Take that, technology!

 "We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works!" Douglas Adams

He's right, and i'm more convinced of it every day.

#1 Son's iPhone was either stolen, or ended up in a place where no one can hear it ringing, and the battery is probably dead by now anyway.  So Grandpa insisted we go get him another, and off to the AT&T store we went.

While there we resolved a couple of things, and the nice sales rep suggested that i call customer care and have the unique number assigned to that phone's internal hardware put on a blacklist.  That way, if it was stolen, it can never be used again.

Which makes me wonder, if that can be done, why would anyone steal a phone anyway?  If you can't use it for anything, what's the point of taking it?

Anyway, when i called to get the phone blacklisted, the nice lady asked me to get online on my account.  This required yet another password reset, because it has been so long since i bothered to get on that site that there was no way i was going to remember.

Once on, we did what was needed, and i hung up, and then tried to log off of my account on AT&T's site.  There was no log off button.

Really? i thought as i clicked through several pages and even tried the site map.  After about 15 minutes, i got disgusted and called customer service again, this time for tech support.

The agent, when i told him the dilemma, didn't laugh at me.  He asked me to read him the top line on the page, which i did, and which didn't have a sign out option.

He got onto my account from his end, and he couldn't find it, either!

Turns out, there was a glitch with their site, and some things about my account were not available, including the ability to actually sign out.

Well.

For once, it wasn't me.

His suggestion was to shut down my computer, which would disconnect me from the system, which i did.  Unfortunately, that caused the computer to have a glitch when the boys got on it later.  Windows didn't want to restart.  It did eventually, but the computer just didn't "behave right" for a while, and they had trouble starting up a game they play where they hook up two computers.

It was one of those days when i think Douglas Adams was more than right, so i will concentrate on one of the good, old fashioned shows of human skill for which there is no substitute.  #2 Son had his culinary school knife skills test yesterday, and got a very high grade!  No tech needed, and he carves mushrooms into decorative shapes beautifully, and then i get to cook the results for the mushroom lovers in the house.

No technology needed.

Today is:

Deep Blue Day -- the IBM computer defeats chess champion Gary Kasparov, the first such victory for a computer, in 1996

Extraterrestrial Culture Day -- New Mexico, US ("to celebrate and honor all past, present, and future extraterrestrial visitors in ways to enhance relationships among all citizens of the cosmos, known and unknown.")

Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck -- Malta

Gold Record Day -- Glenn Miller is awarded the first ever Gold Record, for "Chattanoga Choo Choo", 1942

National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe -- Italy, especially in Trieste

National Sports Day -- Qatar

Plimsoll Day -- honoring Samuel Plimsoll, the "Sailor’s Friend," who persuaded Parliament to have a maximum load limit on ships.

Safer Internet Day -- organised by Insafe (promotes safe and responsible use of the internet by teaching children how to keep themselves safe online)

St. Scholastica's Day (Patron of children in convulsions, nuns; LeMans, France; against rain, storms)

Try to Invent a New Jell-O Flavor Day -- it can't hurt to try

Umbrella Day

World Ag Expo -- Tulare, CA, US (largest farm and equipment show in North America; through Thursday)



Anniversaries Today:

Poland is symbolically married to the Baltic Sea by Jozef Haller de Hallenburg, celebrating the restitution of Polish access to the water, 1920
Tom Thumb marries Mercy Lavinia Warren, 1863
Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert von Saxe-Coburg, 1840
Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War (a/k/a French and Indian War), 1763
Academie Francaise forms in Paris (by Cardinal Richelieu), 1635


Birthdays Today:

Lance Berkman, 1976
Laura Dern, 1967
Glen Beck, 1964
Lenny Dykstra, 1963
Cliff Burton, 1962
George Stephanopoulos, 1961
Greg Norman, 1955
Jim Cramer, 1955
Mark Spitz, 1950
Donovan, 1946
Frances Moore Lappe, 1944
Roberta Flack, 1939
Robert Wagner, 1930
Leontyne Price, 1927
Lon Chaney, Jr., 1906
Bertolt Brecht, 1898
Frances Margaret "Dame Judith" Anderson, 1898
Jimmy Durante, 1893
William "Bill" Tilden, 1893
Boris Pasternak, 1890
Samuel Plimsoll, 1824
Charles Lamb, 1775


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"My Friend Flicka"(TV), 1956
"Death of a Salesman"(Play), 1949
"Puss Gets the Boot"(Cartoon, first Tom and Jerry short), 1940
"Icebound"(Pulitzer-winning Davis' Play), 1923
"All the News That's Fit to Print"(Slogan of the New York Times), 1897
"Les Contes d'Hoffman"(Offenbach Opera), 1881  
"The Lily of Killarney"(Opera), 1862


Today in History:

St. Paul is shipwrecked on the island of Malta, 60
Crusaders defeat Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch, 1098
The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days, 1355
Wampanoag Indians under King Philip kill all the men in Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1676
Edmund Halley is appointed the second Astronomer Royal of England, 1720
The Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War, surrendering Canada to England, 1763
Simon Bolivar is named dictator by the Congress of Peru, 1824
The first US fire extinguisher patent granted to Alanson Crane of Virginia, 1863
The YWCA is founded in NYC, 1870
Nathaniel Carr Goodwin becomes the first actor to perform in two different cities on the same day, in Boston for a matinee, and then in NYC for and evening performance, 1887
Nearly 11,000,000 acres of land, ceded to the US government by the Sioux Indians, is opened for settlement, 1890
The New York Times begins using the slogan, "All the news that's fit to print," 1897
Japan and Russia declare war after Japan's surprise attack on Russian fleet at Port Arthur disabled 7 Russian warships, 1904
Britain's first modern and largest battleship "HMS Dreadnought" is launched, 1906
Baseball outlaws all pitches that involve tampering with the ball, 1920
New Delhi becomes the capital of India, 1931
The first singing telegram is delivered, by the Postal Telegram Company of NYC, 1933
Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, 1962
Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party, 1989
The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time, 1996
The communication satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both, 2009