Technology and Tantrums

 

What a long way we've come in the pursuit of our family history. The face of genealogical research has forever changed, once it was married to today's ever-changing technological prowess. And yet...when that technology doesn't keep working the way we've come to expect it to do, some of us (insert me here) experience tantrums.

True confession: I can get pretty ugly when I can't get the accustomed fantastic result at the click of a mouse. And last night would be no exception. This latest experience had me holding my breath almost the same as I did about two weeks ago, when I discovered a routine Microsoft update actually fried my PC's guts.

Not to worry, I thought: I have my trusty Mac to take its place. But think again: I soon discovered that, on my Apple computer, while I could sign in to my Blogger account just fine and write daily posts, what I couldn't do was respond to any reader comments. I'm still talking, you see—it's just that nobody can hear me.

Perhaps that wasn't enough to jar my stoic reserve. But yesterday may at least have scraped the surface. Signing in to my Blogger account as usual, the unfortunate sign that greeted my routine entry was not what I expected: instead of the readout with the usual listing of all my previous posts, there was an absolutely blank slate. As if to apologize for the unexpected display, Google added the afterthought, "Something went wrong."

Really?

Well, there's more than one way to hack into an account, even if it is your own. I found a back door to pry open and saw my usual listing of posts there, just as always. What a relief, I thought—until I tried to post a new entry. It was as if the program folded its arms and sternly barked, "You can't do that!"

I'm trusting that this is some sort of online glitch and that things will return to normal. Hopefully, this post will fly in the early hours of the morning and everything will return to the rosy normal we genealogists love to use. If not...well, you won't be reading these words, and I will still be tearing my hair out with technology tantrums.

All we can do is wait and see.