Disconnected Rant
Anyone who knows me well also knows my aversion to most things technical and that I can exhibt slight Luddite tendencies. I much prefer things you can hit with a hammer or take apart with a screwdriver. Phones, computers, modern electrical and electronic devices which require programming, and modern cars all scare the hell out of me when they need input or go wrong. I don't WANT to understand, I just want it to work so I can use it. When this proves impossible and I have to try to make sense of it all, I bitterly resent the time wasted and stress caused. Sometimes I feel braver than others and revel in achieving something but others I cringe bitterly at every next question offering me a choice but no clues at to which is the right answer. There never is an option for "maybe" or "ite depends".
Computers came late into my life. I went on a word processing course as a fully fledged unemployed adult and managed to pass an exam too, once I'd finished getting cross with the terminology and managed to grasp what they were on about. I finally gave in and acquired one at home when my daughter felt sufficiently embarassed and inconvenienced by being unable to do homework and print it out as blithely suggested by her teachers. Scant regard given, even in those days, for the kids whose parents couldn't afford one, the internet connection, or indeed understood what to do with one.
Having a reliable computer shop on had is about as essential as a decent car mechanic you'd trust with your own health let alone your vehicle and at least as rare. Mine shut down a couple of years back and left me devasted, bereft. Sure they took the proverbial every time something went wrong if there was any way they could make a joke out of my ignorance but then again my boys at the garage laughed when I couldn't programme the cd/radio back in after the battery went flat. I don't mind looking helpless when I know expert help is at hand (and doubtless it does their egos good too). I don't need to understand, they do. I just have to trust them, and pay them.
Eventually I end up with an ageing PC running on XP and getting slower by the day when Microsoft pulled the plug on supporting XP and mass panic ensued after all the warnings about security risks. I dare say it was more scare tactics designed to get us all to pay for an upgrade. I didn't but the computer troubles were not over.
I hoovered out the air vents as part of the attempt to speed it up, horrified to find inches of fluff and a ton of sand in there. I left for the summer and in my absence the local tom cats (mine wouldn't dare) who thought an unoccupied room was an open invitation made merry hell in my room. Someone had clearly piddled on the desk including the monitor which developed huge black holes as a result. Temporarily I got the small telly working as a monitor. Then I moved house. Next thing the keyboard and mouse didn't work any more, plugged into the back of the tower with the round connectors. Changed both, still not working. Conclude it is the connections in the back of the PC. Hunt down a mouse and a keyboard with USB connections. Several keyboards later I've got one which has key tops showing differnt symbols to what you get by using them but otherwise it works. Tried several wireless ones but think the PC doesn't have whatever it would need to use them.