Category Archives: technology

Mar29

what about bob?

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how my desktop computer setup appeared to me back in the day

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years ago, in another universe

when i worked in the world of advertising

 I was in an office setting and used a desktop computer

of course it was often the bane of my existence

 but somehow I worked with/around it

getting most of the things I needed to do on my computer done

after a lot of trial and error and who knows what

one day, our long suffering multi-tasking creative/i.t. guy

 came into my office after returning from a conference

he sat down in front of my desk and shared something he’d learned there

  they had talked about how every office has a ‘bob’

a person who could do things to their computer

that they could not explain or get out of

or their computer got so messed up

that the i.t. person had to fix it

but had never seen anything like it before

 they had to try to undo what had been done

 the bob could not explain

how it happened

how they got there

what they were trying to do

he said, ‘beth, you are our ‘bob’

he got up out of the chair and returned to his office.

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‘in my case, there are only two kinds of hope – bob hope and no hope.’

-eddie the eagle

Dec7

‘the internet is a great way to get on the net.’-bob dole.

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as many of you already know, i have been challenged by technology, time and again.

i accept that and hobble and click way through it all

and sometimes it somehow untangles itself and even works.

below are a couple of posts i found online that really are good examples

of an inside look at my technological life, and i so love them. 

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You can be having the nicest day and then you have to print something and you know your day is about to fall apart real fast.

Shoutout to ppl who save documents every 2.1 seconds while working on them because you lost one file 21 years ago & won’t be caught slipping again.

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thank you for your kind service, people who left the above quotes, and, yep.

 

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image credit: linked in

 

 

Oct18

‘feel the force!’ – yoda

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once again my tech yodas

who work for themselves

have brought another device

back from the edge of death

they carry both wisdom and magic

for that i am eternally grateful

let there be light!

“do or do not. there is no try.”

– yoda

Sep12

net worth.

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no one is happy when their internet goes out

but i am always amused

by the list

of my neighbors’ router names

that scroll  by

when trying

to get mine up and running again.

last night’s winners were:

billclinternet

thelanisterssendtheirregards

routerihardlyknewher

some people are so clever

my goal was

to create a name i would remember

 now if feel that i’m letting them all down a bit.

not giving back.

 

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‘the internet is a great way to get on the net.’

-bob dole, former republican senator and presidential candidate

 

 

 

 

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image credit: google images

 

Jun24

at death’s door.

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last summer

when my computer went all black

and stayed that way

i took it to my local computer nerds

who miraculously resuscitated it

but gave me a grim prognosis

‘living on very borrowed time’

so i ordered a new one

while waiting for the old one

to finally go in peace

but it continued to limp along

until a couple of weeks ago

when i saw the above message

‘more than 10 hours to charge it – while plugged in’

until finally

it read

‘not charging’

i took mercy on it

we’ve been through a lot together

it knows all of my secrets

my ups and downs

 has given its all

 after a fond farewell

pulled out the new one

not as familiar

but we will soon be

a team

as we begin again.

“on the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.”

-scott adams

Dec28

the jetsons.

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while filling up my car with gas 

a man walked over to me saying

how it would have been great

if one of the inventions from ‘the jetsons’ show had come to be –

 a warm air pad that you walked on, so you were never cold

i reminded him of their version of the microwave

where you pushed a button and your food was cooked in seconds

from there it continued on, back and forth

with inventions remembered from the show

until we both of our cars were filled up

 going on our merry way

what an interesting conversation to have with a random stranger at the gas pump

perhaps he recognized a fellow jetsons fan

not your usual small talk, but rather refreshing

triggering memories of my favorite childhood cartoon.

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the jetsons premiered when i was 5 years old on abc tv (their first color show!) on sunday nights. i loved it instantly; the characters, the banter, the clothes, and all the cool space-age stuff. unfortunately it only ran for one season and then quickly disappeared from the airwaves, except in reruns and later movies.

here’s smithsonian’s take on the show:

It was 50 years ago that the Jetson family first jet-packed their way into American homes. The show lasted just one season (24 episodes) after its debut in 1962, offering television viewers a rather sunny and optimistic view of the future. Flying cars, moving sidewalks, and flat-screen TVs were the norm. Even the Jetson family’s sky home was considered envious. ABC set The Jetsons in 2062, exactly 100 years from the year that the show premiered. Based on the Jetson family’s phone number, one could argue that they didn’t live on Earth or just above it. The family’s phone number was VENUS-1234, meaning they were most likely residents on Venus. 

Regardless of its short-running timeframe, the show remains a point of pop culture reference all these years later. Some of the inventions that existed on The Jetsons are available today, and they did predict current technologies. Some examples include; interactive newspapers, robotic help, holograms, and drones. The most widespread Jetson-inspired invention  is the Apple Watch. It closely resembles the device George wore on his wrist to call work, make appointments, handle doctor visits, and much more.

Tesla is teasing us with self-autonomous vehicles, but people are still waiting for the highly-accessible flying cars used by the Jetsons. We may not have to wait another 50 years as a Slovakian company is currently working on a flying car prototype. Smithsonian Magazine said, “The Jetsons stands as the single most important piece of 20th-century futurism.” They claim the show “has had a profound impact on the way that Americans think and talk about the future.”

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image credit: hanna-barbera productions, abc tv, warner brothers archives,smithsonian magazine

Oct27

reflections.

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when robots and humans have a playdate

 

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“we’re fascinated with robots because they are reflections of ourselves.”

ken goldberg

Feb8

qwerty.

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not me, but someone from back in the day 
who is frustrated by the illogical order of the keyboard.

have you ever wondered why the letters on the keyboard are organized the way they are? while it seems like the letters were randomly strewn across the keys, this method of organizing the keyboard was developed as way to slow down typists. back in 1872, typewriter users were typing too fast and causing the typewriters to jam. so, the QWERTY method actually kept the machines from breaking down and is still used today.

 

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“wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. ”    

-william shakespeare

 

 

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source: mental floss, noam

 

Jan25

the great escape.

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 A robot vacuum cleaner made a break for freedom after giving staff the slip at a Travelodge hotel.

The automated cleaner failed to stop at the front door of the hotel in Orchard Park in Cambridge, England on Thursday, and was still on the loose the following day.

Staff said it just kept going and “could be anywhere” while well-wishers on social media hoped the vacuum enjoyed its travels, as “it has no natural predators” in the wild.

It was found under a hedge on Friday.

Staff at the hotel posted the story of the robot vacuum’s great escape on social media, asking for it to be returned, if found.

“Today we had one of our new robot vacuums run for its life,” the assistant manager wrote.

“They normally sense the lip at the hotel entrance and turn around, but this one decided to make a run for it.”

The robot vacuum had enough of cleaning the lobby and made its bid for freedom from the hotel, which is next to the A14. Its disappearance was not noticed for about 15 minutes and despite a search, it appeared the vacuum had made a clean break for it.

While some readers joked about the robot’s adventures, one feared for its safety in the great outdoors, pointing out that “nature abhors a vacuum”.

However, much to everyone’s relief, the device was found nestled under a hedge on Friday afternoon by a (human) hotel cleaner sprucing up the front drive. It was dusted off and “is now back sitting happily on a shelf with the rest of its robot vacuum family”, the hotel confirmed.

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“one basic law of the universe dictates that robots

must learn to make fast food before they can get driver’s licenses.” 

-leland mcknight

 

 

 

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credits: eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk, n. chadwick/geograph

 

 

Nov19

spam!

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 clearing out my spam yet again

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there seems to be no end to spam

i love hacking away and getting rid of it

 like when you sweep the sand

out of a vacation cottage at the beach

you know there will be more of it

in just a few hours

but the deleting process

is strangely satisfying

in the moment.

 

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“two years from now, spam will be solved.”

– Bill Gates’ prediction, seventeen years ago, at the 2004 World Economic Forum