Right around Christmas, I bought a new (to me) Apple MacBook laptop. I love it, love it, love it to bits, and use it all of the time. This purchase brought the number of computers in our house to four: one Macbook laptop, one old (slow running, but not dead yet!) Apple clamshell, and two desktop computers (PCs). Add to that mix an iPod Touch, and we are officially outnumbered by computers, if you consider that Mr. Martini and I AND both cats could all get on separate computers simultaneously, with at least 1 left as a back up.
That’s kind of crazy, I know. But these days, when so much is done on the internet, I’d feel strange if I couldn’t be plugged in at all times, and able to surf, order, read, and communicate electronically whenever I needed to. Which is so, so different than life 20 years ago. It’s amazing how things change so quickly, isn’t it?
I love how you can find anything on the internet: bread recipes, low priced refurbished electronics, supplement reviews, long lost friends on Facebook (even though I don’t use that very often).
The only problem sometimes is that I find myself getting sucked into mindless surfing, and without realizing it hours and hours have gone by. Lately, I’ve given myself a self-imposed “no internet after 8pm” rule, and it seems to to be working. I put down the laptop, and find myself better able to concentrate and actually get things done in the evening.
The internet is great, but sometimes it’s even better to step away from it for a little bit.
I love love love my ancient Mac clamshell. It’s about 10 years old at this point, and I bought it used about 4 years ago – so even then, it was practically an antique (but oh, so cheap!). At this point, I’m mostly using it as a glorified web browser, but now that I have an iTouch, I don’t really even use it for that all that much.
The poor clamshell doesn’t really handle certain functions too well, like blog-posting or excessive word processing. I’m looking into getting a refurbished laptop in the future, so I can do a little more “work” while sitting on the couch than I can do currently. But in the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away on my graphite clamshell as long as it lets me.
I just realized that ten years ago this week, I was starting my second year of grad school. I’m trying not to freak out over the fact that it’s been ten years, and instead focus on the fact that ten years ago, I was taking an internet course as part of my degree. While I didn’t get my entire Masters degree online, the fact that I could take one course from the comfort of my home (and pajama pants) was something of a novelty to me back then. Especially considering that I was working from an old Windows 3.1 PC, with dial-up(!) Internet service. Really the course was nothing more elaborate than a bunch of forums where you entered static posts to questions the professors posed – there was no “live” portion of it at all, like IM or anything, if I remember correctly.
And now, I can write a post like this from an iPod Touch, via a wireless network. (I didn’t but I could have). Even after all of this time, the internet continues to amaze me.
I got a new iPod Touch recently, and what’s nice is how I can use to surf the web while watching live TV in the living room.
On a sidenote – isn’t it funny how you can differentiate live TV vs. DVR-ed TV these days? Remember when you couldn’t fast forward through commercials? Wasn’t that like, eons ago?
Anyway, no instead of waiting impatiently for all of the Medicare supplement plan (let’s face it, I’m not their target demo) and the chamois cleaner commercials (those yelling types of ads make my ears ring) to finish airing, I listen with one ear while checking my e-mail on my laptop.
Technology. It’s crazy, isn’t it?
Flickr just announced a new feature for their “Blog This!” application – the ability to send your photos to Twitter easily and quickly. Basically, you link your Flickr account to your Twitter account, and when you choose Twitter from the “Blog This!” options, it adds the photos info plus Tiny URL, along with the ability to write the rest of the “tweet” right from Flickr.
Pretty cool! So now if you want to share with your Twitter followers those photos of the amazing porcelain tile you just installed in your bathroom, or a really cute shot of you child eating birthday cake, or just want to show the world the amazing flowers you saw on your walk home, there’s a simple way to do it. Nice one, Flickr!
It hit me today that I’ve been using eBay for ten years. TEN YEARS. That’s incredible to me. I think the only online store I’ve known about longer than eBay is Amazon, back when they just sold books.
I think my first eBay purchase was while I was in grad school, and I was trying to hunt down an out of print videotape of the movie “Noises Off.” I found someone selling it on eBay, but since this was the days before Paypal, I had to snail mail them a money order as payment before they’d send it to me. At the time I remember thinking how cool it was to use this particular service.
Wow, times have changed. Now you can get anything on eBay (celebrity’s clothes, any kind of natural appetite suppressant, electronics, even cars) and pay for it with your credit card or directly from your bank account from Paypal. So, so different than it once was.
I’m going to admit it – Facebook weirds me out. When I first started using it, I had a fit of curiosity and accepted friend requests from pretty much anyone who asked for them as long as I recognized their name. It was kind of cool to check up on high school friends and see who moved out of town, who almost became a Morristown personal injury lawyer, who stayed put and who got famous.
Then, a bunch of work people asked to friend me, so I friended them, too. Which is fine, but let’s face it, there are some pictures and stories you just don’t want to share with your boss, if you know what I mean.
Which is why I haven’t been all that active on there. I barely login to the site because I’m so overwhelmed by so many people’s lives that I haven’t had contact with for 20+ years. It’s strange a bit unnerving really.
I’m sure that I’ll eventually get the hang of it. But for now, I’m content to hang out on Twitter.
As you can see, I use Wordpress for my blogging software. The reasons are many – it’s free, it’s easy to use, it has a ton of plug ins and addons to help with all of my blogging needs. It works for me.
One thing that used to drive me batty about Wordpress were the upgrades. I use Fantastico via my site’s control panel to upgrade each Wordpress version. But it usually takes Fantastico a little time to find the update. Meanwhile, I get the “Please upgrade now!” message at the top of my blog’s dashboard until I upgrade, and it Drives. Me. Crazy.
So I was SO THRILLED to find the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin. Basically, when Wordpress comes out with a new version, you can activate this plugin and it walks you through each step of the upgrade process automatically. I used it on this site over the weekend, and it worked like a charm.
Awesome find. Now to find a plugin to combat writer’s block. That would be fantastic.
I got a letter in the mail today, with information about renewing my “sweeterlemon.com” domain name. Which I thought was weird, because I registered the domain through my hosting company, and they definitely weren’t the ones that sent the letter. The whole thing was suspicious, including the fact that they were sending me snail mail instead of e-mail, that they required the renewal and payment six months before the domain expired, and that they were charging at least 3 times what my current host does for the renewal.
A little online research and I found out that several companies go on fishing expeditions for domain renewals this way. I don’t think it’s “illegal” but it sure is sketchy. But it must work, since they’re able to afford printing costs and postage in a world of cheap text-based e-mails and spam.
