Thursday, November 12, 2009

IT Purgatory

My esteemed blog-friend JES has for the past week or two been suffering one of those ultimate computer nightmares where his attempt to upgrade to the latest version of Linux has unfathomably disabled his PC.  Fortunately, he is tech-savvy enough to bear these slings and arrows with a modicum of composure.  I think I would long since have taken a sledgehammer to the computer in question, and then perhaps gone up on the roof with a hunting rifle to start taking cathartic potshots at my neighbours.  He is a better man than I am.  But I hope he soon finds a resolution to his vexing issues.
 
My own inability to get Flash to run in Firefox rather pales into insignificance by comparison.  (Terrifying as it is to acknowledge it, you can get used to life without YouTube again.)
 
As does the latest glitch with Yahoo Mail wherein the 'Browse' button does not appear in the 'Attach Files' screen.  This seems like such a small compromise in function, yet its effects can be exasperating.
 
It has, for example, rather put the kibosh on my plans for another Photo Week series.  I can still manage to attach things to e-mails (yep, still posting to Blogger via e-mail...), but it takes a fair amount of floundering around to find out the exact location of a file and enter it manually in the 'select file' box.  And the address strings are often so cumbersome (Users/Froog/My Documents/My Pictures/For the blog/Llamas...) that I've taken to transferring files I want to attach on to my flash stick first (to reduce the addresses to something more manageable, like F://Two slightly distorted llamas.jpg).  I am rapidly losing patience with this workaround.
 
In fact, I find myself cleaning my rifle....
 
Yahoo, please get this sorted - QUICKLY.
 
 
It just so happens that a little earlier I posted a little piece called Shit happens over on The Barstool, which elaborates a whole new vocabulary for use in these situations.  Do check it out.
 
And good luck, JES.  I feel your pain.

2 comments:

JES said...

I can't test this from work, because the Blogger editing pages are blocked as "personal and social networking sites" although (for the moment) xxxxxxx.blogspot.com pages are not.

BUT... In Windows, in Windows Explorer I mean, locate your Users/Froog/[etc.] folder. Click once on the folder, so the full path shows up in Explorer's address bar. Then click on the Favorites menu up top, and select Add to Favorites...

This may or may not work with Blogger's Browse... feature. But many times, in Windows anyhow, if you're prompted to browse for a file, a little list of shortcuts to the left (one for Desktop, one for My Documents, etc.) includes one for Favorites. If you click on that shortcut, you'll go right to the images folder without having to do all the drilling down.

Maybe that'll simplify things a little bit. Although given the peculiarities of your computing and Internet situation, I wouldn't bet on it. :)

(Oh, and thanks for the good wishes, here and over there. I think things will have cleared up within the next 24 hours.)

Froog said...

Thanks, JES. I may give that a whirl. Although I'm not sure that it'll be any quicker than simply copying the desired file over to a drive without multiple nested folders.

Or, er, no - I'm not going to try it. Well, I read your description again and realised I didn't have a clue what you're on about. Sorry, I am severely challenged, techie-wise. I don't know how you "locate" folders in the computer memory through Explorer. There's no browse facility in the URL address box, and the Google-driven search function only works for the Web. What am I missing????

I have been much vexed in the past few days that Windows doesn't seem to give you any way of reading - much less 'copy & pasting' - a complete file address; not even through the 'Properties' box. Yet more Microsoft user-unfriendliness.

I hope such reflections on what you're seeking to escape from have been some consolation to you during your recent tribulations with Linux.