feeling smart

I wouldn't classify myself as being really behind in technology nor really excelled at it.  I am somewhere in the middle, probably lower half middle.  Many kids know more than I do but I know more than my parents.

My parents think I am this tech genius when all I do is read the error messages on their computer or phone and TRY to figure out how to help them.  Sometimes I have to call the parts/service for help.  Sometimes I can't do anything and refer them to my way more knowledgeable brother-in-law.

When I needed help with my phone, I didn't ask my parents or a peer...I texted my 10 year old nephew.  He helped me fix the problem within seconds.  He told me I was like his nana & poppop because I didn't know these 'simple' things.   Since when does inverting your colors on your phone a simple thing?  I did it by accident, somehow.

But most recently, there was a bad accident a block or two away from where I live and power went out.  When I got home that night, internet was down.   We did the usual unplug everything, restart, the most extreme basics.  Eventually we called our internet provider who said our modem wasn't online and arranged for a service call for $75 in 5 days.  That wasn't going to cut it.   The following day, I sat back down, unplugged everything.  All the wires. All the plugs.  I waited a few minutes and reassembled.  Shockingly the modem was now back in working order and the router seemed to be just fine....but it wasn't working.  Again we speak to the Internet Provider.  They run tests.  They can't figure out what went wrong.  Something, he said, didn't seem right.  A bigger problem.  So he ups our service call to the next morning.

I still was mystified, but I kept thinking....Hmm, modem works, router doesn't.  Start there.  So eventually I figured out that the router somehow reset and was no longer what I named it, but needed to be reprogrammed.  Quite simple task....but why did this take like 5 hours to figure out?

I felt like a genius.  I did it.  I solved our internet problems.  We saved $75 in service/technician fees.
I have no idea why it happened, a simple power outage should not have messed with that - but at least I know signs to look for in the future.

feeling like a genius

Sometimes I feel like a genius but really my accomplishment is so minimal.  Being proud of something you've never done or figured out on your own and with the help of Google is a great feeling.

Just last week I had one of these moments.  My organization didn't have a good email address.  Add that I hated that all the promotional email I was sending out had MY name on it.  No thank you! I spent time calling (40 minutes on hold before I hung up) and emailing our hosting company to ask how many email addresses we were allowed to have. I had to reset two passwords to access the site because I was clueless what the password was.  Unlimited??? And yet, we only used one?  I know I am a one-woman shop so as many emails as I make, they would still get filtered through me...but wouldn't it be nice to have events@____ or info@____ denise@_____?  I created 4 accounts to start.  Then I spent time in Outlook trying to figure out how to get these emails into my outlook where I can respond instead of going through a webmail system, which would be less convenient.  After I while, I figured it out.  A huge smile on my face.   It wasn't until today that I went back in and made one of those new emails my default email, but I felt so much better.   Finally, email addresses more representative of the company; a few generic email addresses for those times when you email 300 people and it isn't really from you and for our brochures and flyers.  Way better.  More professional.

After 20 years of the company doing it that one way....it only took me 2 months to get around to fixing it.  I doubt any of the people I email will even notice the change of email senders.

It's these little accomplishments.  I did it.

face to face almost

I've been having some phone conversations with my family, but I miss them. I want to see them.  I finally dug out my iPad and called my sister via FaceTime.  My nephew answered almost immediately (good thing kids are addicted to electronics) and I learned how to use FaceTime, this was the first time for me and it was fun.  The picture got blurry at times, but the camera on my end seemed to show every single bump, line, wrinkle and dark spot I had. I was shocked how horrible I looked...and wondered if that really is what I look like...the mirror, thankfully, tells a slightly different picture.  Anyway, we talk for about an hour, I gave them a tour of where I was staying and they gave me a tour of my niece's bedroom that they are redoing now that she is getting older.  It was so great that I still felt like part of the everyday action.

I will have to learn Skype for my other sister.

I think this will be a great tool to use where I feel like I am not going to miss out too much on some everyday things and will still be able to see the kids grow up.

Review: Google Chromecast

Over the last few months I've streamed some TV shows from Netflix.  I was getting tired of watching on my iPad so I purchased the Google Chromecast.

The set up was very easy, I simply plugged it into the HDMI port and a power source then downloaded the Chromecast application.  It took a few minutes for the software to download...then it was ready.

Unfortunately I got an error message about the Chromecast not finding my internet, so I turned everything off and went to bed.  The next day, I turned it on and it worked, so it must've needed to reset or something.

The following day I watched the first thing I streamed from Netflix onto my TV.  It took a few moments to show up on the TV and at times the quality of the picture seemed a little blurry but then would correct.  Watching episodes back to back was not as easy as watching from the iPad when it would run continuously, I had to click on the next episode and then it had to load.  Also, I have the lowest speed internet at home, so watching something on the Chromecast and doing something online on the computer or iPad is very difficult when one or both keep freezing...but this may not be a problem if you have higher speed internet.

Overall, I am very happy that I can watch things on my TV screen instead where the picture is bigger as well as having more control over the volume.

I have not tried to view anything else yet, but I think it should work just fine

For $35, I am shocked I waited so long to buy a Chromecast.

bad timing: data

I couldn't wait for tonight so I can transfer my external hard drive to a new 2TB one that I just purchased for only $70, a black Friday deal.  I was going to be really nice and use the old one to backup my parents computer so it was all in one spot, as opposed to on all those small USBs.  

I plug in the old one and my computer doesn't recognize anything as being plugged in. I unplug, re-plug, change the wire, everything.  Nothing works.

That is 10 years of documents and pictures...sure I have most of the pictures on snapfish, but that isn't ideal.

How many backups do we need to ensure we don't lose stuff?  

Maybe I can get lucky and find someone to fix it, but when my computer crashed a few years ago...no one could retrieve anything...sure it is different, but, I am not too hopeful.  

So, I (probably) lost data and now I am not a good daughter backing up the parent's computer.  Well, I could buy another one.

I guess that is the kind of luck I've been having this month.  Hopefully it gets better :)

And maybe it is a sign...maybe losing the last ten years of my digital life was meant to happen - let go of the past to move on.  I hesitate to think that is the case because many of my pictures were travels where I healed and learned more about myself as well as gained comfort and confidence in being alone and traveling alone.  But the past is the past...and my future is just starting.

factory reset

My obsession with fantasy football was leading towards me absolutely needing the app on my phone so I can track my progress no matter where I am.  I decided to download it, and the next day, my phone kept complaining that it was low on storage.  I can't figure out WHY that is...first, I have such few apps because I don't play games or anything like that.  Second, the ones I've downloaded are mostly going to the SD card.  The SD card is only like 10% full but yet the phone only has a few MB left?

So, I started going through managing my apps and deleting a few including things I didn't know.  But a little while later I found out that the chat app I had wasn't working. I must have deleted something that app needed.  This was no good, I use that app all the time.  I didn't know what to do.  So, I decided to factory reset my phone.  This would solve the chat application and the phone storage space problem.

It was an easy process, and I kept all the information on the SD card (I backed up pictures, music and documents just in case).  Unfortunately I totally forgot about the text messages.  I had a few messages locked - I had a bunch from ManFriend about his desires for me, from Mountain Man with what I thought was a little flirting, from Cop#1 with his desires, and friends who sent important information.  I had information in my colornote with websites to look at, my to do list, my never list, wines I liked, etc....all that was erased.

OK, so it is great that I don't have ManFriend's texts anymore - I deleted him as a contact back in June, so this was actually a good thing (now to clean my emails of ManFriend & SIs emails!)...but some of that other stuff I should have thought a little bit more about.  Also, my email function is slightly different - I used to be able to check off a bunch of emails and delete all at once, now it wants me to do it individually - it might be a setting thing, but I haven't figured it out yet.

But, I was able to download the fantasy football app....so I am happy, for now.