Oh My Aching...

Meltdown

Ok, I admit it. I'm a technological Barbarian. I pretend to know what I'm doing on this wafer thin keyboard thingie with a 15" screen atop my desk but "I know nothing" as Sgt. Schultz was so fond of saying. Today was one of those days. It had to do with intermarriage - in my case the marriage between Vista Mail and McAfee. Let me sit down, get a glass of my best wine, and take you back a few months.

Sometimes I remind myself of the little rich kid (although I'm neither little, rich, nor a kid) who shows up in the park by his house to play football. He has a new helmet, a clean uniform and expensive cleats. He really looks the part (so he thinks) while all the other kids are playing in sneakers, t-shirts, and jeans with no helmets. And he promptly gets his butt kicked.

Last July I was in Best Buy when I saw this beautiful Toshiba Qosmio computer. It has a white keyboard against a black framed screen. Very chic. Very much looking like the computer of a geek. The inside had lots of stuff that I didn't understand but I figured for the price it must be a good one. It had the top level of Microsoft's Vista. So I bought it. After a few days I noticed the machine making funny noises so I took it back to Best Buy and was told they have the best techs - the Geek Patrol, and they'd be willing to look at it for more dollars than I was willing to spend. Plus I'd be without my new computer for up to a week. They said, "Call Toshiba." I did. They said, "Send it to us. We'll take a look and try to get it back to you in a couple of weeks. You DID save the packaging, didn't you?" I put up with the noise.

First real problem: I used Outlook Express on my Old Dell but OE is not compatible with Vista - they have their own system called Vista Mail. Ok, I switched and reloaded everything manually. One week later I got a computer message thatsince I used the trial docs, if I wanted to write any more documents I'd have to buy "Office" software as Microsoft no longer provides that with Vista. I bought it. 30 days after the purchase I began to get messages that told me I had no protection so since my trial protection had expired. I had to buy it from McAffee. Damn. So I bought it and immediately began to have problems with Vista Mail. Each time I'd call tech support and tell them I'm using Vista email they'd say, "I'm sorry."

I looked for help on the net and discovered that the two are, well, let;s say Vista is the Hatfields and McAffee is the McCoys. Today was the coup de gras. My Vista mail crashed. Lost all my saved emails, contacts, etc. So I went to the net for help and the recommendation was "Get a different email system." Double Damn!

Here I am feeling stepped on, lied to, cheated on and treated like dirt. If you're not a techie, you're bound to be hurt. I'm sure I'll survive. If you'll excuse me I'm going to work on my Zinfandel.

Dr. Forgot