When Technology Works Perfectly

A couple weeks ago I finally went out and bought a new laptop.  Sometime in September 2016, when I called Apple due to a problem I was having with their photo application (iPhotos), I heard two stressful pieces of news.

  1. My 2010 laptop was considered “vintage”.  Admittedly old by technology standards, but vintage?
  2. iPhotos was no longer supported.  If I wanted assistance I would have to upgrade my operating system and start using Photos (the new version).

I was ready to purchase the laptop in December but I kept procrastinating.  I was comfortable in my vintage, unsupported laptop and dreading the migration process.  The time, the inconvenience, the annoyance of having to set everything up.   And then my vintage laptop started acting its age.  Slow performance, scary and unpredictable things happening while I was working.  I was ready.

One day I backed up my laptop onto an external hard drive.  As I packed up the external hard drive into my bag, I wondered if it was actually going to work to set up my new laptop.  For years I had been backing up my laptop in blind faith using Time Machine, Apple’s backup system.  Fortunately, I’d never had a reason to test it.  I felt somewhat confident that all of my content would make it over, but I wasn’t sure what shape it would be in.

About 3 hours later I was back home with my new laptop configured almost identically to my old laptop.  Amazing!  The transition was seamless.  The only difference I notice is how much better and faster everything is with the new computer, including the improved sound quality from the speakers.

This was not the case when I replaced my smartphone last summer after falling in a lake.  It made me realize I can do better with my smartphone backups.  I didn’t lose any data, but I lost all my configurations and my beloved ring tone of ocean surf and seagull cries.

My general feeling about technology is that it should make my life better somehow.  Too often I find myself frustrated by technology because it doesn’t work the way I want it to.  Or it doesn’t work as well, or even offer the same great features I can find in paper.  But this time, I was really impressed with how easy, painless, and fast the move was to my new laptop.  The technology worked perfectly!

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