I started with a simple task. At the behest of Grampa Bob and Grandma Peggy, send a few pix files of the kids so they can print them out and scrapbook with them and whatnot.
Easy as pie.
Then I sat down at the computer. 4 weeks later I'm putting the disks in the mail and wondering who I should hate the most for this miserable experience.
Yep. 4 weeks. First it was the optical drive needed to burn the CDs or DVDs. Dead as yesterday's flowers in Colorado's heat wave of 2005.
A week of futzing later I spend a couple hours on the phone with Apple support who runs through everything I already tried. Nothing. So, time to take it in to the Apple Store.
Even worse, suddenly iPhoto stopped importing new photos from our digital camera and is running slow before crashing every 15 minutes. Great. So now I can't even try emailing photos!
Apple store day! 3 hours of tech support later and the pronounce my poor little iMac as DOA.
Okay, we'll need to keep it for a bit.... well, a week actually as we have to order the drive.
DOH!
A week later... no call. I call them. Sure, drive is in, just need to get it up on the blocks and kick the tires. Two days later... no call. I call them. Yep, people ahead of you, this $3,000 toy of yours is gathering dust.
Frustrated conversation mumble mumble
Oh, hey! It's done! Just 11 days later!
I mean, we use this computer for everything. Calendar, address book, email, internet, banking, instant messaging, photography, website work, well, everything! Almost 2 weeks without drove me nearly mad.
Anyway, get it home, drive seems to work fine, time to get pix ready.
Ooops, they didn't fix iPhoto, it's still crashing and not importing.
Luckily, tech friend Niles suggested the common and easy fix of deleting all our iPhoto preferences. Viola! It works like new again.
NOW it's time to pick a few photos out, put them in little virtual albums, and copy them to a CD.
Burn.
Yea! It works. Oh, wait, it burned all the associated files that iPhoto creates for every dang picture, so I only get half the info I want on there, and then it's all organized in so many hierarchical chains down to the day the photo was taken that my Dad will never figure it out.
Back to the drawing board. I'll just dump to a DVD. Nope, I won't. That's not possible, you have to send it to iDVD. Fine, send.
Nope, not so fast!
iDVD opens with an old movie in there and dumps everything in. Okay, fine, I make a new iDVD with all the bells and whistles, slideshows, new menus, areas for videos, all that stuff.
Burn....
Nope, not fast at all. It took something like 8 hours to burn the DVD, and when I woke up this morning, it said burn incomplete.
AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!
What was missing? The CD-ROM files of all the images so Dad & Peggy could use them to print out pictures. DOH!
Okay, back to CDs... This time I go back into iPhoto, export all the photos to new folders on the desktop, then transfer them to a CD (well, 2 CDs) and FINALLY I've got something to send the Grandparental units.
Phew. Time for a beer. Thank god for computers.