technical apologies
Christine Harrington and others alerted me to the dismal fact that emails sent to me via this site weren’t arriving, because they were bouncing back. Thank you, Christine. I’d wondered why things had been so quiet for a while, although a number of determined souls had gone to the link to www.therapeuticwriting.com and used that, amongst other methods.
So I’ve got Yahoo working on it, as of yesterday. The good news is that they are working at this glitch. The bad news is that they couldn’t figure it out and had to refer to a higher (technical) power.
Funnily enough that very day I had a questionnaire from Yahoo asking me how well their product was doing. I had to give some very low scores for actual achievement, and some very high scores for the lovely people who attempted to put things right. I guess that averages out as in the mid range. Unfortunately I do not want a cozy and friendly relationship with the telephone help line people, delightful as I am sure they are outside their work. I want a web site that works and can receive mail, which is what I pay for and people expect.
Well, that aside, I enjoy questionnaires because they so frequently include forced answers and questions that cannot make sense. This is why I distrust completely and absolutely those ‘polls’ we hear on the TV news. So, getting back to Yahoo, they asked me if I wanted a fax system (yes, really, they asked me that) placed on my site. I said no. The next question was how much I’d be willing to pay for such an item. I typed in $0 - logical, I thought. Oh no. I had to type in a sum (and not in cents) or I could not continue. I forwent the temptation to type in 10 million and entered $1 instead. The point remains, though, that I am now on record as being willing to pay for something I don’t want and won’t use, rather than the record showing that for me at least a fax set up is inane.
These folks are obviously highly intelligent. How come they didn’t catch that slip? And if they didn’t then how about those political polls that say that 32% of the US thinks Bush is doing a ‘good job’ (whatever that phrase means)? I refuse to believe that nearly one third of this great country actually can be so stupid as to think that Bush has any idea what the job is, let alone that he’s doing it well. But let that pass…..
So now I must apologize to my correspondents for an error that is not mine, an error that has caused you frustration and made me look useless, and which the questionnaire will show as me being 32% happy with how Yahoo is doing its job (you see the connection, here?) when the reality is that I’m disappointed in their job efficiency and don’t seem to have a way to communicate it or alter the existing set up (ring any bells, there?).
Funny old world, isn’t it?
on July 2nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
About ten years ago, I heard that responding to polls might be dangerous because we usuallly can’t know the purposes to which the data is put. The example given was the apparently harnless response to “Numnber of persons in household” - harmless enough, but not if used to case a home for a robbery.
As unlikely as I found that prospect to be, I haven’t answered a poll since.
With caller ID, I was reconsidering. Now that you’ve figured out that you just agreed to pay for something you don’t want, you have renewed my resolve.
MLou
on July 2nd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Yes, your point is a good one. In some ways it reminds me of my Aunt Mary, who would ask you during her somewhat formal tea-parties if you wanted any of her ghastly fruit cake. It didn’t matter what you said, she’d make sure she cajoled you, one way and another, into taking a piece, eating it, and saying that it was the best you’d ever had. Whereupon she’d offer you another slice.
Since I was so uncomplimentary on Yahoo’s questionnaire they haven’t sent me any more. So, only good news is welcome, eh? Interesting.
Allan
on July 2nd, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Indeed.
ML
on July 5th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I feel your technology pain. I spent quite a few years hosting my site with an expensive and ineffective company, and managing my blog on a platform that was very easy and entirely incompatible with my host. Frustrating.
Here’s hoping things are sorted out quickly.
And regarding our fruitcake of a president (nice comparison, by the way), if we won’t get around to impeaching him, I’m ready to move forward and start thinking about how we’ll undo what he’s done. The approval rating seems to vary based on who asks whom and how the individual is asked, and may simply reflect the fact that almost everyone got $600 recently (sigh) and he hasn’t done anything particularly galling lately.
What worries me more is that people who are fed up with Bush are happy to vote for a man who publicly opposes a separation of church and state and who is interested in staying in Iraq indefinitely and sending even more troops in to Iran. I have oh so many more reasons to reject McCain but I’m not confident the public at large will see the gentleman for who he is and vote accordingly.
on July 6th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Dear Marnie.
It’s good to know I’m not alone in my technical moaning - especially since I know you are very tech savvy. I always have a tendency to assume that it’s my ignorance that things don’t work, when it seems to be the case that the systems are not all they’re supposed to be…..
As for our president - - perhaps we tend to think the same way about him? We are encouraged to assume that he’s doing the lousy job he’s doing because we don’t have enough troops, or money, or something, and that somehow it must be our fault for not being patriotic enough…. I don’t fall for that one, but I do notice the manipulation involved.
As for McCain, it’s his logic that is lacking. Anyone who can say that troops need to stay in Iraq until the ‘job’s done’ (question: does anyone know what the job is, and how we’ll know when it’s done??), even if it takes 100 years - - such a person is making no sense. That’s a bit like saying that I’m intending to stay drunk until I get my promotion at work: The first part of the statement has nothing much to do with the second. An ill-conceived action like the invasion of Iraq will NEVER get anything constructive done. Ever. Trust me.
It’s good to hear from you after all this time.
Allan