Well, my mother can forget reading this entry because guaranteed she won't understand a word of it.
It started out with a simple e-mail from Dr. G. Dr. G rents a house on Bali and when I was working for him, I made up a web site where he could display the house and information about it for potential renters.
When I did it, I fully expected that when I left the job, his new staff would take over the web site. But that never happened.
It's not a big problem. I think since I left the job he's made maybe four changes to it. All extremely simple and I can charge him "web designer charges" and make a bit of money doing it.
Today he wanted me to add one link. It took roughly 30 seconds to do.
And that's when the hell started.
You see, I set up a domain site for him and I put it on the server that I use for my e-mail. I upload the pages through an FTP program and the FTP program keeps a "site manager" so that I never have to think about the log-in or password.
Only I had a computer crash recently remember! And a "clean install" of Windows XP, so everything has had to be recreated, and I can't remember the log-in for his web site.
Some years ago I started trying to be very efficient and keeping a record of everything on Word Perfect. I checked the folder I had set up for him, but there was nothing there except two bills that I had sent him (so I could remember how much I charged the last time I did an update).
What to do...? What to do...?
Then I remembered that I also very efficiently kept a file of every password I use for every site I visit on line, from game sites to banking sites. It's all in one file in Word Perfect. Bingo!
Only I have not been able to find my Word Perfect program disks since I had the computer crash. I have lots of programs, some legal, some not legal, but WordPerfect is one of those programs that I actually own. I've had WordPerfect since its very first release back when computers were lit by candlelight.
I haven't really worried too much about it because people had sent me to OpenOffice, freeware that acts just like Word Perfect and I've been using that without any problem at all.
So I called up my password file....my password-protected password file--that I efficiently created in Word Perfect and discovered that while OpenOffice can open all of my WordPerfect files, it can't open a password protected file. Instead of getting a 2-page, neatly organized file of all of my passwords.....all of my passwords, I get
ÿWPCsA###
##########Í›####*#h#à?™x¹#6pdÁKL#0#<ØË[4Øe>Ê:UÏ·'*Ø[ŽASNüu³™éŸµÌc^#–o²zœ]#ˆ~
#€yD8ô;¯*óQ¿R5ÉNܪCéu#ÍÝñ馀W }ù⛋`©²#»sõFã#SÀìnC«€c}H#IxŠÒâ»5ÛzüèIž#
This does not help me. one. bit.
Not only have I lost the ability to log into Dr. G's account, but I have lost every. single. password. that I have set up over the past 5? 8? 10? 15? years. Fortunately I remember most of them and can recreate most of them, if necessary. But if I come across some oddball password I once set up, I'm out of luck.
I have also lost all the log-ins and passwords for every web page that I ever designed.
Somewhere there are WordPerfect disks that will restore the program, but just looking around me at the places to search is overwhelming.
Now you have to realize that while I was going through all the steps of realizing that I could make Dr. G's changes but could not upload the file (I'm hoping to get help from Davis Community Network...heck. being the newest person on the DCN board should get me SOME perks, right?) and reaching the point of tears and tearing my hair out, Lizzie and Russell, who have recently become playing buddies, were having a huge play-fight right under my knees, with snarling and barking and growling and rolling around batting at each other.
For some reason they looked surprised when I yelled at them.
I'm wondering if Sheila came to my aid because when I screamed in frustration and yelled at the dogs, there came one bark from the living room and both dogs raced off to the front of the house. All three dogs have been very. quiet. ever since then. I anthropomorphize Sheila into having human intelligence enough to realize that I was at my wits ends and she had called the obstreperous kids out from under me to allow me space to regain my equilibrium.
I also had word from Peggy that a program which may or may not be a legal copy, which we both use (the name of which, and the state of legality of which shall remain nebulous to protect the guilty) is starting to be squirrily and that attempts to fix it using the same information that was used when it was first legally or illegally installed was unsuccessful and she, my expert in all things like this, hasn't a clue what to do about it. This may vastly affect what I do on this computer in the future unless I find a legal work-around.
Lessons learned from this last computer breakdown: don't password protect anything, save copies of EVERYTHING on a separate hard drive and probably on disks as well One can never have too many back-ups. REMEMBER where you put all of your backups! Keep all your program disks in the same place so you can find them and not dig through 10 years of dusty boxes trying to remember where you put it 10 years ago. And finally, bite the bullet and buy legal copies of all programs. It only hurts for a little bit and you don't have to worry when/if it is going to stop working.
Also, it's a good idea to use gmail for your mail. Or at least duplicate your address book--and keep it up to date. If you lose everything, at least you can find all that information on line, where it won't get lost. I also have started a Google calendar and have Foxmarks which synchronizes my bookmarks no matter which computer I use or how many changes I make.
If I live long enough, I might finally learn something...
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