I hate computer problems. I resent taking the time to learn or understand what is wrong and I sure don’t like to fixing them. One thing I LOVED about work was my access to an IT expert. It was bliss.
It would be great to have an IT person come in to clean your computer like a house cleaning service does. They would swoosh out the bad and make it all better. It’s not going to happen here anytime soon.
The other thing I hate are updates. Something always goes kerflooey. (Yes, that’s a technical term!)
Microsoft updated my computer yesterday morning. I was dead in the water for more than an hour. Between freezing out and losing stuff, even my Starbucks mocha wasn’t doing much.
This is when I remember how important backups are. I made a pact with the computer gods that I will back up everything if they make it work NOW.
A half-dozen reboots and a lot of time later, all was good. The gods heard me. I have to backup my stuff. Yes, I do. Yesterday I lost all my contacts (temporarily) and I freaked out. There is no way I remember anyone’s email address or anything else. No birthdays, no Christmas cards, no nothing. I can’t even talk about the calendar. All those appointments (with special notes) lost!
Paper was so reliable as long as you remembered where you put it.
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
We should keep a backup of our machines. They are machines and can be give a problem any time. For backup we can use external hard drive, one drive, dropbox, or any network storage.
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Backups is very important in digital world. Anything can happen with anyone anytime
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Yes. It’s an advantage with Microsoft. I can back up to the cloud and access from anywhere.
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Pingback: Computer issues, ack! — Views and Mews by Coffee Kat – Sporting Jazz Music
The Geek Squad is my lifesaver. They’re located at Best Buy stores, and you can find them online at bestbuy.com. For a reasonable annual fee, you can contact them 24/7 through their app, and a tech will service your computer remotely.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I’m looking to get another ‘puter. Something small and portable and will check around, including Best Buy (even though our local one is not a great one). I will check out Geek Squad.
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It’s so wonderful when it works, but hold on to your seat when it’s down. I know one thing, there is no doubt in my mind that I could erase an appointment and reschedule it faster than my computer.
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They (the computers) lull us into completely trusting them then they gobsmack you when you are not looking.
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I feel your pain, Kate. I get so frustrated with updates. We’ve had good success lately, and I’m a little afraid that admitting that has just jinxed my successes. 🙂 I am not the best at backing up either. Thank you for the reminder!
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I take it for granted when all is going well. I don’t like to take the time to learn new things on it. Then it breaks and I spend a week learning all the new stuff. Argh!
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I rely on paper for LOTS of things ~ address book, birthdays & anniversaries, etc. I just find it easier. Good luck, Kate! Technology is great when it behaves.
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I do backups in paper. I print out my contacts at least once a year (unless I don’t) and keep those business card sized appointment cards. My blogs are on WordPress and I keep a printed version of anything I consider critical. Still…..computers have made life a lot easier….when they work.
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Oh, the language around this place when technology decides to play games with me. I take it quite personally. The idea of a personal IT support system does sound blissful. Charley is quite helpful, but last night I actually figured out how to create a WordPress post by pasting from a Word file.He was impressed! But I don’t think choosing a husband on the basis of computer expertise is a good idea.
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I use Word for all my WP posts. I find editing there easier. Finding a reasonable service that is timely (nope, can’t wait a week until you have time!) is hard although once you find one, you’re good. Somehow I can’t imagine a pre-husband questionnaire with IT questions. Mine had deal breakers like “animal lover” and “kindness.” Somehow IT skills, while wonderful, doesn’t come up to the rank of deal breaker. Then again, when I’m having computer issues……
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Very wise decision on the husband front – deal breakers like that cannot be ignored. I’ll be using Word more often for the posts now that I’ve figured out the cut and paste method.
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Once again you are on to something, Kate. I think it is a great idea to have a regular ‘computer maid’ service, similar to Molly Maid. I would be among the first to sign up!
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I’m in! I’ve been researching back up options and my head hurts.
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I finally realized I have to have a backup that happens automatically or I just won’t do it. I have a service now. It bothers me to pay for it because I know that this money is basically a bribe tot he universe insuring that I will never need the backup. Another weird expense to our modern lives.
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That’s the best kind to have. I should do that too. I used to have a hard device that did an auto backup every night. I never had to do anything. It was wonderful until updates make it outdated.
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Good timing with this post, Kate. Today not one but two geeks-on-wheels visited me to “fix” a relentless ongoing problem with both my Macs that has defied three companies so far. Close to my limit but eighth time lucky! I have envied employed people with their IT support departments, but you-know-what comes to us all eventually.
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Glad today was successful for you! I’m doing ok now but have to work on the back up thing.
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Oh, I don’t know yet. We’ve got a trial running with both computers. Mac does automatic backups daily, which is perfect (usually). But I feel pretty securely backed up by having all my files in DropBox.
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Ok, you use Dropbox!
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I agree! Paper still gets my vote even if I can’t find it. No faith in these new fangled gadgets or their robotic creators who insist on interfering with life.
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Yes and nothing (NOTHING) is intuitive. Or maybe it’s just intuitive to a prepubescent child who creates these things.
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The tech experts need to make things much less frightening for us mere mortals.
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Simpler, easier, yes!
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I would have chosen my spouse much differently had I realized how useful having IT support at home would be. And here I thought that love was enough.
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The internet wasn’t invented back then but what you say is true. Sure wish I had a grandchild or neighbor with the skills living right next door.
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Friends always said “get a Mac!” when I used to complain about the Windows updates. So I did. And I do love it. But guess what? Mac’s have to be updated too, and I’ve learned that things don’t always go so swimmingly afterwards on them either. I’m with you on the whole cloud back-up. It makes me nervous. – Marty
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So you don’t regret getting a Mac? Hopefully I’m a few years away from a new computer but I will look at them. As for clouds, I like things I can touch. Clouds seem so hackable.
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Don’t even get me started! Ugh. So now instead of paper and remembering where it’s filed, I feel as if I have to put everything on the computer in case I lose the paper and keep a paper copy because I can’t find it on the computer. I really am missing “old times” too often lately.
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I can relate to that. I keep apt cards (marked with an “x” so I know I transferred it to the computer calendar) as a backup. I have a file cabinet for other “backups.” Still, I don’t keep near as much paper as I used to.
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Truly, I don’t keep as much either, but still it can feel like too much. I’ve been going through old insurance paperwork to shred. UGH.
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Yesterday must have been update day for Windows. I was around to keep delaying it and then I think it got sneaky and shut down the computer while I was cooking supper! I didn’t loose anything, though, thankfully. Glad you recovered everything!
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It was a scary hour when I thought my contacts were gone. I hate computers!
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That would be so stressful! Yeah, I’m not much of a fan, either.
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Oh, this is the great thing about having a husband who is a computer whiz.
Except when he’s at work. Or in the bathroom. (I’m not sure where he spends more time, actually.)
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He has to come out from either place to eventually “fix it.”
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I hate updates, I hate updates, I hate updates.
Did I mention I hate updates?
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Really? Have you heard anyone say they did….ever?
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Hubby is my IT guy and I hate to think how I’d cope without him. He has disabled the automatic updates on both our machines.
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The problem with that is sometimes you need the updates or it stops working completely. I found that out with my laptop. I rarely use it and each time I go to use it, there are close to an hour’s worth of updates before it will allow me to sign on.
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Oh, I can identify with that too, as some of my software is outdated and thus a lot of videos etc won’t run. Luckily, it’s all set up to remind me when an update is available and then it’s up to me to go ahead or not.
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That works if you understand what it’s going to do.
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I have a Mac…I rarely (knock wood) have issues. I also use paper for all my contacts, calendars everything like that. I’m definitely a planner girl, the prettier and the more stickers the better. Sorry for your troubles!
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I will consider a Mac next time. It’s just that I have to learn new stuff. I print out my contacts periodically but looking at my notes, my last printout was about 4 years ago. I have my docs with phone, address and email that would be lost. I will work on this this week. And a backup!
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Your last comment made me laugh. Paper was so reliable as long as you remembered where you put it. I rely heavily on my phone calendar. My problem is if I make a lunch date and think to myself, “You can remember that until you can enter it on your calendar.” But then I forget to enter the time or person or forget to enter it altogether!
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So I’m not the only one to do that!
My mind is like the Bermuda Triangle, Information goes in, sometimes never to be seen again.
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Must do right away! I have a short attention span!
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Yes. If I don’t write it somewhere, I forget.
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Yes. If I don’t write it somewhere, I forget too.
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I’ve always disliked updates. I had always set mine to manual so I could decide when to apply it. I would watch the support blogs for a couple days after the update, to see if there were any snafu’s. Now I think unless you have the most expensive version of Win10, you get the updates when they are sent out, and you can’t wait to see if they mess up.
I remember the update around 2000-2001 that broke the connectivity to the Internet. Many users couldn’t get online after the update rebooted. Of course Microsoft issued a patch to fix it, but guess what, you had to go online to get the patch. Hmmmm.
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My computer is set up to download updates overnight and automatically reboot. The odd thing was that I got a message that I needed to reboot while I was reading blogs. Things went downhill from there. I did several reboots and eventually whatever was hanging up got fixed. If the connectivity was broken, I would be up the creek as they say.
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Yes, that is part of Windows wonderful background updates. It does it in the background, and you don’t notice until it completes and decides it needs a reboot, to apply the update. I’m glad it worked out okay. That is always scary. Two months ago I turned on one of the computers here in the office, it decided to die at that moment. A couple beeps and nothing. Motherboard gave out. It was 9 years old though.
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My last one was hit by lightning (the only piece of equipment that was hit and it was on a surge protector) at 3 years.
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I had that security update last night. I am set for automatic updates and at 9:30 PM my laptop hummed, burped, and hissed its way through the update. All seems well this morning. I checked my contacts right in the middle of reading that you had lost your contacts for a short time. I have all my contacts on my phone and I back it up regularly.
Funny you mention paper. CH and I were talking about going back to paper for our statements after his brother scared the living daylights out of us about how insecure WiFi is. Now there is a topic for discussion! We won’t be going back to paper because the postman was having too much fun delivering mail to all the wrong addresses… 😀
I don’t use IE, I switched to Chrome and there was no going back. I hope you are all unkerflooeyed this morning!
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All better but the back up. I used to have a wonderful backup system. It was a physical piece. Now all the backup services are clouds. Not sure I trust clouds.
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Not a cloud person… befuddled by it. Still do my backup on an external drive. I do backup with iTunes and have no idea what that it… cloud? I don’t know, I just do it!
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The manufacturer of my external drive only carries “clouds” these days. I should look into it more but as I say, I resent any time spent on this stuff.
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How insecure? unsecured WiFi? Supposedly scary whether it is secured or not! OY!
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Ron has to answer that one. I’ve no idea.
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Wi-fi is insecure especially if your using a free public wi-fi spot. I would avoid checking sensitive things like banking or email if you are connected to a wi-fi hotspot at your favorite coffee shop etc. If you remain connected to your cell service while you are checking email etc, you should be good as that is generally encrypted.
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Thanks Ron. That is what I wanted to hear! I don’t do anything really on public WiFi. But my brother-in-law was scaring us over our private wifi at home. Makes me not want to do anything over the computer now… eeek! BIL says he does all his sensitive things over his phone using cell service.
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I’m sure you’ve backed up everything important now though! 😉
It’s infuriating when things don’t go smoothly.
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Ummm…no…not yet…did I mention I hate to do that stuff?
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I have a company here that I take my computer to once a year for a thorough cleaning up, and then I have a maintenance contract with them so I can call them with questions/problems as needed and they will help over the phone and fix things covered for free if I bring the computer in. They will also come do house calls, though that isn’t covered by the maintenance contract. Worth its weight in gold.
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I should look for something like that. My husband has been having slowness issues. The old things your would do for that like defrag and install updates are automatic now so we don’t know what’s causing it. It’s not our ISP because my computer is good.
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Updates are the worst!
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This is not the first time I’ve been tripped up by an auto update. Also my IE was reformatted. Argh! It’s not better, just different and I have to figure it out.
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I hate this updates… you are right, there is nothing better after it is done… it’s mostly much more worse, because a driver needs update now too and so they snitch my time minute per minute (or more hour per hour) I wonder why they are proud about windows when it needs so much updates? it is like karl lagerfeld would come 87 times to add a button or a bow on a dress after you wear it …
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Love your analogy. I took the time to find out what was updated and it was a lot of security stuff. So I wonder if we are now more secure….
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