ghost in the machine

ALL YOUR FONTS ARE BELONG TO US

I start teaching very soon. And the computer labs where I teach have had quite a few changes recently. So I went in today to create a set of preferences for the software I teach: Adobe Illustrator CS2, Corel Painter 9, and (formerly DiamondSoft) FontReserve.

Extensis has bought FontReserve.
Attention Extensis:
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In our Windows lab (not in our Mac lab, mind you), every time I try to turn on and use a classic Type 1 Postscript font, I constantly have ATM -219 errors. Since the fonts cannot be turned on in FontReserve, they aren't on in Adobe Illustrator or anyplace else.

However, the WEIRDEST THING happened.......
After creating but not being able to turn on the new font folder, I launched Painter.

All those Postscript fonts were........
on.

They were not on in Illustrator.
They were not on in Microsoft Word.
But they were on in Painter.

Odd.

So I exited out of Painter and FontReserve and relauched them. The fonts still worked in Painter, although FontReserve had LOST MY FOLDER, mind you. [Also odd.] This is after quitting, rebooting, etc., etc.! And, of course, as expected, the fonts were not on in Illustrator.

So I shut down the computer and rebooted. And
All those Postscript fonts were.....
ON
in Painter.

Little men. Gremlins. Tiny little vermin. WHO KNOWS what is inhabiting those damn computers!

All I can say is
I LOVE teaching painting and drawing. My pencils and brushes never crash. l never need to defragment my tube of Cadmium Yellow Light. If the electricity goes down, we can draw outside. I never have to worry about compatibility issues between last year's and this year's pads of paper. And a power surge never causes me to "lose" my entire portfolio.