Saturday, March 4, 2006

Experiment One -- Not a failure --

   -- Just one more thing that does not work.  You learn from every experiment.  You learn what works, or sometimes, what does NOT.

   From the old folks home, four of us walked to Starbucks, I carried my laptop along, to see how to file a journal entry from the coffee shop.  I ordered latte and asked how to connect to internet from there. 

   "You have to be signed on with T-Mobile."  I am not, but I ought to be able to get as far as the "enter your PIN". 

   So I turned it on, but could not see the screen.  By squinting I could tell that I had excellent signal strength, but could not read anything else on the screen.  I moved to a darker corner, and one of my companions shaded the screen while I struggled. 

   My problem?  I could not find the control to make the screen brighter.  Stumped by a simple problem like that.  I closed it up and brought it home. 

   Where am I on the learning curve?  At the very bottom.... how to make the screen brighter.  Actually I have learned two things. (1) You have to subscribe to T-mobile, and (2) you have to be able to make the screen bright.

   Still to come, someday, an entry, right from Starbucks.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Luck!!  I'm glad you are still wanting to learn all these new things in life!  Jackie

Anonymous said...

Nope, not a failure at all. Have you downloaded the owner's manual for your laptop from the manufacturer's site? I find it's handy to be able to search (Control-F) for a phrase to get to the bottom of my puzzlements quickly.

Try sitting in a park surrounded by a residential neighborhood. You should be able to access the Internet via an unprotected portal or two. And then there is the library...

Good luck!

wil

http://dailysnooze.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Wow Wil's tips seem excellent!  Downloading the manual is a GREAT idea!  And finding an unprotected portal sounds downright Sci Fi!!
K

Anonymous said...

Chuck my friend ,I'm 44 and every day Iam Learing more on this think , have a great day!

Anonymous said...

good luck you will do it:)


Deb

Anonymous said...

There was a time when I would have said, "If in doubt, read the instructions."  But your machine probably came with no instructions--not even online (which in itself would be like putting instructions for opening the box INSIDE the box) Ah, the world of progress!

I think you said the laptop was a Dell.  If so, good luck!  There are no instructions. at least there were none, zero, zip with my desktop Dell.  And no workable answers from their Tech Central Bangalore, either.  Trial and error and a good book or two may be the way to go.

Anonymous said...

looking forward to it; in the meantime, just enjoy that delicious coffee :)

betty

Anonymous said...

Most laptops have the dim/brighten buttons in one of two places. Either one of the function keys (that's the F keys across the top).. Usually f8 to brighten and f7 to darken the screen. Or they could have an actual button set aside for it, kinda like volume control (which I doubt or you would have seen it <g>), lastly, it could be a software thing. Look on your windows start bar where the volume control is and see if you have anything there. I've never owned a Dell, so I don't know exactly how they are set up, but I've had a Sony, a Fijitsu, and now an HP, and they all used the f8/f7 thing.
Good Luck... and keep trying!
http://journals.aol.com/astaryth/AdventuresofanEclecticMind
http://adventuresofaneclecticmind.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

CHUCK, I AM AT THE BOTTOM ON THE LEARNING CURVE.  I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DOWNLOAD MUSIC OR SET UP MY PROFILE, SO MY 7 YEAR OLD NEPHEW DOES IT FOR ME.  HOW SAD AM I?  WHEN AT STARBUCKS JUST ENJOY THE COFFEE, LOL.  LOVE YAH CHUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

well at least you had a nice walk with your friends and a nice cup of coffee. Paula

Anonymous said...

I find that when my computer does that I close it and open it again and the screen comes back.