I Blame Mercury!

by Tawny

Ooooh, boy, this has been one stressful month! And it's not even at the halfway point, yet - that scares me a little. There have been house stresses and kid stresses and writing stresses. You know, the usual life stuff. And I'm pretty good at (or immune to) rolling along with those stresses. But it's the technology stresses that wipe me out!

I'm blaming Mercury. The planet, not the element. Mercury went into retrograde on August 3. Now, please don't think me a fatalist who hands my world over to my horoscope, or someone who plans my life around the traveling of the stars. I don't. Usually things like this barely make a bleep on my radar. But this month... oh boy!

First my daughter's laptop went klaboom. It'd been on it's last legs for awhile and I'd tried various repairs, but it was beyond help at this point. Because we use the laptop for homeschool (most of our curriculum is computer based) her having a computer is mandatory. And I don't share mine, so it had to be either a new laptop, or giving her mine. I figured, hey, I use the iPad more than the laptop these days - mostly it's become a glorified backup for documents and photos. So I wiped the harddrive, loaded her school software and handed it over.

Then my computer started glitching. It would freeze. It would lose information. I began writing with the thumbdrive in the usb slot, backing up every couple of paragraphs... just in case. Needless to say this didn't do much for my writing production. My PC is 6 years old. Not aged by any means, but given the usage and the fact that I never turn it off (hey, it might not turn back on!) I figured I'd check with geeks smarter than I for advice. The advice? Start looking for a new computer.

That was another adventure. I finally decided on a laptop instead of a PC, but to get a docking station. This will, in theory, streamline my computing and make life easier and faster and better. We will see. Because the laptop is backordered and I won't have it until the end of the month.

sigh.

Then my website crashed. Bigtime crashed. It was having minor issues anyway, and my host suggested upgrading. Sure-go for it. Except the upgrade resulted in 2 weeks of stress and lack of website love. It's almost fixed. Or, at least, it's loading again which is a major improvement (and a credit to my awesome webchick, not to me or Mercury).

Okay. So, again, I'm not blaming the planet's retrograde for all my woes. Not really. But I am waiting to sign my new contract until after Mercury goes direct. No point in tempting fate, right?

So... whats your take on the sneaky influence of the planets? Do you check your horoscope? Is it ever right? And how about Mercury? Do you believe in the influence of a retrograde? And have you had any technological woes in the last 2 weeks??? It can't be just me!

Techno-Freakia

by Nancy

Last winter, the dh decided one of us had to "join the 21st century." He didn't want to be the one, so he gave me an iPad for Christmas. This was an odd gift, by the way, from a man who views any new form of technology with suspicion and once phoned me at work to ask how he could make his document's pages have numbers.

I was initially not sure what I would use it for. I have a laptop. I have a cellphone. I need this because . . . ?

However, the iPad has grown on me. I can now read ebooks, something that was not previously possible because our Macs run the old Apple hardware (PowerPC chips instead of Intel) and so cannot be updated to run Amazon's Kindle app for Mac. I like carrying a bunch of books around with me in very little space. I've bought new books to read and old favorites for when I'm away from home and just want to read a book I know I like, sort of like talking to an old friend.

I had surgery (nothing for anyone to be concerned about) in the Spring and spent a good bit of time lying down in the next few weeks. Checking email on something I could hold up in front of my face, like a book, was extremely convenient. So was surfing the web. The iPad proved to be very convenient for these purposes as well as for reading. I suspect it will also be a nice alternative to hunting for radio stations when I'm on a long trip. I can just set the iPod function to "shuffle," turn the volume up, and have music I like, without the bother of headphones or hunting around every hundred or so miles.

It has not been an unmixed blessing, though. Contrary to what the people at the store told the dh, it was not "plug and play" because the system file on my Mac was not sufficiently updated. The iPad would not condescend to recognize OS X 10.4.9 The only computer the iPad would talk to was the boy's, and he was not crazy about having my music selections (let alone the books) on his hard drive. Now the boy's computer is dying. It needs replacement capacitors, whatever those are.

So I'm trying to get the laptop updated to the minimum level the iPad will tolerate, which is about as far as the laptop can be updated because the newer system versions require the Intel chip (I also cannot open .docx files with my older version of Word and cannot load the newer version because of the same hardware issues). I was just lucky the Apple online store still had that version of OS X in stock. However, it's possible this version of OS X may not like Word 2004 for Mac. Which happens to be the format for my mss. All of them.

Speaking of mss., typing is also a challenge due to the iPad's compressed keyboard, which is highly sensitive and requires switching among three different keyboards to reach all available keys. But I've adjusted well enough that I can now jot story notes and email them to myself.

Though I have yet to figure out how to make it acknowledge a document downloaded to it. I tried with a book ms., and it sort of went "poof" and vanished. Mail gave me the option to open it in ebooks during the couple of seconds it was purportedly downloading, but why would I want to do that? It's a document. It's not, you know, a book. Yet.

Apple used to be consistently backwards compatible, but that no longer seems to be the case. And I find myself feeling left behind.

And now, of course, there is the iPad2, which some banditas have and love. I have the plain old original model that you have to turn on and off manually instead of just opening or closing the cover, and I do not plan to upgrade it anytime soon. I'm just getting used to this one. Why would I want to start over again?

As some of you know, I worked in my college's radio station and even earned a 3rd Class Radio Operator license (which I think is no longer given). I knew the basics of setting up equipment to record and play back. I can set up DVDs, game systems, and such. Yet the more complex computers get, the more confusing I find them.

My cell phone is just a phone. No camera. No WYSIWYG keyboard because I'd rather talk than text most of the time. I'd like the phone to play the Stargate theme as a ringtone, but I have no idea how to make it do that. When I have time, I'm going to take it to the store and make the clever people there deal with this issue.

Also, it fits my hand comfortably. "Smart" phones, like the iPhone, generally are too wide for me. And my phone has a flip top, sort of like a Star Trek communicator, which automatically makes it preferable to all phones without this feature.

And it works just fine, despite being dropped on the tile floor of a Burger King somewhere in western Virginia, an impact that caused the back to come off. I put the back on again, and the phone worked. Okay, so the green light doesn't consistently stay lit when the phone is turned on, but the phone does everything I need it to.

I'm still ahead of the dh, who calls his cell phone "an accessory for my glove compartment" and resists all of the boy's efforts to teach him how to charge it, but I'm light years behind the boy, who texts, plays online games, surfs the web, and listens to music all at the same time (though not all on his phone, mostly on his computer).

A friend once gave us a very nice food processor for Christmas, thinking the dh, who loves to cook, would find it handy. He found it intimidating, with all its many functions and blades. Since it had to do with cooking, I wasn't especially vulnerable to its lure, either. We finally (discreetly) gave it away, to someone who couldn't wait to start, slicing, dicing, pureeing and whatever else it would do.

I used to sew. My machine would sew forward or backward. With a special attachment, it would make a buttonhole. That's all it did. That was enough.

Some people's machines will zig-zag, bind edges, hem, monogram, and perform assorted other functions. You couldn't pay me to touch one. I might end up with a zig-zagged, monogrammed buttonhole in a hem or some such.



I like technology, in general. I'm grateful for electric lights and running water and air conditioning and waffle irons and washing machines and vacuum cleaners and movie projectors and telephones and automobiles and airplanes (and electric mixers on those rare occasions when I bake) and many other forms of technology.

But technology that needs, but refuses, to talk to other technology makes me think we're coming to the age when machines can be the boss of us. Like in Terminator.

Where's Michael Biehn when you need him?

So how do you feel about technology? Love it? Hate it? Fall somewhere in between? What's the last gadget you tried to use and either loved or loathed? Do you know anyone who's as reluctant to use a cellphone as my dh? Have you ever had your computer refuse to talk to your printer?

I brought home a package of books from RWA, and it's going to one of today's commenters (prize post will go up Sunday, July 31).

Of Pigs and Printers

by Christie Kelley

Technology is my friend…except when it’s not. It’s great when technology works properly and everything goes smooth. Unfortunately, Saturday wasn’t one of those days.

I seem to have an issue with printers. When I need them the most, something always seems to go terribly wrong.

I used to have my office in an open area of my old house where my boys would run through while playing or annoying each other. One of the many things would they do is fling rubber bands at each other from across the room. More than once, I found a rubber band in the paper tray blocking the paper from feeding correctly.

I’m currently in the middle of revisions for my fifth book, which I believe is now titled, ONE NIGHT SCANDAL. So on Saturday when I went to print out the book one more time, the printer wouldn’t feed the paper correctly. Hmm, the boys have seemingly outgrown the fine art of flinging of rubber bands at each other, so my first thought was the darn thing was broken.

I did my usually tech support thing, took the paper out, looked inside the paper feed and found nothing. I pulled out the can of air and sprayed it in the paper feed. Then, of course, I tried to print again. Once again, the paper jammed. More than a little frustrated, I did a little more in the name of research. I unplugged it and turned it upside down just in case something had fallen into it.

As I did this, I noticed something peculiar on my desk. I usually have three small “lucky” pigs sitting on my desk near my printer. Only today, instead of standing up and looking lucky, they were laying on their sides and horror of horrors—there were only two pigs!

Suddenly I remembered that my cat, Misha had been “playing” with them lately. And by playing, I mean picking them up in her mouth and carrying them to the floor. I glanced around and didn’t notice a pig on the floor. Where could little pig number three be?

I quickly grabbed a flashlight and peered inside my printer. What did I see? A little pink pig leg stuck down deep inside the feeder! One unlucky pig must have been picked up and dropped inside the printer by my cat! After a little pounding, the little pig came out. And yes, my printer started working again!!

So does anyone else have any funny technology stories? If not, how about a good pet story. I’m sure we all have one or two of those to share.

Techno Addict

Hello. My name is Tawny and I'm a Techno Addict.

It all started in 1990 when I bought my very first computer. A Tandy from Radio Shack that took me YEARS to pay for. That sucker was expensive. But I had to have it. I'd touched the keyboard, I'd caught the bug.

Yep, I've been in the game since floppy disks. Would you believe I still have the same email address that I signed up for that first day that I unpacked that baby and got online? Granted, I have a dozen additional emails, but that first one holds a sentimental place in my life.

I was happy with my Tandy for years. Of course, back then, technology wasn't moving as fast as today, when a computer is obsolete before it leaves the store. There weren't as many choices. And slow was the name of the game. Then things changed. The dot-com boom swept us all into a new era of addiction. I mean, of technology.

First it was a better, faster, sleeker computer. A computer that the family all shared, with the bulk of daytime usage going to my daughter who used it for quite a bit of her homeschool work. Yet another reason I write best at night -in those first writing years, that was the only time I had computer access. After a year or so of that, we realized (aka, I nagged until hubby gave in) that we needed separate computers. And I got my own, giving the now-slightly-obsolete one to hubby and kids.

Of course, I couldn't use it when I traveled. When I went to conference. When we vacationed. One fateful Mother's Day, I received a lovely laptop. Then my oldest went to college and needed her own computer. So she got her own laptop. Then we moved and hubby was tired of fighting for computer time on the now creaky PC. So he got his own laptop, and since the youngest does most of her homeschool via computer, she got her own laptop. Yes... (hanging head in shame) We have 4 laptops. We don't share. We're all greedy.

Then there're the smaller techno addictions.

My cell phone. For years, I had a basic, free with your contract but it does no tricks cellphone. Now? It gets internet, it emails, it means I no longer have to find a wifi hotspot when traveling to stay in touch (yes, thats addiction speak for check my email).

iPod? I loved my iPod. I started small, as all things techno tend to do. A simple little Nano. But I filled it up. So I gave it to hubby, who wanted one, and got a bigger one. Then the iTouch came out. Have you seen that sucker? Holy cow, its amazing.

This week's craving? The Nook. I've been looking at ereaders for a year or so. Like all writers, I adore books. I love the crackle of pages, the smell and feel of the paper. Nothing satisfies me more than seeing that colorful line of spines filling my wall-to-wall bookcase. But I still wanted a reader. I researched. I considered. I put off. I played with a Sony. I perused a book via a Kindle. Then I touched the Nook. And like that Tandy, my fingers tingled and I just had to have it. The only downside so far? Its too easy to buy books on!!! I've spent a bundle on books this week!!!

I swear, its an addiction. I don't set out to fall in love with technology. I ignore new toys as long as possible. I pretend I don't lust after them. I appreciate what I have. But... the lure is there. Its a siren's call. Beckoning, teasing, irresistible.

Lucky for me, most of them can be writing related tax write-offs, too LOL.

How about you? You're obviously tech savvy, since you're hanging on a blog, right? Are you a little tech addicted or a lot tech addicted? What's your favorite tech toy? And have you tried an ereader? What did you think?