Things you need to know:
- This computer is really ancient and has been through several disaster zones. As a result it hates me.
- I’ve had a really terrible couple of weeks, so it makes sense that it would choose now to strike at me.
- I know people, see? People who know things. People who know things about computers.
I try to avoid going online at the weekends, but on Saturday I tried to open my email. I use Thunderbird, which is usually very reliable, but to my surprise ALL MY MESSAGES HAD DIED AND GONE TO EMAIL HEAVEN. I mean all of them – every last message. Gone. Needless to say, emotions raced across my face: shock, anger, disgust, hunger (I missed breakfast) and finally resignation.
This morning I came back to my computer and found that my email had not magically re-appeared.1 It was time to take action, which consisted of whining to my friends until somebody offered to help. Sure enough, Tom L. introduced me to Guru Stefano, who fixed things in about 40 minutes over Skype. In the interests of servicing the web, I explain everything here. Skip to the end if you find this sort of thing really dull – I’ve included a nice epigram to finish off the post.
- This is my usual approach to problems – go away for a few days and see if it all works out. You’d be surprised how frequently this is effective. [↩]