Friday, May 9, 2008

I Love Technology, I Hate Technology.

It's really true. Here are some examples:

  • I spent all morning on Tuesday trying to get the Internet to work again. We have this periodic problem that I have not been able to solve -- all of a sudden, the Internet will be gone. Sometimes the VoIP goes out, other times it's just the web -- I've even had it be that I can download email but not browse the web. The solution seems to be either to reboot the VoIP device or the cable modem, or shut down the desktop computer they're plugged into and then unplug everything -- the desktop computer, the wireless router, the cable modem and the VoIP device, they're all plugged into one big plugging strip. I unplug them, count to 30, plug them back in and wait for them to reboot, and voila, the Internet is back. But with no explanation as to why this happens.
    Except, that trick didn't work on Tuesday. I tried restarting the various devices in sequence, and finally concluded that the white cable connecting the cable modem to the cable line was the culprit, and I rewired all of our cables to get it set up so we could use internet. For several hours, one TV was cable-less until we could run to the store for more coax cables. And, you had to step over a strange configuration of cables emanating from a splitter just inside the door of the house if you wanted to come in from outside. Now it's all fixed, but it took the whole morning. Ugh. This is why I hate technology.
  • Recently, I bought an Asus Eee PC. I can take it anywhere. It's so cute and easy to use. I get compliments on it, everyone is interested in it. This is why I love technology.
  • My husband just called me. He's in Wal-Mart, and he obviously has a question about something I asked him to buy. "Mfdfdfsdf." was all I could hear. "I can't hear you," I said. "mfff," was all I could hear. "Nope, still can't hear you," I said. "Click." This is why I hate technology.
  • Monday night we went to Best Buy. They had declared my old Gateway laptop a lemon, after having fixed the AC adapter connector 3 or 4 times (we lost track how many). So here's the scenario: Almost 4 years ago, we bought a $599 laptop (a Compaq, when Compaqs were still good computers). Actually, that was the sale price. We purchased the Best Buy service plan along with it. We had it for almost 2 years and one day the hard drive just went FFFFTT. They told us to pick out a replacement, and we settled on a Gateway. I liked it well enough, but the place where the power adapter thing connected kept breaking. So now we get to get another new laptop (are you paying attention? we've had a laptop for almost 4 years now for the price of the original plus the service plan on the Gateway). So we found an HP on sale for $799. We paid $350 to get it, that includes a new service plan. This laptop has Vista Home Premium and 3 Gb of RAM, and a 250 Gb hard drive. I've never had a computer with that much RAM before. I am in technology heaven. This is why I love technology.
  • I am trying to get t-shirts made for my church. I designed the images and the website said they had to be less than 3 mb, which they are. And they are the correct file type. And they won't upload. They won't upload in Firefox. They won't upload in IE. They won't upload as jpgs. They won't upload as pngs. They will not upload in a box. They will not upload with a fox. They will not upload here or there, they will not upload anywhere. This is why I hate technology.
  • I found a new wonderful fun toy yesterday. Aviary. It's -- well, I haven't actually used it yet, but it lets you do all sorts of really cool image editing, right online. At least, looking at the sample images, that's what it does. I spent the evening finding photos to use to edit, and got lost looking for pictures and never got back to the editing. But it's exciting to see web apps that can do cool stuff like this. I can't wait to try it. This is why I love technology.
  • Remember the Asus Eee PC? I've taken it to 3 places that have free WiFi, and was unable to connect at any of them. I also have found that I can see the Eee PC from the computer in my kitchen, and can open files on it and save them and print them and do whatever I want with them. But I can't access the Eee PC from the kitchen computer. And I've never been able to get my husband's Vista desktop to share anything with anyone. My son just got a Playstation 3. He can see the Vista computer from that. But he can't access it. So I have this crazy network. I made a file on my Eee PC and I wanted to use it on the new laptop (which, because it runs Vista, I have been unable to get to network with the others, either). I had to copy the file to the kitchen computer and email it to myself on the laptop. I suppose I could have emailed it from the Eee PC, but I was emailing files I'd created on the kitchen computer to the laptop so it seemed like the easiest way. Why did I have to create files on the kitchen computer when I have the brand new laptop? The Vista computer doesn't run Paint Shop Pro 8, which is still the graphics program I know best and feel most comfortable in. I'd have to upgrade to a more recent version to get it to run on Vista. This is why I hate technology.
  • I emailed the images to the t-shirt website. They uploaded them for me and the t-shirts have been ordered. All without leaving my house. This is why I love technology.

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