Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Computer Problems

If someone gave a computer IQ test today, I am afraid my score would be very low. I tried some new things…things that should have worked. Back in the good old days when I had DSL at the farm, things were so much simpler and a lot faster. My computer was networked with Jesse’s and I could easily print things or email pictures. Receiving and sending pictures did not take hours. I could even scan my computer for viruses and download updates in a matter of minutes. Now, I am on dial-up. Things take forever. My computer is no longer networked with Jesse’s. Her computer has all the pictures and the printer. My computer has the Internet. I have had to learn to use floppy disks to move things from one computer to the other. Then, when I try to send a picture it is huge and takes forever to send. Several times today just as the computer almost had this one email sent, it would blip and show that the email was still in my outbox. I finally gave up and went to town to do Wal Mart.

While I was shopping, I realized that Jesse would be getting home from work and might try to check her email on my computer. If she did, that stupid, huge email would try to send again before I had a chance to work on it. So, I tried to call her, but I got no answer. I tried her cell phone – no answer. When I finally got a hold of her (Okie-talk), I asked her where she had been. She said, "No where." I asked her why she had not answered the phone. "What phone? I’ve been on the computer." Duh! Then she asked why I had called. "To tell you not to get on the computer." I could see her in my mind - rolling her eyes. I explained about the big email and how it would not send. She said that she had noticed the same thing (yeha! I’m not crazy after all). By the time I got home from Wal Mart, she had put our Easy Share program on my computer. Maybe I will be able to email pictures easier now (after all, they call it Easy Share). Jesse worked with me to teach me how to do a few things. She did laugh and make fun of me (gotta get her kicks somewhere).

Now if I can just get someone to make the pictures work on my blogsite. But don’t hold your breath, because I am still hoping for kitchen cabinets, a barn, storage room, and a yard. And my ego needs to recover from Jesse's teasing.

2 comments:

Buck said...

Hey BB...just a suggestion about mailing pictures: resize them. The files are HUGE if your camera is 3 megapixels or above. You can cut them down by resizing them, or alternately, reducing the "quality" of the image. You need some sort of image management software to do this. Picasa is one such application and it's free. You can download it here. The link is to PC World's site, with a description of various image management/graphics editing applications.

Given you're on dial-up it may take an hour or so to download, but it would be worthwhile, especially if you can cut a 2MB picture down to a few hundred kilobytes.

And, by the way, I've found Blogger's "post an image" function is VERY "hit or miss." Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn't.

Buck said...

Correction, BB. That link I gave you is for IrfanView, another image management app. It's still free, but I think Picasa is better. Just google "picasa" and you'll find it; picasa is owned by Google, BTW. They're gonna own the world before it's all over!