“I don’t want to talk about computers til tomorrow at least,” says VR in a voice of high emotion.
I share that emotion. Except it isn’t exactly computers that are causing the fuss. Over thirty years ago, on the recommendation of a friend, I made Plusnet (then called Globalnet, later Madasafish) my ISP. And stuck with them on the misguided belief that giving up my concisely neat email address – rodrob@globalnet.co.uk – would eliminate me from cyberspace. Also, and more important, they gave good customer service.
On April 18 I ceased receiving emails. This has happened before, on the grounds that my Plusnet inbox was now full. The solution was incredibly tedious but in any case it wasn’t going to work this time. Two other solutions, suggested by advisers, didn’t work either. The echt solution, I was told, would take 3 – 5 days, starting April 20, a lifetime in cyberspace.
“But it may take less,” said the Northern voice. Why was I convinced that “less” would turn out to be “more”?
Grandson Ian has been on at me for ages. “Switch to Gmail,” he said. He has a point since I already have a Gmail account, it goes with using Blogspot. From time to time I’ve dabbled but I was uncomfortable. It took me an hour to find out where “Forward” lay. Half an hour’s thought and I realised the changeover wouldn’t necessarily be cataclysmic. I could run Gmail in parallel with Live Mail (assuming it resurrected itself) until I got used to Gmail.
Hence the dust-covered robinson.roderick@gmail.com.
This change shouldn’t affect normal followers of Tone Deaf. Only if they communicate me with privately. A day’s forced usage of Gmail has made me love it more. Slightly.
But such upheavals are magnified when you’re in your eighties.
I have always stuck to Hotmail (which pairs with Gmail anyway). I think it now calls itself "Outlook" but that does not affect me.I erected my short/simple address in the early days(1990's) as "avus@hotmail.com" when simple addresses were still available.
ReplyDeleteAvus: At virtually the same time you took up Hotmail I took up Globalnet, hence my simple user name - rodrob. I did it on the recommendation of someone who knew more about email than I did at the time. I hung on to it because of high levels of customer service on technical matters, which I regarded as the only meaningful reason for doing so. Things are not as they were, so I'm changing
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