My dad takes his picture every time he opens his cell phone

January 21, 2013 – Keeping up with new technology is not always easy, especially when you’re over a certain age.

My parents, for example, have been carrying a cell phone for a few years now thanks to my sister and her husband buying them one for Christmas. It was difficult for them at first, but they have pretty much gotten used to using it, except for one minor thing. As the title clearly states, my father takes photos of himself whenever he uses it. It’s an old-fashioned flip phone with the buttons on the side, so I can see how he would do that with his less than graceful fingers. Still, I have to give him credit for trying.

There was a similar situation several years back, when they bought their first answering machine. I called their house one day and their recording popped on after a few rings. I heard my mother’s voice saying, “Dave, the red light is blinking. What does that mean?” Well, Mom, it means you’re recording. After a few chuckles, they recorded a more appropriate message, but I think they should have kept the original one.

Now it’s time to pick on me. If you read this blog regularly, you may be aware that I had some computer problems recently. Sadly, my beloved iMac died. The repair shop told me it was the hard drive, and when I asked if anything could be saved because I didn’t have everything backed up, they explained that it was a good possibility. The problem was it would be costly – even more so than a the price of a new iMac. They explained that they have to send it out to experts who work in a lab with special equipment and space suits and their services were quite expensive. Sure, they were toying with me about the space suits, but I got the gist of what they were trying to tell me. It simply wasn’t worth spending a bundle to save the small amount of files.

So, I told my son about our conversation; he’s a software engineer who is constantly telling me that just because he knows how to program, it doesn’t mean he’s a wiz with hardware, but I never listen and question him on anything and everything computer related. He told me he’d take a look at it but he couldn’t make any promises. Still, he thought the Mac guys’ information was wrong and that he could save my files. He also asked why I didn’t have my files in the cloud. With the innocence of giggling child picking daisies, I asked him what the cloud was. How surprised I was to learn that we didn’t have to clog our computers with all of our files anymore, or put them on an external hard drive. (Yes, I still use one of those but apparently not as often as I should). Funny, we use the cloud concept at work, but we call it the S drive.

So, I’m ready for my first trip to the cloud (although some people who know me well might say I visit often). I suppose if my father can learn to use a cell phone and my mother can record a proper message on an answering machine, I can learn to use the cloud.

I pick up my new iMac next week.

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