Of cats and other software
Jan. 16th, 2007 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjThe cat is once again going through skin issues -- "hot spots" which she licks and bites neurotically until they go into bald patches. This time I'm trying a topical remedy that's supposed to combine soothing qualities with an unpleasant taste. It certainly smells strongly, although I'm not sure this is an advantage, since it won't discourage licking and biting if it overwhelms her nose just from the fumes. I had a dream last night in which I acquired two new kittens -- one a sort of sandy puma-color and the other an orange tiger. I have reassured the cat that I intend no such thing in waking life.
I seem to have solved some annoying software issues simply by dint of rebooting a sufficient number of times. It started, more or less, when I had to upgrade to iTunes 7.0.2 to be compatible with my new micro-shuffle. Having performed the installation and reboot, I found that I was unable to drag contents (songs or podcasts) from the library to playlists or devides. I tried re-installing the upgrade and rebooting and there was no change. The computer was also having odd delayed-response problems, where every move I made was followed by 30-60 seconds of watching the spinning rainbow wheel that means the computer is thinking about doing something. As in: double-click on file, delay, move cursor to desired point of document, delay, click on desired point of document, delay, type, delay, save, delay, move cursor to new point in document, delay, well you get the idea. It took me well over half an hour to open a spreadsheet, make half a dozen minor changes, and print it out. I'm visualizing viruses, spyware, parasitic hackers stealing my CPU power. I ... slowly ... bit ... by ... bit ... closed all the programs, cut off the external drive, closed the wireless network. There was some minor improvement in response, but still problems. So I gave it another boot, and now everything seems to be working fine, including being able to drag things around in iTunes. (I suspect the problem wasn't being unable to drag things -- simply that the effect of the dragging was so delayed that I'd gone and moved the cursor again by the time it would have been visible.) I really hope that this isn't the start of some more chronic issue.
I seem to have solved some annoying software issues simply by dint of rebooting a sufficient number of times. It started, more or less, when I had to upgrade to iTunes 7.0.2 to be compatible with my new micro-shuffle. Having performed the installation and reboot, I found that I was unable to drag contents (songs or podcasts) from the library to playlists or devides. I tried re-installing the upgrade and rebooting and there was no change. The computer was also having odd delayed-response problems, where every move I made was followed by 30-60 seconds of watching the spinning rainbow wheel that means the computer is thinking about doing something. As in: double-click on file, delay, move cursor to desired point of document, delay, click on desired point of document, delay, type, delay, save, delay, move cursor to new point in document, delay, well you get the idea. It took me well over half an hour to open a spreadsheet, make half a dozen minor changes, and print it out. I'm visualizing viruses, spyware, parasitic hackers stealing my CPU power. I ... slowly ... bit ... by ... bit ... closed all the programs, cut off the external drive, closed the wireless network. There was some minor improvement in response, but still problems. So I gave it another boot, and now everything seems to be working fine, including being able to drag things around in iTunes. (I suspect the problem wasn't being unable to drag things -- simply that the effect of the dragging was so delayed that I'd gone and moved the cursor again by the time it would have been visible.) I really hope that this isn't the start of some more chronic issue.
