I was still feeling the strenuous hike yesterday, and was not up to anything really active. So we mostly hung out at Guavaberry Spring Bay today. You can probably skip over today's report without missing too much, as it deals mostly with my woes and frustration about dealing with a new computer. But if you want to commiserate with me, read on.
I had bought my last computer in 2018. I had been quite happy with it. It was a Dell Windows laptop; reliable, capable, and fast, never crashed, and did whatever I asked of it. But it had started showing its age. It would take about 15 minutes to fully boot up after shut down, and was starting to get a little pokey. So I figured I had better get a replacement before it crapped out completely. So I had ordered its contemporary equivalent, which had been delivered in late December. I took it with me on vacation, because I needed to keep up with correspondence, involving both my activities as a performer, and my functions in the operation of the Folk Project. I did not consider that all that much of a burden; I enjoy that sort of activity, and it would take maybe an hour or so every day to keep up to date.
Or so I thought.
A lot had changed since 2018. A number of the programs I was running on the old machine were quite old even in 2018, and were now incompatible with the new machine. I had to buy (or worse, purchase subscriptions to) "updated" versions of the software, which offered all sorts of new features for which I had no use, and presented everything I had been using in a different on-screen appearance. So I had to find my way around before I could do all the things that I used to do. (Have you ever noticed the complete lack of correlation between the terms "update" and "improvement"? There are two kinds of fool on this Earth: One says, "This is old, and therefore good." The other says, "This is new, and therefore better.") There were stupid little details like all the ports on the new machine being USB-c, whereas all of my peripheral devices had USB plugs, requiring the purchase of many adapters. So here I was, 1,500 miles from home and all of my computer-savvy friends, packing this new computer, with which I was, as of yet, only semi-familiar.
To make matters worse, I have never been comfortable with the typical laptop keyboard and touch-pad. I've always preferred a mouse to the touch-pad. And the keys on the laptops are flat, with little space between them, whereas I prefer my external keyboard, which has concave tops which that my fingers centered on them. Without that feature, I need to look at my fingers as I type, or I'll find them wandering to adjacent keys, resulting in typos. So it didn't help when I discovered that I had neglected to pack a mouse. I did pack my external keyboard, but it had a USB plug, which did not mate with the new machine's USB-c ports. Consequently, Everything I did on the computer was taking me three times longer than it should have, stopping to correct a typing error for every other sentence I typed.
I had to do something about this. I asked the staff at GSB where there might be a Staples, or some other computer store. Hah! No Staples on the island. There were two possibilities in Spanish Town, one called "Game Over", and the other, "Mr. Nice Guy". I had noticed Game Over in my previous travels, so I drove there first. They had a mouse, but it cost $40. Vacation dollars or no, that was too much. I asked about a USB to USB-c adapter for the keyboard. They didn't have that. So I went to Mr. Nice Guy. They were closed on Mondays. I went back there the following day, and, wonder of wonders, they had one. So I bought it. When I got back to Palm Cottage, I discovered that the adapter was USB-c male to USB male, whereas what II needed was USB-c male to USB female. Grrrr!
I eventually wound up borrowing a mouse from the GSB office, but I was stuck with the laptop keyboard for the rest of the trip.
Monday at Palm Cottage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
