My word, grasshoppers copulate a lot … have you noticed that? Ohmigosh! they even do it while JUMPING! And … yikes! now she’s munching on a leaf. That’s one hell of a cool female.
Er – this isn’t what I set out to write about. I just happened to glance out onto the verandah as I started to write and caught yet another couple at it on our wisteria vine, which seems to be the Great Mating Ground for grasshoppers. I suppose it IS spring, after all.
No, what I intended to write about (ie the not-so-difficult in the title) was the installation of Panther on my G4.
In the olden days (pre-OS X, that is), I used to approach system installs and re-installs with considerable bravado. Oh I admit I always put a few important items out of harm’s way – just in case you understand – but I felt confident I could handle whatever might arise. I knew where things were and what to do if anything went wrong.
Not so with OS X. It is surrounded by a certain mystique that just makes me feel vulnerable. My inclination was to just shove in the CDs and follow the instructions, but I’ve heard things. Strong men have been reduced to blubbering messes over some of their OS X installations. I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that they didn’t actually READ the helpful instructions, but still …
So before launching into the Panther upgrade, I sought advice, and I also bought Tidbits’ “Take Control of Upgrading to Panther”. It didn’t cost much – which is just as well because I didn’t actually read beyond the first page or two. It said I should back up my entire hard disk. Ha! I’m not THAT much of a scaredy-cat. Besides, it would have taken about 20 CDs, and I only had 5 (the 25-pack that my husband bought turned out to be CD CASES!!! See what I mean about reading the instructions?).
Nemo told me the Taking Control booklet was intimidating in itself and I didn’t want any additional intimidation. Nemo also asked me if this was my only or primary computer. Oo-er, now THAT intimidated me. Upon consideration, I decided that I’d do a little backup. So I used up the 5 CDs, then put a few Gig onto my son’s and husband’s computers – stuff like photos and mail. If I lost those my life to date would be gone (come to think of it, that might not be so bad).
All this backing up took most of the day … I digressed a bit, throwing stuff out, reorganising and so on. This is why I don’t do backups very often … just like I don’t do housework very often. If I start, I become fanatical.
By this time my son the Computer Whizz was looking over my shoulder and I could feel myself being pushed into haste against my better judgement. I could feel my apprehension levels rising.
So, what the hell, in with the first installation CD.
A cinch really. I spent the next hour or part thereof reading a book, with occasional glances at the screen to see what it was up to.
I didn’t do the clean installation, because I’d have to reset too many things. If anything went wrong I could always do that next time.
Not a thing went wrong. It just did it all by itself. I didn’t even have to call for help from the Computer Whizz. Sure I’ve had to reset a few preferences like default page sizes (why don’t you Americans get rid of ‘US letter’ fercryingoutloud?), but you always have to do that.
I don’t believe anyone who says Windows is just as easy. For super-experts maybe, but not for people-who-don’t-know-what-they’re-doing like me. Not for some so-called technical experts either. I used to marvel at the performance by the techies back at Southbank when they reinstalled system software on my long-suffering colleagues’ PCs. They ALWAYS took hours and hours. Sometimes they had to reinstall several times … never knowing why it worked on the final attempt. Sometimes they had to come back the next day because everything was stuffed up again.
It did occur to me, I must say, that these tech guys were faking it, just trying to show how difficult everything was so the users didn’t get any silly ideas like trying to do it themselves. But then I’m a sceptic.
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I wonder what the grasshoppers are doing now?
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