Modern Technology

I'm a self-confessed technophile.  I love technology: most of the time.  Sometimes, of course, technology and I have a falling out.  We almost always kiss and make up though.  Which is what happened last week.  Ever since I arrived back in New Zealand my iPhone had refused to connect to the internet via the mobile 3G network.  I have had to use a wifi connection.  I only noticed the problem when I went to Dannevirke and had to use the mobile network because most places I've been before then have had wifi.  Various phone calls and visits to NZ Telecom produced no results nor did a trawl of the internet.  Then one day when I had an hour or so 'spare' I decided to take the bull by the horns and sort the problem.  I suddenly remembered that I had a 'special' number for NZ Telecom that I'd been given once before when I had a difficult problem.  It was in my contacts under NZ Telecom and labelled "Complex Problems".  I rang the number.  Immediate reply: no waiting in queues nor long multi-option menus to go through.  I explained the problem and was given an instant solution.  A young lady made an old man very happy.  I'm so easily pleased these days.

On a completely different matter why is it that drug companies supply tablets in packaging that is so difficult to open?  One of my tablets comes in a comparatively easy to open blister pack (as opening blister packs goes that is).  The latest packaging I have been supplied with it in is almost impossible to open without scissors or a razor-sharp hard set of finger-nails.  W H Y ?!?!

Returning to computers and phones and so on I admit to enjoying exploring new aspects of the operating systems of my Apple Macbook and finding and using new apps for my computer and my phone.  Having grown up with computers since I bought my first  Amstrad PC1512 in 1985 which was the first Amstrad introduced I'm fairly au fait with their operation despite their increasing complexity.  It's quite a thought that the first Sputnik that went into space (and many subsequent to that) had less computing power than the average non-smart phone has today.  The Amstrad had no memory to speak of and the programme software was loaded from one floppy disk and the programme data was stored on another.  Ah those were the days.  Long gone thank heaven. 

For those who are interested in smart phones but who find the technology daunting New Zealand Telecom does a wonderful set of short videos on it's catchy website Techinasec.  It's worth a look.

Thankful Thursday: Apple

Why is it that blog posts are like buses: you wait for ages for an idea and then three come along at once?  The 'Apple' I'm talking about is nothing to do with the fruit trees that surround The Cottage for hectare after hectare in this, New Zealand's fruit bowl.  No it's the Apple.

0500 hrs this morning and my iPad 'rang' and woke me.  My iPad rang??  How come? It is wifi only.

One of the beauties of the iPhone is that it has a programmable sound notifications so that I have it set for no 'ringing' during the hours of midnight to 0630.  It's also programmed to take calls from designated numbers or people or from anyone who tries twice in quick succession.   However Apple has Facetime which enables people using an Apple device to contact each other orally and visually over the internet free via their Apple device.  It is only recently that a friend in Australia (Fiona, daughter of one of my oldest friends who lives in Canada who is not into modern technology and doesn't even have a cellphone) got me to start using it.

Fiona is in Canada at the moment.  Fiona is trying to persuade her Mum to get an iPad so that she can communicate more effectively with her daughters and friends scattered throughout the world (Fiona doesn't have a landline telephone).  To that end they were in an Apple Store in Canada.  Who better to demonstrate Facetime on but someone in New Zealand.  They miscalculated the time and were quite surprised when a rather sleepy voice answered his cellphone wondering how it could have rung and why it was still dark.  It was, in fact, the iPad that had rung but my sleeping brain hadn't computed that.

Frances Garrood would, I am sure, say that that demonstrates all that is bad about modern (ie post 1970) technology (see Pre-1970s - The Best Inventions) but for me it demonstrates all that is good with the ability we now have to communicate with each other in this physically large and yet very small earth.  

So whilst I might have some misgivings about being woken at 0500 I am very thankful for the ability to communicate with my friends so easily.

Modern Technology

I woke at 0455. Not the 'I need the loo' sort of wake not the 'Just turn over and go back to the land of nod' sort of wake but a full blown 'I'm awake' sort of wake. The moon was still streaming into the bedroom and the world seemed a very inviting place. I popped my head out of the ranch sliders and was suddenly struck by something amazing: silence. I don't think I can recall hearing silence here before. There is usually so much noise in the countryside: crickets, insects, night birds, the trees rustling even in the very gentlest of breezes. But no. Not a sound could I hear. The silence was almost overpowering. That was a time for the correct use of the word 'awesome'.

I couldn't return to bed so I've been reading blogs and commenting. I've also been burning a DVD with photos for a friend. I switched the air-con on to take the chill out of the air. I made tea. I opened the dishwasher. Sitting here I was getting puzzled (and a little bit irritated) by a regular but insistent beep. The air-con sometimes beeps when it changes program so I assumed that's what it was. It wasn't. Then I assumed it must be the smoke detector alarm. It wasn't. Then I assumed that the DVD player must have an alarm to tell me that I'd left the drawer open. It hasn't. Curiouser and curiouser. Eventually it dawned on me that I'd opened the dishwasher but not switched it off. Why would a dishwasher need to beep to tell me that? Modern technology can sometimes go just that one step too far.