This week my laptop expired from overwork – I know just how it feels. Not even Mark from PCs at Home could resuscitate it this time round. He rigs me up with a temporary until my new one arrives. At 5.0 mega thingies Mark says it’s the fastest computer he has ever set up, his own only being 3.0 but he’s making sure it’s going to cope with all the big audio and possibly video files and software I might need to process when listenupnorth.com is up and running. Impressive eh? But even more impressive is what makes it the must have accessory for all up and coming digital entrepreneurs – the colour pink.
Leading up to it’s arrival, I feel like a 5 year old waiting for Christmas. Great things are about to come from this computer because of its inspirational colour. I call at Mark’s to drop off a disk and it’s arrived but he’s just setting it up. I have to go up into his office just to have a look at it and there it is on the table – a lovely dusky shade of pink – not too brash or too bright – just tasteful like a really nice shade of lipstick or nail varnish. I wish they made cars in this colour.
When Mark brings it round to the house it’s like Christmas Day. As he instructs me, I try to make a mental note of the new things I can do with the updated programme. Yes, yes, I’ll sort it all out; just go and leave me with my new toy. Mark recommends I make a note of any problems and he’ll ring in a few days to see how things are going. Fine, fine. Alone at last – but I realise a slight problem – when I open the lid to use it – I can’t see the colour pink. Inside it has a black keyboard and black surround to the screen. Slightly crestfallen, I close it again and wondering how I can enjoy the colour whilst I work. Realising that I have lost too much time already, I open it again and begin to type, resting my hands on a smooth shiny silver casing with rounded corners – a very pleasing tactile experience – yes- great things will come from this computer (terrible but great!)
One thing must follow on from another. The success of listenupnorth.com will depend on attracting numbers to the website and one way to bring awareness of that is through this blog. Before starting to publicise this blog more widely, I feel it’s necessary that once people have visited it that they are able to receive updates. So why has it been so difficult to find the correct widget? Again more half explanations about ‘feed’ and links to links that end before you get to where you need to go or you go around in circles. More by good luck than good management, I manage to get an RSS feed onto the sidebar but what I really want is an update by e-mail widget.
After many hours of putting key words into search engines and following scant instructions, I am still no nearer. I can find a widget in which to place my own e-mail address to update me about other people’s blogs but not the other way round. I call upon the help of Whizz Kid Teen 2 but she is equally frustrated and abandons her attempts. Reassured that this difficulty isn’t just because of my own ineptitude, I decide to persevere and try to get in touch with the widget supplier but find that if my query isn’t answered by their FAQs then they are unable to answer individual enquiries. Now driven by sheer anger, I persevere further, this is not going to defeat me. Then at last, a breakthrough, I find a way out of the cul-de-sac that I keep going down; a little footpath that hasn’t been signposted. I have spent an inordinate amount of time to get this far which means an even greater backlog of other work has built up. Even so, I feel quite proud. It seemed insurmountable but I discovered the way round it and in the process added significantly to my digital awareness (but please don’t ask me to repeat it). Hence an e-mail update is now sitting nicely on the sidebar of my blog – so please feel free to use it and make all that hard work worthwhile.
