In the space of a week both my cellphone AND my laptop died, that was two weeks ago. The phone was old as cellphones go, come to think of it so was the laptop. The phone was replaced, then the replacement was replaced within days because it drove me nuts and into animated fits of frustration. At first I thought it might be me that was the problem so I finally handed it off to Pip. She hadn't had it in her possession more than 30 minutes before she was red-faced, eye-ball twitching and ready to toss it out the window herself. Got a Smartphone the very next day. And yes, it just may be smarter than me. I was pleased to find out it had a homing device of sorts, a "find my phone if it get's lost" function. The way my head has been working lately - or NOT - I'm thinking I should start carrying it around my neck so SOMEONE can always find me. It would be really cool if I could program it with a Personal Assistant, you know, like the GPS thing. That way when I'm standing in the kitchen and can't remember what my next move was going to be I can ask the Smartphone hanging around my neck, "Hey Xander (it would have to have a name of course), what the hell was I going to do?" Immediately it would respond in a sexy male Aussie accent, no, better yet, the sexy voice of my sweetheart, "Well SweetThing," you were about to start your grocery list and was on your way to check the milk in the frig." Mental head slap, Oh yeah that was it, "Thanks Xander". Yes it would be good.
I had hoped to save/repair the laptop since a new one wasn't in the budget. After explaining the problem to my computer Guru's, they finally convinced me there is no recovering from "The Black Screen of Death" on an over-dated, outdated eight year old laptop. So I took another look at the budget, re-worked some figures and headed to Best Buy. After I selected my new laptop and gear I took it to the Customer Service/Geek Squad counter to have it set up and activated. Oh boy. Three stools at the counter, all occupied with butt-cracks. Seriously, three heavy men, two in jeans and one in elastic waisted something were all seated and leaning way over the counter, pants too low, shirts too high, derrieres exposed, while they interacted with the Techies. It was too much for me, I had to look away.
Finally my turn, the Geeks worked their magic and Shaboom, I had a new laptop! The Geek helping me was new and very enthusiastic. While we were waiting on a program to download, he pointed out and explained all the little blinking lights on
this particular unit, called it the Indicator Strip. "This flashing light means the power is ON. This one means you are connected to the Internet, and this one means the unit is thinking/processing information." This thought occurred to me so I said it out loud, "How many relationships could have been saved if the partners had a row of flashing lights across their foreheads?" The young Geek just looked at me, oops, I noticed he was wearing a wedding ring. Before he could come up with a response, I said, "No seriously, think about it. What if you needed to talk to your partner about something. You could see immediately if they were 'ON' and 'CONNECTED' and better yet, how many husbands could have been spared if only their 'I'M THINKING/PROCESSING' light was blinking?" He laughed at that point and indicated it would have been helpful for he and his wife the previous night. So, there you go. The marriage ceremony should have the application of Indicator Strips as well as the offering of the rings.
Technology overload, that's been where I've been for the last almost two weeks. Still having some trouble figuring out my new voice-mail function but other than that this new little phone is awesome. The laptop is not quite what I would have chosen if I didn't have a budget to consider but it's basic and I can write on it, that's about it. For what I need right now that's good enough.
I had hoped to save/repair the laptop since a new one wasn't in the budget. After explaining the problem to my computer Guru's, they finally convinced me there is no recovering from "The Black Screen of Death" on an over-dated, outdated eight year old laptop. So I took another look at the budget, re-worked some figures and headed to Best Buy. After I selected my new laptop and gear I took it to the Customer Service/Geek Squad counter to have it set up and activated. Oh boy. Three stools at the counter, all occupied with butt-cracks. Seriously, three heavy men, two in jeans and one in elastic waisted something were all seated and leaning way over the counter, pants too low, shirts too high, derrieres exposed, while they interacted with the Techies. It was too much for me, I had to look away.
Finally my turn, the Geeks worked their magic and Shaboom, I had a new laptop! The Geek helping me was new and very enthusiastic. While we were waiting on a program to download, he pointed out and explained all the little blinking lights on
this particular unit, called it the Indicator Strip. "This flashing light means the power is ON. This one means you are connected to the Internet, and this one means the unit is thinking/processing information." This thought occurred to me so I said it out loud, "How many relationships could have been saved if the partners had a row of flashing lights across their foreheads?" The young Geek just looked at me, oops, I noticed he was wearing a wedding ring. Before he could come up with a response, I said, "No seriously, think about it. What if you needed to talk to your partner about something. You could see immediately if they were 'ON' and 'CONNECTED' and better yet, how many husbands could have been spared if only their 'I'M THINKING/PROCESSING' light was blinking?" He laughed at that point and indicated it would have been helpful for he and his wife the previous night. So, there you go. The marriage ceremony should have the application of Indicator Strips as well as the offering of the rings.
Technology overload, that's been where I've been for the last almost two weeks. Still having some trouble figuring out my new voice-mail function but other than that this new little phone is awesome. The laptop is not quite what I would have chosen if I didn't have a budget to consider but it's basic and I can write on it, that's about it. For what I need right now that's good enough.