It seems we can't live without them but neither can we live amiciably with them! Yes, our computer is old so we often have glitches which, over time, become major problems. We are blessed with a couple of friends who actually know a bit about the inner workings of the beast, unlike us.
Today I sit at the very conveniently installed booths at our local super market. When I sat down about half an hour ago to check all the important stuff :-) (emails, scrabble games, face book) I was the only user of the five booths but now all but one are in use. I am totally accustomed to a racket going on as I write a post but this is ridiculous!
At home we are debating the direction to take as far as this can't-live-without technology. Our old one should be up and running over the weekend. But with five users and high demand the majority of us are plugging for a) an upgrade and b) another beast to join the family. I am checking out lap tops and other fancy portable devises. The kids are very keen on this option! They pointed out that I can use it while watching TV (apparently men/ boys are beginning to multi-task too!) but the few TV shows I watch are my veg out times. Plus, I need conserntration to read blog posts etc! It is convenient for school. Hey, we have to walk, oh at least three metres from the school room to the computer desk! I can even pull it out at Maccas or a long wait at the doctors.
Hubby is not keen for it. He has the valid point that we have always had our computer in any open place where we can supervise what's being read etc. I think he secretly fears I, and everyone else, may spend tooooo much time on it, which is also a valid point. Two divided by five could jack up the usage.
I don't like to admit it, but I think I will/ would be tempted to doodle away on it at the learning area, which is something I have always tried to avoid. Would I get to the stage of needing it near while I cook, wash, iron? Do any of you do this? Oooops, giggles, I don't iron :-)
So what do you prefer? Your computer with it's nice big screen and keyboard ? your laptop? tablet? ipad? or some other doovy?? I admit I am hopeless at typing on touch screens so I am more of a key board person. I'd value your opinions as I wade through catalogues trying to understand the terminology and decide what I actually need. Need? Hmm...what I want.
(I hope there aren't too many typos. Spell check doesn't seem to be doing its job.
I was given my very own laptop as a gift from hubby this year. It is very nice! I do like desktops better in theory, but I like to be able to move from room to room when needed.
ReplyDeleteWe now have 3 computers online (2 are hand-me-down freebies on their last legs) in the main living area, but none in the kids' rooms. "Screens where they can be seen!"
We have 4 laptops in use but we run a homebusiness from 1 [& a half ☺] & 2 are technically for school use. The usage went up initially but has settled & we got a good deal given we knew that the business was pulling a lot of usage. Star uses hers mostly off peak but as almost all of it is music usage this is a good thing. Oh, & I believe she's watching all the old Dr Who episodes. *Yawn*. There are worse things...
ReplyDeleteSupermarket computers! Wow!
ReplyDeleteWe had three, but my husband's crashed, and he no longer uses it so we are going with two now. I have a regular computer with a terebite installed for all those pictures and a cheap, good Acer notebook with Microsoft installed on it. Both have system 7 Microsoft which seems to be better than modern ones and I can easily transfer files with a flashdrive. I use my Notebook to take notes on at church. We have WiFi at home and lots of places including church. Some Sunday afternoons from church I have been known to play Wordscraper with you, Ruby, from church on my little Notebook computer. By the way, our Wordscraper game won't load now! I complained to them.
An iPad would maybe work for you all, but I don't know about your Internet access in Australia.Also iPads have too many distractions on them. A notebook computer (or two) might fit your family if you have WiFi at home.
Meanwhile I am going on an Internet FAST periodically this summer because, yes, it does take too much time and I have to get back to cleaning and decluttering and taking care of my memory-impaired hubby.
We faced worse problems earlier in the week with no land line phone and no water when we came back from a week of vacation. The water problem was that there were spider webs in a box to our well water! I am not sure what the phone problem was.
Speaking of phones, oh how I would love to talk in person to you on the other end of the world, but I guess we do great writing.
Hugs and prayers,
Carol
We each have our own computers (desk top-apples), plus 2 laptops and 3 iPads, yes we are Apple supports. I use the desktop for all my blogging, but I use the iPad in the evening whilst watching TV/DVDs. The iPads are excellent as they are so versatile, but they don't do everything that a laptop does but I do wish we had them when the children were younger. My husband is a big tech user and switches between all his computers depending on what he is doing.
ReplyDeleteHope you are to decide what to do.
So, as I thought 1 lone computer with 5 users is quite unusual these days! Of course, the children have their very nifty phones as well. Hubby and I are very basic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input. Our desk top is back up today but I am still looking at smaller things.
Ruby, there are three of us and we have one computer, one ipad, one ipod touch (Rebekah's personal one) and smart phones with internet access, way too much for our litle family lol! anyway, I highly recommend the ipad for you - I think you'll love it after you get to used to it initially, though it's very user friendly:) Its so handy and versatile but as with anything, I don't let it master me! I only check emails and blogs etc when I have the time for it not when I'm supposed to be doing other things lol (well, not most of the time anyway) :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Rosemary,
DeleteSo your ipad does everything you need? Emails, blogging, what about banking? I am actually getting quite confused with so many different things which do much the same thing. Some seem to be better for one use than others. At least with my computer back I am not frantically researching it and will just look around at what is available.
Ruby, yes you can mostly everything but not everything eg it doesn't have microsoft office so if I need to do word or excel documents I have to use our computer. Also ipad doesn't have 'flash' so sometimes you can't view certain video clips. I reckon the ease of use far outweighs the cons with the ipad. you can do internet banking too though we don't as we are not sure about security issues. One of our friends used it for banking and got caught out, someone illegally accessed her credit card and used it (after she used her ipad). So, we steer clear of internet banking on the ipad as it doesn't have norton. I use the ipad for most other stuff, blogs, internet, reading etc etc
ReplyDeleteMorning Ruby xo
ReplyDeleteWe now have 1 computer and 3 lap tops, and a couple of phones with data. I scratch my head sometimes, wondering how we became so techno savvy??? It all snuck in quietly through our back door, I am certain!
Our computer and 1 laptop have internet access - the rule for the lap top is that it is used in the living room when internet is being used. The other 2 lap tops are old recycled ones, that my 2 youngest use as word processors and places to store their photo's essentially (no internet on those ones). I have found that as our girls get older, and they use the internet more often for research and study projects, that having both the computer and lap is a great help - but we do have to stay watchful on our usage still ......