h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am beginning to doubt my ability to cope with problems and wonder if , in fact, it is time to "give up the ghost"?

I have just spent a stressful, fretful five days unable to get onto hootoo..
Why?

It is actually much much easier to get onto my bank online, even if I have forgotten something because I can eventually phone them, and they ask me my secret question and I give them my secret answer.
I might add that it has only happened once.

This is the third time time that I have cut off my contact with you all and that is why I am questioning my ability to remain a researcher on hootoo.

I am going to write down the numerous questions which I had to answer about my password on a large sheet of paper and place it in my study.

But I would like to stress that there was one vital clue which appeared in every single answer I gave - which was my reason for choosing that password. The problem is that there was no way that the programme picked it up. When it told me that that was NOT the reason I had chosen that password and that they were blocking me for 30 minutes (which turned out to be 48 hours) I really think there is something wrong with the programme.

The reply made me VERY ANGRY (probably unreasonably)- which is not a good state of affairs to be with HBP.

The other explanation is that I am

TOO DARN ANCIENT AND THEREFORE OF NO USE TO ANYONE.
(I am sorry but I do not accept this!!)

Anyway, I got there by myself, and I am sorry that I troubled any one by asking for help.

As always with a great deal of affection

Christiane AR1

Awww,
I understand exactly how you felt,I get VERY stressed about the times when i forget my password(which i do regularly).It does nothing at all for HBP,does it???
Even more stressful when you KNOW you have all the right answers,and keep being told you're wrong
It isn't you AR!,it's this wonderful ,modern technology!!!
HOW COULD THEY BLOCK YOU???
I hope we can look forward to lots more postings from you.....for a l-o-n-g time to come.....and welcome back!!!

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Hootoo's servers poop out now and again.

They say they're run by hamsters, but I think they've cut costs ans switched to gerbils!</>

Thank you pheloxi,smurfles and scandrea.

I think you have probably hit it on the head.
scandrea!

Oh! I hope I never forget it again!!

Christiane AR1.

Oh! dear AR1, you will have to try and do what I do, and that is keep a notebook handy and write down all the pass words and security questions to all the sites that I have joined on line

That way, I don't lock myself out of them
Mind you there was one time I tried to get a new P/Word to one site, so I clicked on the "Forgot Your Password" link, and the first question it asked me, was my Old P/Word, which of course I had forgotten

The after I had found it, I went back in to sort it all out, then it told me "I couldn't have that P/Word" as it "Has already been used".... I KNOW it has,.... "I" have ALREADY got it!!
However it would not believe me. and left me..

Ah! well, just one of the curses of Cyber world Eh!
Good luck
Smudger,

Hi Smudger,

I have got them written down - but I do not have them all otgether!! Silly me.

but you have forgotten to tell me how to get onto the yellow nd green page. Please do this if you can remember and I shall write it down - in a special book!!.
A thousand thanks.

Christiane AR2

The problem with computers is that when they aren't working properly, it isn't always obvious, and you end up beating your head against the wall trying to figure out what you're doing wrong, and it isn't you in the first place! I run into this at work a lot, and I'm fairly computer saavy! Please don't give it up, Christiane! Think of all the wonderful people you've met here! Maybe a by the computer will help!

Honest, Christiane... you're experiencing the same frustrations as the rest of us. Like Shea, I work with computers as a professional, but despite my 15 years experience, I find myself reaching for the nearest sledge hammer when a computer program goes buggy. I think computers just know instinctively how to make a person angry to the point of sin.

You should be proud of yourself for being willing to learn how to use a computer! I keep trying to get my 85 year-old mother to try it and she's deathly afraid... I've noticed the same reluctance amongst the majority of older people. Darn straight! You are still very useful, and quite resourceful!

Christiane, I tell people about you. you are true inspiration.

I always say computers are as smart as you learned working with the computer. they are never smarter as you. if you use computer as a typewriter it is a typewriter.

Hi dearest Shea, big

You are a darling!! Thank you.

One thing these last six months have taught me and that is not to be afraid of computers. I realise now that I have crashed with many times,

"A fatal error has occurred"

at which I would go into a mind-numbing state of doing what dear DNA has told us not to do.

I have learnt a tremendous amount as well, so hopefully when I get my new computer I shall be able to cope.

I loved the stories of the fireflies

Faries v. Bugs!!
K. and I have to go to New Yawk(!) next year for our long promised clam chowder if you are hiving off to Ohio. Are you retiring from your job?

You are so incredibly right about the friends that I have made. that is actually what causes the dreadful feeling of total abandonment when I cannot get on line. When one is practically an ancient monument there are very few RL friends who have the time in this busy world, to pop in and say

" Hi. How are you?"

That is the of this site. Everyone is treated as a human being,no matter what their age,gender,or any of the other RL prejudices that exist.

So I will NOT give up. On Sunday my sister and her husband, who live in Canterbury, invited K. and I to lunch. It is over ten months since I last saw her. I actually lost my way going there and practically landed up in Dover!!. then when I got back to Canterbury I really had to concentrate in order to find their house as things had changed so much since I was last there. I was talking at lunch time about my hootoo friends and what was happening to them, and suddenly my brother in law turns to my sister and rather sarcastically said

"She is talking about her computer friends"!!

"And aren't I incredibly lucky" say I, "To have friends who can be bothered to write to me and talk to me without even knowing me. They are all over the world as well."

DNA was such a visionary.
I have just noticed that his initials are the same as the essence of our existence.

Now that is a co-incidence. The BBC should count itself incredibly lucky to have taken over such a marvelklous site that joins so many people of different interests and tastes together in order to form a big happy, compassionate world-wide family.

He achieved what every single politician is striving, rather gauchly, to do.

With much affection to you both, from K. and I.

Christiane AR1

Hi dear Avenging Washcloth (BTW wonderful name!!)(But I told you that yoincks ago when I wrote to you!!)

Thank you for your kind words.

I can remember when I was first learning about computers in the late seventies, people used to say to me

"Garbage in - Garbage out",

How true.

And with programming that is absolutely vital.

But what one does not account for are the mistakes (either deliberate or unintentional) which can occur.

I started on a computer in 1977 when I nearly fifty years old. No such niceties such as microchips in those days. One had to laboriously punch in "instructions" which one had printed on them.

I can remember on one ocasion when we were up at the special Computer lab. (no such fancy names as IT in those days,) and after I had put in all my cardboard instructions, I went across to the printer and punched in my list. After literally a foot of blank paper had come up from the dungeon below the building, I got a printed message saying

"GRANNIE SEEK HELP!!"

Needless to say Grannie was my "run-name" as it was called, as I was already a Grannie in those days.

I fell about laughing, but I believe I had made a mistake in my instructions (I was giving them in a language in which I was not overly familiar,

I was fortunate in that I was a mature student, and actually majored in Logic and Metaphysics so found the rigorous categorising relatively easy. And that is the secret of successfull research material.

Gargage In - Garbage out
Ask a silly question and you get a silly answer. etc. etc.

Which makes a nonsense of so many of the instant polls which the media use.
And that is the reasons why it is sooooooooo important to have totally open ddialogue over any problem. One can certainly have different interests, but providing that they are declared there is no problem.

Oh dear! There I go - preaching again.

I am going to write to your mother and then please will you return her reply. and we can start a new kind of Third pary -bonding party" friendship!.(If she would like it!!)

Thank you for writing and don't use that sledge hammer!!

Sincerely,

Christiane AR1

Hi AR1, regards to post 7, what is the yellow & green page again?
I have forgotten.

I remember before computers came into being, I was trying to compile a register of some 200 welding procedure tests which were going through all the various stages of NDT (X-ray & Ultrasound testing) and mechanical testing, and were scattered all over the UK at various test centres. It was my job to keep tabs on them and chase the results through, anyway all I had was telex machine and a telephone

One Monday, I came in to find the telex had spewed out yards of paper sending me results!, It covered the whole office floor, and was still coming (they put me on a 7 day week after that)
Smudger,

Christianne, I forget my passwords, etc. and I'm quite a bit younger than you are. I think you're a wonder. I also have an 85 year old mother who is terrified by the thought of learning anything new. I sincerely wish she had your attitude.

Traveller in Time 'butting in'
"With some useful links I hope.

It appear you prefer to use Alabaster, select it from the dropdown list (the tiny text box with the down arrow) here:
< <./>UserDetails</.> >

Or when you not want to set it as default:
< <./>U516677?skin=Alabaster</.> >

The most important thing with computer is to stay with the idea you ae in control and it has to do eventually what you want. A little help at times is a good idea too. My father phones about once a month to ask how he can copy a file. "

Christiane,
I have just typed a long post to you and lost it. So you see we all do it!

I don't think you have any idea how much respect you command here. You are clever, educated, funny with a mind much younger than your years, and you are an example to us all.

The secret is to keep all your passwords etc. in a notebook as Smudger and I do. I couldn't possibly remember them all. Even then the websites sometimes tell me I am wrong etc. when I know I am not. Computers and websites are wonderful when they work - as is the human body, but both let us down now and again.

The other secret is

Stay with us please, our lives would be so much poorer without you,



Websailor

PS.....

Christiane, if all else fails - and your computer is behaving badly try this:


http://beverlys.net/LJ/BuggingYou.swf


Try it, it might make you feel better!!

Websailor

Big backatcha, Christiane!

I have some truly horrifying news about the clam chowder at Jones Beach:
http://www.libn.com/breakingNews.htm?articleID=5807

If Donald Trump opens “Trump on the Ocean," we'll *never* be able to afford a cup of clam chowder! Maybe if we all chip in together, or take out a loan, we can split a cup between the 4 of us.

Sadly, if we do move to Ohio, I'll have to leave my job. I've been here for nearly 14 years, and I love it. I'd hate to leave. I'm certainly going to ask if they'd be willing to let me work from home (after all, I worked all by myself in the auxiliary building here for years). We'll see. It's a new adventure, and although it's not one I would have chosen for myself, it may turn out just fine.

Christiane, I hope you decide to stay, because you truly are a wonder to me. My mom won't have anything at all to do with computers. It's not that she's afraid of them, it's just that thinks they're awful inventions.

Don't feel bad about forgetting your passwords though! I don't write down any of my passwords, but that's mainly because I have the same one for several sites/accounts, and the ones that are different are either extremely memorable (to me), or else just slight variations on the main password I use. If I had a different one for every site, I'd never remember which one was for what site!

My dear Christian AR1

Oh dear! I hope you've sorted out your h2g2 problems now. The suggestion to write down your password (provided you've not used it for something else that's really importand, eg internet banking) is a really good one.

Sending you good vibrations!