The Digital Revolution
There seems to be a peculiar electromagnetic field in this house that prevents electrical equipment from working correctly. Either that or all our gadgets are staging a revolt.
In the last couple of months, we have brought a games console, portable TV, and DVD recorder into the flat, in the hope that we would be able to use them for the activities intended by the manufacturer.
So far, the games console requires you to switch it off and back on again approximately 4 times, before it will load the disk you have inserted. The portable TV (which is new) doesn't work at all in the bedroom, but works perfectly in the kitchen. And the DVD recorder worked perfectly (by which I mean we plugged it in and a little light came on), until we tried to watch a DVD on it. At this point it decided it wasn't necessary to show us the pretty pictures, and that the soundtrack should be enough for us. I mean, pictures? Honestly, who needs to see Johnny Depp when you can hear his voice?!
So Fiance has spent the last couple of weeks switching things off and back on again, alternating cables, checking sockets, changing plugs, digging around for instruction manuals, searching geeky internet chatrooms for solutions, losing his temper and kicking things. We haven't watched any of the DVDs we got for Christmas yet, and I wasn't able to record Time Bandits this afternoon, godammit.
I think Fiance suspects I'm casting some kind of spell to turn him into a raving loony*.
*It's working - bwa-hahaha! He's developed an eye twitch, and shudders whenever you mention the word 'xbox'.
Ahh, Christmas!
In the last couple of months, we have brought a games console, portable TV, and DVD recorder into the flat, in the hope that we would be able to use them for the activities intended by the manufacturer.
So far, the games console requires you to switch it off and back on again approximately 4 times, before it will load the disk you have inserted. The portable TV (which is new) doesn't work at all in the bedroom, but works perfectly in the kitchen. And the DVD recorder worked perfectly (by which I mean we plugged it in and a little light came on), until we tried to watch a DVD on it. At this point it decided it wasn't necessary to show us the pretty pictures, and that the soundtrack should be enough for us. I mean, pictures? Honestly, who needs to see Johnny Depp when you can hear his voice?!
So Fiance has spent the last couple of weeks switching things off and back on again, alternating cables, checking sockets, changing plugs, digging around for instruction manuals, searching geeky internet chatrooms for solutions, losing his temper and kicking things. We haven't watched any of the DVDs we got for Christmas yet, and I wasn't able to record Time Bandits this afternoon, godammit.
I think Fiance suspects I'm casting some kind of spell to turn him into a raving loony*.
*It's working - bwa-hahaha! He's developed an eye twitch, and shudders whenever you mention the word 'xbox'.
Ahh, Christmas!
Labels: Technology
This entry was posted
on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 9:31 pm.
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Electronic gadgets make life more and more complicated as we are now all supposed to know so many more "basic" things about how to use them.
In our house it is the Freeview box that is causing most bother (this is our third Freeview Box). For reasons best known to itself, it will suddenly lose all signal, leading to a checking of connections and general frustration.
The problem can be 'fixed' by turning it off and on again after a while - have you ever tried to turn off a Freeview box? You can't, except by physically unplugging it. (At least our first Freeview box had a reset button). The current one gets turned off, (pause) then on and takes 5 minutes to suddenly spring into life again.
Like your fiance, I have been on websites and chatrooms specialising in what to do when your particular bit of kit acts up. It is geekiness hell and not a good place to go for the sane.
I only need things to work properly. (sigh).
And by the way, ask any kid to sort out something geeky, and they usually manage it, but try asking them to wire a plug correctly and they are stumped - it is not a good sign of the times.
Oh lord, that does NOT sound like a good time to me... Marry Christmas and a happy new year!
David - Freeview boxes are a pain in the ARSE! We got rid of ours, because our new TV has it built in, but we still don't get all the channels we should and we can't rescan the box because we don't have a box anymore! Grrr. All these things are supposed to make life easier!
Meg - Thanks very much, and to you too. I'll check into your site for my Brangelina gossip...!
What you require is a bloke who works in IT. It is a well documented fact that IT blokes have special IT free-radicals surrounding them. This is why when, say your PC decides not to play at work, it works perfectly fine the time you show the IT guy what it was you were doing!
I have tested this theory. It even works on vending machines that the IT guy knows nothing about.
(I'm not being sexist here, btw, just not yet tested this theory on any IT chicks).
Well, I suppose you could say I've become something of an IT chick in my current job (although don't ask me any IT questions), and I've noticed a strange reversal of roles - people now say to me 'honestly it didn't work till 2 minutes ago!' rather than me saying it to others.
Thanks for visiting petifilou!
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