My experience in computerland has been confusing, to say the least. Some things
I know. Eyesight, in and of itself, is helpful only sometimes. It's helpful if
the sighted person can understand what he or she is looking at. It's even more
helpful if he or she has some knowledge of, or an intuitive feel for how
computers work. The sighted home health aide who I now have, has neither. She
can see and hear better than I can. I've also learned not to believe everything
that Jaws tells me. Sometimes Jaws is not being informative. It says things
that are no longer on the screen, or it says things that are on the screen, but
may be erroneous, or inapplicable to my situation. Sometimes Jaws doesn't say
anything when it should, and in that case, I have to find a way to coax it to
give me the information that I need.
But as for what happened today, I don't know if Outlook had a spontaneous
recovery or if someone at Optimum tried something and it worked. The problem
hadn't been with sending emails, just receiving them. That reminds me. I now
have to email the girls and tell them that the email has recovered.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2020 2:34 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Welcome to the Wild, Weird and Wackey World of the
Internet
Sounds like your email healed itself. After 25 years hooked to the internet,
my computer will tell me, "Cannot locate server". And that's just one of many
odd messages. Most of them must not even be talking to me, since if I just
continue bumbling along, the message goes away. Sometimes I have to shut down
totally and then boot up again. But once in a while it helps to have a sighted
spouse. Cathy has this skill of being able to read print. And the added skill
of making sense out of it.
We both go a bit wild however, when we do call for help and the person at the
other end of the line is speaking a form of English that is straight out of
Jabber wocky Jargon.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/13/20, miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My email just started working. Last night, around 9 pm, my email asked
for me to verify my password and I did so. It has done this once or
twice previously, probably after I got the new computer. But then
there were no more emails. Today I called Optimum and talked to
someone with a very heavy Russian or similar accent who was in a room
with many other tech support people speaking so loudly that I could
barely hear him. Luckily, I had my aide with normal sight and hearing
nearby. Anyway, he told me to restart my computer. I'd already done
that last night, to no avail, but I did it again, to no avail. He then
told me that he had to submit a ticket to someone or other and they'd
contact me within the next 24 hours to try to fix the problem. I told
him that this was unacceptable. That I'm old and blind and alone, with
no smart phone and I need email access. He said he was sorry. I asked
if I could talk to his supervisor. He said that a supervisor couldn't
help. I then told Tia to text my daughters to tell them that I had no
email access, in case they were trying to get in touch with me. A few
minutes later, while I was reading a second article from Consortium
News, I began getting messages from my email program, again asking me
to verify my password. After I did that two or three times, I began hearing
emails arriving. Such are the joys of technology.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2020 1:31 PM
To: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy]
Hi Miriam, and a very happy Friday the Thirteenth to you!
No email posts from you so far this morning. Am I reaching you?
Carl Jarvis
carjar82@xxxxxxxxx
