“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.” — Emo Philips
Over in the eLearners forum, and elsewhere in eLearners.com's arc of the blogosphere, one of the things that's being discussed are the computing needs of those studying online and how those of us studying online might prepare for eventual computer problems.
This is a timely topic for me. You know that person you know who's a friend but also sort of an enemy? Well technology in general has been my frenemy recently. But as I learned, the potential problems don't stop with one's own computer, because nowadays a computer without Internet access is basically a really expensive and complicated machine for playing Minesweeper.
So what happened to me? About two weeks ago, I looked out the window and saw a technician from the local phone company that handles my DSL connection climbing a pole on my street. I nervously asked her what she was doing (did I pay the bill this month?) and she said there was an area problem with phone service that she was there to fix. So I shrugged and went back inside, but sure enough, within the next few minutes my Internet connection stopped working. I went out to ask the technician what had happened, but she was gone.
Annoyed, I called the phone company. After speaking with several people, they told me that there was no way they could send another technician out to fix what the first one had messed up in less than six days. I was livid, but what was I realistically going to do? It's not like the cable company would have been out to my place to get things set up any faster than that, and why bother switch to them when their reputation isn't any better?
So I commuted back and forth to my Mom's place for a few days. Thank goodness I had that as an option (or rather thanks be to Mom). But it made me think, what if I had assignments due and discussion boards in which to participate and I didn't have an alternative Internet connection? Could I have gone to the library, or a coffee shop, or something like that? Maybe, since I happen to have a laptop, and not just a desktop computer. But could I have done that for hours at a time with my four year old with me? I just heard everyone out there who's ever had a bored four year old say, "No way!"
So that's how technology was my enemy recently. But there are points of light as well. The technician who eventually was dispatched to fix things was very helpful and friendly, and explained that yes, the previous person had probably done something wrong, but the main issue was that a lot of the wiring that affects my house has been chewed up by squirrels, so that jostling anything would have knocked me offline. He replaced everything that was damaged by them, so that shouldn't be a problem again. You hear that, squirrels? I'm onto you!
Next up, I have some unexpected doubts about continuing.