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Saturday, August 23, 2014

Technology is Driving me Batty - Updated August 23, 2014


I use to love technology. Now, it is the bane of my existence. For example, I have a twenty-two (yes, that is 22!) page password-protected document of all my user names and passwords. This document keeps growing in length for I have to update this document since websites are always asking me to change my password... Or the old password suddenly no longer works and I have to generate a new password... Or I am trying to log into Yahoo/Flickr and I have to change my password every single time.  I do use LastPass as my password manager, which worked seamlessly with Firefox - until Firefox became unusable (see below). Even though I have downloaded the LastPass version for Safari, Safari refuses to load it, giving me an error notice that LastPass is not compatible with Safari. Oh, give me a break!

I am waiting for the iPhone 6s to come out. My iPhone 4s, although dated and slow, still serves me well. My iPhone 4s is only two years old. That makes it a toddler, not a senior citizen - except in the tech world where two years is ancient. I resent the money we have to pour into our tech gadgets because their expiration date is two short years. 

Just this week, I opened a new LaCie Porsche 2 TB external HD I ordered from Apple. It worked great the next day at Apple's Genius bar, where I learned how to setup TimeMachine (I know, shame on me for not doing this eons before). I went home, took the HD out of my laptop case, plugged it in, and it was dead. I tried eight different sockets. Yes, it was dead dead dead. Of course, I now have to return it - not to Apple! - but to the original manufacturer at my expense. 

I also resent all the updates to apps, operating systems, and browsers. I use to be hooked on Firefox, scorning Safari on my MAC. Then Mozilla decided to upgrade Firefox almost weekly, and now it loads pages like molasses. It removed the option to have the tabs on the bottom of the header, so I now have an add-in that restores Firefox to the classic view. Now, that's ridiculous... Furthermore, the latest update removed my favorites bar and all the favicons. Now, Firefox is useless. I now run Safari, which is less secure but smooth - even though I have to go into preferences every time before I exit Safari and delete all the web pages stored in the browser AND also run NetShredX after Safari has closed, which cleans up the tons of trash Safari leaves on my MAC. For years, Firefox was an excellent browser, yet, yes, they had to "update" it and make it useless.

Honestly, I am frightened by the upcoming release of iOS 8 for iPhone/iPad/iTouch. I disliked the upgrade to iOS 7 - it lacked aesthetic dimension, plus it was buggy. My totally operational iTouch, which works perfectly fine, yet cannot (according to Apple) update to iOS 7. When I tried to update my apps on my iTouch, many become inoperable because the "upgraded" apps were for iOS 7 - so I have stopped updating all my iTouch apps - and I am perfectly happy to have them run in a so-called antiquated iOS. I know that when iOS 8 is released, I will wait to upgrade my iPhone/iPad until the bugs have been exterminated, and I know that iOS 8 will be compatible with my apps.

I use to love technology. Now it is more a bane than a blessing. 



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