Change of topic: whinge about computers.

Since Ken bought an Apple I-phone, we have discovered that both of our computers are woefully inadequate to cope with today's technology. I've known for ages that mine is obsolete, because it is becoming increasingly difficult (impossible!) to read some websites and blogs with the ME operating system on my 10 year old computer. Ken's laptop is about 6 years old, and uses the first XP operating system, and we've found out that is also too old to do some things on his computer.

When he bought the I-phone, the bloke at the Telstra shop reconfigured our Telstra account, supposedly saving us about $30 a month on our combined bills for the landline, my mobile, Ken's mobile, internet access and Foxtel. Along with this deal, we got a new cable modem free of charge. This was delivered during the week, and according to the Telstra salesman it was easy to install - "just rip out the old one, and plug in the new one!" Yeah, right. Don't you just HATE being a senior citizen and having these bloody kids tell you how easy it is to do this and that? Ken spent FOUR hours last night, trying to connect it. He plugged everything in all right - I'm darned if I know how he can figure out where all those cables go, but that was the least of his problems. There was a CD in the package with the modem, that had to be put in his laptop, and then he had to follow the prompts to connect our computers to the new modem. By 2 am, he was on the phone to Telstra to ask for help. Of course, he got someone in India or the Phillipines or somewhere...they couldn't understand Ken, and he had difficulty understanding them, so in the end Ken said politely "thanks for your help", hung up and went to bed!

I got up early this morning and rang another Telstra number that I found on an old instruction book, and I got through to a very sympathetic Aussie lady. I begged her to organise a technician to come here in person and set up the system, but she was able to check on her computer (signs of Big Brother here) what Ken had done (or tried to do) last night, and she said it appeared that he had successfully connected the modem to our computers. She then connected me to a 'technical support' person - overseas again - who went through a few technical issues, and finally got us back online. Phew! We still don't know what advantage (if any) the new modem has for us, as the original (10 years old) modem seemed to be working just fine. We are told this is a super duper WI FI modem...I still don't get this wi fi business. It sounds like hi fi to me and I know what that is (I was around before stereo was invented), but wi fi is a mystery.

Ken had an appointment with his cardiologist today (who is very pleased with Ken's heart, and doesn't need to see him until June next year), and after that, we went over to Greensborough to claim a refund from Medicare for the bill. While we were there, we decided to have a look at computers at Harvey Norman. Not to buy one, just to look. A very helpful (young, but surprisingly patient with us oldies) salesman took us over to the computer showroom and showed us all the latest computers, costing well over $1000. I was horrified - 'isn't there anything cheaper?' I asked. He said there may be, but it wouldn't be any better than what I had now, which I thought was ridiculous, 10 years down the track. He said no wonder mine was slow and couldn't do all the things I wanted it to do; I'm left with a glorified typewriter, I suppose. Ken's is a bit better, but he can't view his camera video clips either because the program you use to do that is no longer supported by XP. Geeeeeeeeezzzzz!!!!!!!!!! One starts to wonder if it is all worth the trouble....then I think about all my cyberspace friends and I think it IS worth the trouble, so we are going to have to bite the proverbial bullet and lash out on at least ONE new computer. But I do hope we can find something for less than $1000. That's an awful lot of money.