Friday Flip-Offs 8/13 Edition

Just in case you are new here, this is Friday-Flip Offs, the place to rid yourself of all that random annoying crap that seems to worm it's way into your life and fester like a boil just below the surface waiting to explode.

Gigi at Kludgy Mom is the brains behind this brilliant idea. Stop over and give her some bloggy love.

Without further delay... Let's get this party started.

Don’t have much for ya today, just one doozy that I must get off my chest… let's call it the Adobe PSE blues.

First off, I must thank Arizona Mamma for paving the road to my photoshop elements 7 (let’s call it PSE7 for short). After whining on my blog about how I was a dingaling because I didn’t save the serial number and consequently was unable to reinstall it once my computer crashed, she promptly responded with a sweet, informative email. She put it in easy, laymen terms that even a tech challenged gal like myself could grasp. Since I had it on my laptop all I had to do was go into the system info in Elements and I would find it. Piece of cake. (And btw, if you have a laptop you’ll understand why it just wasn’t cutting it for my photos. Definitely not the same as my desktop.)

I was stoked! I thanked her promptly because I’ve tried EVERYTHING by now and came up empty.

THEN I went about reinstalling it to my desktop so I could move up in the world of photo editing. Because come on, as comfortable and wonderful as PSE2 has been for me, it just doesn’t measure up when it comes to the endless possibilities and features that PSE7 offers. Plus I’d really love to get some of those wonderful "Pioneer Woman" actions. I’ve digressed.

So, I inserted my cd only to have my computer reject my code not once, but 4 different times. Harumph!

“I can do this." (I repeated this in my head several times.) There was no way I was going to give up so easily. This is attainable. So, I rechecked the numbers and sure enough they were right. Dang it.

Being the organized person that I am I keep all my computer cds in a handy binder, which turns out to be 9/10ths of the problem. Not only did I NOT write the serial number on the cd like on PSE2 and PSE3, I threw away the case and box and didn’t save the receipt, at least that I know of.

It was time to do the dreaded deed… call Adobe. I located a help desk number online and dialed. I was on hold for so long that my phone battery died while I was waiting. Not a good sign. Just when I was about ready to give up, I heard a noise on the other end.

For the life of me I couldn’t make it out. I asked them to repeat themselves multiple times. Turns out they were saying their name. I’m not certain of which nationality they were, but I’m about 85% sure they were male and maybe 20% convinced they were of indian descent. We conversed for some time and between their thick accent and my less than stellar hearing it wasn’t pretty. I never made out their name, even after asking several times.

I did learn that without a serial number, UPC code and/or receipt I could kiss my PSE7 dreams good bye. I also learned that the number on file in my laptop was short 4 numbers, which they do intentionally so not just anyone can go and steal numbers. And although I was almost certain I registered it, they could find no such thing on file. Crap, crap. Seriously? “So, pretty much you’re telling me that this cd is worthless?” They assured me that was not necessarily the case; that I could try to call a different customer service number. But I really couldn’t understand what that would do for me besides make me a crazy wreck as I waited another hour to no avail. But they gave me the number anyways.

And I dialed. Luckily for my sanity the wait was not as long. And it was a female. Not American, but much easier to understand. I repeated my story. She asked if I could go online with the laptop and if she could access it. At this point, I didn’t really care.

She had me go to “show my pc” and then she did all the work. She couldn’t find the serial number, so she used this Belarc System Manager to locate all serial numbers on my computer. I was a bit leary, but I didn’t have many better options and I’d already wasted a couple hours by now.

Miraculously enough she was able to locate it and sure enough I was only missing 4 numbers, the last 4. Hallelujah!

I promptly entered them and they worked!!

But turns out that PSE7 is only good with XP and Vista and this is Windows 7. Ugh! So, I need to download some sort of patch. Why the heck it everything so freaking hard? Why can’t anything just work? And be easy? And give me a break?

I’m currently in the process of downloading the patch, whatever the heck that is. And all I gotta say is that this had better work.

If I hadn’t just spent too much $$$$ on a new camera and way too much time trying to revive my PSE7 I’d have just given up and bought the PSE8 already.

But this is going to work!!

So, to Adobe Photoshop Elements… for making a product that is constantly changing and never sufficient or compatible with my current PC, for employing non-English speaking reps and/or ones with horribly thick accents, for making a cd only recognized by a stupid 24 digit number, and for giving me a flippin headache...

FLIP OFF!

It’s actually been a pretty good week. Just a really annoying day.

Now it's your turn. Tell us what's been buggin you and then link up below.