Why did Smart get so complex?
At approximately 11.15pm on February 16th, 2011 I complete my current project and decide to relax with a session of World of Warcraft. Upon loading the programme I discover that I need to renew my subscription, but this is not an issue since I had a Game Card that I had purchased earlier. So I open up the box and take out the card itself, turn it over and scratch the area to reveal the code. So far so good, but unfortunately, the Blizzard servers refuse to authenticate the code. I have been in this situation before - annoyingly with the last Game Card I used, and know that I have to contact Blizzard to rectify the problem. This involves obtaining an image of both the back of the Game Card and the receipt from when I purchased it.
It is now 11.45pm and I find myself resigned to the fact that I am going to have to find my scanner, bring it downstairs and connect it to the laptop after disconnecting the laptop to the wireless adaptor. Then scan the images, reconnect the wireless adaptor, and finally attach them to the Blizzard page that will deal with the issue.
Yet do I really want to do that? No, of course not. I can be smart because I have a Smart phone. Not a super duper up to date Smart mobile telephone, but a smart one all the same. If I take photographs of the images using my LG 540 Optimus, I think to myself, I can send them via the Gmail on my said Smart phone to my home computer, just three feet away from where I am standing. Terrific. I am brilliant, I think to myself. For once, I am taking advantage of the limited advanced technology I have at my disposal. So that is what I will do. And I do it.
So how long do you think that it takes the images to reach my home computer, which if you recall, I said was three feet away from the very spot where I took those two images? Well, as I type this, it is 11.22am. Yes, that is right. Almost twelve hours later and I still have not got those images from my mobile, sorry, my Smart mobile telephone via my Gmail account, via my Virgin media package. And I have sent them twice since…
Anyway, I digress, because at 12.30am, that is, last night, I am getting a little frustrated at the lack of images in my Virgin media e-mail in-box. Hold on, I think to myself. Surely my LG 540 Optimus can speak to my laptop PC, which is where I want the images to go, and I seem to recall that there is a cable to attach them. Terrific. I am brilliant, I think to myself. Again.
So I go in search of the box that the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone came in and discover that, yes, it does have a cable to attach it to other devices with a USB port. Terrific. I am brilliant, I think to myself. Again. I can connect the two after I have disconnected the wireless adaptor, and they will talk to each other and I will be able to search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes.
Five minutes later, I have connected my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone to my laptop. Oh, it wants a Driver. Well, that is okay, because it will need a Driver so that they can recognise each other and then I can search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes.
So I disconnect the mouse and reconnect the wireless adaptor. The laptop searches for a driver. None exist. Perhaps I should check the LG site. That will not take very long as I am sure that the drivers are very easy to find on the LG site. Then I can download and install the Driver so that my laptop and LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone can recognise each other and I can search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes.
So I do a quick search for LG Mobile and top of the list is http://uk.lgapplication.com. Which is not what I am looking for. It is LG’s “App” store. Will they have any drivers? No. I checked. Eventually I find the right site and page for my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. I see a button that asks me if I want to register it. I decide not to, because in four years’ time it is unlikely that I will be sending it to school. I see a button that asks me if I want to download the LG Mobile Support Tool to PC. I decide that I do. This seems like a sensible option. Then at last I see an option that says “Manuals & Drivers.” I click on that. It takes me to another page listing the types of products that LG manufactures. I click on the option for mobile phone which lists all of the mobile phones available from LG. I click on the model that I own. Which you will recall is an LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. Which takes me back to page for that model where the first question is, do you want to register your phone? You will recall that my answer to that was no.
In the meantime, the LG Mobile Support Tool has downloaded. It has not yet installed. My laptop has decided that it has better things to do. So I cancel the installation, shut the laptop down, and restart it. Go back to the web page for my mobile phone and download the LG Mobile Support Tool again. It installs after I have followed the instructions .
Just in case, I walk the three feet to my home computer and check to see if the images have arrived yet. No, not yet.
I walk back to the laptop. The LG Mobile Support Tool has installed and asks me if I have installed the USB driver for my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. Which of course I had not because I had not been able to find it on the LG site. So, I say yes, please.
I install the Driver. Hurrah. So I click on my computer link and look in the folder for the various drives to see if the connection has registered. Just like it would with an external drive. Which would mean that my laptop and LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone would have recognised each other and I can search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes. But there is no link between my laptop and LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. I cannot search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes.
I am confused. Why am I connecting my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone to my laptop if I cannot search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done? In just five minutes.
Meanwhile the LG Mobile Support Tool is awaiting my input. Do I want to update my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone it asks? Why yes I do and say so. It begins the process with a warning. The update will wipe everything of my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. My contacts. Downloads. My images. I wonder if the update will include the ability to get my laptop and LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone recognise each other and enable me the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done? In just five minutes. That would be brilliant.
Except if it did, it would wipe off all of the images I want to get off my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. Damn.
It is now 1.00am. The two images sent from my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone have not arrived. Even after an hour. Plus my laptop and my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone are not talking to each other. LG and my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone are talking to each other though. Which is a bit like LG not approving my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone’s choice of laptop boyfriend.
So feeling frustrated, I go to bed. Which does actually take just five minutes.
Twelve hours later and the images are still on my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone and not anywhere else that I want them to be. I cannot update my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone because that would mean that those images or the other ones that I want to transfer from my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone would be wiped out.
This afternoon, I plan to go upstairs, unpack my scanner, bring it downstairs and plug it into my laptop after I have disconnected the wireless adapter. Scan the images that I want and save them. Then disconnect the scanner, reconnect the wireless adapter, attach the images to the message that I wanted to send at 11:45pm last night, and then send the message off. After which I will take the scanner back upstairs and pack it away. All in 30 minutes.
In the meantime, and just in case, I walk the three feet to my home computer and check to see if the images have arrived yet.
No, not yet.
[As an addendum, I did try sending this to LG via its website. Unfortunately, the website decided that neither of my e-mail addresses or my actual name were valid. Since I have had this name for some 43 years and at least one of the e-mail accounts for ten years, I am not that I like to be invalidated.]
It is now 11.45pm and I find myself resigned to the fact that I am going to have to find my scanner, bring it downstairs and connect it to the laptop after disconnecting the laptop to the wireless adaptor. Then scan the images, reconnect the wireless adaptor, and finally attach them to the Blizzard page that will deal with the issue.
Yet do I really want to do that? No, of course not. I can be smart because I have a Smart phone. Not a super duper up to date Smart mobile telephone, but a smart one all the same. If I take photographs of the images using my LG 540 Optimus, I think to myself, I can send them via the Gmail on my said Smart phone to my home computer, just three feet away from where I am standing. Terrific. I am brilliant, I think to myself. For once, I am taking advantage of the limited advanced technology I have at my disposal. So that is what I will do. And I do it.
So how long do you think that it takes the images to reach my home computer, which if you recall, I said was three feet away from the very spot where I took those two images? Well, as I type this, it is 11.22am. Yes, that is right. Almost twelve hours later and I still have not got those images from my mobile, sorry, my Smart mobile telephone via my Gmail account, via my Virgin media package. And I have sent them twice since…
Anyway, I digress, because at 12.30am, that is, last night, I am getting a little frustrated at the lack of images in my Virgin media e-mail in-box. Hold on, I think to myself. Surely my LG 540 Optimus can speak to my laptop PC, which is where I want the images to go, and I seem to recall that there is a cable to attach them. Terrific. I am brilliant, I think to myself. Again.
So I go in search of the box that the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone came in and discover that, yes, it does have a cable to attach it to other devices with a USB port. Terrific. I am brilliant, I think to myself. Again. I can connect the two after I have disconnected the wireless adaptor, and they will talk to each other and I will be able to search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes.
Five minutes later, I have connected my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone to my laptop. Oh, it wants a Driver. Well, that is okay, because it will need a Driver so that they can recognise each other and then I can search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes.
So I disconnect the mouse and reconnect the wireless adaptor. The laptop searches for a driver. None exist. Perhaps I should check the LG site. That will not take very long as I am sure that the drivers are very easy to find on the LG site. Then I can download and install the Driver so that my laptop and LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone can recognise each other and I can search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes.
So I do a quick search for LG Mobile and top of the list is http://uk.lgapplication.com. Which is not what I am looking for. It is LG’s “App” store. Will they have any drivers? No. I checked. Eventually I find the right site and page for my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. I see a button that asks me if I want to register it. I decide not to, because in four years’ time it is unlikely that I will be sending it to school. I see a button that asks me if I want to download the LG Mobile Support Tool to PC. I decide that I do. This seems like a sensible option. Then at last I see an option that says “Manuals & Drivers.” I click on that. It takes me to another page listing the types of products that LG manufactures. I click on the option for mobile phone which lists all of the mobile phones available from LG. I click on the model that I own. Which you will recall is an LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. Which takes me back to page for that model where the first question is, do you want to register your phone? You will recall that my answer to that was no.
In the meantime, the LG Mobile Support Tool has downloaded. It has not yet installed. My laptop has decided that it has better things to do. So I cancel the installation, shut the laptop down, and restart it. Go back to the web page for my mobile phone and download the LG Mobile Support Tool again. It installs after I have followed the instructions .
Just in case, I walk the three feet to my home computer and check to see if the images have arrived yet. No, not yet.
I walk back to the laptop. The LG Mobile Support Tool has installed and asks me if I have installed the USB driver for my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. Which of course I had not because I had not been able to find it on the LG site. So, I say yes, please.
I install the Driver. Hurrah. So I click on my computer link and look in the folder for the various drives to see if the connection has registered. Just like it would with an external drive. Which would mean that my laptop and LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone would have recognised each other and I can search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes. But there is no link between my laptop and LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. I cannot search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done. In just five minutes.
I am confused. Why am I connecting my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone to my laptop if I cannot search the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done? In just five minutes.
Meanwhile the LG Mobile Support Tool is awaiting my input. Do I want to update my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone it asks? Why yes I do and say so. It begins the process with a warning. The update will wipe everything of my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. My contacts. Downloads. My images. I wonder if the update will include the ability to get my laptop and LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone recognise each other and enable me the memory of the LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone, grab the images that I want and be all done? In just five minutes. That would be brilliant.
Except if it did, it would wipe off all of the images I want to get off my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone. Damn.
It is now 1.00am. The two images sent from my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone have not arrived. Even after an hour. Plus my laptop and my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone are not talking to each other. LG and my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone are talking to each other though. Which is a bit like LG not approving my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone’s choice of laptop boyfriend.
So feeling frustrated, I go to bed. Which does actually take just five minutes.
Twelve hours later and the images are still on my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone and not anywhere else that I want them to be. I cannot update my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone because that would mean that those images or the other ones that I want to transfer from my LG 540 Optimus Smart mobile telephone would be wiped out.
This afternoon, I plan to go upstairs, unpack my scanner, bring it downstairs and plug it into my laptop after I have disconnected the wireless adapter. Scan the images that I want and save them. Then disconnect the scanner, reconnect the wireless adapter, attach the images to the message that I wanted to send at 11:45pm last night, and then send the message off. After which I will take the scanner back upstairs and pack it away. All in 30 minutes.
In the meantime, and just in case, I walk the three feet to my home computer and check to see if the images have arrived yet.
No, not yet.
[As an addendum, I did try sending this to LG via its website. Unfortunately, the website decided that neither of my e-mail addresses or my actual name were valid. Since I have had this name for some 43 years and at least one of the e-mail accounts for ten years, I am not that I like to be invalidated.]