ah. tech.
my house is simply shtunning when it comes to tech. out of immense kindliness we shield techies from our escapades - for let there be no doubt, any techie who happened to be present at one of our bloopers would definitely blanch, shrivel up and wither away.
take for instance this evening's episode. i was teaching my elder sister how to set the time and alarm on my digital watch (yeah! cutting edge technology and all huh). so she looks at it long and hard. while i shtink at tech stuff myself, i can not resist ragging my sister.
M : what's "AL"?
m : er...alarm?
M : oh, right..
*after another ten minutes of explaining how to get back to the regular display, and her having tried out the buttons with a frown of total concentration*
M : what's "MO"?
m : you know those funny settings like in e-cards? thats hip hop. like the current "mo" we're in now, is 9.26.
M : *uncertainly, with growing distaste*... oh.... does the alarm ring funnily in hip hop then?
by the time my father and i fell off the bed twice because we were laughing so hard, she figured it's for monday.
then was this other time pretty long back. we had just changed our stereo system. the 10 cd changer thing was a new concept. i came home from school and mom complained that "that silly system isnt working!"
(split your sides laughing: im considered the gadget freak in my house because im the most savvy of us 4. yesh, thats how bad we are!)
i look at her puzzled - it was working in the morning when i left.
m : what did you do?
Ma : i put the cds in and it wouldnt work. all this stuff about 10 cds is a rip off... it cant even take three!
m : *with a speed born of experience* did you put all the cds like appalams, one on top of the other in the tray that came out?
voila. problem solved.
then there was the car stereo. we just put that in, and my sister was singing along with one of her favourite songs. as he changed gears, dad unobtrusively pressed the repeat button. the song played again. pleasantly surprised, my sister sang along. then the song played again. "how come it's playing so many times?"
(my father was inspired that day!) "you see, theres this microchip that controls the voice enjoyment recognition system. since you were singing along and enjoying the song so much it instructed the system to repeat the song". my sister fell for it totally. she was wonderstruck at the miracles of modern science until we later explained the ultra complex mechanism. it was worth getting pinched and pincered!
and my own blooper in south africa to wind up with:
my host had retired to his room. i wanted to see the latest news on the quake and so i put on the tv. now, our basic set top business leaves me gumswizzled, and they have a system thats worse. after staring suspiciously at the battery of remote controls i chose the right one by dint of a major memory feat.
the tv came on at discovery - some program about designing engines. i started clicking through the channels. funny. every time i reached 70, the channels would skip back to discovery. it happened 3 times. by then for the sheer spirit of the thing i was determined that i would get to 69. and i hopped - reached bbc - *hallelujah!* - and the tv skipped back to discovery. in disgust i flung the control away and put off the set.
my host came down soon after, looking harassed. "was someone trying to see tv downstairs? i really wanted to see a program about engines and they kept changing the channel!" er.. uh.. hehe... ooops? they seem to have some funny system where the tvs run in parallel unless you get some gadget thingy to split em. being roaringly savvy about these things, i just hadnt noticed before.
yep. when it comes to tech.... we rock.
take for instance this evening's episode. i was teaching my elder sister how to set the time and alarm on my digital watch (yeah! cutting edge technology and all huh). so she looks at it long and hard. while i shtink at tech stuff myself, i can not resist ragging my sister.
M : what's "AL"?
m : er...alarm?
M : oh, right..
*after another ten minutes of explaining how to get back to the regular display, and her having tried out the buttons with a frown of total concentration*
M : what's "MO"?
m : you know those funny settings like in e-cards? thats hip hop. like the current "mo" we're in now, is 9.26.
M : *uncertainly, with growing distaste*... oh.... does the alarm ring funnily in hip hop then?
by the time my father and i fell off the bed twice because we were laughing so hard, she figured it's for monday.
then was this other time pretty long back. we had just changed our stereo system. the 10 cd changer thing was a new concept. i came home from school and mom complained that "that silly system isnt working!"
(split your sides laughing: im considered the gadget freak in my house because im the most savvy of us 4. yesh, thats how bad we are!)
i look at her puzzled - it was working in the morning when i left.
m : what did you do?
Ma : i put the cds in and it wouldnt work. all this stuff about 10 cds is a rip off... it cant even take three!
m : *with a speed born of experience* did you put all the cds like appalams, one on top of the other in the tray that came out?
voila. problem solved.
then there was the car stereo. we just put that in, and my sister was singing along with one of her favourite songs. as he changed gears, dad unobtrusively pressed the repeat button. the song played again. pleasantly surprised, my sister sang along. then the song played again. "how come it's playing so many times?"
(my father was inspired that day!) "you see, theres this microchip that controls the voice enjoyment recognition system. since you were singing along and enjoying the song so much it instructed the system to repeat the song". my sister fell for it totally. she was wonderstruck at the miracles of modern science until we later explained the ultra complex mechanism. it was worth getting pinched and pincered!
and my own blooper in south africa to wind up with:
my host had retired to his room. i wanted to see the latest news on the quake and so i put on the tv. now, our basic set top business leaves me gumswizzled, and they have a system thats worse. after staring suspiciously at the battery of remote controls i chose the right one by dint of a major memory feat.
the tv came on at discovery - some program about designing engines. i started clicking through the channels. funny. every time i reached 70, the channels would skip back to discovery. it happened 3 times. by then for the sheer spirit of the thing i was determined that i would get to 69. and i hopped - reached bbc - *hallelujah!* - and the tv skipped back to discovery. in disgust i flung the control away and put off the set.
my host came down soon after, looking harassed. "was someone trying to see tv downstairs? i really wanted to see a program about engines and they kept changing the channel!" er.. uh.. hehe... ooops? they seem to have some funny system where the tvs run in parallel unless you get some gadget thingy to split em. being roaringly savvy about these things, i just hadnt noticed before.
yep. when it comes to tech.... we rock.
Labels: my life
scribbled by m. at 9:09 am
7 Comments:
Hee-hee-hee.
(Do try and post more often.)
Nice. :) The voice enjoyment recognition thing was a stroke of genius. Hats off to your dad.
ooseless!!! one of the more priceless posts i wud say..keep at it!! :D
The voice enjoyment recog was, as Anurag says, pure genius.
And yes, they should do something about these remote controls - leave two around for a while and they multiply like rabbits. Which once resulted in my picking up my mobile phone and trying to change the TV channel. I was alone, so no laughter sounded offstage, but it was one of those 'blush inwardly' moments...
New looky, new style, way to go M! But wait .. M is your sister, it would seem, you would be m .. okey, now one is gumswizzlingly confoosed.
@aditya - :)
@kopos - oh could you? welcome to the club then!
@anurag - lol, thanks!
@"anon" - we should post our jack and the fbi story also some day no? :D
@senthil - tsk...console yourself. tis a small thing to trying to start the bike for half an hour with the car keys! yep. its happened.
@the One (and Only)- thankoo, you like? :D
as for the confooshun, *small voice* we are "m.". have always been (one wouldve noticed if one had read even a single comment *loud sniff*). the elder version is M.
*note to self: edit that lousy template - down with caps!*
But .. but .. one reads all your comments, God promise!
*very small voice* and if only m. knew how eagerly one awaits the pearls of wisdom she occasionally chooses to grace one's humble bloggy-woggy with, she might not be sniffing so. Hmpfh.
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