My Adventures with Tech – 2020 Edition

Technology

2020 has certainly turned out to be a year that we would/will all want to forget! On top of everything else … I’ve spent much of the last few months dealing with technology. Note … tech is not my strong suit.

Cutting the cable – Tried to cut the cable cord and … failed miserably. I’ll probably never know if it was the service I tried (Hulu + Live TV), my internet, or both.

Virtual meetings – I needed to go virtual and ordered a new webcam.

Battery issues – My laptop would no longer hold a charge so … bought a new one.

Windows 10 killed my computer – My desktop p.c. died after the last Windows 10 updates so … bought a new one.

Internet issues – I finally became sick and tired at CenturyLink’s crappy internet service so … switched to Sparklight. Worked great until I started to consistently lose my WiFi. Techs came out twice, replaced the modem, and I was scheduled for a third visit. 

Since this was the weekend, I took matters into my own hands. Dangerous. Turned out that there was a bad setting on the modem and now I know why you should move your devices to the 5g signal. Problem solved.

WordPress 5.5 killed my site – This website crashed and burned after the WordPress 5.5 release. It broke my theme so … had to find and install a new one. It was time anyway for a refresh and I quite like this new one. Come to find out that this WordPress update broke a lot of sites and a plug-in was quickly introduced to repair the issue. Too late for me.

My wife gets a new iPhone – I finally convinced my wife that her first generation iPhone SE could not be willed into expanding its storage capacity. Got her a new one.

Windows 10 does not like USB microphones – I’m doing a lot of recorded lessons right now and my sound sucks. I already have a gravelly voice as it is. I ordered a cheap lavalier mic for the mic jack and … it was a cheap mic for the mic jack. No bueno.

I then ordered a better USB mic and came to find out that Windows 10 don’t much like USB mics. I’m starting to think that Windows 10 don’t much like me. I found a couple of free applications that will take control of the mic and bypass Microsoft’s  driver control. Sound is not in my wheelhouse, but I got it working well enough for my purposes.

Phantom sounds – Out of the blue, my computer started beeping at me. I know what a text sounds like on my phone. I know what an email sounds like on my desktop but, for the life of me, while this sound was familiar, I could not associate it with any notifications. 

After turning just about every sound and notification off, I finally narrowed it down to the alerts that occur when an external device is connected or disconnected, it also turns out that my microphone may be the culprit. Chalk another one up to Windows 10 does not like USB microphones.

Stick a fork in me, I’m done. You can even use a smaller fork. I just lost 40 lbs. on Noom and I found a whole new wardrobe in my closet. #victorydance 

Craig M. Jamieson

Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services
Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!
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