Sunday, March 13, 2016

El Capitan and the luddite

Okay, I am far from a luddite. I love my Apple machines very much. But I love my wooden fiber tools even more. Those wood and metal tools constitute much of the range of my post-apocalyptic survival skills.

I am committed to pushing my machines as far as I can. The iPhone 4 lasted four whole years. Apps started dropping off about a year ago. They were simply unusable and unable to be updated. Who needs Facebook on your phone anyway? It is more interesting to talk to the eccentric lady with the poodle in a bag in the post office line than scroll. But when my bank app was unable to be updated, that was the last straw. A new iPhone was in order. Fortunately when you go years beyond your last contract, it doesn't cost that much to get a new one.

The results of waiting did become apparent fairly quickly when I brought the new phone home and tried to load the information from the old one from iTunes. Because my computer is also four years old and I hadn't updated the operating system, well, ever... my MacBook couldn't talk to the new phone.

So overnight, Lion was replaced with El Capitan. That is a four generation jump in operating systems for the Mac (Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan). It has challenged my brain--remembering all the different passwords you need to update everything, hoping against hope that it all wouldn't go up in an ephemeral cloud of 0s and 1s. So far so good. A few programs are still stumping me, but I'm returning to some baseline function here. I'm just proud that I realized the initial problem was my operating system and not some unknowable electronic mystery... and that I could fix it myself.

Isn't that what we do when we create things out of fiber with wooden tools? Figure out how to do things ourselves? The electronic gadgets are fun and very useful, but I'd give them all up to keep my Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel or Harrisville Rug Loom. After all, in the apocalypse, I won't be able to charge that iPhone anyway.
Turkish spindle or iPhone? Or both?

9 comments:

  1. I love that phrase, post-apocalyptic survival skills! I'm always telling my husband when the world goes to hell, the ability to create fabric will be highly valued. And all the wine we've cellared can be used to barter...

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  2. Yeah, at least we will know how to spin yucca fibers and make our own sandals. We can shear a sheep and spin our own yarn. We can dye the yarn if we want to. We can make our own clothes. We can make dye out of the prickly pear after we have used the cochineal bugs. We are survivors. Not like that stupid show on t.v. We can make our own shelter and mats to sleep on. I hope at least one of us knows how to use a bow and arrow to kill something to eat.

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    1. Good point! Maybe I should take up archery... Or perhaps I'll just count on bartering meat for clothes.

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  3. As long as the zombies don't bite us in that post-apocalyptic world. Sorry, just watched walking dead last night, got walking zombies on the brain!

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  6. spent a loooong session w/ Dell last nite, laptop is less than a yr old, but drivers needed to be updated in order to use wireless WiFi !! good I found the Ethernet cable that Verizon left w/ me when they first set up my router! recently went ahead & updated to Windows 10 ... Arrrgghh!!! not liking it, but the Dell tech, in updating the driver also restored Explorer & my old browser & "home page" YEA! these devices have become such necessary evils!
    ... LOVE that Tiny Turkish Spindle ... Very Tempting ...next time I see one, might just have to get one :o)

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    1. Ugh. I hear you there. El Capitan is still not playing well with my computer or much else. Sigh. Back to spinning I think.

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