Florida is having to come to terms with the FCAT scores …..kids can’t/won’t write…..Up until this year, spelling and punctuation was not considered in the test scores…..as in, one didn’t have know how to spell or punctuate.I’ll write more later…..when I get my pin
Tag Archives: computers
THE GADGET AND I
Sometimes the light bulb comes on a little slow for me…and even then it is slightly dim for a while. I try to stay up on general day-to-day living. I read the newspaper, scan the ads, and read about what’s new. In those question and answer series, I’m NOT the one, however, who has to have the newest gadgets or drive the latest gas saving creation from the auto giants. I mean, if they have to ask me for a loan to design and make a vehicle that doesn’t go as far as my electric lawnmower, then I really can’t count on their expertise or reasoning.
So some way this leads me to the items I’m familiar with…like an iron, a desk calculator, a toaster, and of course, my computer. Other than using electricity, these items may not seem to have a lot in common. They can’t be interchanged, however they are very useful. I can clean the iron when the deposits get bad..at least for a while. I can get new tape for the calculator until it bites the dust, and the toaster will work until it decides not to. For the most part they are pretty easy to replace…..and it doesn’t cost me a paycheck.
But then there is there computer….ah yes, it runs, most of the time. I would junk my car if it ran…most of the time. I would pitch the stove top and oven if it ran, most of the time. I would ditch the lawnmower if it ran…most of the time, and I would dump the TVs if they ran…..most of the time. But what about the computer….no dumping here, no trash can here. NO! This baby is here to stay, for at least a few years.
And so I amble along thru my web page and emails. I sigh when the download takes 2 Adel songs to finish. I glare at the screen when ,the famous words “not responding'” flashes before my bloodshot eyes. But when the ‘freeze’ takes over, I am not nice to be around.
The “PREFETCH” and the “%temp%” are run and the trash can is emptied, but no one inside this tower of doom cares. The cookies are eaten and the other “sh…. I don’t know anything about is discarded…and still nothing but the freeze.
Well, let me tell you, this isn’t my first computer….I can call for help. Menus and discussions later, in the darkened gloom of my monitor, I cry ‘uncle’ and begin the search for online 24 hour repair.
Dang if I don’t find one….and they seem to even have a little pity on me. I like Simone…she’s from Miami, and she does her best to dry my tears and promise me things will be better….IF I buy the ‘we’ll fix it 24/7 package”. I hesitate at the cost, she reminds me of the corrupt SOB who has come to live in my house, we discuss using it on two computers, and the decision is made. If she can fix my computer and make it almost as good as it was when I bought it…..she and I will be dear friends. (Now I’m no dummy, cause this baby is a whole 5 years old….and I realize in computer land, this guy is about to be cremated) but I say yes.
And lo……it happens. A mystery person takes over the doomsday machine and 3 hours later, I am sitting in front of a nice mannerly machine that will actually do what I ask it to do….corrupt files gone, virus gone, stupid hidden files, gone, and especially stuff I don’t know about….GONE. I am a happy girl. For one year they promise to give up their first-born, if they can’t keep my computer running and me happy….and, when I move to the other computer, I can move the service there.
For 3 days now all was well……and lo again…….. I had to call. A virus visited me in the middle of the night and froze me up again….plus messed up my games. Now mess with the web page, but don’t mess with Scrabble Blaster, if you know what I mean.
I called, they fixed, end of story. The afternoon sunshine glistens in my star-crossed eyes as I use my old, no ancient computer to write this saga. Ain’t life grand!
Lesson learned here…….Irons and TVs come and go, but my computer damn well stick around for a while. Although I am skating on thin ice here….cause I have come to the conclusion that compouters…….no computers are made to be like my iron or toaster…I repeat MADE to be like my iron and toaster. There are many ways to fix the problems, but we end-users are not allowed to know them. The menus to keep us satisfied are tightly held secrets, known only to the people I pay $180 a year to.
Nannner Nano
Ipod…..a simple item to carry my music…not the new Nano, but the older one…but who really cares, cause when it don’t work, it don’t work!
Last year it froze….didn’t know it could freeze. No one told me it could freeze…used to be called ‘stopped working’…..now it is ‘freeze’…..Just like phones…used to be called ‘answer’….now it’s called ‘send’. Help me here!
Anyhow…..when I ask around, I got this blank stare….’guess you need to go to the Apple store’….. After 20 miles in bumper to bumper traffic.. I got to stand in line for an appointment and then hang out (somewhere of my choosing) til it was time….to ‘thaw’…no ‘unfreeze’.
The guy was nice….and very capable (of course, anyone age 2 and up is more capable with “I” anything, than me,however that is another story). In essence he just passed is hand over the Nano….said it happens all the time, and I was back to grooving with the 80’s.
Now, in the current year of our Lord….who I hope was not listening when the Nano ‘broke’ again……I found that I could not download music I had purchased from Itunes. I had the right questions, I had the right answers, I plugged in with the right cable, etc, etc….and nothing happened. If course, there was the manual I could turn to, but…..no, no there wasn’t. Apple doesn’t believe in those things…except on line. Not to mention the manual has to be the size of the Obamacare measure, to cover everything that could ever happen to a Nano. But I digress.
My PC was good at telling me what I couldn’t do, but not what I could, or should. I shouted “uncle’….took the Toshiba laptop belonging to hubby, my baby Nano, and off we went to see Mr. or Mrs. Apple head….now now, don’t get huffy…potato head, apple head, no difference, especially in my state of mind.
Mr. Apple reminded me when I walked in that this was not a Toshiba store….as in ‘ha ha ha’, (in my state of mind). I turned the computer around and ask for an appointment….The earliest was 1 hour 45 min..oh goody. Too short to go home and come back, and too long to just sit there. I was safe to shop cause I’d been to Kohl’s and got my ‘fix’ earlier in the day.
I came back early….checked in, and the nice man was nice to the old lady. (okay nice boy, okay young married man). He told me to remember that a Nano likes only one computer and will always refuse to ‘mess around’ with another computer…very monogomous, these Apples. So, with a few screens here and a few screens there, topped off with a ‘next’, a ‘finish’, a yes’ and a no, I was back in business. Why Itunes and Apple does not want their products to mess around (interface) with other Apples is beyond me. I.D. is I.D. and money is money. (I’m still digressing aren’t I)
So I left. Nano and Toshiba and me (or I, who cares). We came home and downloaded some new stuff from Maroon 5 and Bill Withers……(yes, I’m old, but not that old). (Aerosmith, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Genesis, the Owl guy, etc, etc…love’m all)(there I go again). So now we’re all happy, except my plug’in (that’s ‘dock’ in your language), speakers don’t work anymore and I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend $100 for another one. It’s a shame they don’t have a ‘ Mr. MrsMemorex’ store next to the Mr. Mrs Apple head store.
later….
seriouslyscorpio 