Murphy's Law: Don't Smile So Quick Pardner

Nothing ever seems to go off without a hitch. At least when it comes to me and the ever increasing complexity of technology. It makes me feel a bit better knowing I'm smarter than the Tech Support people. Nice for my ego, but it does nothing to soothe my nerves when I'm ready to pitch the computer out the window!

Apple has a trick little program when you start up the new iMac to transfer data from your old system to the new. I attached the Firewire cable between the new iMac and the old iBook and followed the instructions. The transfer started as it should. It calculated that the transfer would take place over 4 hours. "No problem," says me," I think I'll take a shower and do the crossword."

Somewhere in between, the energy saver kicked in and blanks the screen. On my return, I wiggle the mouse to raise the system from its slumber. The progress bar and time countdown has stopped. I wasn't sure what to do but figured it was a bad idea to reboot the system mid-task. (When all is said and done, I think the transfer continued but the screen did not refresh and update after it was put to sleep.)

So I call Apple Tech Support and am promptly put in contact with a nice but uninformed woman in India. I swear it was the woman who couldn't help me at Network Solutions a couple of weeks ago. As I figure it, she got fired there and Apple hired her. After telling me the cable was bad, she tells me to reboot. Against my better judgement, that's what I do. Things went from bad to worse. I ditched her stupid ass and proceeded again on my own.

After several hours of transferring the files manually, I figure I've got it. Except the Adobe programs don't run. Shee-it! That's when the anxiety level started to rise.

I make an appointment to drag the huge thing back to the Apple Store a half hour away and talk to someone at the Genius Bar. A half hour after my appointment time, they get around to me. Basically, the kid says that there wasn't anything wrong. "Programs don't work half the time you transfer them. Especially programs like Photoshop that put files in various folders." He recommended I re-install all my applications since my data files made it over in the manual transfer.

It's taken me 6 hours to get things in order but I'm finally back to how things were on the laptop, with my email database installed, all fonts in place, and my bookmarks transferred!

I guess nothing worth having is easy.
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