COMPUTERS AND YOUTUBE AND PROBLEMS

Although I’m not very knowledgeable about computers or electronics, I can learn. My biggest problem is getting the person teaching me a new skill to slow down…to tell me…literally…every single thing I need to do. In the past I’ve learned how to connect and operate numerous complicated TV/DVD/VCR/satellite systems, and over the years I’ve increased my computer abilities considerable. Realize that when I say ‘considerably’ that doesn’t really mean a lot, since I started out with ZERO knowledge. Instruction manuals would say “do this then do that” and the fact that I had no idea what they were talking about didn’t even matter since these manuals always ASSUME that you inherently know that you have to complete 17 steps before you even get to their starting point.

And so my learning curve has been quite low, with small accomplishments being celebrated with excitement and pride, and problems met with a mix of frustration and anger. Sometimes I think the whole computer world is somehow plotting to keep people like me, people with minimum of knowledge, on the outside looking in. The worst times for me are when something works one day, then suddenly refuses to work the next. Of course I always assume that I’m the problem, that I’ve done something, hit the wrong key, missed a step in the process or that the computer gods are simply choosing to make my life a living hell for their own entertainment.

Several months ago I learned how to make a slideshow out of still pictures, using Windows Moviemaker. Although it was a long, slow and painful process, I eventually put together a slideshow of our house for sale. I was able to zoom in and pull back from the pictures, adding a sense of movement. I even added a soundtrack, an Italian song to set the mood. I tweaked and rearranged until I was satisfied with the finished product, and I prepared to upload it to YOUTUBE.

And then I made the fatal mistake: I deleted the previous slideshow I had on YOUTUBE. At the time it seemed like the right thing to do, but when my new and improved slideshow failed to upload, I knew I’d made a big mistake!

Eventually I was able to load the new slideshow, complete with soundtrack onto a different video website, REVVER. If you go to the blog where I’ve written about the house for sale, the video you’ll see there is the one that’s on Revver. Somehow their site was able to upload my video, while all YOUTUBE
would tell me was the my file ‘failed to convert”....Whatever that meant. If you want to see the new and improved version you can see it HERE.

Today, for some reason, and after numerous failed attempts, I searched the YouTube site for some answers, and I found a help page that seemed to be just what I needed. I copied and pasted the instructions so that I could print them out, ensuring that I wouldn’t skip a step or get confused. Here are those instructions:

“How do I make a video out of JPEG images?

Here are a few steps to convert JPEG images into videos by using Windows Movie Maker.
1. From your desktop, click the "Start" button.
2. Select "Run".
3. Type: moviemk and click the "OK" button.
4. Drag or import the image files to the "Collection Window".
5. Drag the file down to the "Time Line" pane at the bottom.
6. Edit the images until they appear the way you prefer.
7. At the top, select "File" and "Save Movie File".
8. Under the movie selection select "The Web".
9. Click the "Next" button.
10. Name the movie and click the "Next" button.
11. Click the "Show more choices" link
12. If you'd like to use our Single File Uploader, make sure your video is under 100MB. If your file's between 100MB and 1GB, you'll have to use the YouTube Uploader.

Once you've completed these steps, your movie will be ready to be uploaded to YouTube!”


Okay, it all sounded so simple and straightforward, so I began the process. I decided to keep this slideshow simple, mainly because I didn’t want to invest a lot of time and hope in a process that seemed doomed to failure, based on past experiences. Once the slideshow was ready I started on step #7, then step #8, and so on. And then I got to step #11, and I clicked on “More Choices”. But then….what??? The choices had been limited to connection speeds, and the “more” choices offered 2 additional lists of items that didn’t make any sense to me, choices that I won’t even bother list here, but trust me, the choices were many, and confusing, and as you can see from the YouTube instructions, they didn’t bother to tell me what choice I should make, or why. AARRGGHH!!!!

Why do they do this? Why can’t instructions just cover EVERYTHING from start to finish without all the mystery??? If you’re a computer whiz then yes, you could probably skip the first ten items, but for someone like me who needs all the help and reassurance they can get, would it really be so hard to include ALL THE STEPS??!!??

But there is one tiny piece of good news is all of this! Amazingly, the slideshow that I made did somehow manage to get saved correctly and to actually be posted on YouTube!!! Although it’s a simpler, silent slideshow, maybe for someone interested in our house they won’t mind the lack of glitz, even though I AM quite proud of the REVVER VERSION. The new, less improved YouTube version is posted below.

THIS JUST DOESN'T COMPUTE!

The world is shrinking, thanks to the internet and transoceanic travel. Places that once were visited only by the rich, the famous or a National Geographic expedition are now easily accessible to the average person. A quick internet search will get you hotel information for the most remote corners of the world, and an international phone call is as easy to make as calling across town. And yet….

Living in Italy for the last 4+ years has certainly opened our eyes to many things. People all over the world are certainly more alike than they are different. We all want the same things: someone to love, good food, a warm, safe place to sleep. And yet…..

We’re connected to the world by our computer with ADSL, a definite improvement over our old dial-up connection. We can check our Italian bank accounts online, calculate our Italian property taxes (ICI) online, and receive our phone bill in PDF form rather than having a paper statement. And yet…..

Somehow Italian companies don’t seem to make the most of their computers, and we don’t really understand why. As I mentioned, we can access our PostalBank account online. The system is live, so if Art makes a deposit while he’s at the Post Office to mail a letter I can see it immediately here at home on the computer. And yet….

When we wanted to find out if our final car payment was in November or December, Art stopped in to ask the director. I didn’t know if that information was available to me online, and it was just easier to ask in person. Imagine our surprise when the director told Art he’d have to call the main office in Rome, and to come back on Friday to get the answer! Why in world wasn’t that information available immediately on the computer?

We had a similar situation when dealing with our mortgage company. The whole process was really, REALLY complicated, and it took me a long time to figure out that some of the basics were very different from what I was used to. Since we hadn’t been issued an amortization schedule when we bought our house, I wondered what our loan balance was, in order to get an idea for when we sell our house. We do get an interest statement each year, but that’s a strange situation too.

Based on the interest statements, it seems that the interest and principle stay the same, year after, rather than changing each month/year as they would in the United States. We’ve had several friends who are both fluent in Italian AND knowledgeable about the mortgage industry contact our mortgage company so that we could understand the situation a little better, but honestly, we’re still a little confused.

The best we can figure, for our twenty year mortgage, the interest and principle payments remain at the same, predetermined amount for the first half of the loan, in other words, for ten years. Additionally, the amount that goes to principle isn’t really being applied to the principle….yet. Apparently it’s sitting in an account somewhere (collecting interest for the mortgage company), and will be applied to our mortgage in one lump sum once we pass the halfway point. Of course this system was completely new to us…and rather bizarre. Having OUR money earn interest for the mortgage company is something rather distasteful, something that U.S. mortgage companies used to do with escrow accounts until the public got wise and demanded a change.

So, without house for sale now, less than ten years after our mortgage began, we wondered what would happen to the money that was (eventually) supposed to be applied to the principle. When we asked the mortgage company about this, we were told that it would be applied to the principle once we paid off the mortgage, but details remain sketchy. Apparently there is also a prepayment penalty involved, but the exact amount varies. When we pressed further, trying to figure out what the variables were, no one really seemed to know. (This prepayment penalty is now illegal in Italy)

We also asked them for an approximate payoff for our loan, just to get an idea. But of course this was waaaaay too complicated for our mortgage company. They offered to send us a three page form to complete, requesting an early pay off of our loan. When we explained that we didn’t want to pay off the mortgage, just get SOME SORT OF ROUGH ESTIMATE, the mortgage company told us that just wasn’t possible. HUH???

This is why I’m so confused. WHY have a computer if you’re not going to use it to it’s full potential? Even with the complicated and unusual system used by our mortgage company, surely there must be a program that could compute this information quickly and simply. Maybe we’re the odd ducks who anticipate closing our loan early, but certainly we can’t be the first or the last. At some point our mortgage company will have to figure out what our pay off is for a specific date, what the penalty will be, and how our principle will be applied. I just don’t understand why I can do so much via computer these days, but finding answers to what I consider simple questions is so difficult.

CONFESSION OF A COMPUTER RETARD

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Some of you who don't know me probably think that because I write a blog, even publish pictures, I'm really a computer wiz...but you would be sooooo wrong! Everything I've learned about computers has been with the help of many, many experienced people holding my hand and talking in VERY simple terms. Eventually, after someone explains whatever process slowly enough, simply enough, and often enough, I eventually catch on. Then after I've learned the new trick, if something goes wrong I have no clue what to do...all I know how to do is what I've been taught...

So...now we're planning our trip back to the states for the holidays, and I see that the extended-stay hotel we're staying in has free hi-speed wireless internet. Cool. IF you know how to make your laptop actually connect to the wireless network. I see that my computer does have a switch, labeled in the diagram as "wireless antenna on/off switch". Sounds promising. Sounds simple. Turn the switch on and I'll be connected to the web...at high speed even! Somehow I doubt it's that simple.

Whenever I've bought some new computer program, be it something as basic as anti-virus software, or something more complicated like photo editing software, 9 times out of 10 whoever these geeks are who write the instructions figure you already have your PhD in computer technology. The directions just ASSUME that you know the basics, and honestly, how many of us do? I need instructions to say: Turn on your computer by clicking the big button at the back of your keyboard. (and then show a picture of what they're talking about.) I need for step 2 to be LITERALLY, the next thing I do...not six steps later, after they ASSUME I know how to go to the control panel, click on this and that, bring up a menu and click the correct tab. What if I don't know what my control panel is, much less how to get to it? What if I don't know what to do with the control panel assuming I can even find it? Where are those tabs and drop-down menus? What's a menu? Can you get fries with that??

Of course I've searched on the Toshiba website for basic instructions on how to activate and use my computer with a wireless network...but what AREN'T they telling me? They say to do this and do that, but they never explain the whys, or the options. Maybe I don't need to do this, just that. Maybe I can do something several different ways, but how do I know what makes the most sense for me and my computer...or if it makes any difference at all?

I'm glad I've started this quest two weeks in advance, and I hope two weeks is enough time for me to figure out the answers to my questions...and to really educate myself in the process. I remember years ago hearing someone say that a computer is only as smart as the person operating it, and that has me very, very worried.