Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Keeping up with modern technology

I write up my daily entry in Fremantlebiz on an old Mac OS9 machine that used to be an OS8 machine, but I managed to upgrade it. OS stands for operating system.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that its days are numbered, it still works fine as a writing tool, but the advancing technology of the internet is rapidly rendering it obsolete for things like viewing my Picasa, Panoramio and YouTube efforts online. For me to see them I have to use my relatively new (2008) OSX iMac.

This week they made some changes to LiveJournal, which has hosted my blog entries for the past four years. It used to be that as soon as I posted them via a piece of client-uploading software they were immediately visible in the appropriate date on my Calendar page.

Now for reasons I don't understand, there is a long delay in the date entry appearing if viewed on my old OS9 machine, using Internet Explorer as a browser. In comparison, using the modern OSX machine and the Safari browser, the calendar is still updated as soon as I post. However when I first noticed this anomaly two days ago I double checked on the OSX machine using Firefox and discovered the entry was still absent on that browser.

Checking with the OSX Firefox and OS9 Internet Explorer browsers the following day revealed that for them, the calendar page had eventually been updated.

I'm only guessing, but it seems that the LiveJournal server disseminates my calendar entries in different versions for different web browsers, and there is a lag, albeit automatic, in the updating. One size doesn't fit all - apparently.

So my message is that if anyone is using old technology for the internet and things like Fremantlebiz, don't expect it to keep up with changes elsewhere which are beyond our control.

So how old is my first iMac? I'd forgotten. I had to enter the serial number on a site called Chipmunk to find out. It reckons the machine was hatched in Singapore on 21 May 1999. That makes it only nine years old. Strangely, it feels older. It looks older too, as you can see from this pic of a preliminary draft of today's effort:

I have older Macs. I don't use them any more. However I'm still writing this entry with a piece of software called MacWrite Pro which I legitimately purchased in about 1992. Prior to that I was using MacWrite II. Files created by these Apple applications can't be opened by modern OSX machines unless they have been converted to PDF. This failure to maintain file compatibility has been a significant oversight by Apple, and a tragedy of our age. They have turned their back on the recent past and in so doing have committed to oblivion the literary legacy of countless late-twentieth century users who placed their faith in the products.

The safest form of backup for individuals is still a hard-copy printout on paper at the actual time of writing.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

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