Am I the only one who is getting fed up with Google? (Oh yes, you can always rely on me when it comes to being up there at the vanguard of blogging technology.)
First and foremost, I never know whether the word should have an initial capital or not. And is it different according to whether it's a noun or a verb? Do you write "I looked on Google" or "I looked on google"? Do you write "I Googled an old friend" or "I googled an old friend"?
Then there are the glitches. My Google Reader (ooh, initial caps there, it seems) now opens two copies of the blog I want to read when I click on it. I have no idea why. I didn't change any settings. It just started doing it. I'm annoyed.
A few days ago, again for no apparent reason, the format of my gmail page changed. I can't sign out from it. The words 'sign out' used to be in the top right hand corner, but where they were, there is now my name. If I click on my name, I get a drop-down list, which does have 'sign out' on it, but it won't let me click on it. If I try to, before I can get the cursor there, quick as a flash, it whisks the words away and reloads the page. I'm annoyed.
Blogger is full of glitches too, and they're getting worse. Does anyone else think so, or is this just me? I sometimes get an email notifying me of a comment on my blog, but that comment doesn't appear on my blog itself. I'm guessing that for every time I notice this, there are several when I don't pick it up. Life is short, Bloggy Peeps, and when I'm reading comments from my email account, I don't bother to go to my blog to check that they're there. It's just that I've noticed a few times. I'm annoyed.
Plus, our aged dishwasher needs new baskets. The plastic is all peeling off, leaving sharp rusty stumps, which I've cut myself on. The cutlery basket has holes in the bottom, so that if you don't stand the cutlery up in just the right way, it falls through. Because the model is such an old one, it would cost us $280 to replace the baskets. That's $150 for the bottom one and $130 for the top one. We can buy a new dishwasher for that. I'm annoyed.
AND... when children are off school because they are sick, you have to pick up work for them. There's always loads of it. Loads. It's like the teacher feels the need to punish you for letting your child get ill. (Note I say "you", not the child - because where do you think the burden of this task falls?) It's bad enough for one day, but if your child has been off for three, they pretty much have to write a couple of theses as they struggle back to health. I'm annoyed.
You have to pick up work for them??!! I thought the aim of staying at home was to get better soon - without being bothered by all the school stuff. They are supposed to work at home? Doesn't that take out all the fun of being ill at home?
ReplyDeleteOh, and btw, I know why I moved to wordpress early on. I don't like the fact that google (note the little rebellion in refusing to use a capital G, ha!) knows all and everything about me.
I don't like that big brother aspect of Google either. It reads my emails, and little ads pop up, suggesting things I might need. Either holiday destinations, or therapy, usually. I feel invaded.
ReplyDeleteIota, have you tried surrendering completely to the Google-world? Are you browsing with anything other than Google Chrome? Because Blgger and Reader and everything Googlish work so much better with Chrome. It's part of the Google Empire plan. I'm already there, I even have an Android phone. And I'm here to tell you, if you gotta pick an empire, I like Google better than Apple. But that's just me.
ReplyDeleteYup, I remember getting my pack of homework if I was ever sick from school. Rubbish!
ReplyDeleteI agree google is a bit big brother and I've noticed that blogger often crashes / freezes out on me - trying to make changes to my google reader often just exacerbates that - argh! I bought my own domain ages ago but now just need to pull my finger out and migrate the blog!
with blogger, it's because they've added a spam filter which is actually quite wonderful. it traps most spam, but some gets posted (and so you get the email) and only afterward does blogger recognize it as spam and delete it, but the email is already sent and non-deletable.
ReplyDeleteyou should be checking your spam filter from time to time; every now and then they trap a legitimate comment.
and google is a proper noun. so capitalize it--unless you're like me, never capitalizing a thing.
I do use Chrome. And it annoys me that it's called Chrome. What's that about? Shiny metal. What on earth has that got to do with a browser? The internet reflecting information back at the user?
ReplyDeleteChrome is better than Firefox, I agree.
Thanks, Laurie, for your explanation. So there is a reason to the randomness. Google is a proper noun, but is there such a thing as a proper verb?
I'm really quite annoyed about everything today.
I've had some problem with Blogger. Sometimes it just disappears without warning. Other times it won't let me publish a comment, usually after I've written a long one!
ReplyDeleteI must check my spam box.
Hope your children soon get well. I don't think you should have to collect work for them.
Maggie X
Nuts in May
When I was teaching, I didn't like to send work home, but I always got notes or phone calls to please have work ready for "sick kid" and somebody will pick it up or it got sent home with a sibling. It irritated me for several reasons. If a kid is too sick to come to school they're probably too sick to do schoolwork . But what really bothered me was the fact that the kid had missed the teaching part of the lesson,but the parents seemed to think a few papers would make up for it.I know most of the parents were trying to be helpful, but I would much rather catch them up when they returned to school.
ReplyDeleteOoh, you are in a bad mood aren't you? Mind you, I'd be bloody livid if the dishwasher baskets cost more than the replacement d/w. Have you tried Googling it (there you go) - you might find someone selling old parts. Otherwise you should buy yourself a metal colander and rig something up.
ReplyDeleteI readily sympathise with the techonology issues. Mine are different - Twitter and Facebook - but just as irritating where things randomly stop working. And don't even get me started on household appliances that seems to die just when the warranty runs out. Not even all of it, just a bit. The bit that makes it pretty critical to function effectively. Sigh. Sympathies
ReplyDeleteIota -- I feel you with Google Chrome. All my tech friends love it, but I've converted everything to IE8. Blogger is KILLING me lately. I hate that in "compose" mode you can't easily drag and drop pictures where you want them and that the editing window is TINY so you have to look at 3-4 lines of typing. The worst was when I tried to recently upload videos. I gave up on the Blogger video upload years ago so I just use embedded files from YouTube. Yet a new problem has surfaced -- every time I do that my blog crashes if I go to the "preview" window. WHAT?!? I recently started a virtual book club and used wordpress as a tester and find their system MUCH easier. If I were to do it all over again today, I'd use Wordpress instead of Blogger. You'd think that after all of these years they'd have made SOME innovation or fix to these problems! Grah!
ReplyDeleteI feel for you. Have lots of problems from Blogger including that I can't seem to copy and paste from Word any more. I use Wordpress for my work website but the idea of transferring the whole blog over there really is too much.
ReplyDeleteAm shocked by the sending work home from school thing. If child is sick, they should not have to work! If they missed something vital, maybe an extra piece of homework once they are well seems more sensible.
You are so right to be annoyed! Blogger can do strange things. I hear quite often that people try to leave me a comment but can't. Which is just awful, because - well, you know how much we bloggers love our comments.
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ReplyDeletere dishwashers (& any other appliance) it's called 'Built in obselescence' i.e designed to fail after x yrs. Never used to be the case> My mum had a stove that was 45 yrs old, her 1st washing machine lasted 30 yrs. It's part of the great capitalist consumer cycle. Make people buy more. Make parts & labour so expensive appliances aren't worth replacing. It's one of the things I love about developing countries, even tho it is born of necessity not necessarily environmental conscience or sustainability, but everything is reused, mended, recycled. Mch like it used to be in the UK 30 yrs ago. So mch for 'progress'.....
ReplyDeleteI get really annoyed by those phone packages wch 'throw in' a free upgrade EVERY YR if you opt for a certain type of phone useage package.
My students watched a Geography dvd recently wch was all about consumerism vs sustainability etc & in this dvd a company was asked to research how short a life span a brand cd give a product & still make it appealing enough to be bought again & seen as a reliable brand. Honestly i despair.....
As for extra work at schl: when we were in England for a wk, my daughter (aged 6) took 2 wks to catch up on all the missed work, as well as do her regular weekly hw. She was working 1-2 hrs every night. It was a nightmare! It certainly puts u off being ill or away but obv you can't help it!
I was reading this post and thinking 'I know how this woman feels' even though I don't have the same complaints, I could sense your feelings through your writing! Then your last sentence summed it all up perfectly: 'I'm annoyed.' I hope things clear for your soon Iota.
ReplyDeleteI used to get really fed up with the quirks of Blogger. One of the reasons I changed. But then again, there were a lot of things about Blogger that made it so easy!
I've linked to you in my post today. :)
I fear you are turning into a grumpy old woman. This needs to be halted instantly. Drink more gin. And come over to the UK for Cybermummy.
ReplyDelete