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I’m feeling a little less cranky: apparently the VP has had similar memory lapses with other people in other sections, so it’s not just me. A DVD marathon of “Little Britain” commentary episodes has also helped.

The electronics recycling drive yesterday at the Decatur high school went very well. Not only did I not manage to get lost, either getting there or getting back (always the trickiest part), but it took less than five minutes for the volunteers to help me unload my car, which was pretty well stuffed with the stuff people had brought in to work and my own electronics detritus. The drive was efficient and well organized, with people directing traffic and lots of people around to help, and I was pleased that there was a lot of community participation — there were huge piles of old electronics everywhere, and I got there after they’d only been running a couple of hours. Wish I’d thought to take a picture, though.

Though I’m certainly not ready to recycle him, Errol the Macbook has unfortunately begun refusing to connect to my WiFi network. I suspect that something in the OS upgrade Thursday night did something wonky, because I was able to connect perfectly well beforehand (my previous blog entry was written on Errol), but after the upgrade was installed and I restarted, he started saying that there was an error connecting to my network. Absolutely refuses to connect, though Nyman the PC obviously has no problem — and oddly, Errol will still connect to the local unsecured linksys network. I’ve poked around in the Apple forums, and, according to one of the posts in this string, it’s been a known issue since at least January: the suggested workaround is to remove security from your network. Eff that: I’m okay with using an unsecured network occasionally for some things, but not as my main connection at home. I suppose I’ll just have to wait for a patch and/or later upgrade that undoes the harm this one did, and just not use Errol for anything even remotely sensitive in the meantime.

Actually, I’m a little annoyed with Apple at the moment. In addition to Errol’s AirPort woes, my mom’s iTunes regularly freezes and crashes after she’s ripped two CDs, making the process of setting up her new iPod incredibly annoying. She’s actually mentioned just rehoming it, because it may not be worth the trouble. Thus far, I haven’t been able to fix the problem over the phone, and she hasn’t had much luck with the online help or forums — as with the AirPort bug, this seems to be a known issue but nothing’s been done and the Apple reps on the forums seem either to get snippy or to cover their ears and sing loudly until the complainers go away. I’ve found lots of threads for each of the problems, going back months, but haven’t yet found a single one that was resolved with a solution (though it’s possible, given the number of posts, that I just haven’t found it yet).