Crazy busy day! Plus "FrankenMac"!
Today was another of those "running all day" daze that often happen on my day off. *chuckle* First I went to the chiropractor for a much-needed session. Then I walked across the parking lot to Longs Drugs for some stuff for me as well as my mom; then I drove across the street to PetCo to get some stuff for -- who else? -- Berry and Jelly! ;D Then I came home and ate an early lunch.
I had PLANNED to drive to Santa Clara to pick up my ancient G3 iMac (grape-colored, of course!) from We Fix Macs (a.k.a. AllMac). It's been there since last Friday. However, there was a delay, both because they're a very popular and busy place, and also because of a small snafu the tech guy ran into with my Mac. :( So I ended up going after lunch, with a little stop at Starbucks first for a Frapp! ;D Actually, it was a Starbucks inside Safeway, where I'd have shopped if I'd had time. OK, here's the crazy story about the computer...
It's been running Mac OS 9.2 for years, even as everyone else upgraded to OSX and then the various new versions like 10.2, 10.3, etc. that come with the cat names like jaguar, panther, etc. My li'l iMac needed more memory AND a larger hard drive to accommodate even a low version of the OS X's, but I kept putting it off because of the cost. I wasn't even sure I COULD upgrade, and buying a whole new Mac would be MUCH more expensive. Plus, I use my Toshiba laptop running Windows XP for most of my computing these days, with my mom the main iMac user, and she was satisfied with it for her basic needs. Of course, I *do* use the iMac for all my PhotoShop projects (a lot), for playing certain old games, and a few other things.
HOWEVER, in recent months my mom's been running into more and more websites whose functionality she could NOT access at all, due to being stuck with truly ANCIENT versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, and not being able to upgrade because no one makes browsers for OS 9 anymore. :( She also was stuck with the very ancient AOHell (oops, AOL) version 5.0 because after that one, AOL only made upgrades for OSX Macs, no more OS 9. And AOL's been giving my mom trouble lately as well. So, it was definitely time to either replace the iMac, or see if it was upgradeable. Well, it was! *cheer* The tech guy could only go up to 10.2 ("Jaguar") because when he tried 10.3 ("Panther"), it got all messed up, even though he thought it'd work. [Question to my Mac friends: is Jaguar or Panther better?] So he deinstalled that and put 10.2 back, then re-transferred over all of my files, which he'd backed up first, of course. I myself ALSO backed up everything onto a huge external hard drive before I even took the Mac to the shop!
The installing, deinstalling, reinstalling situation of 10.2 vs. 10.3 is what caused the delay, and also the transferring of all my data back again. PLUS, the tech had to partition the new (humungous!) hard drive in order to make my FrankenMac able to boot up from OS 9 or 10 -- my mom was desperately hoping she could still work in the OS 9 environment. *grin* However, even if she boots the Mac up with OSX, she can still actually USE all of her OS 9 documents, because if she clicks on them in OSX desktop, the computer automatically knows to open them as OS 9.2 programs. *cheer* I'm not sure if this is the same thing as the "Classic Mode" that some of the Macs can do that are pre-installed with one of the OS X's. And actually, I don't care! I've basically got a new OSX Mac, with a huge new hard drive and lots more interal memory, yet it can also revert to being its ancient OS 9 self for my mom, or for me for whatever reason! *cheer* So this works out GREAT for EVERYONE: my Mac, my mom, and me! ;D Oh, and it only cost a flat-rate of $300! :) I say "only" because if you added up the cost of the new hard drive and the extra memory, the cost of the LABOR to do those two things, and the cost of installing 10.2, it would have come to more than $300, so the tech gave me a flat rate instead, to save me some $$. That rocks!!
After that computer-related adventure, I brought the iMac into the house, dragged it upstairs (that thing is like LEAD, and awkward as hell!) and then shortly left the house again -- this time for an appointment at the nail salon for a manicure. Fortunately Helen, the nail gal, was running late! It felt good to just sit down and do nothing! LOL Then home, dinner, internet messing around, rat playtime and cage-cleaning, a wee bit of TV, and now here I am blogging! (I'd wanted to go to the bank today too, but ran outta time.)
I really wanted to share some recent photos, but I only have PhotoShop on the iMac, and I don't feel like hooking it all up tonight, as my neck and back are already bothering me from carrying it into the house and then up the stairs. :( I'm such a weakling! :( Hmmm, maybe I should've had my chiropractic appointment AFTER the computer adventure, rather than BEFORE! *wry chuckle* Oh well; too late!
Anyhoo, one thing I wanted to share pix of is the 15th B-Day party this past Sunday that my fave cousin Julie threw for her son Brandon (also my cousin, duh). I can't believe he's now 15!! He doesn't really seem that old, partly due to the fact that he has kind of a "baby face" (and a cute one!) and partly because he's autistic, albeit high-functioning. (He specifically requested to have a party on the 13th, his actual B-Day, which is awesome because in past years he said he didn't want a party -- he doesn't like being the center of attention or hoopla. But now he's starting to enjoy it!) Another thing I wanted to share is another batch of squeeful RAT PHOTOS, but that too will have to wait until I get the iMac set up again. *sigh* I hope everyone's having a good week and staying cool in the summertime hots! It finally got a bit cooler here! heh
I had PLANNED to drive to Santa Clara to pick up my ancient G3 iMac (grape-colored, of course!) from We Fix Macs (a.k.a. AllMac). It's been there since last Friday. However, there was a delay, both because they're a very popular and busy place, and also because of a small snafu the tech guy ran into with my Mac. :( So I ended up going after lunch, with a little stop at Starbucks first for a Frapp! ;D Actually, it was a Starbucks inside Safeway, where I'd have shopped if I'd had time. OK, here's the crazy story about the computer...
It's been running Mac OS 9.2 for years, even as everyone else upgraded to OSX and then the various new versions like 10.2, 10.3, etc. that come with the cat names like jaguar, panther, etc. My li'l iMac needed more memory AND a larger hard drive to accommodate even a low version of the OS X's, but I kept putting it off because of the cost. I wasn't even sure I COULD upgrade, and buying a whole new Mac would be MUCH more expensive. Plus, I use my Toshiba laptop running Windows XP for most of my computing these days, with my mom the main iMac user, and she was satisfied with it for her basic needs. Of course, I *do* use the iMac for all my PhotoShop projects (a lot), for playing certain old games, and a few other things.
HOWEVER, in recent months my mom's been running into more and more websites whose functionality she could NOT access at all, due to being stuck with truly ANCIENT versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, and not being able to upgrade because no one makes browsers for OS 9 anymore. :( She also was stuck with the very ancient AOHell (oops, AOL) version 5.0 because after that one, AOL only made upgrades for OSX Macs, no more OS 9. And AOL's been giving my mom trouble lately as well. So, it was definitely time to either replace the iMac, or see if it was upgradeable. Well, it was! *cheer* The tech guy could only go up to 10.2 ("Jaguar") because when he tried 10.3 ("Panther"), it got all messed up, even though he thought it'd work. [Question to my Mac friends: is Jaguar or Panther better?] So he deinstalled that and put 10.2 back, then re-transferred over all of my files, which he'd backed up first, of course. I myself ALSO backed up everything onto a huge external hard drive before I even took the Mac to the shop!
The installing, deinstalling, reinstalling situation of 10.2 vs. 10.3 is what caused the delay, and also the transferring of all my data back again. PLUS, the tech had to partition the new (humungous!) hard drive in order to make my FrankenMac able to boot up from OS 9 or 10 -- my mom was desperately hoping she could still work in the OS 9 environment. *grin* However, even if she boots the Mac up with OSX, she can still actually USE all of her OS 9 documents, because if she clicks on them in OSX desktop, the computer automatically knows to open them as OS 9.2 programs. *cheer* I'm not sure if this is the same thing as the "Classic Mode" that some of the Macs can do that are pre-installed with one of the OS X's. And actually, I don't care! I've basically got a new OSX Mac, with a huge new hard drive and lots more interal memory, yet it can also revert to being its ancient OS 9 self for my mom, or for me for whatever reason! *cheer* So this works out GREAT for EVERYONE: my Mac, my mom, and me! ;D Oh, and it only cost a flat-rate of $300! :) I say "only" because if you added up the cost of the new hard drive and the extra memory, the cost of the LABOR to do those two things, and the cost of installing 10.2, it would have come to more than $300, so the tech gave me a flat rate instead, to save me some $$. That rocks!!
After that computer-related adventure, I brought the iMac into the house, dragged it upstairs (that thing is like LEAD, and awkward as hell!) and then shortly left the house again -- this time for an appointment at the nail salon for a manicure. Fortunately Helen, the nail gal, was running late! It felt good to just sit down and do nothing! LOL Then home, dinner, internet messing around, rat playtime and cage-cleaning, a wee bit of TV, and now here I am blogging! (I'd wanted to go to the bank today too, but ran outta time.)
I really wanted to share some recent photos, but I only have PhotoShop on the iMac, and I don't feel like hooking it all up tonight, as my neck and back are already bothering me from carrying it into the house and then up the stairs. :( I'm such a weakling! :( Hmmm, maybe I should've had my chiropractic appointment AFTER the computer adventure, rather than BEFORE! *wry chuckle* Oh well; too late!
Anyhoo, one thing I wanted to share pix of is the 15th B-Day party this past Sunday that my fave cousin Julie threw for her son Brandon (also my cousin, duh). I can't believe he's now 15!! He doesn't really seem that old, partly due to the fact that he has kind of a "baby face" (and a cute one!) and partly because he's autistic, albeit high-functioning. (He specifically requested to have a party on the 13th, his actual B-Day, which is awesome because in past years he said he didn't want a party -- he doesn't like being the center of attention or hoopla. But now he's starting to enjoy it!) Another thing I wanted to share is another batch of squeeful RAT PHOTOS, but that too will have to wait until I get the iMac set up again. *sigh* I hope everyone's having a good week and staying cool in the summertime hots! It finally got a bit cooler here! heh