Today my Internet provider changed
its name. It also changed just
about everything concerning my e-mail.
In the process the provider’s staff did not manage to bring along my e-mail
address book. I got a nice
apologetic note explaining they did not lose my address book. They just didn’t get it hitched to my
new e-mail account. They are
working on making it available to yours truly just as fast as their little
fingers can type. If you don’t
hear from me for a while, it’s whozit’s fault. (I don’t remember the current name, which is the third name the
group has adopted.)
Recently Facebook made the
umpteenth change for the same unexplained reason as for the umpteenth minus one
change and the change before that and …
I would think it is an experiment in frustration tolerance if I were
conspiracy-inclined.
Amazon makes frequent changes—all
of them without explanation. Books
disappear and re-appear for reasons known only to the great and powerful. Some of my work that was available on
Amazon seems to have fallen into a black hole. Perhaps it will become available in an alternate
universe. Being Amazon means never
having to say you’re sorry.
I don’t know for certain how many
versions of Word have come into existence and been replaced by a newer version
since my last Word fix. I also
cannot say how many gadgets have come and gone since my last hardware
purchase. I still think of
hardware as nails, hammers and tape measures.
Maybe this is yet more proof that
in my dotage I have become an old fogey.
I now qualify for a discount on Wednesday mornings at breakfast. The AARP frequently sends me letters
extolling the advantages of joining their association. Apparently their motto is, “I’m old. I vote. Gimme Gimme Gimme.”
I like some new things. My phone takes cool pictures. It gives good directions. Of course I used to send the photos in
a jpeg format to my e-mail. I
could download them. Then
something changed and now the photos come in a format I cannot download. Oh, and did I mention that my e-mail
has changed too?
LOL, Warren. "Amazon means never having to say you're sorry." I hope many writers quote you for saying that. Perhaps Linda will put it in her writer's quote collection! On the AARP, everyone else says the same thing even if they aren't yet old, so why would they be any different? We have gone from one extreme to the other (as usual) from JFK's famous, "Ask not," speech to entitlement. I'll stop before I get started. Thanks for the laugh.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Warren and Linda--do you still have marauding monkeys swinging from treetop to treetop in KC?
ReplyDeleteMy condolences. I never use my internet provider’s email accounts. I use gmail or Hotmail and third-party software (Thunderbird on my computer and K-9 Mail on my phone and tablet). That has worked for several generations of computers, phones and internet providers.
ReplyDelete~ Jim
I'm pretty incompetent when it comes to using computers. I don't know how many word processing programs I've "mastered" over the years, only to have them fall by the wayside. Now I struggle with a combination of docx (my computer does not have doc, and nobody--including the computer service people, can figure out how to add it) and rtf, which seems to be going the way of all the others. I have to borrow a computer to read the edited editions of my work from my publisher.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I learned years ago was to print out my address book every time I make a change in it (or make the change in the printed copy, if it's a small one)
Good luck with the changes. It's like driving a fancy American car--there are all sorts of things it can theoretically do, but making it actually work for any length of time is the main challenge.
Do you want us to all e-mail you so you can get our addresses?
E.B. The chimps were lured by bananas and other foods. They are back where they started, still chuckling about their adventure,
ReplyDeleteWarren, I'm having trouble figuring out how to critique those who send their short stories through Microsoft's Open Office. I suppose if I spent an hour or so on trying to figure it out, I could do so, but I'm too busy to take the time.
ReplyDeleteRecently on the Guppy Listserv there's been a lot of discussion on Mac vs other computers and I know I loved the Mac I had years ago - which is still sitting on a shelve in the garage. Most Mac users love them and I've considered getting one, and then when I think about the time involved learning how to use it and transfer everything from what I have now to that, I decide to stay with what I have and understand - mostly.
Gloria--the trick is to save the file not open the file. When you save the file it will open with MS Word. If you just try to open the file without saving the file, it will open in MS Open Office--and I don't think it has a "Review" function.
ReplyDelete"Amazon means never having to say you're sorry" should be on tshirts! Every day at work I see people struggle with the "improvements" to their email and computers. I think most internet providers sit around devising services that 99% of us don't need or want.
ReplyDeleteWord's changes are the pits and make no sense. You have to go all over the place to get something done!
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain, Warren. I've been locked out of Yahoo Groups for over a month. A few digests have landed in my email inbox but I can't login (or is it logon?) to reply. A smart, enterprising teen could make a ton of money helping those of us who are baffled by technological improvements.
ReplyDeleteI will now try to post this comment by typing illegible words to prove that I'm not a robot. Then, I will need to fix the words that were incorrectly autocorrected and sign in to Blogger. Simple!
EB, actually the last of the chimpanzees, who was the wily old female that they said was the ringleader, had to be lured in with malted milk balls.
ReplyDeleteWarren, I feel your pain. For months now, Blogger has not allowed me to comment on my own blog or the other group blog I'm part of, The Stiletto Gang. I can post, edit,schedule, change the profile and template on those blogs all I want, but I can't reply to anyone's comments. Yet, obviously, I can comment on this and other Blogger blogs. It defies logic--and Blogger does not respond to my pleas for help.