Friday, August 6, 2010

A love hate relationship with technology

I love my new laptop. It is a good thing since I have been using it just about every waking hour since I got it. I am discovering all kinds of exciting new features that Windows 7 has to offer. There are some funky bits though, probably user related and not the fault of the technology. For instance, somehow as I am typing away I find that I have jumped over into another section of my text and there is this big batch of writing where it isn't suppose to be. I must be accidentally touching a key and don't realize it. I probably would catch this problem as I am typing if I was not a "pecker" typist and didn't have to watch my fingers instead of the monitor. If I could go back in time and talk to my teenage self, I would have insisted that I paid attention during typing class. While I was on that visit to my earlier self I would have insisted that I stuck with the French classes too. Both skills would definitely be handy today.

What I am not currently too keen on is the limitations of email. I have started my own business and I need to send documents to my potential customers. The problem is file size and not being able to send what I want. Again this is a user problem. I keep being told by that annoying little techy that lives inside of my computer that "the size of the file is too big, read the file size before you try sending it". Ever the rebel, I ignore the warnings and send the emails with the attachments and then curse it when the emails fail. A solution was required and now thanks to a very generous and patient new friend, I am getting a website. That's another tale for another day.

Now there are certain administrative functions that are required of any business, big or small. Paperwork. A necessary evil but evil all the same. Up until a couple of days ago I did not have a fax machine. I had a scanner but that meant scanning one page at a time and creating separate files for each scanned page. Now we are back to the evils of emails and file sizes. After several occasions where I was required to "fax" in documents and several subsequent rounds of bad words spoken, I decided to splurge on another piece of technology. A fax machine.

We are back to loving technology now. The 4-n-1 fax/printer/scanner (I don't know what the 4th thing is yet) which is wireless is just so amazing! Now no relationship is all good. I had some challenges getting the router to talk to the fax/printer in a secure mode. After a couple of hours with more bad words spoken, I called the help desk. Yes, it took me a couple of hours of making myself crazy before I called but that was partly due to the fact that it was 7am in the morning and my new love machine was calling my name and I just had to go and hook it up.(run on sentence intentional) A half hour on the phone with a very patient and very nice woman in the Philippines walked me through the steps and got me all hooked up. Now I have been faxing and printing and loving my new piece of equipment. The only thing is, it is in my living room on an end table and not necessarily the prettiest piece of home decor. Which means I have to adjust my current office space to accommodate the additional piece of equipment and other office related gear. That will involve moving furniture and assistance from my husband. Let me tell you, he isn't thrilled with the prospect. The thing is, once I am all set up nicely in my revamped office space with my laptop and printer, John will be left to himself with the TV in the living room and the clicker to himself. Big happy faces all around.

Now what did we do before we had all this technology? Hmmm, don't tell me, my laptop may get mad and do some other funky stuff. These things have personalities, I know it and you know it whether we are willing to admit it or not. As long as I stay "in Love' I will have no problems. Right?

2 comments:

  1. Another vote here for the fax machine. Ed has an hp all-in-one sucker and it hasn't broken like we though it would. Has been invaluable this year faxing medical documents, etc. Sounds like you're doing very well. (:

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  2. As for the French it is best picked up when you actually have a chance to use it. I've been learning since I was 3 and if it is not used it means very little, though I do have a sentimental attachment to French.

    Alouette-eh, genti aloutte-e, aloutte-e, genti plume-r-rh!

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