Are we a slave to our tech? Do you feel a little lost when you're without your computer, or some other piece of technology that you use daily?
I've had that experience before, but it never fails to amaze me when it happens again.
The office bought me a new computer and it finally arrived late last week. The techies took it downstairs and did their thing, but then they had to take my computer to transfer stuff over. They used to come up to your office to do it, they'd get out their little laptop (it was almost a handheld), start up the process and an hour or two later, it was done.
Now, they take your computer with them.
So from Friday morning around 10:30 or so, I've been without a computer. I've been using our office laptop, which at least let me do my email. But I had access to none of my files, so it was really hard to work.
They called Friday around 3:15 (I leave at 4:00) and said it would be about another half hour.
No computer.
I called this morning when I got in. Left a message because I'm always here before everybody else.
Got a call-back. Should be about half an hour.
Two and a half hours later, they finally bring it back! So I'd been stuck on that laptop for almost a day, overall. It's slow, kind of old, and I had no files.
I felt lost all day Friday, and also this morning, too. Spent the morning researching stuff for our podcast that we're recording Wednesday, because at least that stuff I can do on the web.
So the guy comes up, shows me a bunch of stuff, and then we discover that he didn't bring my Chrome bookmarks over.
The faculty supports Firefox, not Chrome, so they set up Firefox for me. But I use Chrome, and all of my bookmarks are still on my old hard drive. He's coming up later today with some cables. We'll hook up the old hard drive to the new computer temporarily and bring those files over.
Until then, I still feel discombobulated. I can work now, and I have access to my files.
But I have no bookmarks.
Yes, I realize that's a minor thing, and I can just type in the addresses.
It's just not the same.
Are we too slaved to our tech?
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Update: I now have bookmarks, and all is right with the world. :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, I can relate to this! About a month ago, my laptop got hit with a nasty Trojan virus and I had to take it to a repair place. The result was that they had to wipe the whole hard drive. Thankfully, I had recently purchased and started using this nifty device called Seagate external backup. I recommend this critter to everyone, because it's user friendly and minimally invasive. I keep it plugged into my laptop at all times, and it runs updates whenever I create a new file, or revise an old one. All I had to do was plug it into my laptop when I got it back home and it took perhaps 15 minutes, tops, to transfer all files back to my laptop hard drive. Granted, it took about 2 hours, total, to download all the programs I needed, but all in all, it was relatively painless.
ReplyDeleteNow, the interim without my laptop was just excrutiating! I don't have a smart phone, so had no way of getting online to check email, FB for myself or clients, etc. Maddening. At the same time, it reminded me that there was life - a very rich one at that - prior to the internet and home computers. We used to hand write letters to loved ones, remember? And mail them, then wait a couple weeks to receive a reply. I know, I sound like an old fogey, harkening back to the olden days, but parts of those old ways have merit. If my job didn't rely so heavily on social media, I wouldn't be so computer reliant myself. At one point, several months ago, I made a promise to myself to set aside Saturdays where I didn't get online until after 6pm. It was WONDERFUL! And it lasted about a month. I need to get back to that practice. :)
~ Dawn
Wow, I yammered on a LOT up there. Sorry, Dave!
ReplyDelete~ Dawn
LOL You can yammer on as long as you want on my blog, Dawn! Your comments are always insightful and interesting.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you say about getting back to that practice of having a day completely away from the computer. I just don't know if I could handle it myself.
Maybe one day, I will. :)
I wrote a long answer to your blog but it doesn't seem to be here. I thought it went on but guess it didn't. Can't remember what I said but I thought it was pretty good.LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it was, Mom! :)
ReplyDelete