Tag Archives: computers

Dad, Mom And Computers

On Friday, September 3rd, 2021, my mother passed away at 6:30PM. I was sitting next to her when it happened; just the two of us. Since then I’ve done a video and a different blog post about her. It’s been mentally tough over the last week or so, which included the service by the grave site on the following Thursday.

Mom was often prescient about what might be coming down the line. So was my dad, who left this world 19 years ago on Father’s Day, 2002, at 4:45PM. I’ve thought about him often over the past few weeks, thinking that soon he and Mom would be together again in their way. That’s what brings me to telling this story about a time when both of them were instrumental in getting me to work with something that’s become a major part of my life, both business and personal.
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What Technology Do You Own To Access The Internet?

Today’s post is something a little different. Who am I kidding; all my posts are a little something different. 🙂

In this case I’m asking a question, which you’ve already seen above. I ask it because I’m not the guy who’s on the cutting edge of technology anymore. As time goes on and priorities shift, there’s just too much stuff that costs too much for me to keep up with.


Joel Bedford via Compfight

I wasn’t always like this; then again, I didn’t have to be. I used to know all the computer brands, how much RAM they had, the technical specs of monitors and all the accessories; I was the guy to come to.

Where am I now? I still know enough about regular computers to be dangerous, and I can compare specs on laptops. And that’s where most of what I know ends. And yet, there’s so many more things people have and can do in accessing the internet.

I have a smartphone, a HTC Thunderbolt that’s already out of style. It’s big and wonderful and yet they don’t even make batteries for them anymore; it’s just over 18 months old. Two months ago, when I went looking for a battery, I was told they stopped making them 6 months ago, which means I have to order them online; what the hey? Is technology supposed to pass us by that fast?

Last year I bought my wife a Nook Color, and luckily they still sell that, along with the Kindle Fire But there’s so many other things that are on the market that I know nothing about. I have seen an iPad, but only twice ever; what’s that about? Last night a friend of mine showed me, online, her new tablet, the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity. I didn’t even know who made these things besides Apple, Panasonic and Samsung; isn’t that a shame?

I know I’m only touching the surface, so I thought for once I’d ask you what you have, why you like it (or them), and whether you got what you wanted or what something else. I’m feeling like an old guy here; sigh…
 

Is Your Tech Failing You?

I have an Epson Photo R200 printer. I like this printer a lot, so much so that I bought my wife one, and I even recommended it to my mother and a friend of mine, both of whom bought the same thing.

I do have a problem with it, though. It doesn’t like to print envelopes. Actually, the printing part is fine; it’s the feeding the envelopes through the printer part that it won’t do. I have to literally push the envelope into the feeder and hope that it takes it to get envelopes printed. If I’m only doing one envelope at a time it’s not such a big deal. But when I’m doing some of my marketing and I’m pushing through between 20 and 40 envelopes, it’s very irritating.

As I started to think back on it, I realized that every printer I’ve ever owned has been an Epson, and I’ve always had the same problems. That’s over 20 years of envelope problems, yet I keep buying the same thing. I know I’m the loyal type, but I’m thinking that’s a bit ridiculous in retrospect.

Then I started thinking about other tech things as it relates to my computing, or in some way interacts with my computer, and things I’ve tolerated over the years. For instance, I’ve had a Palm of some type since 2002. For the most part they’ve all worked pretty well. But every one of them invariably had an issue. And, oddly enough, I realized that at some point I sent each of them back to the company because something had failed; how weird is that? I love the fact that I can carry all my addresses and passwords and music and calendar and the like with me easily enough; but have I really gotten my money’s worth and had my time be really efficient in the long run with some of the technical issues I’ve had to deal with?

And then there’s my computer itself. Some of you remember my tale about getting my old computer fixed by the computer guy and the subsequent story the next day. The computer I had before that one was a terror as well. As a matter of fact, for all the complaints I’ve had about Vista, the truth is that this is still the best running computer I’ve had since the very first computer I ever had, my double floppy special back in 1987 that I never wanted, and look at all the trouble it’s led to in my life. 🙂 And I have had a few problems with this computer that I’m not sure are Vista related that makes me wonder what it is with tech companies to begin with.

I mean, is it that they’re all following what we know as the Microsoft Principle, which means put it out there even if it’s not perfect and we’ll try to make it better as it goes along? Yeah, I know, nothing’s perfect, but is there anything that any of us have bought that we can truthfully say we’ve never had even one little glitch with it?

I’ve had to replace my scanner four times. I’ve had to replace the battery pack to my laptop twice, and the hard drive once. My GPS unit just won’t update itself online through this computer, even though it’s supposed to, which means that was a waste of $65 to update the maps. I tried to update the software for the transfer of files between my cell and the computer and ended up losing access to my computer for a few hours until I figured out how to get back into it and do a system restore; thank goodness I could do that. I had to buy a USB headset because my previous headset and my microphone suddenly wouldn’t work. One of my external hard drives has bit the dust, and it was considered a highly ranked enclosure when I bought it. I can’t count how many hard drives I’ve lost over the years. And I’ve had to replace two monitors in my lifetime.

Am I expecting too much in my tech, or do many of you feel the same way? And, not that I’m going to change all that immediately, but is there a printer out there that’s not a HP (let’s not even go into why I’m not buying a HP) that will easily load envelopes so I can remove that bit of minor stress from my life in the future, that also doesn’t cost an arm and a leg?

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