My technology curse and collateral damage

If it didn’t have such a good connotation I’d claim to be the garlic to technology’s vampire.

My machine is running woefully low on space and so every now and then it runs out of virtual memory and I have to reboot (yes I have 2 additional storage devices, I just don’t trust them – and you wouldn’t either if you were me). Yes, I know I have to clean my files up – back off! Today, my brain was obviously distracted by something covered in sequins, because I noticed the insidious little ‘updates are ready for your machine’ popup as I was shutting down and decided then would be the time to install.

Eons later I came back to find that I was now installing update 3 of 32!!!!! (No I didn’t check to see how many were queued before I started, sequins remember?). Seeing as it was noon, I figured this was a message from the machine gods to go do some shopping and grab some lunch (because even though I’m trying to lose weight, I forgot my lunch and opted for crap).

As I’m headed out the door, I hear mutterings about a lab machine losing it’s IP. Repeatedly and over a period of time, so no it doesn’t raise any alarm bells. Fast forward an hour, I return to my office (after getting some smoking deals!), where my machine has rebooted and then hibernated from lack of activity.

Boot attempt 1 – almost a complete boot.

Reboot 2 – still chugging along when co-worker stops by to confirm that DNS/DHCP for the building is borked. I’ll be okay as long as I don’t do anything that messes with my IP lease. You know, like hibernate or reboot.

I really meant it when I tweeted “Installing 3rd of 32 updates. Have a feeling this isn’t going to end well.” I just had no idea there’d be so much collateral damage.