I have started this blog twice now….three's the charm (at least that's what I've been told.) Some day, I hope to get the previous posts back up…especially the most recent ones that talk about my daughter's year-end experiences traveling from Albuquerque to Chicago via United Airlines and the one that follows regarding communication abuses that are rampant right now both online and off.
For today, though, I'm wrestling with reinstalling the vast majority of my own websites and two shopping carts on two different hosts. It's been an interesting experience. I've learned a LOT in the process.
All this activity came about as the result of trying to set up a single shopping cart. I actually had it pretty well the way I wanted it…and then I discovered there is a new release. Those of us who have been around the block a time or two know new releases are a necessary evil – and we try to avoid them — even skipping 3-4 version updates whenever we can get away with it. But, this one was important since it included revisions in the way payments are processed, so I decided to bite my tongue and do it now — rather than later.
Grrr!
I have that software on my own site and on another one. I might have used Fantastico, a relatively painless way to add to our websites (you probably have that option on your own host). But it doesn't yet have the latest version of the shopping cart I use. So, I've been fighting with the longer, more complex setup for 3 days.
We all know that even the simplest project in technology is not "simple". There's always complications…. especially for those of us who learn as we go.
Anyway, I have pretty well resolved the complexities of installing a PHP shopping cart and how each host needs to have the setup done – but in the meantime, I figured I needed to work on the security certificates, another important part of ecommerce. That was no small task. It actually meant I had to reinstall several websites from scratch and, in the process, I've lost my posts for this Blog and some other databases.
My apologies. Perhaps, this post will be a bit of consolation to you if you're dealing with trying to keep up with technology. You're not alone. Somewhere in the distant past, I recall someone telling me that computers would simplify our lives… cut down our use of paper… give us all kinds of time to enjoy our lives… make everything so much easier….
Then why is it that everything's so complicated? I use more paper than ever now that we're constantly printing out instructions on how to do everyday tasks… I DO enjoy my work WHEN I can get the computers and software to do what they're supposed to be doing… I don't know what "much easier" means…
Several of my peers have already declared their independence. One created quite a stir. He simply emailed everyone saying "good by", packaged up his computers and everything technical, shut down his website…and was gone. Others have taken similar action, though perhaps not as dramatically. I'm thinking….
Three may be a charm but with the sheer volume of upgrades and the constant complications… Do you suppose it may be time to get a life?