I made plenty of excuses for getting behind with things a couple of Mondays ago, now I have the further adventures of getting nothing done to explore with you!

The wifi hub is working. The computer seems to be a little slower than I expected.  I have done various things to help speed it up.  I have not yet managed to work out whether everything downloaded to the browser (I’m using Firefox) is being virus-scanned once, twice or even three times, but it is on my list of things to do.  On the whole, I do not have the trouble loading Facebook that I used to, and blogs load faster, but still take time to fetch widgets like Twitter feeds and something to do with Google.  Some days when the computer wakes up it refuses to recognise the wifi hub, but after the first day this happened, when it took me forty minutes to work through all the fault-finding, I now know there are two solutions, one of which means restarting Windows.  I can live with this.

My email, as with most other people on the new BT email, is appalling.  It wasn’t working at all Friday 3rd October, and it takes an absolute age to load anything at all.  If you are waiting for a reply to an email from me, I apologise.  Send it again and I might have a hope of getting down to it. I have two very active email addresses and I usually lose the will to live after two hours with one of them, reading and answering about a quarter of my unread emails.  I end up deleting notifications of a lot of blog posts I’d like to read, which doesn’t help my active presence on other people’s blogs, which I also apologise for.

That reminds me to retry loading David’s blog – it used to time out on me for some script or other.  Fingers crossed!

So that was the update on the last technology moan.

I stepped up a gear last week by ordering two bits of kit: a wifi extender and a new home smart phone (my mobile is a plain Nokia that does phone, text and contacts), so I can now look at my emails in the living room, in theory. I  used it to phone someone and to ‘talk’ to someone on Facebook, which meant it was working, and then two days later I could use the wifi but not the phone line.  It took me an hour to work out the power plug for the ‘aerial’ wasn’t fully in!

The wifi extender is in my living room, not because the wifi is bad in there, but because I can now wire in my tv, so it uses the internet and can get all sorts of channels I would have liked to watch but couldn’t, including the on-demand repeat programmes and the racing channel (oh dear, should I have admitted that?).  In theory I could also update my blog through it – or through the phone, but I suspect I’ll just stick to my computer for that.  After all, work is in the work room, living is in the living room… isn’t it?

I also got two more entertainment features last week, but sadly lost one.  My beautiful Humphrey died of a tumour, but I was able to take in two sweet three-month old guinea pigs who needed a new home.  They have a pedigree that runs over two pages, so I suspect they will be ideal candidates for a bit of mischief in my Princelings books!

Humphrey & rosette
Humphrey – Hero of The Talent Seekers        c2008 to 1st October 2014

 

 

The Further Trials of Technology
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9 thoughts on “The Further Trials of Technology

  • 13 October, 2014 at 6:47 am
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    Sorry to hear about Humphrey Jemima. I was sad when my rats dies so I can imagine how you feel.
    The thing that slows things up most for me is having ebay open. It’s guaranteed my emails get slower and slower to load and I find myself coming out and signing in again to speed things up for a while.
    Have a Great Week. xxx Hugs Galore xxx

    • 13 October, 2014 at 11:11 am
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      Thanks, David. Sorry about your ratties. It’s hard losing our little companions, isn’t it. I wish they lived longer.

      I spent all yesterday evening trying to speed up my email, having experienced it at my brother’s house – he has nothing to complain about!

      One tip from my browser (Firefox) was to clear the cache to help webpages run faster in general (especially Facebook, so I reckon EBay is the same). They said if the trouble persisted to set your browser to clear cache on close. You do it through the history settings Check ‘clear history’ and click advanced and you get a choice of what to clear – just clear the cache unless you want to clean everything up each time. Personally I like some sites to remember me! Anyway, the websites are loading quicker this morning – I haven’t tackled email yet…

  • 13 October, 2014 at 9:11 am
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    Every time I read your blogs, I wonder how you find time to fit in, reading and reviewing, writing, caring for all the dear boys, Facebook and RWA! It takes me several weeks to get through one book, which I read in bed. I never seem to have time to read during the day! Reading about your speed problems on-line, maybe you are reading while you are waiting for the internet to appear! 😉 RIP sweet Humphrey. <3

    • 13 October, 2014 at 11:14 am
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      Thanks, Julie. You have, of course, itemised every aspect of my life! Except golf and cooking – which I seem to have dropped in favour of a quick snack, and I’m trying to make sure I eat properly again.

      Yes, reading while waiting for pages to load is a good option. I seem to have reverted to playing games while waiting, though – less to lose track of!

  • 13 October, 2014 at 5:06 pm
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    Man, you must really have peeved the technology gods! Way back when my brother worked as a programer, I believe he advocated sacrificing chickens and waving them about with appropriate incantations 😀

    Thanks goodness my real computer works fine, but the tablet is becoming so slow that I’m about to give up on it for anything but games. That would actually probably be good–I waste too much time on Facebook and various web sites. I’m less likely to do that on the real computer because my work is always open there, staring at me until I cave in and tackle the WIP.

    • 13 October, 2014 at 11:16 pm
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      The trouble is, tackle one’s WIP is actually enjoyable, once you get done to it. I wonder why we put it off? Thoroughly enjoyed writing two 1500 word stories today 🙂

      I’ll look into the available sacrifices. Next door’s cat springs to mind, but I see they have just got it some chickens to take its mind off everything else it terrorises.

  • 13 October, 2014 at 10:51 pm
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    So sorry to hear about Humphrey. I know how you love your furry friends, so I’m glad to hear that you have two littles to mother now.
    With regard to technology, it still baffles me from time to time. We are digital immigrants, while my kids are digital natives. I usually let my son-in-law (as of this weekend!) take over my computer and fix it!

    • 13 October, 2014 at 11:17 pm
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      How did the wedding go? Was it as good as you hoped and are you taking a hoiday to recover 🙂

  • 25 October, 2014 at 12:02 am
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    So sorry about Humphrey, Jemima! Your two new guineas are very lucky to have you. Are any of the technical issues better?

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