Technological Geriatrics
For some reason the odds of a malfunctioning piece of technology righting itself unassisted are significantly less reassuring than those that it will randomly fail to function properly - I'm convinced.
Over the course of the past few days I've run into numerous small problems with my computer setup at home - problems which seem to have no good logical explanation beyond the realm of the superstitiously hand-waving, noise making, ritual developing behavior one would suspect was supposed to be dissolved with the introduction of the very technology that perpetuates it.
Take my home network for instance. I have a DSL modem which is connected to the phone line and a Linksys DSL router, which is connected to a switch, which in turn connects all computers in the house together. At any point during the day or night forty-seven gloriously green lights blink on and off, representative of its never-ending task of shoveling data back and forth over the network from where it was to where it is supposed to be - colliding, resending, dancing a nice little binary tango.
Yesterday, it worked flawlessly, happily requesting and receiving bits and bytes for me and my roommates over a DSL connection at just above 1.1 Mbps. Today, it quite suddenly stopped working. Now, from my perspective - because nothing has changed (it sits on a shelf plugged into a power strip, untouched) - there is a powerful urge to kick, strike and/or otherwise shake the machinery until it works again. Nothing I did made it stop working, so why would I think that something I could do could make it start working again? Despite all warnings from my (occasionally) sound judgment telling me to leave things alone and they might just right themselves (they wronged themselves, didn't they?), I started messing with things.
First, I tried the old fashioned (ever since windows made it popular) method of rebooting the whole setup. No dice. Then I messed with the router, trying to see if I could find a setting that would magically make it reconnect (which it was obviously trying to do automatically anyway). No dice. Then I tried connecting the DSL modem directly to my computer. Bingo. But what did this mean? I wasn't about to make my computer the router for our network (as doing so would require my computer to be on 24/7, and to have dual network cards) and toss what I considered to be a perfectly good router (hey, the lights still blink, right?).
My brother suggested I try reconnecting the old DSL modem to the router, and see what that did. Not seeing how this might make a difference I reluctantly followed his advice, reconnected the old DSL modem to the router and my computer to the switch and everything worked again. We smiled, taking pride in our small and strange victory over the red blinking lights, and returned to our respective rooms, resuming our respective computer slouches and stares. I ask you dear reader: does this make any kind of rational sense?
I suppose it might to those who know more about this sort of thing than I do, but I am rather reduced to waving my hands and chanting ritualistic melodies trying to make sense out of why everything works the way it does.
This whole episode is only one of a number of such instances lately that have thoroughly perplexed me; my CD-RW stopped working rather suddenly the other day as well. Being the insatiable tinkerer that I am, I once again dove in and tried to solve the problem myself (which again happened with no changes on my part). I tried BIOS adjustments, cable re-organizations, jumper settings, software settings, firmware upgrades, online help and troubleshooting systems, etc. To make things even more interesting, my other CD-ROM that had been giving me problems before was now working flawlessly - the two apparently swapping roles in the night without my knowledge or permission.
I pride myself on having at least a sporadically rational mind, and these things don't make sense to me. Of course, it could be that my hardware is finally beginning to fail after countless crashes, system "repairs," Chico summer heat strokes and winter cold fronts (ever wonder why we don't have heat fronts and cold strokes? - no, I don't know either) but for some reason I refuse to accept this potential explanation and continue to frustrate myself with the expectation that computer components should behave as my mental model prescribes.
So how do I feel? Confused and out of control. The technology I own is dictating what I can do and when I can do it, and refusing to cooperate with my numerous resolution attempts; the sweet irony of all this of course being that had I not touched anything it probably would have restored itself of its own accord. Although for some reason the odds of a malfunctioning piece of technology righting itself unassisted are significantly less likely than those that it will randomly fail to function properly - I'm convinced.
So, I'll continue to wipe its ass and clean up after the stinky little digital messes it creates to give myself a sense of frustration and purpose until such time as I can afford to buy better (and by better I mean "failing less frequently") equipment.