Technology 3, Andre 0

Not that long ago, I used to be that guy that people went to when they needed help with their computers, printers, cell phones and FAX machines.

Hmm… if FAX machines are in the equation, maybe it was two decades ago, but in the grand scheme of things it feels like it was just yesterday.

Back in those days, it was a delight to be able to play with the faulty object in question, push a few buttons, pretend that I knew that I was doing, and before you could say “control-alt-delete”, I seemed able to fix things without even breaking a sweat, to the delight of family, friends and co-workers.

Even though I never really had any formal training, I seemed to have a knack for fixing small appliances too without setting fire to anything or ending up with a handful of leftover parts after reassembling. I don’t know where it came from, but I am certainly grateful.

Sadly, the only thing I wasn’t able to figure out and explain to my Grandmother was my Granddad’s universal remote after he passed away. That one remains a mystery to this day.

But over time, something happened. As technology evolved and became smarter (with fewer moving and serviceable parts) it seems my superpower in fixing appliances suddenly needed fixing itself.

And then you have weeks like this one, where I waved the white flag in defeat as technology in its infinite simplicity beat me into submission.

YouTube
Last year, I tried my hand at video blogging. I created a YouTube channel (all by myself) and posted a few videos of me delivering blog posts. I had a lot of fun trying it out and will likely try it again someday, it’s just that writing the blogs already takes a certain amount of time. To record and edit a video version adds significant development time. The YouTube channel is still there, but there isn’t much action going on, to the point of my practically forgetting it.

This past week, I revisited it only to find that a viewer generously posted some kind words a few weeks ago about one of my videos. I felt so bad that I wasn’t there to acknowledge it soon after it came in, as is my usual goal.

Scoreboard: Technology 1, Andre 0

Instagram
Even though I think I am getting the hang of Instagram and all of its features, I have recently been getting a pop up mentioning something about a message. Up to that point, I knew Instagram as resource for posting pictures, liking pictures, commenting on pictures and more recently, the ability to send a picture to an Instagram friend to enjoy something together …Message? What message?

It was only this past week I dug deeper and actually clicked on the pop up itself to find out it was from an organization that read my blog and wanted to discuss an opportunity. The worst part is that the message was left in April.

What has happened to the guy who had a “knack” for technology?

Scoreboard: Technology 2, Andre 0

The Car Windows
Thursday, I was heading out and on my way to the office and felt it was a little stuffy in the car. At the next intersection, I hit the controls to open the windows and bring in some fresh cool air. Once I hit the highway, with the speed heading toward 80 km/h, the old man in me said, “too cold! too cold!”. Up went the car windows… except… wait.. the passenger window is stuck open. Oh darn!

My first reaction was “Oh great! My day off tomorrow will be spent at the garage, fixing a broken car window motor. Lovely!”

Fortunately, I knew that my car dealership was just down the road and I could possibly make a quick detour to see what they might say. Before doing that, I figured I should test them all to make sure it wasn’t an electrical problem.

Funny enough, I had full control of the driver side window but the two rear windows weren’t budging either. Oh crap!

I walked into the reception area for the service department, where two agents greeted me with a jolly “Good morning, how can we help you?”. I then explained what just happened, the result of my testing, and how all of a sudden, 3 of the 4 windows stopped working.

One of the service agents asked, “Is the child-safety lock engaged?”

…”The what?” I asked.

The agent smiled and said, “Here, let me show you… ”

He walked me to my car and of course, with the flick of one button, my 4 windows were magically working again. Epic fail on my part.

Scoreboard: Technology 3, Andre 0.

It may not have been a banner week for me in terms of technology, but fortunately, I learned a lot on the way. For those who coached me in developing these new skills, in return I wish I could offer some assistance the next time their thermal-paper FAX runs into a problem, but I fear it may be a long time before that skill is in high demand again.

Did you enjoy this post? If you did, please know that there are plenty more where that came from! If you haven’t already, you can check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.net. From there, you can click on the “Follow” button to receive future posts directly in your inbox.
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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André