Comments on: Electronics for old people http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/27/electronics-for-old-people/ WARNING: This blog contains writings known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:07:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Amy http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/27/electronics-for-old-people/comment-page-1/#comment-160419 Amy Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:19:49 +0000 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=522#comment-160419 Thanks for sharing this 'rant'. I was laughing so hard - I was crying! Had to stop reading twice for fear of peeing my pants... or hyperventilating! Believe it or not, you'll miss those calls some day. (: The walk down memory lane was enjoyable... The 'electronically challenged old person' in my life was my grandmother. Whenever she had problems with her TV/cable box/DVD player/VCR setup, she would call my uncle that lived in Florida. We lived in Ohio. I remember thinking: What is Uncle Rod in Florida gonna do to fix your problem??? -- He lives over a thousand miles away... -- He's never seen or touched your setup before... -- He's usually at work when you are having problems... -- You are legally blind and can't answer most of the questions he's bound to ask while troubleshooting or follow most of his directions to try to solve the problem... (due to blindness, she didn't really watch TV - she mostly 'listened' to the shows) -- You never ask for help until you have already tried to 'fix it' by yourself... (translation: You never ask for help until you have already 'screwed it up beyond understanding' by yourself...) -- You always wait to call for help until you are completely frustrated, in tears, and your favorite show is about to start... (While sobbing, "If I don't get to watch {listen to} Larry King, my night will be plain awful!") --- ETC... Dear old Uncle Rodney's solution was to call me and ask that I make a quick trip to grandma's house for 'technical assistance'. I would drop everything, make a quick 15 minute drive across town to grandma's house, fix the problem, re-hide all of the 'other' remotes, walk her through the what to do if this happens again scenerio, ask her to just call me next time, etc. She would thank me, promise to call me directly the next time she had a TV problem, and then tune me out as she watched her blessed TV show... Later in the week she'd tell EVERYONE how wonderful her SON was for 'fixing' her TV... Did she forget who showed up and actually 'fixed' it? (The granddaughter fixed it - Where are my kudos!?) She never did call me directly... the call always came from my 'dispatcher' in Florida! :) R.I.P. Nana and Uncle Rod (We need a seven button remote for our babysitter to use too! I've gotten plenty of frustrating calls from her with our toddler sobbing in the background because they can't get their DVD to play.) Thanks for sharing this ‘rant’.

I was laughing so hard – I was crying! Had to stop reading twice for fear of peeing my pants… or hyperventilating!

Believe it or not, you’ll miss those calls some day. (:

The walk down memory lane was enjoyable…

The ‘electronically challenged old person’ in my life was my grandmother. Whenever she had problems with her TV/cable box/DVD player/VCR setup, she would call my uncle that lived in Florida. We lived in Ohio.

I remember thinking:
What is Uncle Rod in Florida gonna do to fix your problem???
– He lives over a thousand miles away…
– He’s never seen or touched your setup before…
– He’s usually at work when you are having problems…
– You are legally blind and can’t answer most of the questions he’s bound to ask while troubleshooting or follow most of his directions to try to solve the problem… (due to blindness, she didn’t really watch TV – she mostly ‘listened’ to the shows)
– You never ask for help until you have already tried to ‘fix it’ by yourself… (translation: You never ask for help until you have already ‘screwed it up beyond understanding’ by yourself…)
– You always wait to call for help until you are completely frustrated, in tears, and your favorite show is about to start… (While sobbing, “If I don’t get to watch {listen to} Larry King, my night will be plain awful!”)
— ETC…

Dear old Uncle Rodney’s solution was to call me and ask that I make a quick trip to grandma’s house for ‘technical assistance’. I would drop everything, make a quick 15 minute drive across town to grandma’s house, fix the problem, re-hide all of the ‘other’ remotes, walk her through the what to do if this happens again scenerio, ask her to just call me next time, etc.

She would thank me, promise to call me directly the next time she had a TV problem, and then tune me out as she watched her blessed TV show…

Later in the week she’d tell EVERYONE how wonderful her SON was for ‘fixing’ her TV… Did she forget who showed up and actually ‘fixed’ it? (The granddaughter fixed it – Where are my kudos!?)

She never did call me directly… the call always came from my ‘dispatcher’ in Florida! :)
R.I.P. Nana and Uncle Rod

(We need a seven button remote for our babysitter to use too! I’ve gotten plenty of frustrating calls from her with our toddler sobbing in the background because they can’t get their DVD to play.)

]]> By: Bao http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/27/electronics-for-old-people/comment-page-1/#comment-156035 Bao Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:52:31 +0000 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=522#comment-156035 I still get entertainment system support calls from my wife. I've also stopped using my Harmony remote because of the exact reason you mentioned. One possible solution is use RF vs. IR for all remotes. Do they make any IR-to-IF dongles that you can attached to the IR eye on components? I still get entertainment system support calls from my wife. I’ve also stopped using my Harmony remote because of the exact reason you mentioned. One possible solution is use RF vs. IR for all remotes. Do they make any IR-to-IF dongles that you can attached to the IR eye on components?

]]> By: Adam http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/27/electronics-for-old-people/comment-page-1/#comment-153761 Adam Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:10:27 +0000 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=522#comment-153761 My sympathies. I don't get TV entertainment centre type calls (my Dad keeps things low tech - which works for me in cases like this) but I do get computer calls. Fortunately O/S manufacturers are getting better at not letting the user do anything useful. :/ That's great until you need to fix something that's already broken. The upside is likely that, in the future, you'll likely be able to connect into your TV/PVR/taste-o-mat remotely. So you could pull up the https connection that is your Mom's TV, etc. and manually switch things to a good setting... and probably even view what she's viewing via a web applet. That'll be nice... but obviously we're not there yet. Hopefully soon, though. My sympathies. I don’t get TV entertainment centre type calls (my Dad keeps things low tech – which works for me in cases like this) but I do get computer calls. Fortunately O/S manufacturers are getting better at not letting the user do anything useful. :/ That’s great until you need to fix something that’s already broken.

The upside is likely that, in the future, you’ll likely be able to connect into your TV/PVR/taste-o-mat remotely. So you could pull up the https connection that is your Mom’s TV, etc. and manually switch things to a good setting… and probably even view what she’s viewing via a web applet. That’ll be nice… but obviously we’re not there yet. Hopefully soon, though.

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