PRIORITIES, MAN!
Constant readers of this blog know about a week-and-a-half ago a virus infected my computer.
That virus has since been exorcised, and Apple’s “El Capitan” operating-system installed.
My operating-system had been Snow-Leopard, what came on this machine. My computer is about eight years old, antediluvian in the ‘pyooter world.
I was advised it was unsafe to fiddle the Internet with an operating-system so old.
Made sense to me, since I never click anything. Some website surreptitiously installed the virus.
The operating-system upgrade brought various hairballs, one being my e-mail, local to my machine, only worked one-way. It sent but wouldn’t receive.
I harassed my ‘pyooter-guru first. He suggested it was better to ask my Internet-service-provider (ISP) = Spectrum, previously Time-Warner Cable.
DREAD; phonecalls are the bane of a stroke-survivor, especially one with slight aphasia like me. It can make communication difficult: stoney silences as I struggle to get words out.
I called Spectrum. A girl ascertained they were getting my e-mail, but my machine was blocking it.
She gave me the 800-number of Apple tech-support. DREAD again; another phonecall. In this case to a large corporation that might put me on hold. “We value your call. Your wait will be three hours. Please hold during the silence: BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA!
Not what happened. I was referred to a girl almost immediately, and surprise-surprise; she spoke like a normal human, not some far-away Indian whose only command of English is “we’re deeply, deeply sorry.”
We set up a way of her viewing my screen. “See my red arrow?” she said. “Click that button!”
AMAZING! I guess Apple can afford to be human.
This certainly wasn’t the local hospital, where my question got batted around in circles, including to where I began.
It was my e-mail settings. El Capitan had clicked off “Allow anyone and everyone, including evil-doers.” (Actually it was “Allow insecure identification.”)
At this point my fellow college classmate, who drives a Windows PC, would weigh in: “Yer takin’ yer life in yer hands, Hughes. Why not cow-tow to my vast ‘pyooter wisdom?”
PRIORITIES MAN! I need my e-mail to work. It junks a lot already = spam-filters galore. I’m not yet being monitored. No antenna-festooned Transit-vans outside with binoculared goons inside radioing the NSA.
“No idea what we did,” I told the techie.
Now the ultimate test. I called my brother in northern DE.
“I need an e-mail,” I told him.
“DING!” It worked.
• I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered. Just tiny detriments; I can pass for never having had a stroke. It slightly compromised my speech. (Difficulty finding and putting words together.)
That virus has since been exorcised, and Apple’s “El Capitan” operating-system installed.
My operating-system had been Snow-Leopard, what came on this machine. My computer is about eight years old, antediluvian in the ‘pyooter world.
I was advised it was unsafe to fiddle the Internet with an operating-system so old.
Made sense to me, since I never click anything. Some website surreptitiously installed the virus.
The operating-system upgrade brought various hairballs, one being my e-mail, local to my machine, only worked one-way. It sent but wouldn’t receive.
I harassed my ‘pyooter-guru first. He suggested it was better to ask my Internet-service-provider (ISP) = Spectrum, previously Time-Warner Cable.
DREAD; phonecalls are the bane of a stroke-survivor, especially one with slight aphasia like me. It can make communication difficult: stoney silences as I struggle to get words out.
I called Spectrum. A girl ascertained they were getting my e-mail, but my machine was blocking it.
She gave me the 800-number of Apple tech-support. DREAD again; another phonecall. In this case to a large corporation that might put me on hold. “We value your call. Your wait will be three hours. Please hold during the silence: BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA!
Not what happened. I was referred to a girl almost immediately, and surprise-surprise; she spoke like a normal human, not some far-away Indian whose only command of English is “we’re deeply, deeply sorry.”
We set up a way of her viewing my screen. “See my red arrow?” she said. “Click that button!”
AMAZING! I guess Apple can afford to be human.
This certainly wasn’t the local hospital, where my question got batted around in circles, including to where I began.
It was my e-mail settings. El Capitan had clicked off “Allow anyone and everyone, including evil-doers.” (Actually it was “Allow insecure identification.”)
At this point my fellow college classmate, who drives a Windows PC, would weigh in: “Yer takin’ yer life in yer hands, Hughes. Why not cow-tow to my vast ‘pyooter wisdom?”
PRIORITIES MAN! I need my e-mail to work. It junks a lot already = spam-filters galore. I’m not yet being monitored. No antenna-festooned Transit-vans outside with binoculared goons inside radioing the NSA.
“No idea what we did,” I told the techie.
Now the ultimate test. I called my brother in northern DE.
“I need an e-mail,” I told him.
“DING!” It worked.
• I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered. Just tiny detriments; I can pass for never having had a stroke. It slightly compromised my speech. (Difficulty finding and putting words together.)
Labels: 'pyooter ruminations
posted by BobbaLew at 12:33 PM
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