Mischievous Technology
After having had my computer go wonky on me for the fourth time in 24 hours -- essentially unusable because the left-click would suddenly stop working (neither mouse nor trackpad would activate a left click, though right click, scrolling, cursor and keystrokes were ALL still fine!), I took the extreme measure of moving to reinstall the OS on another hard drive. (Granted, it's been a pending necessity for some time now, what with a full hard drive, and Mountain Leopard pending ...)
However, would you believe that at the VERY END of the OS X Lion installation set-up, you are faced with the requirement of showing you can handle the fancy new reversed scrolling feature in Lion (by doing the trackpad scrolling gesture), ... and then you have to do a left-click on the "Start Using OS X Lion" button. You have NO choice. That is the ONLY possible option. No keyboard command. No gesture. No spacebar or Return to continue. No option but a simple left click. The one, single simple input that just happens to have been a recent issue on my computer. And guess what, despite a clean install of the operating system, it's still not working. I have no other way to move orward. No other choices. I know, because Apple Tech Support and I tried to troubleshoot this on for over half an hour. And we came up with nothing. Nothing other than a "we know this won't solve the problem, but we COULD do a Force Quit."
So as I sat waiting for someone else at Apple to pick up the case escalation hotline, I tried thinking up some other options.
• No, I couldn't try accessing the Mac OS via a remote desktop app from another computer or the iPad -- I was working with a clean installation, with no remote access permissions.
• Maybe I could try controlling the computer with the Magic Mouse?. But no go there -- it had no batteries.
• Hmmm. Maybe that fancy Bluetooth trackpad?
And just as that though crossed my mind, I heard a mischievous chuckling coming from under some paper clutter off to the side of my desk. Paper clutter that supported a power adapter, and now also a box of computer tools from my hard drive installation.
What was the source of the chuckling? What was hiding under the papers?
Mustering my courage, I reached out and lifted the papers' edge...
2012/366 - Day 164
Mischievous Technology
After having had my computer go wonky on me for the fourth time in 24 hours -- essentially unusable because the left-click would suddenly stop working (neither mouse nor trackpad would activate a left click, though right click, scrolling, cursor and keystrokes were ALL still fine!), I took the extreme measure of moving to reinstall the OS on another hard drive. (Granted, it's been a pending necessity for some time now, what with a full hard drive, and Mountain Leopard pending ...)
However, would you believe that at the VERY END of the OS X Lion installation set-up, you are faced with the requirement of showing you can handle the fancy new reversed scrolling feature in Lion (by doing the trackpad scrolling gesture), ... and then you have to do a left-click on the "Start Using OS X Lion" button. You have NO choice. That is the ONLY possible option. No keyboard command. No gesture. No spacebar or Return to continue. No option but a simple left click. The one, single simple input that just happens to have been a recent issue on my computer. And guess what, despite a clean install of the operating system, it's still not working. I have no other way to move orward. No other choices. I know, because Apple Tech Support and I tried to troubleshoot this on for over half an hour. And we came up with nothing. Nothing other than a "we know this won't solve the problem, but we COULD do a Force Quit."
So as I sat waiting for someone else at Apple to pick up the case escalation hotline, I tried thinking up some other options.
• No, I couldn't try accessing the Mac OS via a remote desktop app from another computer or the iPad -- I was working with a clean installation, with no remote access permissions.
• Maybe I could try controlling the computer with the Magic Mouse?. But no go there -- it had no batteries.
• Hmmm. Maybe that fancy Bluetooth trackpad?
And just as that though crossed my mind, I heard a mischievous chuckling coming from under some paper clutter off to the side of my desk. Paper clutter that supported a power adapter, and now also a box of computer tools from my hard drive installation.
What was the source of the chuckling? What was hiding under the papers?
Mustering my courage, I reached out and lifted the papers' edge...
2012/366 - Day 164