Is it plugged in?
Apr. 18th, 2022 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntr Last Thursday, just as everything else cleared my schedule and I prepared to make a serious run at clearing and moving boxes in Denise's office, she got an email from her Braille client. Could she emboss five more copies of their brochure and mail them to someone in Colorado?
Cue panic.
As I may have whimpered previously, the last time she did a Braille project, her ancient Mac laptop (system 8!) was just barely able to function, and I've had no luck getting newer tech to mate with her embosser, despite having what should have been all the correct parts. I know our usual Mac techs would have no clue about a machine that old, but remembered that Robin, from my previous service crew, had set up his own business in the Big Y center. I figured at the least, he's worked on Macs long enough that he might have a clue what he was looking at. He didn't open until noon, so I spent the morning clearing more boxes, then went to pack up the laptop.
Do you remember the first laptops? Remember their power cord, with an in-line transformer that was always at the most inconvenient place? And how the line from the transformer to the computer was hard-wired, but the line to the outlet was a separate plug-in?
Yeah, it was unplugged.
So the cord was plugged in at the power strip and the transformer was plugged into the computer. They just weren't plugged together, down there under the workbench. Once I connected the two ends, the computer chimed happily and booted right up. Even had the full-brightness screen. We'd apparently been on the last whiff of battery power the last time she used it, hence the difficult start-up and dimmed screen.
Is there a word for feeling simultaneously profoundly relieved and moderately foolish?
Cue panic.
As I may have whimpered previously, the last time she did a Braille project, her ancient Mac laptop (system 8!) was just barely able to function, and I've had no luck getting newer tech to mate with her embosser, despite having what should have been all the correct parts. I know our usual Mac techs would have no clue about a machine that old, but remembered that Robin, from my previous service crew, had set up his own business in the Big Y center. I figured at the least, he's worked on Macs long enough that he might have a clue what he was looking at. He didn't open until noon, so I spent the morning clearing more boxes, then went to pack up the laptop.
Do you remember the first laptops? Remember their power cord, with an in-line transformer that was always at the most inconvenient place? And how the line from the transformer to the computer was hard-wired, but the line to the outlet was a separate plug-in?
Yeah, it was unplugged.
So the cord was plugged in at the power strip and the transformer was plugged into the computer. They just weren't plugged together, down there under the workbench. Once I connected the two ends, the computer chimed happily and booted right up. Even had the full-brightness screen. We'd apparently been on the last whiff of battery power the last time she used it, hence the difficult start-up and dimmed screen.
Is there a word for feeling simultaneously profoundly relieved and moderately foolish?