I am not new to computing now but I was, the day that we obtained our first computer.
I did not use a computer at work and had only briefly used the ones at the library. I would come home and enthuse about the world wide web to my DH; H.
He, long suffering, would beg me not to keep going on about “www, this” , or “www that”. It was incomprehensible as he had NEVER used a computer and quite frankly wasn’t planning to begin!
He didn’t want me to have to wait to use computers in the library, especially after I had discribed some of my fellow patrons. Unnerving, some of them, to say the least. So off we went to investigate the computer stores and to be bombbarded with information that we really didn’t understand, let alone need. A purchase was made and we happily escorted to our car and thence home.
So it had arrived, and a the computer tech came soon after, to set it up. H and I were all agog; as we watched the mysterious beast of a machine emerge from its carton. Actually it had to be PRIED from the carton as it was so closely packed with its accompanying chunks of foam bits.
He hooked it up and then booted it and we still watched with fascination as he went through the various required steps that permit Windows to operate.
It was a Windows 98 se version, so that reveals the approximent time frame. After all was completed ,the tech took his leave, but only after instructing us(briefly) in the operation of the now firmly functioning machine.
It , seemed to be smirking, and it was only later that we realised why.
The tech paused as he was leaving and urged us to take the free introduction computer course. We hastily concurred and bade him a cheery farewell.
So there we were, with our new toy. It was booted and ready so we happily clicked on the various icons and were bemused by the reaction.
The internet itself! What an amazing place, as anyone can remember the fist time it was discovered. We excitedly went from place to place, all innocent and nervously. We were strangers in a strange new land.
We were hazy over the operation, that is to be confessed. We had no friends who could trundle over and hold our hands so to speak ; it was not the time for remote assistance YET!
The end of the day , and the time to turn off the machine. We simply unplugged it. We Did NOT know better, but still I shudder as I recall. It wasn’t very happy it seemed and so we decided to turn it BACK on. Hmmm! It seemed even less happy as it flashed its screen of admonishment, and had its little progress bar creep oh so slowly towards the end of its disk check(but we didn’t know that’s what it was)
The days continued like this, and the poor computer didn’t know what was happening to it. We had no idea that we should let it install applications like flash or perhaps even a media player to show videos in certain sites. How strange this seemed to see a lion in its natural habitat or a cities’ centre, miles and miles away. The videos didn’t seem to play properly and the poor computer kept showing errors, which we cavalierly ignored.
One day I came home to find a little blue gorilla on our desktop. It was very annoying, H said, it kept talking to him and getting in his way while on-line and he had no idea where it came from. It of course was Bonzi Buddy( I think it was called), and it was the beginning of the end.
Well finally the error messages increased and finally the poor machine had had enough. We took it back to our computer store and were told that often this type of machine often crashed “right out of the box”. They replaced it.
In my following chats I will describe our adventures into computer land,and no they are NOT THAT scary.
Filed under: our computer misadventures
