Overthinking things

I mentioned that I've been really busy.

Really busy.

Lots of stuff going on at work. And some issues arising that have caused them to call me in at like 4:00 in the morning. But, hey, it comes with the territory.

And, there's a couple of projects I've been working on at home. One with another blog. Actually, a couple. One after another. And the other project is a family thing. And they've taken my time from this little blog.

Switcheroo

Oh, and we've been switching computers around here at the house.

The Wife has a Dell desktop computer that she's been using. But, we took that down this week. Tonight, in fact.

She's now using the Dell notebook. It's newer than the desktop, and as powerful. Actually, a slightly more powerful machine. And, she likes that she can unplug it, put it on a tray, and sit in another chair or on the couch and do her computer work.

Not to mention that it takes up very little space on the desk. Her big CRT (that's a monitor, Big Sister; that's the TV-looking thing, Mean Sister) is no longer taking up all that space. And no big bunch of wires hanging down, running from the monitor, or from the keyboard, or from the speakers, over to the CPU.

Her desk almost looks clean. At least, you can now see the desk.

She's happy with the switch.

But the timing of it ... well, it's one of the things wearing me out.

Out with the Tiger, in with the Leopard

You see, Apple just released OS X 10.5 ... known as "Leopard" ... and I updated my MacBook.

I like Leopard. It actually allows me to use my old HP LaserJet 1100. You see, that old printer isn't compatible with a Mac. You must have a Windows computer to use it.

Well, you used to.

Leopard ... or OSX 10.5, as the PC Guy in me likes to call it ... has drivers for that printer. So, now, I finally have a laser printer on the Mac.

And the operating system upgrade ... even though it went very smooth ... has been another thing going on.

But, there's something else going on.

Running through the AirPort

Since we've been having problems with the old Motorola router, I got the new Apple AirPort Extreme.

This week.

Yesterday, in fact.

And it ran into an issue.

Well, I ran into an issue.

You see, it appears that when you change routers with BellSouth DSL and a Westell modem, you have to reset it. Twice.

At least, that's what the folks at BellSouth tech support had me do when I called them when I couldn't get online with the new router.

Anyway, once everything was working, I was very pleased that from anywhere in the house, we were getting a very strong signal and full speed. The old wireless router began to lose a little signal beyond the door to the bedroom.

So, it's a good thing.

It's just the timing of it all.

Network printing

One thing I overlooked, though, was the printer.

You see, the laser printer is in the office on the far side of the house. Where the DSL modem and the router is.

And the printer is hooked up to a D-Link printer server, that's hooked into the router.

So, tonight, I was going to print something. And that's when I realized I needed to hook the printer server up to the AirPort (the router).

So, I plugged it into a LAN connection, and went to check the configuration.

That's when I realized I didn't know how to do that.

So, looking up on the D-Link Web site, I found that my printer server works with Windows. But not with Mac OS X.

So, I began researching other printer servers, trying to find one that worked with Mac. I found a document that I downloaded to read up on it.

Then, it hit me.

I had never even tried to print.

I had already printed on the old network, just not on the new network.

So, with the document open, I clicked print.

And it printed.

I hadn't done the simplest thing: trying it.

And, when I did, it worked.

And that's how things have been with the MacBook. Everything I've wanted to do, I've been able to do with very little difficulty. And I've found it easy to do.

And almost every time I've had a problem, it's because I was in PC Guy mode. I assumed it didn't work until I configured things.

I've been overthinking things.

It's a habit that's been hard to break, after 25 years of using MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows.