Monday, August 10, 2009

All in a day's work...

We're all about Macs and Firefox here at the home I share with Señor Terremoto. So it was a big surprise to us last week when he brought home a PC laptop that he has to use for work now (thanks to bureaucrats in suits and ties) and discovered that, running on Internet Explorer, it made a hash of some of the features on my website. After some sleuthing around, we decided that the solution might be to upgrade to the new version of iWeb. We trekked to the local Apple store this weekend, where we had to buy the complete iLife software package, then came home and installed it, having been assured by the sales guy that it would act only as a minor upgrade.

Not. Exactly.

I spent hours revising my website on Sunday evening, only to discover when I uploaded to my local host that the new software changed the appearance of the site. The art looked totally washed out, and as an extra little treat, the new iWeb also changed the sizes of some of the fonts so text no longer fit into the spaces allotted. I have to admit there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth here in the casa de Terremoto. The only saving grace was that I hadn't uploaded the new stuff to my web server.

Sooo -- back to the Apple store this morning. After much comparing of the iWeb files to the published website (which was identical when I was using the original software), they finally agreed to refund my money. We came home and restored my software to its original state and I've spent the rest of today re-revising my website. It's good to go now and you're welcome to take a peek.

10 comments:

  1. Nice web site with beautiful paintings. I enjoyed the tour.

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  2. Chris,
    you're scaring me, since my WinXp laptop is all but toast here at age 7 and I'm thinking of replacing it with a MAC after being a PC/Firefox girl, by default.
    My sympathies. Computer problems really set my teeth on edge.
    Love your blog and you links to fantastic artists!

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  3. sigh....I feel your pain, Chris. Isn't the idea of these computers for making our lives easier ? Are we there yet ?

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  4. GGrrrr! I hate Computer Updates! My programs are fine, thank you very much. I think software programmers are sadistic and just sit around trying to figure out how to mess things up.
    Your website looks great and I love your paintings. The colors are so vibrant.

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  5. Ah, the joys of the computer age!! But when it works, it truly is a joy to see others' work without leaving the house :)

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  6. Thanks to all of you -- Vicki, Mary, Janet, K., and Rhonda. Thanks for the nice comments about my work.

    I definitely have a love-hate relationship with computers!! To paraphrase Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (and no, I didn't know he was the author off the top of my head -- love the internet!!) -- when they are good, they are very, very good and when they are bad, they are horrid!!!

    Mary, don't be scared off. Macs are fabulous, but as with any computer, new software can be a blessing or a curse.

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  7. Gee Chris, now I'm really nervous about buying a new computer (gulp!).

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  8. Hey, Deb!! I know you've been thinking of moving to a Mac. I can appreciate your concerns after reading this post, but Macs are usually very accepting of stuff created on other computers. I think this particular bit of their updated software just needs a bit of tweaking. But generally, Macs are much more reliable and easy to use than PCs.

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  9. My sympathies, Chris - a stressful and unpleasant way to spend hours, fixing what shouldn't have been broken! The site looks wonderful now though.

    For anyone thinking about the switch to Mac - do it!! Any minor glitches and time spent learning the new system will be more than paid back in the simplicity and rarity of problems! I made the switch a couple of years ago and never looked back!

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  10. Thanks, Terry. Other than working on a mainframe computer back in the semi-dark ages, I've only ever worked on Macs. Wouldn't trade them for the world and everybody I know who's moved from PCs becomes a huge fan of the Mac almost instantly.

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