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View Full Version : How has modern technolgy defeated you!



Solunar Silver Studio
23-07-2009, 12:08 PM
I've been stuck here all morning while we have had a new front door and side window fitted...you know, one of those upvc jobs with multiple locks that get thrown when you lift the handle.:rolleyes:

It's a lovely door - and makes this place look like a mansion now with all the shiny brass door furniture.

But - the man has just taken me through the dos and don'ts.....aka 1001 ways to permanently lock yourself out!:eek:

Now, technology often defeats me these days - so with this new knowledge that the front door is out to get me I'm not sure I dare leave the house again! And I have got to explain all the workings to 2 'whirlwind' lads of 18 and 20....

...troublesome times ahead!

What horror stories of technology biting back do you have to tell??....
Barbara

Ominicci
23-07-2009, 01:43 PM
Oh Barbara :eek: . Where are the kids when you need them!! My othe rhalf is like that with everything - if it had more than 2 steps to it he doesn't want to know. Work gave him a blackberry and he had it 3 weesk before he turned it on - and that was only cos people kept asking if he had got their e-mail. I'm usually OK with things as long as there is an instruction book - didn't he leave you anything?

Solunar Silver Studio
23-07-2009, 03:49 PM
No - no instructions except a very garbled list of what not to do - all delivered in a very broad Liverpool accent...n me a Cockney n'all guv. I only got maybe one word out of three. (Apologies to all Scousers - you are lovely folk but despite having lived 15 miles from Liverpool for 23 years I still struggle with the accent!) I've been playing with the door for a couple of hours and think I have got it now. I've just gone out to buy some extra keys (aren't they expensive now!!:eek:) - all cut with a special, fool proof, modern cutting machine - and one of them doesn't work and the other one sounds like it is about to break off in the lock when you turn it!! Groan!!

...and don't start me on mobile phones.....aaarrrggghhhhhhh!!!!

The Bijou Dragon
23-07-2009, 07:02 PM
Aren't modern doors awful... my parents one is a nightmare... push the handle up, turn the key, push the handle down and open. Their front door though is one that tips back or opens and I just can never, ever work it out. When I used to love close by I used to look after their cat when they were away and I used to answer the door through the front window as I just could not open it!

Other than that everything's OK... I'm pretty savvy with technology but those damn fiddly loopy plastic things they have on fresh fruit juice cartons or oil bottles these days drive me insane. I've never managed to pull one off without the loop snapping and then having to ram a knife down the side to get the round fused bit out!

Having said that there have been a few times today I thought reverse action tweezers had got the best of me and they almost went out of the window twice :D

Solunar Silver Studio
24-07-2009, 07:31 AM
The man who fitted it said that he had had a lot of trouble trying to explain the workings of the door to 'little old ladies'...It broke my heart to hear that. Before my Mum went into a Care Home she was increasingly confused and scared by a world she no longer understood. And I agree with the milk carton problem too. How can frail, arthritic fingers handle that?? My Mum often resorted to a knife before she could have a cup of tea. Wicked! The people who make these changes all say it is to do with 'Health and Safety'....Bah - what nonsense! There should be some nasty punishment for people who impose this sort of torture on people when it so affects their quality of life!!!

myke
24-07-2009, 09:26 AM
progress is a wonderfull thing as long as it works.maybe there should be the things that piss us off thread.

Solunar Silver Studio
27-07-2009, 03:10 PM
I was being all virtuous and doing some paperwork:-p this afternoon - which involved scanning some papers. Now my computer says it doesn't recognise my scanner - which we have had for at least 2 years!! - and every time I try to 'Insert picture from scanner or camera' Word just crashes..AAARRRGGGHHHHH:mad:
I didn't want to do paper work anyway!! Why do we bother???!
Barbara

bustagasket
27-07-2009, 03:31 PM
I am so pleased its not just me that thinks i have lost my marbles!! Week before last my computer at work decided that it didnt recognise my profile(after three years) and gave me an emergency profile which of course wouldnt let me access any of my templates etc etc. My computer man moved away last year, but he sort out most things remotely, but he had decided to have a family wedding away that week HOW DARE HE!!! Needless to say, when he got home and saw my messages pleading for his intervention, he was still able to get in remotely and resolve the issue for me. Thank heavens for smart arses (pardon my french, but then i am an Essex Girl :p)

I cope with doors, although mine are pretty old now, and can usually understand most technology until i get a mental block, then you are lucky if i can even remember what a mouse is, a blank wall comes up in front of my remaining braincell and i am doomed till it gradually gets knocked down.

Generally speaking its my hubby whos struggles with modern technology, unless its part of a car engine, i dunno how he remembers everything on all the different cars, but i guess thats just his Forte, and mine is........................er............well...... ...i guess:confused:............maybe its #-o..............ok PASS!!!

Di Sandland
27-07-2009, 03:43 PM
Computers - don't talk to me about computers!

Hubby used to work for ICL trouble shooting computer stuff and I'm pretty computer literate. A couple of weeks ago tho, my computer crashed. Its a fairly (no, very) expensive one because I help pay the mortgage by doing a bit of freelance writing.

Clever (in his own mind) hubby couldn't find the fault so rebuilt the computer, meaning that I lost everything that I hadn't secured. I'm not very efficient when it comes to backing up. Then, a couple of hours later, the puter crashed again. Same fault, same symptoms. Mr Root Cause Analysis was flummoxed but rebuilt it all again and also invested in an external drive to hold the old hard drive so that all my previous work was accessible. Four hours, same fault, same symptoms, same blank screen.

Long story to medium - it was a cable feeding the *&^%$ screen! The puter was absolutely fine but said cable had a fracture inside it somewhere that showed itself when moved.

Then there's milk cartons, front door keys, mobile phones, changing channels on the television ...

love
Di x