Cars vs. Computers

Well, we had to shift gears this week. Haven't touched the Benz since Sunday. It's been cold and a little rainy, so nothing lost. The big distraction for the week was the temporary loss of the main home computer (shown above). Little known by the public, most of the blogging here is done on a Sony laptop (Pentium III, circa 2000). It runs XP, iTunes and little else, and does so without trouble. I don't ask it for much, and it does a fine job for what I need it to do. A long time ago, I used to work tech support for a telecommunications supplier, and one thing I learned about electronics - the darn things worked pretty well when you didn't mess with them. You start to do too much (software upgrades, added features and functionality, etc.) and they get a little finicky. When there was a problem with a phone system, the first question we asked was: 'What were you doing when it crashed?' The answer was usually a) Testing, or b) A software upgrade. If the answer was, 'It was working just fine, then it died,' our B.S. detector sounded the alarm.

Anyway, the computer shown above is the one my wife uses for her work-from-home job. I built it myself four (or five?) years ago. I went through the process because I felt it would be helpful to be able to do upgrades and maintenance on it. Since I built it from the ground up, it theoretically should be easy to maintain since I know how it went together.

Therein, as they say, lies the rub.

Today's software, as you are likely aware, continually updates itself, downloads and installs companion code to join the party, and is always undergoing some bizarre Artificially Intelligent cyber-evolution. Thus, my ability to set a computer up to do what I want and have it maintain that functionality within my sphere of control is impossible. I haven't written a smidgen of code in years, and my lack of understanding of what goes on in that world prevents me from really being handy with computers. Putting the machine together was pretty easy. 4 or 5 years of cleaning up an auto-updating software suite is a different story altogether. So, the box is off site, undergoing an 'Operating System Reload,' after which I will spend a few hours, or days, getting it back to the way it was before.

Which brings me to the car, and how I am finding a new appreciation for the simplicity it has. Yes, there are electronics involved, but it's mostly motors, or spark, or lights. No networking, or firewalls, or viruses, or ports, or TCP/IP addresses. Identifying problems with cars is usually no more than a survey of your senses. A change in engine sound. The smell of a bad wheel bearing. Feeling the car pull right or left when braking. Common sense and intuition can take you far in the world of car repair. The computers? Well, it's tough to hear or smell an Operating System die.

Still planning on getting to the radio to check FM reception and changing the tranny fluid, but yardwork and the annual Sasquatch! music festival this weekend will get in the way of any lengthy repairs. Enjoy!