I Need a Computer Wizard or an R2 Unit

The good news: I have a new computer. Yay!!!

The bad news: Apparently, my old computer is so old that I can't upgrade easily to a new computer. I'm just one system version behind the automatic set-up utility being able to work. I guess you're only allowed to get a new computer if you've already got a newish computer. I'm sure there's a workaround and if I network the computers, I can easily transfer files (and it would probably be good for me to start with a clean slate with only the things I need). I don't need to transfer software because either it's all already on the new computer or I've just bought the current version to install on the new computer. What I'm worried about, though, is transferring the "behind the scenes" stuff like Internet account settings, bookmarks, saved passwords and other web site stuff, iTunes playlists, e-mail archives, calendar stuff and address book from Entourage/Outlook, etc. I'll probably call Apple tech support later today (or later this week) and see if they can talk me through it, but at the moment I have a raging headache, so it's probably not a good time to try to deal with it. It doesn't help to get snippy and snarky with the tech support people, and in this state, I'd probably growl at them.

I guess maybe I should have gone to the Apple store, after all. This is what I get for "I can do it myself!" Though, really, a larger factor was that I went to the electronics store at the end of my street, five minutes away, instead of driving nearly half an hour across town to the Apple store. If I could have teleported to the Apple store or if there were one that wasn't in an impossible to get to place, I'd have been happy to let them do it all.

Or, on second thought, maybe that wouldn't have helped. I just saw this on Seth Godin's blog about his experience with this, so it looks like this is an issue even if you have the right software.

I just found the info on transferring the Firefox stuff, so that's one down. Now, if I can find the Internet access info from my ISP (which I'll have to get on my phone, as that's a web site that won't work on my old computer) and figure out how to transfer iTunes playlists, I may be okay making a clean start with my documents.

But it will have to wait because the headache lingers. I want to go escape into an imaginary world for the rest of the day. Too bad I can't use one of the MSI computer wizards (though I think that didn't make it into the final cut of the book -- the tech support staff was literal computer wizards. It was fun.).