No Internet
The other morning, Sunday, July 27th, 2014, I fired up this here computer and opened my Internet-browser, which is Firefox.
This ‘pyooter can fool you. You think you’re getting Internet, but what you’re actually getting is the site stored in your computer’s memory.
Ask the site to refresh, and my browser has to get the site from scratch to bring it up again.
I was getting the “Firefox cannot load site” message with every refresh.
“UH-OHHH,” I thought to myself. “Looks like the Internet burped.”
This happens occasionally, sometimes related to a weather anomaly, like a thunderstorm, or utility-lines brought down by a car-accident, requiring rerouting over alternate circuits.
“Time to reboot my modem,” I said to myself.
All this is, is pulling the plug on my cable-Internet modem for 10-15 seconds, then replugging, which makes the modem reset.
So I did that, and got my Internet back.
Later that afternoon, I fired up again, and again no Internet.
I reset my modem yet again, but this time it didn’t get me back online.
“What fun is that?” I e-mailed an old friend who’s fooled with personal-computers since the Atari days.
I’m not as experienced as him. My first ‘pyooter was about 25 years ago, when state-of-the-art was a 386.
No SX cheap-shots for this kid!
At that time the average personal-computer was a 286-SX; “SX” being some way of making computers cheap by I forget how.
I did state-of-the-art, a 386-40 (40-meg hard-drive — this laptop’s hard-drive is 500 gigs; that’s 500,000 megs), with Windows® 3.0 as its operating-system.
We later upgraded to Windows 3.1.
Later I switched to Apple Macintosh, mainly because my employer, a newspaper, computerized with Apple Macintosh.
At that time Windows was disdained by the Apple-crowd, like it was inferior.
This seemed to be true. Various computer-functions under Windows prompted the hourglass.
That’s not true any more.
Windows seems to have caught up.
I advise previous Windows-users to not switch to MAC.
“Stick with whatcha know,” I say.
MAC is a whole ‘nother ball-game, and I don’t think it’s superior. MAC can drive a PC-user crazy.
My wife’s employer was PC-based, so she drove a Windows PC.
My MAC would drive her up-the-wall.
I am now on MAC number-three, this MacBook Pro laptop. I still have number-two, my G4 tower, but number-one, a beige G3 desktop, tanked. It’s probably cluttering some landfill.
My niece got my wife’s PC when my wife died. It was a laptop, and its operating-system was Windows-Seven. It replaced her big clunker laptop with Windows-XP.
I don’t watch TV hardly at all.
I prefer this here ‘pyooter and the Internet.
Which can lead astray, but I know that.
I’ve seen spellings of Hillary Clinton as both “Hillary” and “Hilary.”
And Dulles Airport as both “Dulles” and “Dullas.”
I also read a history-article that had Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Horseshoe Curve” originally built with four tracks.
Uh NO; one or two. It was later increased to three and then four. But it wasn’t originally built with four tracks.
So without my beloved Internet I climb the walls.
Finally I called Time-Warner, my Internet-service-provider.
“We value your call. Please hold during the silence: BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA!”
After a few minutes I reported no Internet to some high-school dropout.
After a few minutes more I got referred to Internet-Technical-Support.
Sounded like India — the guy could hardly speak English. But he fiddled my modem from wherever he was.
“It’s back,” I declared.
I then reported my modem was probably five years old: ancient in the ‘pyooter-world.
He suggested I should swap for a new modem; my original modem was free from Time-Warner, and the new modem would be free too. (It’s their modem.)
So drag-ass all the way to Time-Warner in deepest, darkest Rochester (NY) — I have a slew of other errands I could do along the way.
So Monday (July 28th) I took my dog and drove all-the-way to Time-Warner, about 20 miles one-way.
I now have a new modem, and it’s getting Internet.
Sweetness and light!
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• My beloved wife died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly.
• My current dog is “Scarlett” (two “Ts,” as in Scarlett O’Hara), a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s ten, and is my sixth Irish-Setter, a high-energy dog. (A “rescue Irish Setter” is an Irish Setter rescued from a bad home; e.g. abusive or a puppy-mill. [Scarlett was from a failed backyard breeder.] By getting a rescue-dog, we avoid puppydom, but the dog is often messed up. —Scarlett isn't bad. She’s my fourth rescue.)
This ‘pyooter can fool you. You think you’re getting Internet, but what you’re actually getting is the site stored in your computer’s memory.
Ask the site to refresh, and my browser has to get the site from scratch to bring it up again.
I was getting the “Firefox cannot load site” message with every refresh.
“UH-OHHH,” I thought to myself. “Looks like the Internet burped.”
This happens occasionally, sometimes related to a weather anomaly, like a thunderstorm, or utility-lines brought down by a car-accident, requiring rerouting over alternate circuits.
“Time to reboot my modem,” I said to myself.
All this is, is pulling the plug on my cable-Internet modem for 10-15 seconds, then replugging, which makes the modem reset.
So I did that, and got my Internet back.
Later that afternoon, I fired up again, and again no Internet.
I reset my modem yet again, but this time it didn’t get me back online.
“What fun is that?” I e-mailed an old friend who’s fooled with personal-computers since the Atari days.
I’m not as experienced as him. My first ‘pyooter was about 25 years ago, when state-of-the-art was a 386.
No SX cheap-shots for this kid!
At that time the average personal-computer was a 286-SX; “SX” being some way of making computers cheap by I forget how.
I did state-of-the-art, a 386-40 (40-meg hard-drive — this laptop’s hard-drive is 500 gigs; that’s 500,000 megs), with Windows® 3.0 as its operating-system.
We later upgraded to Windows 3.1.
Later I switched to Apple Macintosh, mainly because my employer, a newspaper, computerized with Apple Macintosh.
At that time Windows was disdained by the Apple-crowd, like it was inferior.
This seemed to be true. Various computer-functions under Windows prompted the hourglass.
That’s not true any more.
Windows seems to have caught up.
I advise previous Windows-users to not switch to MAC.
“Stick with whatcha know,” I say.
MAC is a whole ‘nother ball-game, and I don’t think it’s superior. MAC can drive a PC-user crazy.
My wife’s employer was PC-based, so she drove a Windows PC.
My MAC would drive her up-the-wall.
I am now on MAC number-three, this MacBook Pro laptop. I still have number-two, my G4 tower, but number-one, a beige G3 desktop, tanked. It’s probably cluttering some landfill.
My niece got my wife’s PC when my wife died. It was a laptop, and its operating-system was Windows-Seven. It replaced her big clunker laptop with Windows-XP.
I don’t watch TV hardly at all.
I prefer this here ‘pyooter and the Internet.
Which can lead astray, but I know that.
I’ve seen spellings of Hillary Clinton as both “Hillary” and “Hilary.”
And Dulles Airport as both “Dulles” and “Dullas.”
I also read a history-article that had Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Horseshoe Curve” originally built with four tracks.
Uh NO; one or two. It was later increased to three and then four. But it wasn’t originally built with four tracks.
So without my beloved Internet I climb the walls.
Finally I called Time-Warner, my Internet-service-provider.
“We value your call. Please hold during the silence: BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA!”
After a few minutes I reported no Internet to some high-school dropout.
After a few minutes more I got referred to Internet-Technical-Support.
Sounded like India — the guy could hardly speak English. But he fiddled my modem from wherever he was.
“It’s back,” I declared.
I then reported my modem was probably five years old: ancient in the ‘pyooter-world.
He suggested I should swap for a new modem; my original modem was free from Time-Warner, and the new modem would be free too. (It’s their modem.)
So drag-ass all the way to Time-Warner in deepest, darkest Rochester (NY) — I have a slew of other errands I could do along the way.
So Monday (July 28th) I took my dog and drove all-the-way to Time-Warner, about 20 miles one-way.
I now have a new modem, and it’s getting Internet.
Sweetness and light!
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• My beloved wife died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly.
• My current dog is “Scarlett” (two “Ts,” as in Scarlett O’Hara), a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s ten, and is my sixth Irish-Setter, a high-energy dog. (A “rescue Irish Setter” is an Irish Setter rescued from a bad home; e.g. abusive or a puppy-mill. [Scarlett was from a failed backyard breeder.] By getting a rescue-dog, we avoid puppydom, but the dog is often messed up. —Scarlett isn't bad. She’s my fourth rescue.)
Labels: 'pyooter ruminations
posted by BobbaLew at 5:38 PM
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