Ever since I went through chemo-therapy twenty one years ago, parts of my memory have been fried. For example, in a photo that I used a couple of weeks ago I claimed that it was me, little Alan, sitting in the middle of a birthday party. It took my brother and younger sister to convince me that the kid at the table wasn't me. That's sad that I don't even remember what I looked like fifty six years ago, but of course that's why I have the disclaimer right next to my stories.
I do remember that four and a half years ago I ended my career with computers. I used to be pretty damn good, and in fact when my colleagues were stumped I was often called in to figure out why a particular computer was misbehaving. This past weekend I tried to get my new tenant's computer to communicate with my wireless network. I bought a cute little network adapter for his computer, and proceeded to follow the instructions for installing it. The instructions showed three simple steps which I followed precisely, but of course when I tried to connect with the network I got nothing. It was at this point that I started scouring my memory for all the reasons the damn thing wouldn't be working. That was when I realized how much I have forgotten in the last four plus years. After a couple of hours of screwing around, and reading all my old manuals, I admitted defeat, and called the manufacturer for support.
For three hours I talked to the 'support' desk, changing settings, and running between the computer and the router, two rooms and forty feet away. Finally my head exploded, and I cursed the guy out and hung up. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't help me. It was three o'clock in the morning over in India, and he was probably all jacked up on caffeine and tired of talking to crabby Americans anyway. As for my friend Russell's internet connection, all I can say is, forget about it.
I just did the same for Larry and Paul, and it was up and running in about 10 minutes. It wouldn't have been that long, except I had the two connections reversed. In fact, I'm on the wireless network right now. But then again, Apple is much easier to deal with. All I did was restart the modem and my computer found it.
ReplyDeleteAs for "not liitle Alan"...I thought he looked a lot like you too, until MB showed me another picture from the party and there you were in your booster chair!!
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