I have never been into technology or gadgets. My poor long suffering sister and future brother in law are both in IT (I use the phrase "in IT" in the loosest of contexts here as I know they have degrees but as to what they actually do, well, they work with widgets and dongles). These two often receive phone calls from me telling them that the "thingy" on the screen that takes me to facebook is gone, or that my documents have disappeared, yes, yes, I did press delete, but surely it can't be gone, it must still be in the laundry basked somewhere.
So coming from a very low base, I had to learn a couple of things when we moved to the farm a couple of years ago. Having always relied heavily on the companies I worked for to provide IT (by this I mean the actual computer) as well as support (like my sister, but less irritated with me because they get paid to help me), I was extremely chuffed with myself when I bought my very first laptop, with legal copies of word (or is that windows), a 3g card and a printer. Man oh man, the long suffering sister will be impressed.
Within a week I was in tears, my very own copy of windows was office related, whatever that means, so my excel, word and the like was all wrong and no good for doing any work, I could not find the dongle to connect to the internet and the touchpad had a life of its own refusing to obey even the simplest of commands. At this stage it felt as if it would be easier to actually go to a petshop and train a hamster to run around pointing at the screen than it was to operate this thing.
I got better, within the month, I had shed so many tears on the touchpad that it started working, it apparently only needed some lubrication. I upgraded to a much more expensive version of word so it looked the same as the ones I was used to, I found my internet dongle thingy so I could google, and the calls to the long suffering sibling became less frequent. This did not mean that I did not have her look at my laptop whenever I saw her, she was my mechanic.
So imagine my surprise when a small gadget walked into my life late last year, his name is blackberry, bb for short. How did I ever survive without this oke? Standing in line at the cafeteria waiting for my daily cuppa to be brewed, no problem, I will check out what the folks are up to on the farm via facebook. Stuck in traffic, let me read the Jerry Springer type updates on www.fmylife.com, lying in bed waiting for my morning coffee to be delivered, let me read the news or do some banking and so I can continue.
The other amazing ability that bb has is that all my e-mails follow me wherever I go, so my boss thinks that I am always at work as I can reply to his e-mail whilst sitting at home polishing my nails sipping on another large cup of coffee. How did I survive without this little miracle worker in my life. This device can probably sort out third world poverty if given the chance.
So I placed an order for another little widget for my upcoming birthday, a kindle. I told my husband that we will save thousands of rands and trees in a year if I stop buying books, so watch this space as I am sure kindle and bb will remain my best friends forever for a long time to come...
So coming from a very low base, I had to learn a couple of things when we moved to the farm a couple of years ago. Having always relied heavily on the companies I worked for to provide IT (by this I mean the actual computer) as well as support (like my sister, but less irritated with me because they get paid to help me), I was extremely chuffed with myself when I bought my very first laptop, with legal copies of word (or is that windows), a 3g card and a printer. Man oh man, the long suffering sister will be impressed.
Within a week I was in tears, my very own copy of windows was office related, whatever that means, so my excel, word and the like was all wrong and no good for doing any work, I could not find the dongle to connect to the internet and the touchpad had a life of its own refusing to obey even the simplest of commands. At this stage it felt as if it would be easier to actually go to a petshop and train a hamster to run around pointing at the screen than it was to operate this thing.
I got better, within the month, I had shed so many tears on the touchpad that it started working, it apparently only needed some lubrication. I upgraded to a much more expensive version of word so it looked the same as the ones I was used to, I found my internet dongle thingy so I could google, and the calls to the long suffering sibling became less frequent. This did not mean that I did not have her look at my laptop whenever I saw her, she was my mechanic.
So imagine my surprise when a small gadget walked into my life late last year, his name is blackberry, bb for short. How did I ever survive without this oke? Standing in line at the cafeteria waiting for my daily cuppa to be brewed, no problem, I will check out what the folks are up to on the farm via facebook. Stuck in traffic, let me read the Jerry Springer type updates on www.fmylife.com, lying in bed waiting for my morning coffee to be delivered, let me read the news or do some banking and so I can continue.
The other amazing ability that bb has is that all my e-mails follow me wherever I go, so my boss thinks that I am always at work as I can reply to his e-mail whilst sitting at home polishing my nails sipping on another large cup of coffee. How did I survive without this little miracle worker in my life. This device can probably sort out third world poverty if given the chance.
So I placed an order for another little widget for my upcoming birthday, a kindle. I told my husband that we will save thousands of rands and trees in a year if I stop buying books, so watch this space as I am sure kindle and bb will remain my best friends forever for a long time to come...
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