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Much of a muchness
Things that make you go 'hmm'…
Help!
Posted by on July 24, 2009
I have spent an inordinate amount of time this week trying to sort out my email settings. As you might know, I own the domain name dianealdred.com and it struck me that I don’t use the associated email so I decided to set it up as an alternate email address. My #2 son has been here this week too and as he has his own domain name and also wanted to use the associated email for business, I attempted to set both of them up. Oh my God! Why is it SO difficult? The domain names were registered with different companies so I had two separate and ridiculous sets of instructions to follow. I ended up (after much fiddling about), with me able to send emails but not receive them and my son, being able to receive emails but not send them. Nightmare.
Turns out my problem is that my domain name is now mapped to my blog and the emails sent to me at dianealdred.com are re-routed by WordPress to Google mail – but not my ordinary gmail account, oh no, to a separate ‘diane@dianealdred.com’ gmail account. Who knew? When I checked it, there were about 30 emails from the last two years stashed away there, unread, from various companies and an old boyfriend (which gave me a turn!) but mostly from my friend Claire in LA – sorry, love, wasn’t being rude or ignoring you – honest! My son’s email problem remains unsolved. We have copied the settings exactly as instructed but it still won’t work, there is some impressive buck passing going on by the company we have registered the domain name with and their website is confusing, unhelpful and clunky. Rubbish, AZC.
I now am suffering from tech support phobia and I am going to get on with making my books, a much more peaceful and stress free pursuit.
I went to Pittards factory shop yesterday and bought leather for several projects I have in the pipeline, two wedding albums, a ‘new baby’ album and a huge ‘our holiday’ album. The leather I bought was so cheap compared with buying it from the retailers I normally use, I couldn’t resist buying several pieces. Meanwhile, the work continues on the music anthology project (I am working on books 11 and 12/20) so I am busy, busy, busy, which is all good.
Right, I’m off, where’s the glue….
Much of a muchness 
I think that we all are suffering future shock. Future is coming so fast that sometimes we can’t cope with it. I think also that this condition will eventually hit everyone as they grow and become older, and the development is still progressing.
Technology can be a bit bewildering, I admit but I’m normally pretty switched on and very good at following instructions so this situation is VERY irritating and frustrating!
Customer service sucks. I never call them if I think I can fix the problem myself. I guess the Internet is my customer service. Sorry you had to deal with that.
Love that comic with the undeliverable mail orbiting the Earth. :)
Good luck with the books. Keep you calendar clear for the year 2100 so you can make that book of my novel. I think it will be finished by then. :0
I tried internet, customer service, FAQs, and their rubbish web site! It can’t be rocket science, I’ve managed to sort similar things out before but this has me beat!
I am planning your book binding already – if you can just give me a hint what it’s about? Perhaps I could read a bit? Sneak preview? Impatient? Moi? :-)
Diane, delighted to learn you have overcome your fear of making albums (i.e. gluing large surfaces ;-)
You have all my sympathies for your unpleasant experiences with technical support lines. I had my share of them too, this week. Sometimes I suspect they don’t even read the mails you send them. They have bots checking key words for answering with automated texts. Example:
“Support, I wanted to change online my settings to invoice-delivery via e-mail. The function is broken. The correspondent button does not work.”
Answer: “To have your invoice delivered via e-mail go to our website and change your settings to e-mail delivery”.
argl.
I still have glue traumas! It gets everywhere despite all my best efforts. I wear an old shirt so I can constantly wipe my hands.I have a supply of scrap paper to cover the surfaces I am glueing on and I change it all the time It still manages to get on places it isn’t supposed to be. Nightmare.
Almost as big a nightmare as tech support… :-)
Let us know what companies you are using so that we can spread the word. I won’t recommend those companies if the email is too hard to setup.
I don’t like to mention them really.
Oh OK then, AZC.com – so many passwords, registry keys, pin numbers, user names, log in IDs – so confusing and the ‘web card’ is a rubbish control panel…tech help, didn’t really answer my question, help pages only help so far….I could go on and on :-(
Hi Diane, I know exactly how you feel, I have had major email issues recently, all slightly different but equally irritating!
It should be so simple which makes it even more annoying that it isn’t.
Hope you are sorted now. :-)
Stick to the real practical stuff. Technology is rather random.
I bought some leather years ago from a wholesaler in Bermondsey and made a rather snazzy fringed leather waistcoat – it was the 60’s!!!!! – I’ve still got it actually ………
I’m normally quite good at dealing with technology and I hate it when it gets the better of me!
I’d love to see your waistcoat! Very groovy….
Sounds like you have more trouble than you should!
Btw: I know that vid very well and the actors as well – I even understand what they say without reading the sub title ;-)
I’m going to sort it out if it kills me! I’ve figured my email problem out now I just have to sort my son’s problem (which should be easier but isn’t!)
I wasn’t sure what language it was, Renny, but now I do, it’s just for you and Diane :-)
OMG ! Today’s technology is sooo frustrating, Thank goodness you have your projects to focus on and Thank goodness for your readers we get to read your posts ! P.S. Don’t stay away sooo
long, I miss your inspiring posts ! ! !
Thank you, you are very sweet! It’s true, my life is a curious combination of high and low tech – bookbinding is about as low tech as it gets! Although I use Quark or InDesign to layout my albums….
I always thought technology was suppose to help. Why does it always seem to make things more complicated?
Well, if I’m honest, I think technology is amazing – I certainly couldn’t go back to the pre-computer, pre-internet, pre-email, pre-mobile phone days! It’s when it all goes wrong or doesn’t behave as I expect that I get ratty with it. I can usually sort things out by ignoring the techie help people and going straight to good old Google – there’s usually some other poor soul having the same problems – and I find that quite comforting – especially when someone else has sorted the problem out :-)
Being a cynical ‘old git’, i’ve come to expect things to go wrong, if it all goes smoothly, i’m amazed!
I bought software from Artisteer (don’t!) to design my own blog, they sent me the licence code, I entered it into their site, but the program won’t load! They don’t answer emails, i’ve left messages on the help forum – Zilch! Just money down the drain. That name again ? ARTISTEER, don’t go there people!
That would be ARTISTEER would it? :-)
Sorry you have had a bad experience, I thought I had been scammed by a satellite repair company pretending to be Sky. I took out a new warranty with them but I couldn’t get hold of them when my Sky box packed in and the internet is full of people saying they are a bogus company. I did manage to get hold of them after much research and the very pleasant engineer replaced my ageing Sky for a newer model free of charge (apart from the yearly warranty I had paid for – which was cheaper than Sky’s) so I ended up well pleased….
Hope your problem is solved too.
All that techno speak lost me .. my level of computer technology is akin with my car technology… you get on and drive it if it goes wrong I am goosed !!!
I worked in the leather industry for a few years and love it… we used to get beautiful soft sheep nappa in from Italy for the high class garments and then the crappy Korean stuff for the mass market… years on I can still tell the the quality of the skins and from where they were taken by the smell and the texture .. I am a nightmare to my Teen when she is looking for a leather jacket lol
I’m normally quite good dealing with technology (which is why I was sorting out my son’s email!) but this had be beaten. :-(
Wow, what an lovely job! You would have been a very useful contact! Love the sound of the Italian leather. The glove leather at Pittards is gorgeous too, so soft and buttery and a vast range of colours but not really suitable for bookbinding unfortunately but the thicker leather they sell which has a stain resistant coating is much better…
It was a great job… soft leather is so tactile but I guess it isn’t suitable for bookbinding, I reckon it will be cow hide?? I just so wish that when I did that job I had the foresight to get some skins cost price .. hey ho!!
Diane, dear, you know you were supposed to not post while I was away so I don’t miss a single wise/funny word of yours!
I can so relate to all those cartoons as well as your email problems. Did you see that person with the flashlight and bad hair while you were lost in technology land? That was me! :}
Good luck to your son…I hope he figures it all out. ;) No sniffing the glue!
Hi! Welcome back! Glad you had such a good time in Vancouver, it’s one of my favourite cities.
I didn’t post much while you were away – I think you will find you haven’t missed much :-)
Son has gone back to London so the email set up attempts are now suspended until he comes back!
I use PVA glue – unscented :-D
I actually like the smell of glue, so maybe I was just projecting! ;)
Thank goodness you have much too full a life to post every day while I was away!
Oh come on the technology is easy. I’m on the side of robots if you’d ask me – better to get with times than to dismiss all the inventions just because you’re used to your old ways.
I LOVE new technology and I’m normally very good at dealing with it. The thing I don’t like is when it doesn’t work properly and the support set up isn’t there :-)
Don’t you just love technical support? I especially enjoy it when I get a person who only knows 3 or 4 sentences in English.
Oh dear Diane, I can certainly empathize with you on this one. I have been on the phone more this week trying to sort out setting up a shopping cart, my new domain, the company that is going to handle my orders and printing, and also camera companies. That’s the short list.
Hey I also wanted to let you know that I am trying my best to add a free download now at the end of each new post. They are pictures that either Walter and I have taken.
Some scrappers are coming and down loading. So I didn’t know if you might be interested in any of these also. If so just pop over and grab them. I have two up now and will have another up on tomorrow’s post.
Please also the watermark on the sample is not centered on the image for down load. It is located in the lower right hand corner.
The images are 4000+ in width and somewhere around 3200 in height.
Da,da,da,da,….dat’s all for now! I have missed you and now must take a look at that book you are making for sister.
Hugs,
Jackie:-)
Wow! That sounds fantastic, Jackie! I will head over and check those out immediately.
Good luck with setting up your website – and may all your support desks techies speak perfect English :-)
There is something unpredictable about new technologies that makes me worry about the future. I’m not thinking about Terminator or Matrix scenarios but some interesting thoughts about post-human possibility of transferring human consciousness into digital memory of quantum computer :) I know how it sounds, but the possibilities could be huge and living in self-sustained virtual environment doesn’t mean to lose control over reality. I’m just little afraid that those kind of experiments could cause human race to become something totally different and inhuman.
Its like anything its easy when you know how. First time I set up a new email or popped an email address it took hours but now it takes minutes and very little thought.