The Facebook, Desktop and Steve Jobs Saga

Posted by anitabrown3d on August 10, 2016 in 3D Visualisation, Business, Marketing, Reflection |No Comments

I’ve been using a laptop to produce all of my photo-real 3D visuals. I’ve had this laptop for approx. 5 yrs.

And whilst I’ve become ridiculously attached to it, it’s not powerful enough to withstand the daily ‘stuff’ that I throw at it, especially where my 3D Visualisation workflow is concerned.

Plus, every time I boot it up, I’m greeted with an icy warning, notifying me that at any minute the hard drive may crash.

So, an IT upgrade has been on my ‘to do’ list for the last few months.

I knew it was going to be expensive, so I avoided parting with my savings until I had reached the stage where my business growth was starting to suffer.

I placed the order and soon received a brand spanking new custom built computer that was described by my 3D buddies as an absolute ‘monster’. We even gave it a new name: Beastie McBeastface.

I was beyond excited when it arrived and I couldn’t wait to fire it up and become acquainted with the new Windows 10 Operating System and more importantly, test the Intel Xeon (dual) processors, to witness for myself, just how powerful this new machine was.

I even had a quirky marketing angle, to film the grand ‘unveiling’ of the new computer and record it using Facebook Live.

My quirky marketing angle

That’s when things started to nosedive.

You see, Facebook Live, is umm, live. And it won’t tap you on the shoulder and give you a head’s up that your (LIVE!) video will probably look pants to all of your followers.

Which is exactly what happened.

Here it is, in all its blurry, temporarily pixelated glory. It even stopped recording at the end (prematurely), which I was completely oblivious to, until I watched it back (after I posted it).

GAH!

I wept for 42 minutes and then made a strong coffee, deciding to put the stupid live video incident behind me. I mean, I still had the firing up of my new computer to look forward to.

Or so I thought.

The next day I spent much longer than I care to admit connecting all of the necessary peripherals, until EVENTUALLY, I was ready to push the power button on Beastie McBeastface.

Beastie McBeastface is a custom built POWERHOUSE, people! He cost A LOT of money and is NOT your average desktop!

So you can imagine my DESPAIR when I was greeted with this blunt and extremely unexpected message:

‘Error loading Operating System’

I was GUTTED. I was ANGRY and I may have been delirious for approx. 8 minutes after reading that error message. The computer company informed me that the desktop would need to be returned for inspection.

Then I sat in silence. Absolute silence. And just focused on BREATHING.

Then, I became indifferent. I think I was still in denial at this stage.

After giving off LOADS to the computer company, I decided to seek solace by continuing to read Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Steve Jobs. Unbeknownst to me, I had reached the chapter that described his final days.

I’ve been a bit late to the party, where Steve Jobs is concerned. I wish I had paid more attention to him when he was alive and ‘innovating’

Well, that was it. It set me off. I was in tears. Irrationally inconsolable and more than happy to indulge in self pity for the rest of the evening.

I’ve since calmed down somewhat. You see, there’s always going to be unforeseen obstacles, right? Especially in business. So maybe I’m just being tested.

Fine.