Happy solution to a problem...

[fajrdrako]

Remember how I was having problems - I couldn't save pictures by right-clicking? I shelved the problem temporarily by using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, but I much prefer Firefox, so I was grumbling a lot.

My trusty guru Sheila gave me help and moral support in downloading a new (but less up to date) version of Firefox and it now works like a dream. Joy is restored to my universe - or at least to my picture-collecting habits.

Comments

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I always like it when joy is restored to your universe. [g]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Balance in the cosmos is a good thing. Usually.

Computers that work properly are a joy in life. Computers that don't work properly - a frustration.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

How quickly we get used to relying on this or that. Remember when you never even used the mouse with your computer...? And I remember when I swore I'd never use a cell phone.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

True. I remember when I never believed I would ever own a computer, or know how to use one if I had it. Times change!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Right now I am sitting at the union office using my own little laptop through the wireless connection provided by our new super-fast Internet arrangement with Verizon; such bliss, not having to keep looking at the battery indicator! (I'm plugged in!) It seems a delight simply to be able to be online here and still pick up the phone to call someone.

I was just thinking the other day about the office temp job I had in Albany, New York, at the end of 1994... if it had not been for your showing me how to use your computer, I wouldn't have been qualified for it, did you know that? Even so, I still didn't know (then) how to open a program by clicking on its icon! hee

How far we've come. Hey, I have been looking at GPS systems -- I'll probably soon get one for my car. Wonder how that will work? Having the thing automatically track my car and remind me where to turn? Will it help, or totally overwhelm me? Hard to say. The coworker who talked me into trying one has one and loves it for long trips (it can help you find gas stations, restaurants, all sorts of things it's useful for). He also pointed out that, unlike his wife, it doesn't get mad at him when he doesn't take the recommended turn -- doesn't smack him with the map or yell at him, just says "Recalculating" and then gives different suggestions. Joke aside, I think maybe I'd do well with that kind of eternally-patient coaching as I try to find my way though the visual world.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

maaseru has a GPS system and we used it last time we went to Toronto. Montreal, all. She loves making it say "recalculate". It can get confused - it isn't infallible - but it's fun.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I'll be getting one. Would be a very pleasant surprise to find that it helps me get through the visial overwhelm, when I'm in need of getting from one place to another and have never been there before. Plus, it would be fun to have someone to chat with on rambling road trips. snicker

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

maaseru's GPS isn't perfect -it has a stutter. Sometimes. She hasn't figured out why.

Would be a very pleasant surprise to find that it helps me get through the visial overwhelm

I hope it does. Conversely it could be just another thing to take your attention. You won't know till you try it out.

A GPS is great to chat with. So polite, so patient, never says, "You dummy, that was the wrong turn...."

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Conversely it could be just another thing to take your attention. You won't know till you try it out.

That was my thought, yeah. We'll see.

A GPS is great to chat with. So polite, so patient, never says, "You dummy, that was the wrong turn...."

"No, no, no! I said TURN HERE! Are you asleep, or what??!!" snicker

Wide open is the field of possibilities for "fine-tuning" GPS personalities. One could even put known persons in their place. Captain Jack Harkness could give me directions: "Now, you could turn off Exit 19 but there's been Rift activity in the vicinity, so I'd recommend Exit 20, but... you know, it's up to you." Or Doctor 10: "... (okay, so I can't do it at the drop of a hat, but you know what I was thinking of: a rapid-fire ramble of all sorts of lovely phrases and allusions all linking together at long last after first looping up and over and around and making you laugh and yell all at once... and by then you're past the turn-off for Exit 19 anyway, oops, sorry, have to negotiate a new course now."

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

"No, no, no! I said TURN HERE! Are you asleep, or what??!!" snicker

Have you seen the Doctor Who episode "Turn Left"? The whole thing could be rewritten with a GPS in the role of Donna's mother. It would put a whole different angle on the story. "Recalculate! Recalculate! Oh, bugger, too late..."

Sometimes the GPS said hilarious things. There were streets in Markham... and in Montreal... usually it reads "St" as "Street" but sometimes it means "Saint" and we got such charming moments as it telling us to turn onto "Main Saint" or "Street Francis Blvd". It has trouble with the Gardner Expressway, too. The street sign calls it the "Expwy", and that's exactly how Daniel says it. Ekspwee.

One could even put known persons in their place. Captain Jack Harkness could give me directions: "Now, you could turn off Exit 19 but there's been Rift activity in the vicinity, so I'd recommend Exit 20, but... you know, it's up to you."

Hee! Perfect! I can just see him saying this.

And the Doctor: "What happened just then? A wrong turn? Let's have a look - allons y!"

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

This entire group of ideas is altogether too much fun. I shall have to write something, now.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I shall have to write something, now.

I love hearing that!