End Of An Era

After spending something like 10 hours today trying to get my Java database applications (Comic Catalogue and Meal Planner) working on my recently-wiped laptop, I think I'm giving up.  I remember it being a huge hassle setting up when I got this laptop last year but this tops even that experience.  It's always challenging, as Windows 7 functions differently than Vista, which was different than XP, and so on back through Time.  Today, however, I ran into brand new problems that I suspect are related to changes to MySQL since I last downloaded it.  First, it required that .NET 4.0 be installed on my machine, which I almost couldn't believe when I saw the error message.  After biting the bullet on that, Windows Live Connection started failing on my laptop, affecting both my Windows Live Mail app and my access to Live Messenger.  While I was dealing with that, I noticed that my Comic D/B app was exhibiting problems such as none of the comic titles having any issues in them!  When I looked into it, I saw that there seems to be a difference in how this version of MySQL handles numeric data from past releases.  At that point I realized I'd have to go into the code and change a whole lot of queries to get them to work... and the life just went out of this project for me.

I've had my comic collection catalogued - first on paper, then on a D/B - since I was about 10 or 11 years old.  As of today, it looks like I'm ending that practice.  Every time I get a new laptop or have one break and need to be re-imaged, the thing I dread most is having to get the Java D/B apps to run again.  I've made notes on it each time, but they're always woefully out of date by the time I use them again thanks to so many environmental changes in the software that I rely on.  So I'm just not going to play that game anymore.  I figure this is probably a major step in me abandoning Windows entirely, and moving to either a Mac or iPad.  Microsoft simply makes their world too complicated to live in, and so I don't think I will, for much longer.

Of course, this means I'll no longer be able to tell you exactly how many comics I own, but I think I can live with that more easily than the alternative.  And Vicki had stopped using the Meal Planner several months ago, so that's not a huge loss.  Still... it makes me a little sad, and feel a little old.