Sunday, February 03, 2008

Fly pens, MP3 players, and rotten routers

The extremes of new technology. On one hand, since I'm now having to do a lot of writing for my classes, I indulged in a Fly Fusion Pentop Computer - in other words, a digital pen. It was originally made for high schoolers but I'm not proud. All I need it to do is recognize my handwriting so I don't have to retype my notes. It works. Like a charm. Too kewl.
Rosie wanted an iPod for Christmas but as she's six years old and prone to either losing or breaking one, we got her a bright pink Creative Zen Stone instead. Of course I had to get one too, only mine is blue. As did Jennifer. Hers is white. I even got one for my brother. His is black. Then you get sucked into buying the accessories...you need a "skin" to protect the thing. And that's only the beginning.
I immediately signed up with audible.com (they just got taken over by Amazon) so I could listen to audio books while I drove to and from work. Love it love it love it. So far I've listened to M is for Magic and A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, about a quarter of some horribly dull alternate history about Atlantis, and Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin.
About two weeks ago the router I use to get on the internet suddenly fell off the window sill and hit my shoulder! Definitely poltergeist activity. Anyway, the router broke a few days later and had to be replaced. What a hassle. It took a few trips to Best Buy and two different routers to get back up and running. I used to be embarassed that Microsoft had such bad customer service. Not anymore. D-Link and Verizon are neck and neck in the "crappy attitude towards customers" hall of fame. The customer service rep at D-Link actually hung up on me after pumping me for address, serial number of unit, telephone number, etc. If it had been a bad connection and she had just gotten cut off she would have called back. Nope.
Well, off to write a bullsh*t paper on the theory of communication - rant on my Philosophy of Communication class to follow.

1 comment:

Maria said...

it's true - once you start on something new, there is no end to all the different gadgets you suddenly need!
(I know how true it is from sewing and gardening!)
Thank you for your comments on my blog - and I would love to try the lemon cucumber - do you think it can grow outside (I don't have a greenhouse in the new place - yet (see above :-)).
ANd BTW - if you plan on coming to this side of the pond (as Tini says) this summer you are more than welcome to stay here for a little vacation - we would love to have you here!
Hugs!