Short Circuit to the Future
I’ve been going through a lot of upgrading lately (and I think it’s driving me crazy). Not too long ago, our DVD player stopped working. Therefore, we could not watch my son, Jeff’s, NonStop Hunting television show on the DVD’s he brought over and we couldn’t watch any rented movies on Friday night. So, I decided to get a combo DVD/VCR to help get our system a little more organized and consolidated. I could get everything to work except the picture with a VCR tape. I was tired of messing with it so I decided to let it slide for a little while.
Then, we got this great offer for Dish Satellite TV. We’ve had Direct TV for several years and they were getting quite a bit of money from me each month for much less product than Dish was offering, so we switched. I got the installer to help me hook up the DVD/VCR in the process so that it all worked properly. Hallelujah. The only problem was that we now had all these new remote controls that were all configured differently than the ones we had been used to so we are still trying to figure out how to use them properly. It may take awhile.
Then, my cell phone started acting up. One of the main buttons doesn’t work too well unless you hold your mouth just right. I also have an old Palm Pilot electronic organizer which has been acting up a little bit so I’ve been debating about whether or not to get the combination organizer and phone in one. After talking to a guy at a seminar last weekend, he assured me that this was the thing to do. As usual, I got online to check with consumer reports to see which product would best suit my needs. I decided on the right product and checked with my wireless company and found out I could get the upgrade for just $99 if I got the refurbished model. So, I got it.
This phone also has email and internet capability so I decided I would just try that aspect of it, as well, for a little while to see if it would be worth my while. Now that I got the phone I found out that it will not work with my Outlook Express email system but that it will work with Microsoft Outlook. So, I download Microsoft Outlook and made it my default email handler. I had to call my Internet service provider to find out how to make that happen—which we did. Then I needed to find out how to download the address book from Outlook Express to Microsoft Outlook so that I wouldn’t have to re-enter all of that information manually. I got that done so that I now have the addresses in my phone and in my email server.
Next, I need to get my phone numbers transferred out of my old phone into my new phone. I was planning on just swapping the sim card, but the new phone requires a 3G sim card rather than the old jalopy sim card so I couldn’t just switch it out as I had planned. I’ve been online trying to learn how to get that done electronically rather than manually. No success yet.
As I’ve been online trying to take care of all this stuff, I’ve noticed that it is taking longer and longer to get websites to download anything. It hasn’t been too bad until recently when more and more websites are incorporating video or more massive amounts of data on their home pages. I’ve been using a land line which downloads at about 48 kbs, which is very slow in todays world. Our town, which is 5 miles away, has wireless available at 300 kbs if I have uninterrupted line of site to their towers. Since we live in a valley, we don’t have interrupted sky so I’ve been checking into Satellite internet. It’s pretty expensive so I thought I might be able to put up a tower to get a line of sight to town. The man came out to take readings and has gone back to town to locate the elevations on a topographical map so he will be to let me know if it would be feasible to go that route.
I’ve done some research on the satellite service and have heard from a few dissatisfied customers about how it has not been that much faster than dial-up for them. It would require a two year commitment if I go that route so I’m a little hesitant to do it because it is a little pricy.
I’ve also been trying to fax some documents to my worker friend in Arlington , but she can’t get her “All-in-one” printer to receive a fax. She can’t find her instruction book so I’m in the process of downloading the instruction manual over the internet so we can figure out the problem. Since it is 8 MB long, it is taking about 20 minutes for it to download and my computer is partially freezing up in the process.
So now, between the information overload about the TV, DVR, VCR, Cell Phone, PDA, fax machine and Internet my mind is feeling a little bit fried. I’m hopeful that I will eventually get to where I can turn on the TV (on the first try) when that is what I’m actually trying to do. I’ve learned that my cell phone doesn’t do the trick, even if I point it directly at the TV. And, I’ve tried answering my remote control several times but no one ever answers. (People are so rude.) I’m thinking about cutting back on my technology to where I just have to pull a string and a light comes on. If I pull it again, the light goes back off. What a concept.
Because of the difficulties that accompany a switch in technology (about 95% of the time), I always hesitate to make the switch. I know that it is going to exact an emotional toll. It can be so burdensome at times. But, once I eventually work through the bugs, I’m almost always glad I chose to make the switch. And in spite of the hassle, I’m so thankful that I get to experience this incredible time to live where so much can be done with so little. Technology is so amazing. Things are changing so rapidly. The world is getting so much smaller. And I’m glad to be a part of it. God Bless. Dennis
