On a Scale of 1 to 10...

I'm not sure where Windows 10 would fall on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the biggest piece of technology crap in the universe and 10 being something that washes your dishes for you. My husband downloaded Windows 10, and, well, it didn't go so well, although now things seemed to worked themselves out. Unfortunately, I also download Windows 10 and I'm fighting the good fight to figure out where everything is. There are some awesome features, but navigating the new interface on my machine is a little challenging right now. Therefore, my blog post will be very short this week because I'm relearning everything I knew about computers.

In short, if you get Windows 10, or whatever it is, it's probably going to take some time to get used to. Just sayin'. Have a great week. :)

Technology Rant

Today I would like to write...no, semi-rant...about why I hate technology. Well, not technology in general exactly, just my husband's. Specifically, I despise his computer, which likes to vex him on a regular basis.
     Before I launch into it, I must admit that I am biased. I usually have a great relationship with computers and peripherals, but when one starts stressing my husband, all bets are off.

      Have you ever had one of those moments when you do some simple task that you do every day and suddenly it doesn't turn out the same way? Like shutting down your computer? My hubby did that, and the next time it was supposed to start up, it had an error. And then another...and another...

      So now it starts when it wants to and crashes when it wants to, and to make a long story short, all the techies in the world haven't been able to diagnose its malady. Also, along with this, my Yahoo mail was hacked due to a technical glitch on a computer that was not my own, so I was working on that as well and have decided to eliminate that address altogether.

      I spent last evening trying to get my e-mail account ready to deactivate and working on our rebellious computer. I removed programs and installed different software and pressed buttons and held my breath and whispered encouraging words. I’m sure the neighbors wondered what was going on, as I would sometimes scream, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” in a way normally reserved for characters in my erotic romances. However, they’ve not mentioned it, although this morning I noticed some strange looks when I went to get my mail.

      Speaking of this morning, my post is later than usual because I was, yet again, helping my DH with his machine. My final suggestion was taking a hammer to the hard drive, but that met with disapproval (although that disapproval was not instant, I noted). That, along with my growing aversion to anything technical at the moment, kept me off my computer for a good two hours.

      I’m back on now, and what brought me here is, of course, writing. I need to write. Yeah, I can do it long-hand, but my thoughts flow too fast and my hand moves too slowly. And reading. I have a number of books I read on my computer, and I’m not giving those up. So me and computers are back on good terms for now, at least until the next round with DH’s computer.

Happy Reading!

Computer Frustration 101

I rarely, if ever, have catastrophic computer issues. I've been very lucky in the past in that I've not had a hard drive totally crash or a destructive virus that couldn't be cleaned up or anything of that sort. I've lost story files due to bad flash drives, but that was my own fault because I didn't save a backup file. Otherwise, I've avoided some of the major mishaps that make misery an everyday companion for some computer owners.

Until now.

It hasn't happened yet, but my computer is sending signals that it's about ready to retire whether I'm ready for it to or not. Every time I have a freeze, my husband says the same thing:

"I think you need a new computer."

Of course, that's not what I hear. I hear, "I think you need to spend tons of time and energy doing research and shopping for a computer that you will buy and take hours to set up only to discover the next greatest advancement to happen in technology not only happened the very next day but made your purchase obsolete the minute your credit card was approved."

Sigh...

I think back to my teen years, when the only computer I'd ever seen was an Apple 2e, which used those humongous 5.25 floppy disks that were actually floppy. Then came the 3.5 inch diskettes that weren't floppy but were still called floppy disks by some, leading to confusion for many others. I also remember computer labs in college, when there was one computer hooked up to the printer because they were so expensive and the lab attendant hovered over it like it was made of gold. You could work on any of the computers (with a time limit, of course), but you could only print from that one, and if it looked like you might try to change a word and print again, you'd get an evil glare and humiliating chastisement designed to keep you from ever stepping foot in the computer lab again. Consequently, if your print-out was flawed in any way, you had to save your work and go back to another computer, change the one tiny mistake, save your file again, and return to the computer with the printer hooked up. Then you would stand in line for twenty minutes because by that time the lab attendant's buddy was printing for the third time after taking "just a sec" to fix his five page essay.

Fast forward to the year 2000 when every computer on earth was supposed to shut down because of a little glitchy thing called Y2K compliance. Of course, no one cared if the computers that ran our infrastructure--like our gas and water supplies and stoplight sensors, etc.--collapsed into a heap. We were more concerned that we wouldn't be able to get on the Web and hang out in the AOL chatrooms, which were responsible for damaging more marriages than arguments over the TV remote.

I also think back to when I got my first computer in the late 1990s and realize that while I thought my little Compaq Presario would last forever and that I would never be able to buy another computer, it was just the first of many to come. The prices kept dropping and the technology kept improving to the point where we are today, when our computers, through their own unique way of freezing up and making disturbing klinking noises, tell us when they're ready to go through the great Final Shutdown for good instead of us telling them.

Which leads me to where I am now, typing furiously in case my machine decides to mangle this post like it did my last one. I think I've beat it this time. I think that I'm going to get to post this before my computer

Looking for Computer Suggestions

I've had my Toshiba laptop for six years and the old girl has been very good to me. When I bought this computer I hadn't even signed my first contract yet. I've written most of my releases on this keyboard. Set up my website, communicated with readers and editors and other writers with this computer. But it's starting to let me down.

So before it totally crashes and dies, I need to start shopping for a new laptop. There are so many choices out there that it's easy to be overwhelmed. And besides the many brands of PCs, there is the on-going Mac vs PC debate.

I know what I want. First and foremost I need to write on it. But while I'm writing, I like to have Twitter open. And listen to music on Pandora. And run focusbooster, so I don't get sucked into the internet for too long. And while doing all this, I don't want the computer to slow down to a crawl. Am I asking too much?

So readers, I'm asking for your help. Do you love your computer? What models should I be looking at? Help!

Natasha
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