Wednesday, June 28, 2017

technology blues


Last Sunday evening we heard a loud, and muffled at the same time, thump and the TV went off. A quick look out the window revealed a large limb had fallen from the big oak taking out the cable that provides us with internet and TV. So a call to the cable company got us an appointment on Tuesday to reconnect the cable to the pole. Meantime, it's amazing how quiet the house is without the TV on, albeit very low volume and how dependent our morning routine is based on that cable, whether TV or internet or both. I've read my book more which changed my location in the mornings and we are listening to music in the evenings. Marc had us tuned into a really fine blues station on an internet radio whatever and they played one of those recordings that makes you stop whatever you are doing and just listen. Wish I knew what it was.

So now we are back on-line albeit without cable TV. It seems that when we ordered our basic cable TV and internet connection the guy hooked us up but somehow we were never charged for the TV. And somehow, we never got around to alerting the cable company about it. That's been remedied now. The guy that came out and reattached the cable to the pole today made sure we weren't getting any services we weren't paying for. Oh well, it was a nice ride while it lasted. I don't really watch TV even though it's on all the time (in the other room). I guess we will explore other options. Until then, it's back to the rabbit ears.

In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of the fucking iCloud that I reluctantly turned on while we were on vacation so that I could keep taking pictures without having to delete any. When I did that, it not only got rid of the photo stream album that uploads pictures to my computer but it also gave me 13 empty albums that had once contained pictures of our work (and added a few in the process), empty albums that on my computer in the photos app all contain pictures. WTF? So, now my allotted free cloud storage is full and it will no longer transfer pictures from my phone to my computer and it wants me to buy more storage space.

So, yes, I have deactivated it via iCloud.com but that changed nothing on my phone, all it did was prevent my photos from being uploaded to the cloud and hence to my computer. Now I have to mail my pictures to myself.  And I have gone into settings on my phone and turned off the cloud and it gives me this message...this iPhone was not able to download 99 full-resolution photos and videos. If you continue, the low-resolution versions of these photos and videos will be removed...and then I'm supposed to click on the 'remove from iPhone' button. So not knowing what that means exactly I hit cancel. I want my photo stream album back, I want my albums with images of my work back. I want it back the way it was before I activated the fucking iCloud. I guess I'm going to have to make a trip to the Apple store.




18 comments:

  1. Give my regards to all those people at the Apple store. There are usually more employees present than customers.

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  2. I just wish I had a damn Apple store around here. Can you believe we don't?

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  3. I do not appreciate I-cloud, at all! I will not use it. It is like a succubus and who needs THAT? Sorry you had to deal with the frustration! The apple folks here are generally pretty helpful and patient, mostly because they are dealing with oldsters- the young seem to have all of that knowledge built in!

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  4. I don't stream and just use stick storage.i have lost a chunk before and it is frustrating.Losing service is just as bad.

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  5. I have it too and pay the 99 cents per month for more storage. Have no idea what it is for. Apple store sounds like a good place to go.

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  6. Haha. You sound like me, flat on your back, kicking your heels on the floor and screaming "I want my life back!" Actually, it's fun, for a while.

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  7. We cannot get any television via antenna and while I only watch about 5% of the channels on cable I am too addicted to cut it all off. We could actually cast from the laptop to the screen, but hubby would be lost without me setting it up and I do not have time for that every morning.

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  8. I've tried for years to get Mike to drop cable TV, but I finally gave up. We have a package for TV, internet, & phone (I need the phone for work). I haven't messed with the cloud because so far I just move the pictures to my computer & delete them off the phone. We took my computer on our cruise (really for that very purpose), so I didn't have that issue then.

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  9. Don't have the TV on. I wouldn't, anyway.

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    1. Hi Treey (Terry?). Welcome to my house.

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    2. Thanks. The wedding photographer produced albums with the name 'Treey' he couldn't spell Terry' in them so rather than get them reprinted I just changed my name to 'Treey'

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  10. I'm glad to have the heads-up about the Cloud. I have no experience with it, but bought an adapter so I could view camera photos on my ipad. Now, I think I'll do exactly what I did with my bit of experimenting -- view, and delete, keeping the photos on the card. I don't want the great iMonster to eat them all up.

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    1. it hasn't eaten my photos, they are all on my computer and the ones I haven't deleted from my phone are still on it. just the folders of my work on my phone are now empty but those same folders on my computer have all the pictures. so mostly it has just screwed up my phone photos app. and because I deactivated the cloud on-line now none of my photos are being transferred to my computer, hence having to mail them to myself. it's just aggravating. plus a ploy to get you to spend a dollar a month. I imagine that brings in millions a month.

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  11. Ugh! I don't use the iCloud and now I'm glad. (I don't even really know what it is!) As for the TV, it sounds like you're actually enjoying your time without it. Maybe you don't need that cable at all? (Or does Marc want it? Because that's how it would be here -- Dave would NEVER want me to do away with his TV!)

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    1. yeah, it's Marc's gotta have though he doesn't watch it much more than I do and I hardly ever watch it. just likes the noise I guess. I'd be happy with a new DVD player and renting an occasional movie.

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  12. Ah, the joys of technology. Life without tv sounds noble but I do like to know what's going on in the world and MSNBC stopped making full shows available online. Last fall we subscribed to Sling TV and get most of the cable shows we enjoy - HGTV and MSNBC the top two - through devices and our television. We can have five devices signed on, which gives us both flexibility. It has taken me months to get comfortable with a new laptop and just last night I finally got it to finish downloading the Sling app - don't know what was different but part of our problem is our sporadic dips in internet strength because we have DSL through the landline. We do still get DVDs from Netflix, and I stream seasons of shows I've missed while I'm doing other things.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.