Thursday, August 30, 2012

Learning Curve

Rerun picture from 2011


Hey, hey! I finally am the proud owner of a new computer. We brought the gleaming beauty home on Monday night. We haven't bought a computer since 1999; thirteen long years ago which, in Computer Years, is as old as Dirt.

What a performance difference a few more ram-a-bytes and gigawhatzits makes. Just check out those numbers......1TB 5400RPM hard drive and a 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 2 DIMM

( Nope, I don't know what it means either. But Joel assures me it's a wee bit faster than my old one.)

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the '2 DIMM' refers to Carl and I, for we are very dim at times. For instance, when we opened the carton and found no Instruction Manual, we were puzzled. Huh. I looked all through the box, but there was no bulky manual, just a folded up piece of paper with diagrams showing:

Step 1.

Take it out of the box.

Followed by Step 2.

Plug it in.

No  words, just pictures of those two steps. Come to find out, if I want an Owner's Manual I can download one for free online. Okey dokey, no Owner's Manual to lose and not printing a book saved a tree, right?

Now all I have to do is figure out all the bells and whistles. I am very lucky that Joel has a lot of patience with his Maternal Unit and has devoted several hours to answering my silly questions.  So far, he tolerates my insistence on the use of a corded mouse (yes, I know how to operate the touch pad thing, but it drives me nuts) and also my plug-in ergonomic keyboard, which to paraphrase Weird Al Yankovich, 'Never Leaves Me Bored' (Ok, so you'd have to know of the video of the song 'White and Nerdy' to understand what I'm talking about, check it out, very funny.)

 I understand the idea of going wireless and all the convenience, but I can type a whole lot faster on the Ergo and my palm isn't always dragging across the touch-pad moving everything around, either.  Hey, I'm set in my ways.  Like concrete.

With all the Ram-a-Gigs and Terrabytes, you'd think you'd see some pictures in this post, wouldn't you?  Well, as soon as I figure out how to resize pictures on Windows 7 like I could do before, we'll be back in the photo business.   There must be an app for that.  (Ooops, that's a trademarked statement, please disregard.)  I'll figure it out eventually, hopefully before Joel yanks out any more hair.

Give me another thirteen years. 




















10 comments:

Sue said...

Congrats on the new computer, Karen. And no-you don't get a manual anymore for anything. Cuts into those mega-profits all companies seem to need. Ya know, that 35 cents to print up some info really hurts them--haha!
Good luck!

Nadezda said...

Karen, I laughed reading your post! I had not the Manuel neither any disk with instruction too. Only a paper with silly pictures. Windows 7 ! I don't liked it with its "yellow books"-folders. So I downloaded the Linux too, it's very simple.
Congratulation to your new computer, I love the headed photo of your blog!

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Hurray for you guys, a new computer. New electronic gadgets do cause anxiety that is for dang sure.

Once you get used to windows 7 you'll do fine.

With our lap top, we bought a wireless mouse as I hate that touch pad thing, drives me nuts. I have a wireless mouse with my regular computer too.

Happy learning ~ FlowerLady

Lona said...

Congrats on the new computer Karen.I am the same way, where is the manual. LOL! I am glad my son is also the computer geek in this family. Have a fun time figuring it all out. LOL!

Junebug said...

Karen, I feel your pain. I'm still trying to figure out Window 7 and it has been several months. Does slow learner come to mind? Maybe that statement,"It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks". Yes, I am on a big learning curve and would love to get off. Please send me Joel!!!

Andrea said...

Your posts are always so funny, i mean entertaining! You write so well, that's it, and even if most of us want to just look at the photos, if it's you who posted, i read even the prepositions and articles, haha! You will not be bored for weeks to come, maybe the plants and the Argh will suffer much!

Alison said...

Congrats on the new computer! Yep, things have changed quite a bit since you bought your last one. Are you sure you need to resize photos? I just upload mine to Picasa and the website figures it out. But then, mine is a Mac. Very user-friendly.

Unknown said...

Its hard for my husband and I to keep up with technology..congrats on your computer!

El Gaucho said...

Congrats on the new computer. We look forward to all the awesome new blog entries that the new computer will be able to help you create!!

Unknown said...

Karen I so totally know what your saying about the whole "resizing" of photos... it use to be easy. clink on them.. then drag them bigger!... I haven't figured out why my last couple posts have smaller photos so Im holding them in draft till I can figure it out!