When Good Computers Go Bad

Boy, do we take these pounds of silicon for granted. I mean, we walk in every day, flip the switch, and expect it to work perfectly. Daily, without fail. I mean, we don't work that way - from injuries to daily aches and pains, it's hard to claim that humans can flip a switch and be ready to go. I mean, in all honesty I need at least 10 minutes to wake up!

That is, of course, when it does work. But now I've been staring at my work computer for thirty minutes trying to get Dreamweaver 2004 to start up. I flip the switch, it winks at me with the familiar start-up screen, and then shuts down without warning. As I am a web designer, this is perhaps the single most important tool I have - from writing code to managing uploads, Dreamweaver does the heavy lifting for me. So now that it isn't working, I'm feeling pretty pissed.

I mean, I'm using all in my bag of tricks to get it back - restarting the computer, restoring prior settings. I'm up to reinstalling from disc, a place most veterans loathe to go. And what can this be traced back to? An installation of new software? An iffy start-up or shut down? A specifically-created Macromedia virus? No idea. The program was up and running perfectly right until I shut it down on Friday.

It's at moments like this when anthropomorphizing your computer makes sense. This program problem seems pretty whimsical. Perhaps there ARE gremlins in the machinery. Perhaps the computer is jealous that I get a few days off this week while it sleeps. Perhaps it wants a Christmas gift. But for me, I'm slightly clueless on fixing it, and entirely clueless on the cause.

So please think good thoughts for me while I court my computer all over again...