Pbenjay's Blog

Wi-Fi Signal logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I consider myself to be pretty well-versed in computer technology considering my age (which means it’s possible Finley is better at it than me lol).  BUT today, OMG, what a freakin’ nightmare.  Here’s how it went down…

I opened up my new MAC PRO and attempted to log onto the WiFi in the apartment.  I tried at least 15 times to access it and each time I got an error message telling me the password or the WEP whatever that is was incorrect.  What to do?  I  had brought my new MAC PRO to New York so I could look at the screen  on my pc desktop and read the directions on how to install my company’s remote connection.  I did this because I thought it would be easier than trying to read the PDF on my ‘Droid.  I mean every time I try to widen and enlarge the screen on the phone, it either goes bonkers big or expands and contracts at will all the time moving around the page!  Geez, what a pain that is.  But aha, I have my very own personal IT support person!  I contacted him through  Skype on the DELL to see if he could walk me through the dilemma.  I have TeamViewer on my DELL and also had it on my old laptop which meant he could access my computer remotely and fix any problem I had.   Well of course I don’t have that program on the MAC yet and as he reminded me, I needed to be on the internet in order to install TeamViewer, duh!!! Finally, and I have no idea what I did differently on the 16th try, the MAC picked up the WiFi network.  

When I opened up the desktop  to look at the PDF,  I knew right away this was going to be a problem.  I had come back to New York last week and discovered that my screen had the shakes!  I had left the computer in sleep mode for several weeks and apparently something happened to it. With the screen blurring due to the wiggling pixels it was impossible to read some of the instructions – most specifically the last 3 characters of the website I needed to access.  How ridiculous!  I even tried using  a magnifying glass to discern the words – all to no avail.

OK, thinking that there is more than one way to skin a cat (What a horrible idea!), I thanked God that I had brought my iPad home also and could connect to the company through it.  I was able to access the company files and proceeded to spend 20 minutes trying to retrieve the email sent to me by our IT support person which had the PDF in it.  For some reason, I couldn’t get the side slide bar to move easily up and down the list of emails while trying to find that one.  Maybe I am so used to using a mouse that I couldn’t finesse the electronic touch pad.  Finally, yes finally I found the email and opened the PDF.  Now at least I had the website where the instruction were supposed to be.  How MANY times do you think I typed in those 25 or more characters, underscores, forward slashes and dots?  I don’t know!!!! I called the company IT support person and left a whiny message about how the web address he gave me didn’t work.  I can’t believe I did that because I KNOW it’s never the computer, it’s always the operator.  Sure enough after re-typing it for umpteenth time, I got it right – apparently the address was auto-filling in a lot of the wrong characters I entered earlier and in the end, I realized it was missing the http:// OMG! I had to make a second phone call asking IT to disregard my previous message 😦 (read embarrassed).

I now had 3 computers open in a triangle of about 2 feet AND a large Starbucks Americano.  Well of course the inevitable happened- I knocked it over, screamed and scared the cat right out of the chair and quickly tossed the red-light-flashing mouse out of danger.  After that fiasco, I was able to download and install the remote connection program.  I had this cute little open box icon on my screen and when I clicked on it, the installation directions came up again. Ai yi yi.   I went back to the iPad and managed to move the cursor down enough to get to page 3 and 4 of the instructions and there it was – a picture of the program’s icon not just the box it arrived in.  I looked down at my task bar and there it was.  Needless to say I had already looked there and in the Finder and Mission Control (oh god, I love these MAC terms lol) and never recognized it!

Finally I was able to open the program to make sure it was working and it was.  Time to close the pc, turn off the iPad, pick up the ‘Droid and shut down the MAC and leave!!!! It felt good to get out of the jungle and see the light again.