Maureen M. McCarty (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} stardustgirl) wrote,@ 2009-01-23 09:38:00 |
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Conquering Invisibility
I seem to be cursed with the need to tinker. It's probably an occupational hazard of being a creative type; I just can't deal with an out-of-the-box anything. I've got to paint it, sew something on it, or otherwise embellish it and make it "mine".
My dogs have it so much easier. They accomplish the same by just lifting their leg on an object; the trouble is, that really won't work for me. Peeing on my Mac would definitely void the warranty if it had one; at six years old, Luxo is elderly and has no guarantees.
2009 finds me fiddling with a geekier server, but my brain is still in 1999 tech mode. I'm working on that, but Luxo isn't helping. Actually, OS X isn't helping. Using the easily-accessible Help Menu in the menu bar, I asked politely for assistance in renaming an invisible file and it basically told me to use a Windows box.
Did they hire Microsoft to write their documentation? What the?!?
Imagine my dilemma: I have an invisible file on my Mac, visible by name in a search, but untouchable otherwise. I can open it to read it. I can write to it. I can drag it to the trash and get rid of it. But heaven help me if I need to rename it other than "Save As".
OK. Fine. I'll "Save As" without a dot so I can see it. If I want to rename it to the dotname the other page is looking for, I have to put it on the server (which is also a Mac, but not an elderly one) and rename it there. Again, OK, I can do that. But now I have an invisible file running loose on my desktop. Invisible files are like fairies and goblins: just because you can't see them it doesn't mean they aren't there ready to do something unexpected. I drag it to the trash.
But wait! Trash doesn't want it. It seems that since I'd done the same thing 5 minutes earlier with another invisible file, there was already one in there with the same name. I couldn't see it - and Luxo didn't offer me the option of emptying the trash to get rid of it because there was "nothing" in there. Hm. This is not exactly the easy Mac-user experience.
Assuming that "help" wouldn't be terribly helpful, I thought about it and decided to try placing another item in the trash to see if I was offered the option to empty it. Yes!! Score!!
But how clumsy and inelegant. And surely I'm overlooking some simple thing? But "help" isn't going to tell me. It's going to tell me all about Windows.
I seem to be cursed with the need to tinker. It's probably an occupational hazard of being a creative type; I just can't deal with an out-of-the-box anything. I've got to paint it, sew something on it, or otherwise embellish it and make it "mine".
My dogs have it so much easier. They accomplish the same by just lifting their leg on an object; the trouble is, that really won't work for me. Peeing on my Mac would definitely void the warranty if it had one; at six years old, Luxo is elderly and has no guarantees.
2009 finds me fiddling with a geekier server, but my brain is still in 1999 tech mode. I'm working on that, but Luxo isn't helping. Actually, OS X isn't helping. Using the easily-accessible Help Menu in the menu bar, I asked politely for assistance in renaming an invisible file and it basically told me to use a Windows box.
Did they hire Microsoft to write their documentation? What the?!?
Imagine my dilemma: I have an invisible file on my Mac, visible by name in a search, but untouchable otherwise. I can open it to read it. I can write to it. I can drag it to the trash and get rid of it. But heaven help me if I need to rename it other than "Save As".
OK. Fine. I'll "Save As" without a dot so I can see it. If I want to rename it to the dotname the other page is looking for, I have to put it on the server (which is also a Mac, but not an elderly one) and rename it there. Again, OK, I can do that. But now I have an invisible file running loose on my desktop. Invisible files are like fairies and goblins: just because you can't see them it doesn't mean they aren't there ready to do something unexpected. I drag it to the trash.
But wait! Trash doesn't want it. It seems that since I'd done the same thing 5 minutes earlier with another invisible file, there was already one in there with the same name. I couldn't see it - and Luxo didn't offer me the option of emptying the trash to get rid of it because there was "nothing" in there. Hm. This is not exactly the easy Mac-user experience.
Assuming that "help" wouldn't be terribly helpful, I thought about it and decided to try placing another item in the trash to see if I was offered the option to empty it. Yes!! Score!!
But how clumsy and inelegant. And surely I'm overlooking some simple thing? But "help" isn't going to tell me. It's going to tell me all about Windows.
