Well I am not going to talk about the COVID lockdown, because what would be the point? Nobody is surprised, but we are all in shock none the less. Enough said.
No. Today I am going to sing the praises of my trusty Apple Mac desktop, which I think from memory is a venerable eight years old. It had a bit of a re-build just before the first lockdown last year, but went into storage under the desk when the firm’s laptop PC took over all duties while working from home. I have had to haul it out and bring it back up to speed because the IT man from work came and took away all of the firm’s IT gear when they put me on garden leave. I was truly only half sorry to see it go.
You see I never did fall in love with any of the series of new PC’s provided by work over the last four years since they ditched the Apple platform. They were nice enough, efficient, and the latest incredibly fast. But they lacked the sleek beauty and the intuitive responsiveness of the Apple products. The sheer joy of unpacking an Apple product is enough to convince you of the artistry within.
Now I know I am buying into a hot topic and that most of you reading this will probably be ready to fling objections at me wholesale. But I ask you, even if you have never owned an Apple computer, surely you have watched someone unpack an iPhone or Apple watch. I have never yet been able to bring myself to throw away the packaging, which is a work of art.
Anyway, I pulled this elderly machine out from under the desk, dusted it off, and plugged it in. It wanted a password. Hmmm …. oh that’s right, Johan’s IT man who worked on it last came up with, “password”. I remembered, and it worked. Everything came to life in front of my eyes. The wireless keyboard had paired instantly, but the mouse was not working. Put in some new batteries and away it went. But unreliably, flickering on and off. So off I went to Noel Leaming and bought a new Apple Magic Mouse. The latest version is great. It does not need batteries and can be charged by plugging into the computer with a USB cord. Instant pairing, and it works perfectly.
I started to work, aware that I needed to do quite a bit to make it operable. For a start I needed to load my Gmail account because Brookfields was sure to figure out they had forgotten to lock me out of my work email account (they remembered a week later). But now the key board was playing up. Not all of the function keys were operative, and only the left-hand shift button worked. I remembered that this had been a problem before the system went into temporary retirement. Off I went again, this time to PB Tech – Johan had berated me for not buying the mouse there. I purchased the latest Apple Magic Keyboard and a mouse pad (to maximise the performance of the new mouse). This time I was clued up. I interrogated the salesperson about whether or not batteries were required. He thought so, but I thought otherwise having the mouse experience to go by. He went and looked it up, and came back and apologised. I was right. Score one for little old lady in high tech store.
Home again, the keyboard paired instantly and seamlessly, and I was all set to go. Then I paused. To be honest, having sorted out the hardware I was very doubtful of my ability to get the software up and running. I had purchased a new iPhone the week before so that I would never again be hostage to the fact that my life was on a device owned by someone else. Then paid the IT guru in the store $45 to spend an hour replicating everything on my existing phone onto the new one. So I was not at all sure that I could do similar magic on the computer by myself. It took me almost a week to get up the courage to have a go.
I got off to a good start though. My BlueHost / Word Press site was easily accessed through Chrome (already installed). I was able to write my previous blog on the trusty machine, even including loading a photo I had taken on my phone. So far so good. Then I had a go at loading a couple of my obsessions, DuoLingo and Daily Jigsaw Puzzle. I had never been able to put them on the work PC, because the ‘administrator’ had to authorise anything loaded on, and I had never had the nerve to ask if I could have these frivolous programmes. Success. Oh the joy of being my own administrator!
Next came loading my Gmail account. A few false starts but it is up and running. Fantastic. Then I got rid of the work account, not just off the computer, but off both old and new iPhone and my iPad. Incredibly cathartic. Finally I figured out how to duplicate the entire contacts list off my phone. Amazing! I had never achieved that before, even on the work computer.
So here I am. Temporarily master of my own domain, until the new firm gives me a laptop and I have to start all over again. But the Apple is not going back under the desk. No way, never. It is here to stay, no matter how crowded my home office should become. It is like separation of church and state. Never mix work and home data simply because it is convenient to do so.
In case you are wondering, the firm did in the end allow me to keep both my iPhone and my phone number. The second phone is a bit of an expensive luxury – but it has 5G and it is all mine so I think worth it. As well as the Apple desktop I am writing on at present and (so far) two iPhones, I also have an Apple watch and two iPads. Johan has his own suite of Apple hardware sitting on the desk opposite mine. You can see that I have well and truly drunk the KoolAid. On the plus side, I am seldom out of touch.
Now all I have to do is edit the contact list and let those on it know I have gone and where I am going to. Just as well for garden leave and lockdown.
Oh, and the bit about life. Well, you have no idea how much of your life is stored in the ether until you have to reclaim it. I recommend you check yours out some time.