technology

Technology …

/ Tony / 10 Comments

It’s not been the best of starts technology wise, today. I got and realised that my new iPad had not been on charge overnight. That in itself was not too much of an issue, as this new tablet seems to hold its charge very well. No, the problem I had was that the screen had frozen. Not only that but I could do nothing with it. All the ‘help’ sites told me to power off the iPad, but the power switch did nothing. So it wasn’t just the screen that had frozen, but the entire tablet just did nothing. You may be able to imagine the string of expletives that were forthcoming.

Nothing that I tried worked. I had a vague recollection that you could connect an iPad to iTunes on a laptop and ‘do something’ but couldn’t remember what, so I gave it a go. I was still at the time searching online for any sort of help and I came across a site that explained that whilst connected to iTunes, if I held the power button down and tapped the home button, this would refresh the screen. It was a work around for older tablets, but I had nothing to lose. Remarkably, it worked! I was ‘back in the room’ I think the phrase is.

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Then came ‘tech-prob’ number two.

Mrs Me wanted some cleaner for her contact lens’s. I checked on eBay and there was going to be £10.99 plus £6.00 postage, which made it more expensive then going the opticians and buying it. Now I rarely use Amazon as I often think their prices are a bit on the high side, but I checked and they had the product, and it was selling at £13.90 postage free. So, I ordered some. Then I got an email saying that my payment had been declined. I thought I had set up a PayPal payment option, but it seems payments are direct from my debit card, which had just been updated/renewed, so the expiry date was incorrect.

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So all in all, not a good start.

…..and not just printers !!!

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   Sunday was a  bit of a ‘technology FAIL’ day. It started, when read a report on ‘The Register’ that told me that my PC was in ‘DANGER!!!!’ The ‘danger’ was that much of my software ‘may’ be at risk, due to not patching. Being the careful IT nerd that I am, I immediately logged onto Microsoft, and updated everything they told me to. This took, being Microsoft, a good hour to do. And of course the obligatory restart was required.

   Now, the problems started. Or more to the point, now my PC refused to start !!! I spent the next 40 minutes, trying, without success to get Windows to start. The next 50 minutes were spent trying to do a systems restore from Safe Mode. This is not for the faint hearted, I can tell you. It was after nearly 2 hours worth of hair pulling, gnashing of teeth and copious amounts of swearing, that I noticed that the light on my portable hard drive was continuously flashing. This indicated that the drive was being accessed, which should not happen as Windows is loading.  I removed the drive, and guess what ……… problem solved. It would appear, that my £39.95, 80gb Maxtor pocket drive is goosed !!! The problem now, is, do I buy another ??? For the same money, I can get a 250gb drive, of better quality. I need to think about this one.

   Then, my blogging software packed up !!!! The system restore, had trashed some of the dot.net framework, that had been updated. So, I re-updated again, and everything is now serene again.

   Guess what though ? The HP printer, that I ‘borrowed’ from S****, needed a new ink cartridge. Not a problem, I thought as I had bought a couple, just after he had got the thing. So what is the problem. Well some silly sod, bought the wrong colour cartridge, that’s what. No names are to be mentioned (a no blame culture here), but as I bought the cartridges…… get my drift ?

Today it snowed …..

/ Tony / 1 Comment

   The snow had been falling for nearly 1 minute, before that fateful cry came from within the ranks … ‘Can we go early … It’s snowing ???’ It is the same every time. Snow only has to be mentioned, and there are some people wanting to leave early. Tomorrow, those same people will spend most of the day, watching the weather through the few windows we have in the office, and bemoaning the fact that management will not let us go home. Well is you like your home so much, LEAVE !!!!!

   To be honest, it’s 22:40 and there is a good 1 inch of snow. We probably will not get much more overnight, but you never can tell. I’ll take it easy driving tomorrow. It’s motorway for 9/10 of the journey, so the road will not be so bad, once I get out of the village. I’ll wager good money, that the car park at work is like an ice-rink. It usually is.

   No problems with the system today. However, one of the major parts of the upgrade, still has to be started. I am supposed to run a Windows ’Scheduled Task’, but our IT department, in their infinite wisdom, has disabled that particular function. Thanks guys, you really know how to make things easy for the rest of us. What really bugs me, is that technology is supposed to make work more efficient and productive. But IT departments do not seem to think that way. I’m convinced, that if the IT department had their way, then we would not have computers, just in case we caused any problems !!!!!