So there I was yesterday, in the chair in grad perio for my followup visit. Photos had been taken, I'd drooled in a test tube for five minutes, and now we were on to one of the more unpleasant things that goes on there: dipsticking my gums.
She'd finished my upper jaw and had done the outer part of my left lower jaw when the woman who was doing the charting on my doctor's laptop said "Wait, it's not letting me save. It's just got this little spinning color wheel?"
I glanced over my shoulder and groaned. Yup, it was a MacBook. The "beach ball of death" had just swallowed all the chart data and I was going to have to reschedule and come get my gums dipsticked again. They were all kinds of apologetic, and I told them not to worry about it; I certainly understood computer problems.
But I'll bet this never happened to Grandma.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
I'm guessing that without a screen+/-keyboard, they can't figure out how to save simple info. Sort of similar problem when we have power loss/earthquakes, no one can figure out how to make a sale without a functioning sales register. I suspect half the problem is that they can't do the math to make change, even if they can get the drawer open.
Kids don't learn much useful in schools these days.
Will,
That's not it at all.
The data had been entered into the computer. I'm sure that the woman who entered it, who was almost old enough to be my mother, knew how to write things down.
Gratuitous Luddism is gratuitous.
Several years ago I too had gum issues. Bad. Started using a waterpick. No more pockets. None. Dentist said it was due to the waterpick. May or may not work for you but I do not miss them sticking the pointy thing in the space between gum and tooth.
If you try it, give it a year.
Terry
Fla.
What Tam said. It's a real PITA when the computer craps out in the middle of something and wipes out everything you've done - especially if the crash corrupts what you had already saved.
OTOH, was there a reason they couldn't simply start over and do it on paper (maybe redoing it immediately doesn't give an accurate reading, or something)?
Jake,
"OTOH, was there a reason they couldn't simply start over and do it on paper (maybe redoing it immediately doesn't give an accurate reading, or something)?"
It was almost 10:20 and she had another appointment scheduled for 10:30.
I was cool with it; $#!+ happens.
As I told a lady when her register crapped out in the middle of checking out: "Electronics are wonderful. When they work."
When the place I used to work first started putting PCs in the field, it was horrible: lots of dispatchers were little old ladies or men who'd been there forever, knew everyone and every road in the area, but were scared to death of the computer. We got lots and lots of "No, doing this won't break it, you HAVE to do this" practice. Now they're all fine with it, but back then...
That's what they get for using a Mac.
*ducks*
Wait! MACS NEVER FAIL! I've been lied to!
"Beach-ball of Death" = "Blue Screen of Death"?
Kevin, not exactly. The grey screen with question mark = BSOD. It means your hard drive has gone to Valhalla.
I had the surge protector take one for the team during the GRE, causing a 90 minute wait while they reset and rescued the data. Note, though, that the GRE computers do automatic back-ups every 30 seconds, even if you don't.
LittleRed1
Karmic payback for mocking that Mall Ninja in the waiting room...
Well, not "mocking" mocking, just observing and planning what to write.
But then, peritonitis did...
This is a programming problem -- not a "$#!+ happens" problem. The designers of the program in question violated a prime rule: NEVER lose the user's data. Never.
Yeah, it is a problem with many programs. That doesn't excuse it. And it (not losing the data) isn't even a "difficult" thing to implement.
Dipsticking's got nothing on root planing. If you ever get the opportunity take my advice and don't.
Tam
I was working under the (apparently erroneous) assumption that since this was a school, those doing the work would be young, student types. I stand corrected.
I'd also been up for 24hrs, due to a health problem, which may have had some effect on my thinking processes... Not sure I've ever been a first commenter here at the porch. That's it! I'm claiming I was blinded by the light of a clean sheet of paper! Err, um, I meant a clean posting field!
Well, it never happened to Grandma becauase she had both full upper plate and lower plate before she was thirty, as did Granddad.
He regularly sang while he brushed his teeth.
Grandma wondered who got the calorie when we shared diet soda.
This is why you write things down THEN input them into the computer...even if it's done on dry-erasable stuff to save on paper.
Post a Comment