technology was invented to make life easier
Home Office Diary:
MONDAY. Cannot access personal e-mail box from home using company´s Internet access. Call company. Unbeknown to me or support services, I have been accessing my personal e-mail for four years through a leak in the company´s firewall. Will no longer be able to access this e-mail account, where most of my mail accumulates, as e-mail message tells me, adding a smiley face for consolation. Suggests opening a third ISP (Internet Service Provider) in addition to company and remote site in order to dial locally and use remote mail address. (The alternative is to close the remote account and lose mail from people who still have that 10-year-old address or who continue to get it from records remaining on the Web, over which I have no control.)
TUESDAY. After a little research, choose local Baby Bell as a cheap, reputable ISP from a large enough company with a large enough interest to do it well. Go to their Web site to download Internet access software. Download crashes my machine. Try again. Successful after two more crashes and an hour. Next, install software. Crash. Try again. Success. Reboot. New software starts automated registration process. Crashes. Reboot. Recrash. Have to remove ISP sign-up software to start machine successfully. Try to install once again. Same problems. Same crashes. Same process to remove. Call service center. Polite confession, donwnload is "a little buggy". Recommended the more reliable CD kit. Will send. In all about 5 hours lost. CD takes 5 days to arrive. The provider´s compelling slogan "How will you use it?" remains moot.
MONDAY (following week). Try to install Internet kit using CD-ROM. Invokes Crashguard (designed to prevent crashes) and brings everything to a halt. Remove Crashguard. Load Provider kit successfully. Start installation again. Crashes. Repeat. Repeats. Use a second computer to reach ISP`s "Help me find a solution" Web site. Apparently if the version of Netscape already on your machine is newer than the one in Provider´s kit, a Java bug may cause installation to fail. Refuses to recognize modem. Contact provider. Apparently, if the modem is very new, the installation kit doesn´t contain initialization information. My modem is two years old; the company that made it has long been taken over. About 4 hours lost.
TUESDAY. Call ISP. Tell them I would prefer to do my own manual installation if they would let me have the necessary details. Service center discourages this, politely but firmly. I tell them the troubles I have had with their automation, tell them I believe I am competent to do a manual installation but cannot find details on their Web site. The details are not there. They exist on an automated fax system. Obligingly, provider representative agrees to fax them. Sit, wait. Nothing happens. Call provider. Tell details to a new (equally polite) provider representative, who again tries to discourage me from going it alone, who again agrees to fax, but who acknowledges automated fax system can sometimes take a long time--even days, apparently. Kindly agrees (probably against rules) to copy the details into an e-mail message and send it to the one account I still have easy access to. Sends it. Insert details. Log on successfully. Open an account successfully. Try to log onto Internet. Fails. All settings work for registration only. Must remove all settings, reinsert a new list to use for all other purposes. Finally, 9 day later, with the help of two computers, three e-mail accounts, phone, fax, and the best part of four days lost, I´m on the Internet. It´s just a click away.
THURSDAY: Automated fax with details for manual installation chugs slowly through my fax.
[Duguid, Brown: The Social Life of Information]
:) Ei kyllä naurattaisi, jos itselle olisi tapahtunut..
MONDAY. Cannot access personal e-mail box from home using company´s Internet access. Call company. Unbeknown to me or support services, I have been accessing my personal e-mail for four years through a leak in the company´s firewall. Will no longer be able to access this e-mail account, where most of my mail accumulates, as e-mail message tells me, adding a smiley face for consolation. Suggests opening a third ISP (Internet Service Provider) in addition to company and remote site in order to dial locally and use remote mail address. (The alternative is to close the remote account and lose mail from people who still have that 10-year-old address or who continue to get it from records remaining on the Web, over which I have no control.)
TUESDAY. After a little research, choose local Baby Bell as a cheap, reputable ISP from a large enough company with a large enough interest to do it well. Go to their Web site to download Internet access software. Download crashes my machine. Try again. Successful after two more crashes and an hour. Next, install software. Crash. Try again. Success. Reboot. New software starts automated registration process. Crashes. Reboot. Recrash. Have to remove ISP sign-up software to start machine successfully. Try to install once again. Same problems. Same crashes. Same process to remove. Call service center. Polite confession, donwnload is "a little buggy". Recommended the more reliable CD kit. Will send. In all about 5 hours lost. CD takes 5 days to arrive. The provider´s compelling slogan "How will you use it?" remains moot.
MONDAY (following week). Try to install Internet kit using CD-ROM. Invokes Crashguard (designed to prevent crashes) and brings everything to a halt. Remove Crashguard. Load Provider kit successfully. Start installation again. Crashes. Repeat. Repeats. Use a second computer to reach ISP`s "Help me find a solution" Web site. Apparently if the version of Netscape already on your machine is newer than the one in Provider´s kit, a Java bug may cause installation to fail. Refuses to recognize modem. Contact provider. Apparently, if the modem is very new, the installation kit doesn´t contain initialization information. My modem is two years old; the company that made it has long been taken over. About 4 hours lost.
TUESDAY. Call ISP. Tell them I would prefer to do my own manual installation if they would let me have the necessary details. Service center discourages this, politely but firmly. I tell them the troubles I have had with their automation, tell them I believe I am competent to do a manual installation but cannot find details on their Web site. The details are not there. They exist on an automated fax system. Obligingly, provider representative agrees to fax them. Sit, wait. Nothing happens. Call provider. Tell details to a new (equally polite) provider representative, who again tries to discourage me from going it alone, who again agrees to fax, but who acknowledges automated fax system can sometimes take a long time--even days, apparently. Kindly agrees (probably against rules) to copy the details into an e-mail message and send it to the one account I still have easy access to. Sends it. Insert details. Log on successfully. Open an account successfully. Try to log onto Internet. Fails. All settings work for registration only. Must remove all settings, reinsert a new list to use for all other purposes. Finally, 9 day later, with the help of two computers, three e-mail accounts, phone, fax, and the best part of four days lost, I´m on the Internet. It´s just a click away.
THURSDAY: Automated fax with details for manual installation chugs slowly through my fax.
[Duguid, Brown: The Social Life of Information]
:) Ei kyllä naurattaisi, jos itselle olisi tapahtunut..
lähettänyt Katariina
16:57
3 kommenttia:
Hei, huijari-humanisti! Luulin hetken, että olet tähän asti piilottanut taitavasti teknopersoonasi. Mitäs bloggausta tämä nyt on olevinaan, pastööri?
Tarvitaanko heti vai tehdäänkö tietokoneella? I_know_the_feeling. :)
Nimimerkillä: töissä toimistossa, jossa uusimmatkin tietokoneet ovat vähintään 5 vuotta vanhoja (puhumattakaan juuri siitä minun koneestani joka on kotoisin jostain viime vuosituhannelta), ja jossa kopiokone suostuu tekemään tasan yhden kopion jumiutumatta, ja jossa printtereistä värit ovat aina loppu. They're just tools for making your life...more complicated? Hey, new TV-show: "Office made complicated!" :)
Paavo: Mitä sitä itse enää kirjoittamaan, kun joku muu on jo sanonut sen paremmin? :)
Veera: I happen to know the feeling too.. Yeah, "Office made complicated" sounds good (or not!), I´m in! Nimimerkillä Kouluavustajanakin työskennellyt ja muutaman kerran myös yliopistolla printtaamaan joutunut..
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