October 10, 2014
Dear Everyone:
Last June, I bought a new
printer.
The old printer had developed a problem in which it insisted there was a
“jam” in the cartridge area and refused to believe me when I assured it
that there was nothing there.
I had bought that printer when the one before it suddenly stopped
printing with black ink.
The thing of it is, I could try to find a “repair shop” for printers.
And, assuming one existed, they would keep the printer for the
time it takes to order a part and install it.
In the meantime, I would be without a printer for who knew how
long. Or I could just buy a
new printer, thus saving a great deal of time and effort.
I even decided to get the “extended warranty” for about $25.
I figured a printer has enough moving parts that can wear out
and/or break to make the “extended warranty” worth the added cost,
should the printer break down within the “extended” time limit.
Here’s what I discovered:
The store guarantees that, should the printer break in less than two
years, the store will not fix
it; the store will not
replace it; the store will “extend” me a credit, in the amount of the
original purchase, towards the purchase of a new printer, at that store,
of course.
In other words: The store
figures a printer should last for about two years.
Same for other electronic devices, including your average
computer.
Now you may be thinking, “How many moving parts can there be in a
computer? If it’s a laptop,
there’s a hinge, but what else?”
Actually, the hard disk drive, where all the applications (aka “apps”)
and files are stored. A
computer expert once attempted to describe what happens when you turn on
the computer and the disk drive starts up:
“Imagine a 747 airliner is taking off, from a standing start,
inside your computer. It’s
like that.”
Last month, my laptop started having some little problems, like freezing
in the middle of something, running especially slow in one particular
application, that kind of thing.
So how old was that laptop?
Exactly two years and one month old.
So here’s my philosophy:
Don’t wait for something to break at the most inconvenient time
possible, thus forcing you to get a replacement right then and there.
Been there, done that.
Instead, get the new one while you still have time to continue
using the old one. That way
you can “learn” the new appliance/system while still relying on the old
one.
On the one hand, imagine having your kitchen oven suddenly conk out on
Easter Sunday when you have two dozen people coming for dinner.
On the other hand, you can’t exactly keep an “extra” oven sitting
in the middle of the kitchen, can you?
Life is a balancing act.
Last weekend, I bought a new laptop.
Why that exact time?
It was on sale. And it was
on site, which is to say, I got the last one they had in stock.
I also bought the newest version of
Microsoft Office (Word,
Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), having been limping along with the 2010
version all this time. It
was also on sale. And I had
a store coupon that even applied to electronics (most don’t.)
In all, I saved $180.
The new laptop uses Windows 8.
I’m used to Windows 7.
Not that Windows 8 is a complete mystery to me.
My cell phone uses a version of Windows 8 and I’ve had it for
almost two years. (Note to
Self: Time to get a new cell
phone. Wait until after
Christmas.)
The new laptop comes with all kinds of “Help” already available.
Including a “Tutorial” that will, briefly, show you all the new
bells-and-whistles of Windows 8.
Unfortunately, “Help” tends to be written by and for people who already
know what they’re doing. I
needed something more. So I
went looking for a book online.
Not a Kindle book, a “real” book.
Something I can flip through the index and mark pages when I want
to.
Last Sunday “Jeannie” decided that she only had time for lunch.
After lunch, we decided to take a quick look in a “discount
electronics store” that happened to be in the same (very large) shopping
center. Since the book I
needed was about computers, they might have one.
Once we entered the (rather huge) store, “Jeannie” saved time by asking
for directions to where the books would be located.
One person knew they had books, just not where.
Asked a second person, who referred to a third person.
The Third Person, a young woman, not only led us to the part of
the store that held books, she even reached down to the lowest shelf and
brought up “…this is the book you need.”
Not only a book on how to use Windows 8, it was specifically
written for the “60-and-better” crowd, with extra-large font and
pictures. And it was $8.00
less than the same book from an online sales site.
So now I’m learning Windows 8 while still using the “old reliable”
Windows 7 on the old laptop, which I’m stubbornly continuing to use for
now.
Windows 8 has something called “Start”.
Windows 7 had “Start”, but this “new-and-improved Start” is (big
surprise) completely different.
Nothing is where it used to be.
“Start” is where you can find all your “apps” (short for
applications, i.e., the programs you use the computer to run, like
Word,
Excel, etc.) Except when you
can’t find the ones you want in the “forest” of ones you never use.
The new “Start” has “Tiles” that launch your apps for you.
I suspect the geniuses at
Microsoft noticed how many people
created Shortcuts on their
desktops to get to the stuff they use the
most. So Microsoft made it
“easier” to cover your desktop with “Tiles” instead of “Shortcuts”, thus
ignoring those of us who never felt the need for that many Shortcuts.
I, personally, used the “taskbar”, that thing that usually sits at the
bottom of the screen (although you can move it to another location,
typically by accident.) I
even discovered, quite recently, that by right-clicking an icon on the
taskbar, it displays links to the last ten documents I worked on.
Isn’t that great?
Wouldn’t you know I’d figure that out just in time to move on to
something new?
The new system is not all gloom-and-doom.
I actually like some things about it, and will, no doubt, quickly
become so used to doing things the new way that I won’t remember how I
did it in “The Good Old Days”.
One thing I already found I like:
The Weather Tile.
Click on this Tile for the first time, and the system asks if I want to
change the location, or even let it assume my current location, based on
I’m-afraid-to-ask. So now I
have a Tile that continually checks and reports on the Weather in
San
Ramon.
Thanks to the Book, I was even able to create more Weather Tiles and
group them together. I now
know, at a glance, what the Weather is in
San Ramon,
Concord,
Clinton
Corners, Tucson,
Lake Oswego…
Love, as always,
Pete
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