Friday, June 18, 2010

THE DAY THE COMPUTERS TOOK OVER



It’s said that things happen in threes…but maybe the saying is only meant to be used regarding celebrities dying, yet the formula works beautifully in this instance: three days – three computers run amuck.
DAY 1: Government computer programmed for surveillance begins to make up and follow its own rules.
Sound familiar? Probably…it’s a movie. But just the same I watched said video on Day 1.
DAY 2: Hospital computer goes berserk!
I was sent back to the hospital for more physical therapy and was warmly greeted by my therapist whose wrist was in a temporary cast. She told the story of her department taking their annual CPR refresher course. I don’t know if the entire course is given by a computer or if a real instructor gets involved at some point, but I do know the chest-pressing-hold-the-nose-breathe-into-the-mouth thing is tested by the computer. And this is when the problem began. My therapist admits there is a lot of peer pressure involved when taking this test, what with all the personnel watching the monitor to see how well you’re doing. And from the very beginning the computer kept telling her she wasn’t pushing down hard enough, even though she was giving it her all. By the time she finally got to the point where the computer was satisfied with her performance she was experiencing pain in her wrist. That’s when the computer started to complain that she wasn’t pushing down fast enough. So she started going faster…and harder…and faster…and harder… and fasterandharder and fasterandharder until finally someone in the crowd mumbled, “There must be something wrong with the computer, ” but by this time my therapist was in such pain she had to leave and go to a doctor! Hence the temporary cast on her arm.
DAY 3: COMPUTER MALICIOUSLY DESTROYS OWNER’S MIND.
As soon as the sun came up, I grabbed my camera, the yarn I’d spun, the sweaters I’d knitted, as well as some props, and busily clicked away until I had twenty decent photos of the items I wanted to list on my Etsy shop. I downloaded the pictures into my computer and performed the steps to safely remove the hardware (AKA: camera). I unplugged the camera and set it on a table in the other room and prepared to crop, rotate, resize, sharpen, etc, etc, etc. when I noticed that one of the pictures of a baby's jacket I'd taken was too blurry to fix (probably because I sneezed as I snapped the photo). I decided to get rid of that one right away so I put the cursor on the picture and clicked delete. Like magic the picture disappeared…along with all nineteen of its companions. I was horrified! I stared in stunned silence for several minutes, until numerous calming breaths later, I realized I could download the photos again and try the whole thing over. I retrieved the camera and plugged it back into the computer but when I tried to redo the download, I found that somehow my computer had also erased the photos from my camera. How is that possible?! My camera was clear in the other room!!! I’m really creeped out!
To visit my shop go to: www.recklessspinner.etsy.com

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