Computer Savvy

I’d like to think of myself as pretty technologically savvy for the most part. I’d also like to think I’m good at a lot of other things but then I try to balance the chequebook…

I’ve had the opportunity in past careers to be exposed to a lot of different computer systems and programs, so I’m pretty comfortable mucking about with my home unit. I learned a lot about how programs and hardware work together and in some cases, how you can break them. I think I’ve seen enough computer glitches to understand most and be able to fix said glitches. And that’s when it happened.

I tried to put a CD from my music library on my computer this morning. I’ve done it hundreds of times with success (and legally!). So to my consternation, nothing seemed to work when I put the CD into the drive. I checked the settings and to my confusion, the file I save my music to has renamed itself. Used to be Drive E, now Drive F. Huh.

I know that in the past, I was the one naming things on the computer, so I wasn’t too worried about the confusion. Nice change.

After digging into the problem for a few minutes, I came to the conclusion that I should probably ask someone for help. Yes, that’s right. I have learned from past mistakes. Hard to believe but true. This means that others of the male species are capable of the same thing, so take heart, ladies.

I happen to love this Internet thingy and all the cool toys we have at our disposal. The opportunity to learn new things and see parts of the world via the computer has done wonders for the Human Race. What I’m waiting for now, is for all my techie toys to take care of themselves for me.

I don’t want to have to get a degree in computer science every time I get a new phone or upgrade my laptop. I don’t want to have a bookcase full of user manuals, a library of CD’s or an online library of help topics I have to search to get answers.

I want the devices I use to answer me directly. I would love to ask my computer, right now, why it changed the name of the backup drive from E to F. Is that the same as changing my name from David to Dave? If it is, and the computer is smart enough to rename itself, why isn’t smart enough to remember that it was E last week and backup my stuff properly as F? I just tried to tell it to save stuff to F now and it won’t do it. Maybe F is too good for menial tasks now that it’s all grown up…

For those science fiction fans out there, I want to be in the Star Trek universe, where I just ask the computer, it answers me and then actually DOES what I asked it to do! Not argue, not think about it, just do what I ask.

Wouldn’t that be something! I hope all you computer specialists out there are reading this, cause I need this to come sooner than later. Remember, I have three kids and they seem to be acting as well as my computer these days. Hmmm, maybe that’s where my system got it from…