The Multi-Facetted World of ICT Complaints

It appears the longer I stay away from blogging, the higher the complaints mount!

It just struck me how in Ghana there are many stories just begging to be written; it also seems a large number of our fourth-columnists are unable to cover them all. This is why blogging is so useful and instructive.

For the past week, I have been battling with both SHOPRITE and GAME about their links. The stories are not necessarily apocryphal as they are annoying. First I am told that a goo number of people earlier in the day were able to purchase goods with the car ds so my card will work. Next, I realise after some ten minutes that it isn't going to go anywhere, especially as it's the evening.

E-Transactions from where?

I blame less the tellers--and more the shop, which I believe should ensure that it does its level best to make sure the links are working! A cashless society is not going to come anytime soon if even the retailers are not concerned about making sure their customers are happy.

I have been encouraged, though, by what I have been seeing in the papers about standards and all that. Standards as in Ghana Standards Board. Question, though, is whether they are the right agency to seek re-dress about e-transactions? I cannot help but wonder whether there is not a standard about these

A Decentralised ECG

On a happier note, I have also seen in the papers that it's possible to buy Cashpower electricity from new outlets. If it's true that there's one closer to home, then I will die a happier man!;-)

Bonfire of Laptop Vanities!

Two--nay,three stories have conspired to remind me that maybe Someone out there wants us to remember that technology will come and go, but we humans will remain, and that there is more to life than broken-down laptops.

The first story is none other than my own laptop, which I've already blogged about in the "nightmare on HP street" series, which you can click in the labels below.

The second has to do with a ghanablogging colleague who bemoaned a few days ago how their laptop--same as mine--had the screen break down on them when they accidentally slept with the hand, or so, on it. The worst of it all is that the retailers would tell them that they could not have that HP Pavilion fixed here in Africa! (so you can imagine why the guy has still not contacted me)

Finally, my work colleague (the big boss) mentioned yesterday how his laptop "died" on him. His is a TOSHIBA, so I shudder to think what brand to consider next in my search for a laptop!!

Laptop's Final Destination: Osu, Centre of Accra

Finally, I was able to take my laptop into the centre of town. Once I got there, I explained that I bought it almost a year ago, and the blank screen was on acocunt of a congenital defect, as it were. It was no virus; just a defect from teh HP Pavilion series.

Am unsure whether this has stuck with the retailers, but at least they told me they'd get back to me. I'm happy to know that ordering it will take only 5 working days.
I was asked to return my laptop till they've placed the order.

Considering how much it might cost, I think it might also take 5 days, multiplied by 30 days to raise sufficient money to buy the motherboard!

Here's to a judicious calculation/usage of my money for the next couple of months!

Monday Reflections of a Technology Kind: Fighting the Facebook Fraternity...HP Nightmare Re-Dux

Encouraged by a couple of readers to this blog, I've decided to make it more active than ever before. Am not quite sure how, exactly--except to be as natural as possible. And not too long.

If you read some of my other blogs, there's a propensity to write mini-tomes. I want to avoid doing this here--even though technology and discussions on the information society do occasionally demand such dedication!

Let's start with the weekend listening to the BBC Worldservice, and hearing on Saturday that a girl saved a British boy who said he was going to commit suicide thru Facebook. You can read the story here: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Facebook_Saves_British_Boy/551-100790-643.html.

A simple news search reveals a good 58,206 searches---and my broither, if that is not headache-inducing, I don't know what is! There are too many people writing about Facebook--and very well! that I don't really want to add to the noise.

ANd, really, I'm not talking about twitter.com. A colleague, who is apparently on it, was surprised to hear I had not joined it! So I write a weekly column on technology, but I don't honestly have to be a part of all processes to understand it do I? Oh, God, am getting a headache thinking about it. Whatever happened to the proof of the pudding is in the eating? Ouch...

So, I find myself in a bit of an existential paradox--to twitter or not to twitter? Whichever is the question?

You tell me!

Just before I go, I've managed to avoid going on Facebook today as well, and I plan to make occasional visits there through my mobile, through m.facebook.com--as I did over the weekend. I'm really looking for friend requests (though with over 400, I don't know why!!!) and being tagged on notes, which I do sometimes feel duty-bound to reply...

This week--finally--the laptop goes to the cleaners. Of sorts...

Survived One Day off Facebook!

I thought I wouldn't be able to do it, but I have. You see, it helps if you're already naturally lazy like myself. It means, then, that you won't feel that but arsed to open another browser to open Facebook in it.

If you're wondering why I just couldn't open facebook in another tab in Opera, it is that when you do, you cannot input data to submit on the wall and whatnot. Eventually, you're left with opening the application in another browser.

This naturally makes it easier for one to wean oneself off it. Coupled with atavastic laziness, you're onto a winner, baby!

In all seriousness, managed to stretch the day off facebook to today--if only for a short while.

Meanwhile, my work on Sunday World newspaper has been held in abeyance for a while as they work on re-launching the format of their paper.

I haven't produced an article in two weeks and am getting withdrawal symptoms! But I am getting ideas, some of which include:

cyber-crime

regional integration & technology

Pan-African network (satellite)

cyber-crime!

On cyber-crime, there's quite a lot of it going on off-late, what with the Chinese spy network news of last week. I cannot help but wonder whether that kind of illegality will get that much worse as the information society becomes more sophisticated.

No Facebook till 12pm!

It's not quite giving up Facebook for Lent, but it's more of not being distracted till lunchtime. I have too many things doing than adding what many have called the "noise" of the Internet. Good thing I'm not yet on twitter!

A good tip, in my view, is to open up Facebook on FIREFOX, whilst you open the rest of your "applications" on another browser, like Opera, which I use for regular work. That way, opening up firefox with Facebook becomes a drag, and hence inhibits the desire to open it.

Good luck!

HP Laptop update--the Mother of all Statements!

I decided not to go to Osu--in the centre of town--to get my laptop checked out, but go to the shop where I bought it at Accra Mall.

I spoke to a lady there, who wondered whether my problem was not a virus? WTF?! I explained that she could do a google check for HP Pavilion tx1000, and see that it is an HP problem!

When I asked about the warranty, she was reluctant, explaining that she doesn't believe that it covers the motherboard!

For God's sake, the motherboard is the, well, mother of the laptop; without it, it cannot function! When someone talks like that, it only goes to confirm that they're unwilling to repair it for me free.

So, the answer, really, is to pay for it; need to find how to rob a bank (hopefully my account!) over the next couple of months to get it changed and repaired.

Triple-bloody-OUCH!