What Really Grinds My Gears...

Stacy 3, PC 3

2009-03-14T20:40:00.000-04:00

Well it looks like I've evened up the score. So we've decided to scrap the Lightscribe idea due to the cd's being back ordered and are going with just plain ol' labels. I had discovered that the label software was for PC only after downloading to my MAC so the only way to go about creating these labels was to install it on the laptop. Of course it takes forever and has to restart, but once I got up up and running I was easily able to put my image files onto my wireless hard drive (Time Capsule) and retrieve them from our wireless network rather than fiddle with flash drives or emailing them to myself. Success. They plopped right into the program and away I sent them. Finally something worked properly. Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself.

Stacy 2, PC 3

2009-02-22T12:46:00.001-05:00

Alas, a real NEED to use the PC! The new laptop came with Lightscribe and I am beginning to work on a new project to make CD labels using Lightscribe. Since I’m going to need to create 70 labels, I figured why not install the printer software for the printer I just got that also has Lightscribe, in hopes that I can have 2 burning at once. One would think that since both laptop and printer are PC, that once you installed the software they would work seamlessly. Apparently you can’t buy things new anymore and have them work properly right out of the box. You have to go through a series of trial and errors to try and correct the problem and in most cases you only have it partially solved.

So I start the install for the software. Someone please explain to me why it took all of 5 mins to install on my MAC, yet proceeds to take 20+ minutes on the laptop to install and in the end requires me to restart. I don’t have that kind of time on my hands! Ok I do but still, why?! I finish up the install, open up a new project window and click on labels to see if I can play around with settings to see how I should set up the art. A window pops up telling me to install Roxio.

Ok. So I go get the Roxio disk that came with the printer and pop it in the disk drive. Let me remind you again, brand new computer. The disk keeps ejecting. Ok why are you ejecting!? After about 5 or so tries of it freezing and ejecting I decide to restart. When in doubt restart. At this point I am practically shoving sporks in my eyes. Ok computers fired back up open the disk drive, and WHALAA! Disk loads. I begin the install. Another 20 mins or so of the equivalent to watching paint dry and Roxio finally installs. But of course not without having to restart, yet again. Aaaaaand finally computer is up and running and I open up a new project. Again I try to select the Lightscribe link and I get that same pop up telling me to install Roxio. I JUST DID! So at this point I’m livid. So now not only can I not use Lightscribe on the printer, it is not recognizing the Lightscribe drive on the laptop either. Now what?

Stacy 2, PC 2

2009-02-20T00:43:00.001-05:00

Well, I have still not sought out help from Super Jeff yet, I am still poking around to see what I can figure out. Norton is still being evil. I wasn’t planning on using the PC for anything until Linda came over with some CD’s and to speed up the upload process I had some going on my MAC and one going on my PC. Now mind you Linda has used a PC all her life and this is a brand new computer, she gets almost through the import and it freezes. #@$%! She got the last 2 songs to import then left. Here I figure hey I’ll just pop in my flash drive move them onto it then load that into iTunes on my MAC. Not so much. They imported as .wma files. DOH! So now I have to figure out how to convert them to .mp3s. Guess that will be a future project when I have more patience. Stacy 2, PC 2. I’m not liking this score...

Stacy 2, PC 1

2009-02-12T23:42:00.000-05:00

So I've been told that many people would be interested in my plight with integrating back to PC from living in a MAC world for the past 8 years, so here I am blogging about it.

I just bought myself a Macbook Pro about a year ago but I was fortunate enough to become a regional winner for North American in a world-wide design contest awarding me with a snazzy new laptop running Windows Vista. I'm not gonna lie, its pretty to look at, but last night I went to set it up for the first time and was clueless. Last encounter I had with a Windows based computer was Windows 98, and a little bit of Windows 2000 on my dad's computer. Yikes.

I found myself going through the setup wizard thingy-mabobber and figured that I am semi-intelligent enough to make some good guesses towards doing everything properly. I guess it worked, it turned on. Score: Stacy 1, PC 0. I even managed to get it up on the wireless network. Another point for me! Stacy 2, PC 0. Then tragedy struck. Norton Anti-Virus. I clicked no, I do not want to install your limited time complimentary free trial. I know how you people work, I'll say yes and then when my free trial is up I'll have forgotten about it and be paying for it later. No thanks. But of course no was not good enough for you, you have to remind me that I clicked no and keep asking me. NO MEANS NO STOP WITH THE POP UPS! Stacy 2, PC 1. I have yet to figure out how to disable Norton and it's evil antics. This calls for a job from Super Jeff, aka my Dad's friend's son that set up my Dad's PC for him.