You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
Off Topic Chat
>
Laments related to electronics gone awry (& books)
date
newest »
newest »
Tejas Janet wrote: "My Samsung android tablet inexplicably, suddenly died on me yesterday. Made me want to start a thread about our technology problems encountered while pursuing our love of reading. I never thought..."
Go straight for the next! "The King is dead, Long live the King!"
(Jokes besides, It is the programmed obsolescence that rules our tech lives today!!!! Just like in "Blade Runner", there is a death waiting inside each device... Have You at least saved your data?)
Sorry to hear about your technical difficulties TJ! I'd be horrified if my kindle gave up the ghost as I would not have anything to read so I would go straight out and buy a knew one.
As a side note, just wondering if people with ebook readers/tablets have names for them?
Sarah wrote: "As a side note, just wondering if people with ebook readers/tablets have names for them?"Well, not me, that is for sure.
(I would not give names to inanimate objects...)
I had (have) a Kindle second generation that I loved. Last year on vacation it decided to freeze and eventually died right in the middle of a book. Tried rebooting, everything I could think of, but nothing worked. Luckily I had a backup paper book. When I got home I bought a new Kindle Paperwhite. Perfect for reading in the dark when I don't want to wake the hubby. On a lark I decided to check the "broken" one and wouldn't ya know it, it decided to start working again!! Now I have 2. The old one is backup, always loaded and charged. Sometimes I think our "inanimate" objects have a life of their own. Had a car once that would decide to work the minute I threatened to sell it. Spooky.
Roz wrote: "I had (have) a Kindle second generation that I loved. Last year on vacation it decided to freeze and eventually died right in the middle of a book. Tried rebooting, everything I could think of, but..."Wow, that sure is spooky! Lol.
I've named a couple of cars, but not my electronic devices.
Janice wrote: "I've named a couple of cars, but not my electronic devices."A couple of my friends named their cars depending on the first letter of the car registration number. I've never named a car not electronic devices but I know a lot of people do.
One of my cars was named Matilda, which was a nickname a co-worker gave me. I don't know why he called me Matilda, but it suited the car. My Ford Explorer was named Black Pearl. I hadn't even thought to name my new car. It's a Hyundai Sonata.
I have an ASUS android tablet. Sometimes it has to be "reset." If you press on the "on" button for thirty seconds or so, it buzzes, and this does something to reset it. I am the non-technical person surrounded by techies. My husband is a software designer with a computer science degree and decades of experience. My 21 year old son builds computers as a hobby. My 23 year old used to work tech support while in college. They name their devices because they have so many to keep track of for purposes of licenses and downloading things to the right device. From living with this crew, I have learned a few tricks to try, but for me there is still a lot of luck involved. One good thing to try is "power cycling." This means you turn the device off, unplug it if plugged in, and let it sit for a little while. (Sometimes they tell me thirty seconds and sometimes they tell me five minutes, and I'm not sure what makes the difference. But the "rest" period lets the device "clear its buffers" or some-such.) Then turn the power back on and see if it works. Sometimes it does.
I would be lost without my iPad. I have had it for just over 3 years now and it is seriously one of the best things I have brought. I actually thought it had died on me a few weeks ago, it froze and literally wouldn't do anything. Nothing worked, including resetting it. It then suddenly switched itself off about an hour later, came back on and was working perfectly again! Phew! I have no idea what happened there but at least it's still going!
My kindle has a name...Jasper. My family has finally stopped laughing at me over it, and when he is missing, they just help me find him. He goes everywhere with me.:)
I was on the train last week, turned on my ereader, and it froze! It happens sometimes, but never when I have a 45-minute trainride ahead of me. After 5 minutes of panicking and searching through my bag, I found something sharp enough to reset it and it worked again. Pfew!The minute my ereader truly dies I'll be online to order a new one!
Casceil gives great advice. I'd give that a go before you completely give it up for dead.my phone and computers don't have names, Lexx's first car was cable Androgenus as he got sick of people asking if it was a boy or girl car. The robotic vacuum cleaner is named though
I love reading all these responses. Has made me feel so much better. I feel ready to move on and purchase a new one. Now what to buy?My husband and I always name our cars. Brunhilda (aka, Hilde) for our white Volvo station wagon. Lulu, our Honda Prelude. Courtney, a perky Escort station wagon. Now, our Honda Fit is Yoko.
Our computers however are just straight-forward, practical names for identification purposes. Naming computers isn't like the naming of cats (for those familiar with TS Eliot's Book of Practical Cats.)
We don't name any other inanimate objects. But I may name my new tablet... hmm...
Casceil wrote: "I have an ASUS android tablet. Sometimes it has to be "reset." If you press on the "on" button for thirty seconds or so, it buzzes, and this does something to reset it. I am the non-technical pe..."Thank you, Casceil. I tried persistently some "tricks" like you mention, but could get no response beyond the screen either black/off or frozen/distorted/on. My husband wondered if the battery maybe died, but I have no idea and the model isn't designed for easy consumer access. Never stopped me with my pc box when the fan or power supply died. I think replacement is probably the best course for me here. I would like to get something longer lasting. My android was an inexpensive device, but it served me well for the past two years.
We have always called our garbage disposal Igor.
I've been meaning to follow up here and report that after looking around and considering various options, my husband wound up finding a deal for a Google tablet. Probably a close out or something. $65. Seems to work fine tho I'm still not up to speed on using it for email or Goodreads. Hopefully I'll get to this soon! Any way, thanks for the input here from everyone who posted.
I have a first generation Kindle Fire. It is really what reignited my passion for reading. It has begun having some problems and I know when it dies I will be online immediately ordering a new one. Right now my biggest pet peeve with it is that it no longer lets me know when the battery is getting low. I'll be in the middle of a page and it will suddenly die with no warning at all and I'll have to put it on the charger. I'm just waiting on the day for it to go kaput. I've never been one for naming things too much. My Ninja brand blender is called Mr. Miagi, but I'm generally not good at coming up with cute or creative names. Case in point, my favorite stuffed animal growing up was a large stuffed rabbit whose name was Big Bunny. lol
I have a Kindle Keyboard (3rd generation), which I've had for several years, and it just stopped working the other day. The screen froze, which had happened quite a bit before, but this time I couldn't reboot it - I even opened it up and took the battery out, and the screen remained the same, so I realised there was something wrong with the connection to the screen. I'm quite sad about it - I really liked that Kindle. I have the Paperwhite too, but the text clarity and spacing between the words isn't so good. But I also have a little Kobo Mini (which I bought cheap for £30, in anticipation of my Kindle Keyboard eventually dying!) and I love that, although I can't read my Amazon books on it.My Kindle is just called Kindle, and my Kobo Mini is just called Kobo Mini. I don't give things names other than what they have. Even when I was a little kid and decided that various household objects were my friends and talked to them, I would address them as 'Chair', 'Doorknob', 'Wallpaper', etc!
The husband and I bought a used camper van recently. I dubbed him Vincent Vango ; ) He sometimes has a temperamental bent so it seemed appropriate plus I couldn't resist the bad pun.Before my last tablet completely seized up, it was doing that same thing Kimey. Would die without warning and was completely discharged. But replacing the batteries didn't cure it so I have no idea what it's issue was.
I was probably going to spend a bit more and buy a Samsung Galazy, but then hubby found a deal on a Google-loaded android and snapped it up. It seems fine for my purposes - mostly just to read ebooks.
Vincent Vango, that is awesome! I love it! It occurred to me last night that we did sort of name one of the trucks my husband used to have. It was a ginormous green dually (double wheels on each side of the back)truck. It was hideous (in my opinion) and we always called it Green. If we are talking about cars/trucks we used to have, we call all of them by their make and model except for Green, he was just simply Green. My husband sold it and the guy did some work to it and painted it white, if we ever see it around town we both say "there goes Green." LOL
I never thought I'd enjoy reading ebooks, but then my husband bought me a Samsung android tablet as a surprise. I found I could use it for various things, but reading ebooks was the main and best use I had for it, and now it's... gone... sigh. Like it had the equivalent of a massive heart attack or stroke.
RIP. Should I have a memorial for this lost "friend"? How long to wait before replacing it/her/him? I feel like a period of mourning is in order.