Sunlit leaf

    God, these computer systems are maddening.

    So Thursday night my Apple iMac asks me if I want to download the new version of the Tahoe software. Sure, why not? Keep all the fixes and security patches up to date. I hardly thought about it.

    This morning, I wake up, and my photos are gone — oh, they're up in the Cloud, safe. But I want them on my iMac, where they were yesterday, so I can scroll through them at my leisure. Sometimes the iCloud is balky.

     You'd think human agency could make it happen — and maybe it can, because I dealt with a variety of robots on Apple support, walking me through useless stuff I'd already gone through.  It drove me crazy that I couldn't make it work. At times, it seemed so close.

     Okay, big deal, so I'll use the Cloud instead of Photo. Half the readers probably won't even know what I'm talking about. But what galls me is Apple never even asked. Click this button and we'll give you a day — and counting — trying to undo the technical mess we made. 

    Ah well, shouldn't complain about that. Look at this lovely gingko leaf, backlit by the setting sun. A living fossil, the gingko.  Two hundred and twenty seven million years old — predating the dinosaurs — and not one second spent slogging through this balky computer system bullshit. Must be nice.