I could swear sometimes....

The Internet can be very irritating. Talk about invasiveness! There’s a new feature which I’m sure Google thinks is brilliant. It goes like this: if I buy stuff on line and get confirmation of purchase by email Google makes a list in case I forget. I didn’t ask for it nor do I want it (admittedly it was only once but once is enough). The retailer notifies me of a delivery time so I guess Google is fully aware of that too. Another thing, if I make entries on my iPhone calendar or ’things to remember’ list Google immediately peeks at Cloud, notes the info and reminds me. I thought Cloud was sort-of private which presumably is an incorrect assumption. Can anyone see it if they want to or is it only Google? Silly of me, really, to think it was totally private.

Another grouse I have, concerning Blogger, is to do with comments that are left on a post. Hitherto I could validate and publish comments on all devices but not anymore. Suddenly I can only do it on the iPhone. If I want to do it on the iPad or computer I am required to enter my email address and password EVERY time, for every comment received. So now I read them on the iPad then whip out the phone and post the comments from there. Whatever happened to easy-to-use Safari? Now I click on Safari and get Google with loads of complications. All this is very hard going.

Visiting blogs is the same, in fact anything to do with Blogging has to be authenticated by name and password. Every time! Does everyone have the same inconvenience?

I had a brilliant idea... change to one of my other email providers. So into settings I went and arranged that notification of comments would be made by them. Forget Google, I thought. Flippin’ heck, even that didn’t work. I was notified by both. Well, that was no good. Went back and cancelled the instruction which means I’m back to square one which is heavily laced with frustration.

To get round the above and avoid having to 'sign in' every few minutes I was obliged to 'join the club', meaning I had to give everything about myself barring dress sense. I had to give phone number, date of birth, the lot, just to write a few words on a blog. However, once that was done I had no further problems. It's the cheek of it all that gets me. Who keeps all our information, that's what I want to know.

Is there a book somewhere that enlightens folk like me? How sad, though, when in many ways I’m an expert on the damned computer – or should I say WAS an expert.  

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Since writing the above I have been updated, or rather my gadgets have. I am now the not-so-proud possessor of stuff I didn’t ask for nor want, with everything changed round and programmes added that I will never use. I do NOT want to pay for goods using the phone, I am quite happy to take cash from purse and pay that way or use the debit card.

I can understand that modern living demands some of these things and that

there are people who like to use what is now known as convenience methods. Well, my way was convenient and I want to keep it that way. I wouldn’t mind if there was a choice but with iPhone and iPad all I was told was that I needed an update. Presuming the update meant technical changes to normal programmes and the way they worked I accepted it. Now I have an iPad and iPhone that are practically unusable ... maybe not quite unusable but they are extremely complicated. I am seriously thinking of binning the lot and purchasing a normal phone that does what it is supposed to do – answer and receive calls from friends and relatives. As for the iPad, the question must be asked ... do I really need one?

By the way, this isn’t an age thing... I have young friends who don’t understand it either.  Perhaps we should start a revolution, wave the banners and shout ... down with i-thingies. 

Finale!

As if to punish me for using all those swear words, the old PC gave up the ghost, together with the other one that was sort of spare. I reckon they were in league. ‘Let’s do it together, see how she copes’ sort of thing. Well, they didn’t have to wait long to find out. I believe I screamed my frustration … I’m sure that’s why Charlie the cat rushed out in great haste.

When I calmed down I made a phone call and begged my computer expert to sort things out. Later that afternoon, he arrived and set to work. Only when he had signed the computer death certificate did he suggest that I consider having a new machine. Actually he wouldn’t have done that had he not been aware of my repeated exclamations that only a new machine would be tolerated in this household.

As luck would have it I discovered that I did not HAVE to resort to another Windows 10. No, I could have Windows 7 if I wanted. Can you guess what decided me? You’re right, it was the thought of being able to use a laptop without screaming. Windows 7. God bless you for still being around in my time of need.

My Pet Hate

Regular readers will remember me rattling on about my new Hoover ‘Vision Dynamic’ washer/dryer and how it has a mind of its own – which doesn’t coincide with mine. At that time I wrote a letter to the manufacturers and was sure I’d blogged it until I did a post search and found nothing*. However, the original post can be seen here. Although there was an element of humour in the letter it did get across my dissatisfaction with the machine. I mentioned that I have to wash two of everything because the machine doesn’t like doing odd items and I also mentioned that this objection lasted for twelve long months. Yes, folks, I have been battling with the damn machine for just over a year so you can imagine my annoyance when reminded that insurance needs to be taken out. WHAT? ON A MACHINE THAT DOESN’T DO WHAT I WANT? A MACHINE THAT INSISTED ON DEFYING ME FOR A WHOLE YEAR? Sorry, Hoover, but NO WAY! Once this machine breaks down (please, God) out it goes. Hoover will never darken my doorstep again.

I didn’t post the letter at the time but now I have, just the other day after another major decision on the machine’s part not to drain water out of a wash that included one odd item (I really must learn to count). I should have waited for the next event before posting it. At the time of typing this rubbish report I experienced one MAJOR catastrophe in the washing stakes. Two single duvet covers ... yes, I said TWO single duvet covers ... were washed but left in an exceedingly wet puddle of water at the bottom of the drum. Why? Because somehow the machine managed to insert one cover inside the other, thereby turning the load into ONE item. Now, I’ve never tried inserting one duvet cover inside the other but I can imagine how difficult it would be. My clever machine deserves some kind of medal and I know what sort of medal I would like to give it ... a heavy one at the end of a long handle commonly known as a hammer.

The following is an extract from Curry’s (stockists of washing machines) internet site which describes the machine's technical genius

‘’Special functions include Kg mode, whereby an intelligent sensor weighs your laundry in the first four minutes of the cycle, adjusting cycle duration, water and electricity consumption to suit load capacity and perform more economically.’

It doesn’t tell us how much more electricity we have to use to put right what the machine did wrong. Since the weather precluded hanging out the sodden covers and there is nowhere within my home to enable drip-drying on such a large scale I was forced to dry the covers in the machine’s dryer which took much longer than normal. More expense, not to mention the physical and mental ordeal the whole operation took! On top of that the non-iron covers had to be ironed....

Rest assured that Hoover will know about this latest upset. Okay, now I’ve had my moan I’m off to find a hammer. Thanks for listening. 

* My 'Search this Blog' seems not to be working