Gotta love technology (Seniors in 21st C)

Updated: 5 Jan. 2013

For fun, an interesting end-of-year afternoon spent problem solving a shaw.ca technical problem with a lovely 90-yr old senior. 

BACKGROUND
A senior's family buys their 90-yr old mother a new flat screen tv for Christmas. But the manual is only on CD and she has no computer. Guess stores figure everyone has computers these days. [Just like Facebook and Google assume all users have smart phones for recovery, if accounts are hacked. Grrrrr.....]

A family member experiments and successfully connects her new tv to the Shaw high definition box using a myriad of different connectors (cable, sound, video, etc.).

Unfortunately, the next day she discovers that her phone, also with Shaw, cannot make or accept calls. When I phone her number, a voice says she is not connected to a network. Hmmm....

CASE - INTRO
To investigate, I take one of our phones to her apartment and connect it to determine if it's her phone or a network issue. Same problem, so it's as if her wall phone jack is no longer connected to the network.

Try to call Shaw on my cell phone but, naturally, its battery is dead. So I return to our apartment with her phone number and Shaw account number in hand, put cell phone on its charger, call Shaw from land line and, after a 35 minute wait, get a friendly guy who speaks perfect English with an East Indian accent. Could be in Edmonton or any Canadian city or Bangalore, India.

Describing the problem, I mention that she recently got a new flat screen tv and one of her sons connected it to the Shaw HD box without a manual, which was only on CD.

He says it's best if I can be in her apartment on cell phone to troubleshoot. Luckily, cell is now fully charged. He will call me on my cell in 3-5 minutes.

NITTY GRITTY
True to his word, call comes through on my cell. He notes that her phone modem is indeed not detected, not connected.

In the interim, I've looked at tangle of cords behind her tv. Thank gawd her tv is on a stand with rollers so it can moved for easier access to the tangle. But, Yikes! None of it resembles the Shaw modems and connections we have, except for the main cable cord coming from the wall.

Many cords connect her tv flat screen and Shaw HD box and there are two co-axial cables. One connects the main cable cord to the HD box and the other connects the main cable cord to the flat screen tv. Plus there is a fat black modem attached to the wall (our modem is much slimmer). 

After much description and discussion, support technician tells me to unplug the power cord at top left from the fat black modem attached to the wall. Then unscrew one of the two co-axial cables, doesn't matter which one, connecting the Shaw HD box and flat screen tv, AND connect it to the fat modem instead. I lack strength to unscrew the co-ax cable from the HD box (hey, I'm a senior citizen too), but manage to unscrew the co-ax from the tv and connect it to what I hope is the correct port on the fat modem.

Voila, the phone makes a sound and support guy, sounding quite pleased with himself, says the phone now shows as connected and he'll call us to confirm. Sure enough the phone rings and I answer.

It's fortunate that her phone was connected when it was. Shortly thereafter, Meals on Wheels volunteer delivery person called from the lobby to be buzzed in. And later her home care nurse, who changes her surgical dressings every 2nd day, unable to get through by phone, decides to come by regardless and calls from the lobby to be buzzed in. 

CASE - COMPLICATIONS
Based on experience, I now tell the Shaw support technician that we need to confirm that her tv works. I turn on the Shaw HD box and new tv and - as anticipated - nothing but snow. He asks me to look for another co-axial cable in the jumble of cords, but there is none. He says we can buy a co-ax almost anywhere and use it to connect her new tv to the Shaw HD box.

Rather exhausted, I'm not so sure I can do the co-axial thing and explain that we need a Shaw technician to come to her apartment and make it right. He says there is no way a technician call can be justified when a simple co-ax cable will solve the problem. Also goes into spiel on how her relatives should have called Shaw to see how to connect new tv. In other words, it's her fault.

Technician may have a point (relatives and friends are amateurs when it comes to connecting TV, phone to Shaw cable) but calling Shaw when one buys a new TV is not first option most customers think of. Who wants to wait for gawd knows how long on phone? And Shaw support may decide it's not a Shaw issue: You bought a new TV. Figure it out, dude.

Technician's tone suggested it was the senior's fault that problem existed. The blame-the-victim spiel was a mistake as it triggered a few buttons. As calmly as possible, but with a steely voice, I explain that she is 90 and lives alone. She needs her phone for safety, plus she's had recent surgery, and is stuck in her apartment. TV is also a life-line that makes life bearable. And the family member who connected her new TV is also a senior. Sounding empathetic, the technician asks if I can hold while he consults his supervisor.

Surprise! It turns out that, yes, a Shaw technician can come out after all. But not for ~ one week. I thank him and mention that, because a week is a long time to juggle either having a phone or TV, we'll try to get a co-axial cable to solve the issue. If we do, we'll cancel the Shaw technician visit.

CASE - RESOLUTION
As it turns out, one of her children has a spare co-axial cable and will bring it over right away. I connect the co-ax to what I hope are the right connections on the TV and Shaw HD box. But when the TV is turned on, nothing but snow.

Then I recall the 'input' button on the TV remote. [More on this in a later blog on what happens when a computer no longer connects to its flat panel screen.] Scrolling through the options, 'TV' (existing selection) doesn't work but 'component' does. Hallelujah!

About 4 hours after problem was detected, the senior now has both telephone and new TV operational. Yah gotta love technology. 

Upon reflection, the senior decides to have the Shaw technician come out anyway. First, the Shaw remote control now only controls changing channels and she needs to use the TV's remote to turn on the TV and adjust sound. Perhaps the service rep can make all functions work off Shaw's remote. 

Second, since the people who connected the new TV and trouble shot the telephone problem are amateurs, it's wise to get the Shaw expert to ensure all is working as expected.

Learning Points: 
1. Never, ever, be without a co-axial cable. You never know when one will solve an urgent problem. I have a friend who thinks this about WD-40. 

2. Don't take any guff from support staff. If they say you did wrong not to consult them, take them up on it and insist on a service call.

FOR FUN
I like to link suitable songs to blogs (see Musings on transfusion medicine). And this fits in a kooky sort of way:

• Look what they done to my song (Melanie Safka)

Has technology exceeded our humanity? (A great ape muses on our path to digital blindness).

Updated: 17 Feb. 2018 (Mostly fixed links)

Many have written about technology and how it affects and may negatively affect humans and our evolutionary path as great apes.

Many techies see anti-tech as a boring story told by modern day Luddites.

Others see information technology and the Internet, including its creepy aspects, as just the unfamiliar that we will get used to:

• You know, things like breaches of personal privacy by Google or Facebook and selling us to advertisers. We need to be 'cool with that' or risk being considered Luddites.

This blog documents some of my observations from everyday life based on daily walks around lovely Corbett Hall at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Corbett Hall is only a block away from where my husband and I live in an apartment complex whose tenants are mainly university students and health professionals working at UAH, mostly the former.

Typical Day
Went down in the elevator with 2 young people. Both were texting on their cell phones. No eye contact with anything but the tiny screens.

On Whyte Avenue a young man who was texting would have walked into me if I hadn't shouted "Hey!" This happens more and more often. He wasn't plugged into an ipod so could hear me.

At corner of Whyte and 112 Street, when the red light changed to green, I was nearly run over by a car turning right whose driver, a young woman, was on her cell phone, even though it's illegal here.

Lovely summer day. In the trees along Whyte Avenue and around Corbett Hall birds cheeped. Peregrine falcons nesting on the nearby Clinical Sciences Bldg, where I worked for 22 yrs+, soared and screeched.

A group of ~12 very short people from the nearby daycare centre marched arm in arm in a long line down the lawn and eventually began to frolic about while being supervised by daycare staff. Much giggling and gurgling by joyous toddlers.

A lone jack rabbit suddenly hopped across the lawn and through the parking lot to the adjoining large sports field.

Walked across the sports field to University Avenue and was accompanied by a whirring squadron of dragon flies, the flying aces of insect world.

Rounded a corner of Corbett Hall where the smell of lilacs still lingers.

Several students sat at the tables in front of Corbett. Many were texting.

Passed several students who had ipods (or similar) connected with earbuds.

Someone passed me and said hi, but when I turned to return the hello I saw he was on his cell phone using a microphone headset with microphone.

Was temporarily startled by a young man who whizzed by on his skateboard.

Dropped into Sobeys for a coffee. At next table sat 3 young people. One talked on her cell phone, one texted, and the other looked a bit forlorn. The phone conversation was the American 'valley girl speak' typical of most young Canadians for years now.

"I was like, 'She's such a crappy prof.' And he goes, 'That is so true. What a c_nt!' Many more I was like and he goes with numerous gratuitous expletives thrown in.

As someone who 'grew up' in the 60s, I've said many vulgarities at one time or another but not in a neighbourhood cafe in a loud, giggly voice, including when I was an immature 18.

At end of walk, returning home along Whyte, I passed a frail white-haired woman using a walker who met my greeting of "It's sure a lovely day" with a smile and replied, '"Wonderful, just wonderful."

Stopped as usual to smell the wild roses and other flowers planted along the avenue.

Went up in the elevator with 3 young tenants, all of whom were texting.

MUSINGS
I have a cell phone, desktop computer, laptop, digital recorder, digital camera, ipod, ipad and was an early adopter of Internet technologies.

For 12 years I've made a living mainly as a self-taught webmaster, turning knowledge of transfusion science, education and the Internet into a post-teaching career. None of it would be possible without the generosity of colleagues.

As well, as a way to share interesting resources and news, or to vent about perceived injustices, but mostly I blog just for fun.

• Musings on transfusion medicine
• Across the Universe 

and Tweet:

• @bogeywheels 
• @eurofutball 
• @transfusionnews

After nearly 20 years of using  computers at work, I'm all but positive (who can be 100% sure of anything?) that nothing particularly important happens when sitting in front of a computer.

Certainly nothing we'll remember on our deathbeds. Instead of Citizen Kane's 'rosebud' few of us will call out 'iphone' or i-anything.

To me it's a no-brainer to appreciate what's real and take care to enjoy the natural world. All too soon we will lose the 5 senses our human bodies enjoy and enter the never-ending void called death.

I'm 'cool with that.' Someone, probably a Buddhist (forget who) once said the equivalent of, "I never worried about the millions of years I didn't exist before birth, so why be concerned about the eternity I won't exist after death?"

Hence, to live in the present we must be aware of our senses.  The ideas in Jon Kabat-Zinn's book Coming to Our Senses seem reasonable to me.

Nature is precious. It's everything worthwhile on our tiny 'pale blue dot,' as Carl Sagan put it. Einstein's famous line (about quite a different technology) seems appropriate:

• It is appallingly obvious our technology has exceeded our humanity. 

As to evolution of our branch of hominids, I'd guess that many of us are becoming blind, totally unaware of our surroundings. Maybe aware of digital sounds and images but not to real 'in-the-flesh' sights and sounds of natural life.

Over time, my guess is that we'll develop enormous thumbs, much like the troglodytic Morlocks of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine developed huge eyes. And we'll only be able to communicate digitally.

Who knows, maybe our thumbs will give us so much pleasure that they'll evolve into our sex organs. Can already hear the thumb envy, 'Mine's bigger than yours.' (Fill in your own salacious variations.) 

A George Harrison classic that expresses my feelings about youngsters I see daily who let life pass them by:

• While my guitar gently weeps 

As always, comments are most welcome.