Technology

Some parts of technology are better than others...

I spent most of the weekend wrestling around with computers and gadgets. I use something other than Norton for my laptop, and the subscription needed renewing. When I did, it started downloading--I guess the entire program--for FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. Or it was supposed to be 4 and a half hours; about 3:45 in the dial-up disconnected, which I didn't discover until I went to check on the progress of the download. I was pretty mad, so I didn't redial, and last night I just had the existing software do an update. I'm still getting a "You need to renew your subscription" message, though, so I don't know what will happen with that.

Meanwhile, I'd purchased an inexpensive little MP3 player. Which I couldn't get to work. It needed an update of the firmware downloaded, which wouldn't take through my laptop. Finally got it through the desktop (I wish I knew what the problem is with that laptop--it's one aggravating piece of machinery).

Then I couldn't get the thing to play. Finally, aftering ferreting around on the net, discovered that I needed to convert my .wma files into .mp3 files. It didn't *say* that in the user's manual.

So then I had to find a freeware program that would do the conversion, and download that, and figure out how it worked, since the instructions with it were even more minimal than the ones that came with the MP3 player. But I *think* I finally triumphed about 10:30 last night. Sheesh.

However, while I was waiting for the doomed 4.5 hour download, I decided to watch The Hunt for Red October, which is one of my favorite movies ever. For one thing, I love the soundtrack, esp. the men's choir. For another--well--Sean Connery. Need I say more? And, since I've watched it umpteen times, I can pick up on all the little things, why someone does this or someone else says that, which is greatly satisfying. (The VCR is a GOOD piece of technology!) I think I may have to get the DVD, since I foresee watching this into infinity.

I also made a huge discovery. I'm stuck with my knitting. I don't want to finish any of my sock projects, even though I'm sitting across the room from a collection of sock yarns that makes me salivate. I think I want to make a winter-coaty-kind-of-thing, and a replacement cardigan for the beat-up one I wear at work. Problem is, of the yarn in my stash, either it's not the right weight or I don't have enough of it, and I can't afford to buy anything.

I remembered a brushed acrylic teal I bought some years ago, but couldn't remember where it was, so I was back in Annie's room, burrowing through boxes, when I found, not yarn, but a box labeled "Comics." Which it clearly wasn't. Further investigation showed it was personal papers of my grandfather's, who died in 1979. I don't know where they came from or how they wound up in a box marked "Comics," but I dragged the box out into the living room and sat down to go through it. It seems to be mostly from about 1942 to about 1949, mostly financial things like checks and income tax returns, but also a bunch of letters from my aunt--my mother's sister--as well as a couple from my mother and half a dozen from a couple of first cousins once removed who were in the army at the time.

The ones from my aunt are very interesting reading--she was funny and quirky and wrote a lively letter. So I'm going to photocopy her letters, and transcribe the handwritten ones, then see if I can locate any of her children so I can send them their mother's letters.

There's another downside of technology--our descendants won't have letters to find. And with privacy and passwords and user names, how will they find blogs or e-mail (the nearest thing to letters we have now) or web pages? Much as I adore my digital camera, how will anyone's descendants find family photos? No stumbling over a shoebox filled with prints for them. Are we cutting people off from their pasts and their heritage?

At any rate, I was happy with my discovery, and happy that I conquered my MP3 player, and the Ts got to go out for 3 hours each day, so I think all in all we had a good weekend.