Wednesday 3 December 2014

Technology - Don't you love it? !

I am a non-technical person living in an increasingly technical world.

Youngsters seem to instinctively understand tablets and WII's and mobile phones, and the speed of their thumbs while doing text messaging is amazing.
I have none of the above devices. I did have a pay-as-you-go mobile phone for about a year, but in that time the service provider turned it off twice because I was not using it enough. The third time I found it didn't work when I went to use it was the last time I ever touched it.

So last weekend I became the proud possessor of a bright and shiny new (second-hand) work pc.

I had to get one as my current machine has got into a disconcerting habit of freezing every few minutes, and one day, when I really could do without it, I know it will just freeze and not un-freeze. My previous pc blew up losing several years worth of stored files and I didn't want to go through that again.

My darling son came with said pc (and small grandchild) and while I entertained grandchild with wooden blocks, TV and cake, my son set to the task of transferring all my files to the new pc and setting everything up for me. He managed that in under an hour, which impressed me.

However then came the 'but' moment.

This time last year we got a shiny, brand new printer/photocopier which is attached to my work pc so that I can print out all the flyers, fact sheets, instruction leaflets, Newsletters, books, letters to customers etc., etc., etc.... And when my son connected it to the new pc, they did the technological equivalent of having a hissy fit and refused to talk to one another.

No problem, we thought, I'll just ring our photocopier maintenance people and as they installed the photocopier on my previous pc, no doubt they will be able to do the same again on my new pc.

'Yes, no problem, madame,' said the young man at the photocopier place, 'Although you do realise this will attract a call out fee of £75 (plus VAT) for the first half hour, plus our hourly rate if it takes longer than this?'

I was somewhat taken aback by that gem of news and said I would have to think about it.

So I am currently thinking about how to get information from my pc to the photocopier which doesn't involve strangling a photocopier maintenance person.

I'll let you know what happens next.

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