Tag Archives: technology

Go With The Flow: S T R E A M I N G

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Up until very recently, I never had a taste of media streaming. Cold, fresh water was what streaming meant to me. Nature. Certainly not media. It seems that many folks are looking into cutting the cord and ditching cable companies. I get it: it took me years to cede to PAY for TV, and the “triple play,” and then you turn around and you are the puppet of the cable company. At least they threw in HBO (works for me) and Showtime (rarely watch it). The fact is there is less and less well-made stuff to watch. There are several “standards” … Continue reading →

Green: the Background for Pushing-Up Daisies

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    Everyone around me was coughing and I have joined in. It’s that change-of-weather cold that hits when you’ve let down your guard and have been doing too much. Sometimes doing too much is the same as thinking too much. But that is nothing new. I feel like a fish out-of-water. I don’t have a computer, and won’t for a couple of weeks. I have my iPad in front of my sniffly face along with a keyboard, without which I’d never be able to function. My Mac was purchased in January 2012, a 2011 version, but it was always … Continue reading →

Photography: Making the Most Out of Simplicity

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  I put away the heavy gear years ago and enjoyed a very nice, lightweight Nikon with built-in 18x optical zoom. I still enjoy it; it’s been fine for blogging and other site posts. But something crazy happened: instead of graduating to a big-ass camera with all the accoutrements, I remained satisfied.   When I got an iPhone 5 I began to find something fresh about it being with me all the time, being available and having a zen-like simplicity. Then I got “the 6.” It was a better camera and I began to decode the settings and to learn … Continue reading →

So Long, Farewell … From Winky Dink to Tron and Beyond

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  This RCA television was a professional model and purchased in 1980 through a family member who was in the electronics business. I recall how he struggled to get it out of his car to “deliver” it. I had seen its brother in the art department of a nearby university when I was taking sabbatical studies. That was 2001. We saw “Tron.” Tron was a futuristic  sci-fi movie that was released soon after I got that RCA television. Now they are both outdated. Thirty-four years later, the television is still in my living room. And still working. But here’s the … Continue reading →

Phreaking Out: The Incredible Era of Phone Hacking in the 60’s and 70’s

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When I first heard about “Phone Phreaking” I was in the car. It was about two months ago and I was mesmerized by an NPR program. Phone Phreaking was a 1960’s phenomenon that continued into later years. It was a cult, an in-club for a select group of young folks, mainly, to commune from afar and break the law by hacking the phone. These were teens, outlaws, misfits, techies, the nerds of yesterday gone wild, invading the secrets of mass communication and learning a language that only machines could speak. It was true to the times, it was The Who’s … Continue reading →

Mercury in Retrograde: Think Before You Hit “Send”

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Here’s a good one. We are in a retrograde: when this happens, with >>> Mercury, <<<< communication gets bollixed. Means of communication get wonky. Come to think of it, I still do not have my phone issues resolved with Verizon. Sometimes communication gets really tangled, misconstrued, lost. Other times things that have gone unresolved pop-up and get closure. This was one heckuva pop-up! But there is no closure… My nephew received an iPhone for his High School graduation and while he was in Florida with his folks recently, visiting grandma, (the very grandma who will be moving back to New … Continue reading →

245. More Mercury Backlash; as the planets turn, communication fizzles

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When we last spoke, (click link to the left for the previous blog) I had returned to some strange events, many of which were communication related, and I asked, could it be the phenomenon of “Mercury in retrograde”? This is what has been going on. Three of us were taking turns plugging our computers directly into the Verizon (Internet Service Provider) Fiber-optic box. And then, one computer couldn’t get on line. All of a sudden. As my laptop continued to be able to do so, I called Verizon, spoke to a “technician” (notice the quotes) and he surmised that because … Continue reading →

375. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: the wonky laptop

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The continuing saga of my wonky laptop that developed a language of its own… If you remember when I last let out a screech in a “note,” (that’s probably what those notes are designed for, a primal scream when computers go awry), I was typing and the keyboard would freeze and then resume, but place word parts on other lines, embedded in other words. I think this could possibly have been my computer’s attempt to speak in pigtech. It wasn’t cute. Oddly, it seemed to be resolved the next day, after a few reboots and clean outs. But I wasn’t … Continue reading →

373. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: No solutions, just bugs and a phone pal

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This from the “why me?” department of my life with computers. You might call it a rant. I am not a formally trained hack, but I am pretty darned good at troubleshooting and problem solving when it comes to technology. I love technology, I really do, but I hate frustration and in this anecdote you’ll see how technology and frustration often go hand in hand. I have 4 Dell computers in various states of functioning. My old Inspiron 8200 was purchased in 2002 and would work properly if I decided to wipe the hard drive clean and start over again. … Continue reading →

575. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: Part 6: Ding Dong Dell, I think I’m in the well

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Dear friends- More than a week has gone by since I last wrote about my computer issues. Whenever I think things are fine, or will be, I am surprised by how much more can go wrong. Remember, I am talking about two NEW REPLACEMENT computers that had similar issues as their predecessors… Another technician came to the house on Monday the 20th to install a new pre-loaded hard drive but by this time neither computer was working and he took it upon himself to work on both. He had to reinstall the Operating System and drivers of the computer (Inspiron … Continue reading →

574. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: Part 5: Ding Dong Dell, computer’s still in the well

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Dear Friends, It is Sunday night, the 19th of February, 2012. I am continuing to write about my ding-dong-Dell journey; I thought that by now my computer life would be in order, but alas, it seems to be stuck in a technology wasteland. Let me fill you in on what happened on Friday, the 17th. I received a call in the afternoon from a Dell technician. He had received the hard drive that was to replace the one in the 14″ computer. This is the first of two that I received to replace the previous duds and it was unclear … Continue reading →

573. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: Part 4: Ding Dong Dell, computer’s still in the well

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Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012 Today is not my day. I began this blog and hit a key and the whole thing disappeared. Here we go again. I am journaling my experience for several reasons: It is too unreal; It might be a great 20 hour bedtime story for my future grandchildren; If I ever decide to jump off a roof it will be the note I leave behind. So. Let me tell you. My story continues where it left off yesterday. I have had a run of Dell laptops with bad luck. Replacements and more replacements. I finally got the … Continue reading →

572. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: Part 3: Ding Dong Dell, computer’s still in the well

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Dear friends, I last told you that the replacement computer that arrived two days ago has strange issues with the volume keys not working and making the screen jump. It is still not resolved after hours on the phone with a technician. That’s a total of four hours on the phone with tech support for a NEW computer. And more to come: now she wants to reinstall the operating system and the computer wasn’t shipped with an operating system restore disc. Now we play the waiting game and draw the saga out a bit more. The second of two replacement … Continue reading →

570. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: Part 2: Ding Dong Dell, computer’s in the well

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Dear Friends who have been following my story, I offer you an update on my incomprehensible technological journey. Here is a link to the history of my tale of woe. You may sift through the gruesome details at your leisure. Then you can scratch your head in wonder along with me. Here is an email I just wrote to Dell: Dear Lorna, I received the replacement computer for the mini yesterday: svc tag xxxxx replacement – order # xxxxx Inspiron 14 Notebook I spent 3 hours last night installing my browser, AOL, and Trend Micro. And then I noticed the … Continue reading →

569. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: Ding Dong Dell, Computer’s in the Well…

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My story about Dell is so long, so complex, so unbelievable, it is stranger than fiction. That’s why this journey has to be followed. I am going to post the links to most of my story;I have linked to past posts and brought the story up-to-date. I am doing this for me, to get a record of events in order. I don’t expect you to read it, but one never knows who will and what might happen. I twittered these blogs before and got corporate intervention, let’s see what happens now. Somewhere in my posts it says I have six … Continue reading →

568. Technology 101: On Relationships: Should I divorce Dell and date Mac?

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Friends, since the beginning of computer time over at my house, there has been a PC. Or several PC’s. And since the beginning of time I can remember having one catastrophe after another. Dell and I have had our ups and downs. It’s been a relationship filled with passion, angst, hatred, loathing, making up, relief. We have, however, never separated. I got my first Dell, a laptop in 2002, then moved on to a desktop, my work horse, in 2007. I was the first kid on the block to spring for Vista and there were months of angst and the … Continue reading →

468. Tuesday Tech Tips 101: it pays to complain: Dell Computer story continues

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For those of you who have been following my never ending story about my experiences with Dell support, I have some heartening information. (More links to old stuff) Briefly, I have six (count ’em) running Dells and one old one that I have put away. Over the years I have noticed a decline in service and quality. I’d say things were fine until about 2007 when I bought my workhorse desktop. My son’s computer, purchased on 2004 before he left for college, runs day and night and he’s never had a problem with it until recently when the e key … Continue reading →