Apparently I’ve done something to anger the technology gods.
OK, so maybe some of it is on me but I’m sure there’s another explanation.
First, I’ve got so many accounts on Google I can’t keep track of them all. Sometimes, neither can Google. I knew one day it would haunt me. And that day came this week. (My favorite address is the ego boosting leftover from a previous employer — NormBellTheRealDeal@gmail.com .) Finding a workaround was, after all, no big problem, just an hour I’ll never get back. If anybody has a tip on how to actually kill a Google account, I’m all ears.
Then there was the Dropbox matter. I’ve got several different emails here at the Business Press, tracing our migration in the past year from @ReviewJournal.com to @LVBusinessPress.com to today’s @BusinessPress.Vegas. A photographer sent images to me at one address; my Dropbox account is in another. Voila, instant misadventure.
But the real crisis of faith came when I spent a couple of hours in training. It was only about five but it felt like 50.
Our new owners, GateHouse, made the strategically sound decision to convert us to a set of software that is being used at its other 500-plus publications across the country. So off we all go to training.
It’s a universal that nobody likes computer training. The room is always too warm; the air doesn’t move; the chairs aren’t comfy and are too close together. Somebody is always racing ahead and somebody is always hopelessly lost.
Somebody is always furiously taking notes, leaving the rest of the group to wonder if they’ve erred in trusting that the vital details are in the handouts.
For me, I knew I was in trouble when I found out I was going to need four new passwords. If I can’t keep track of the accounts, how can I be expected to juggle new passwords?
Somehow we all will get through it. We’ll have a few tough days but a week after that, everything will be bookmarked and committed to memory — or at least a shortcut key.
We fear change and hold on to the old until we have no choice but to adapt to the new. That just seems the way it’s always worked. And will again, tech gods willing.
