive kitten about the whole thing.
I bet you aren't subscribed to my RSS feed and my daily music project, are you.
