My computer has been acting up as of late. Slow load times and random errors have become commonplace. The CD player is close to unusable and the speakers spout out loud static every time they are adjusted. Programs I've used with no problems in the past run sluggishly or not at all.
I would reformat it, if not for the slow Internet connection we've had since that earthquake off Taiwan. Download speeds are just a tad bit higher than in a dial-up connection, and there's a high probability of downloads just stopping way before they reach 50%. Web pages load painfully slowly or not at all. When once I had multiple tabs loading in Firefox at the same time I now find it hard to load one completely without refreshing it at least once.
A reformat now would erase over 3 years of patches and upgrades, not to mention security software, which would be nearly impossible to restore with our Internet connection problems.
It's very annoying and inconvenient to have computer problems nowadays. A computer has become a requirement for school; research, papers, homework, papers, presentations, papers, and reports (did I mention papers?) go through a computer before landing on the desk of your teacher. A printer would also be nice to have, as the lack of one would entail severe logistical problems and not a few unpassed assignments (yes, it happened to me). Communication with friends and loved ones is now done through the Internet; instant messaging, email, voice chat, webcams, threads, and forums now serve as meeting places. Some people build entire lives in the online world.
So imagine my predicament now. I admit I've become too dependent on computers, or on technology for that matter. I spend more time now in front of a screen, be it that of a computer, TV, or cellphone, than in front of a real paper book. In fact I have books -electronic books- just waiting to be loaded into my PDA.
I also find myself multi-tasking more often now; TV droning on in the background, cellphone in one hand, mouse on the other, headphones in my ear, YouTube loading in one tab while I'm typing in Multiply in another, Yahoo Messenger in another window, -and then the phone rings.
The convenience brought by technology can also be a curse. Having the world at your fingertips removes any need for you to walk. We are conditioned to demand speed at every turn, just so we could fit everything we want or need to do in the 24 hours given to us everyday, 24 hours which are squeezed and reduced more and more by more demands on our time so much so that soon nothing is ever fast enough. With various media competing for our attention and with all the things we do in our everyday lives we find that we have very little time for anything else.
And then we realize that we are inconvenienced by the very things we made and bought and used to make our lives easier. Computer problems keep us up all night in vain attempts to set right the effects of over six years of wear and tear (guess what I'm doing at 4:33 in the morning).Dependence on technology becomes a liability when the power goes out (remember Milenyo?). I won't even begin to describe the battles we've fought here over who gets to use the computer or the TV at this or that time.
I bought a book last Friday; you can now scratch off Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas from your Christmas gift lists. I spent the afternoon at the Sunken Garden with my new book. It was windy, cold even. I was laughing every once in a while -I think some of the people near me then thought that I was crazy. And for at least two hours I forgot about my 6-year old computer. I wasn't staring at a monitor and screaming invectives at Globe Telecom or pounding at the CD drive. No one was texting me at that time, and there were no TV sets in sight. It was just me and a good book. A cup of coffee would have been nice, but I was fine right there alone with my book and my thoughts of the day gone by.
I remember writing about how playing computer games was so relaxing for me. It seems I forgot how it felt to just sit back and relax and read and dream.
Haaay...
I would reformat it, if not for the slow Internet connection we've had since that earthquake off Taiwan. Download speeds are just a tad bit higher than in a dial-up connection, and there's a high probability of downloads just stopping way before they reach 50%. Web pages load painfully slowly or not at all. When once I had multiple tabs loading in Firefox at the same time I now find it hard to load one completely without refreshing it at least once.
A reformat now would erase over 3 years of patches and upgrades, not to mention security software, which would be nearly impossible to restore with our Internet connection problems.
It's very annoying and inconvenient to have computer problems nowadays. A computer has become a requirement for school; research, papers, homework, papers, presentations, papers, and reports (did I mention papers?) go through a computer before landing on the desk of your teacher. A printer would also be nice to have, as the lack of one would entail severe logistical problems and not a few unpassed assignments (yes, it happened to me). Communication with friends and loved ones is now done through the Internet; instant messaging, email, voice chat, webcams, threads, and forums now serve as meeting places. Some people build entire lives in the online world.
So imagine my predicament now. I admit I've become too dependent on computers, or on technology for that matter. I spend more time now in front of a screen, be it that of a computer, TV, or cellphone, than in front of a real paper book. In fact I have books -electronic books- just waiting to be loaded into my PDA.
I also find myself multi-tasking more often now; TV droning on in the background, cellphone in one hand, mouse on the other, headphones in my ear, YouTube loading in one tab while I'm typing in Multiply in another, Yahoo Messenger in another window, -and then the phone rings.
The convenience brought by technology can also be a curse. Having the world at your fingertips removes any need for you to walk. We are conditioned to demand speed at every turn, just so we could fit everything we want or need to do in the 24 hours given to us everyday, 24 hours which are squeezed and reduced more and more by more demands on our time so much so that soon nothing is ever fast enough. With various media competing for our attention and with all the things we do in our everyday lives we find that we have very little time for anything else.
And then we realize that we are inconvenienced by the very things we made and bought and used to make our lives easier. Computer problems keep us up all night in vain attempts to set right the effects of over six years of wear and tear (guess what I'm doing at 4:33 in the morning).Dependence on technology becomes a liability when the power goes out (remember Milenyo?). I won't even begin to describe the battles we've fought here over who gets to use the computer or the TV at this or that time.
I bought a book last Friday; you can now scratch off Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas from your Christmas gift lists. I spent the afternoon at the Sunken Garden with my new book. It was windy, cold even. I was laughing every once in a while -I think some of the people near me then thought that I was crazy. And for at least two hours I forgot about my 6-year old computer. I wasn't staring at a monitor and screaming invectives at Globe Telecom or pounding at the CD drive. No one was texting me at that time, and there were no TV sets in sight. It was just me and a good book. A cup of coffee would have been nice, but I was fine right there alone with my book and my thoughts of the day gone by.
I remember writing about how playing computer games was so relaxing for me. It seems I forgot how it felt to just sit back and relax and read and dream.
Haaay...
