The Tyranny of Technology - Part 2

The great thing about technology WAS that you could do the work you needed to do from anywhere in the world. If you had access to the Internet and a password, you were good to go. Not anymore. In addition to having the password, the system you want to access needs to recognize not only you, but the device you're using.

When we're away, whether it's business or vacation, I still have to complete the payroll. And that can be a challenge. I often get a message that indicates that the system does not recognize my device. Sometimes it's because I'm using Mark's computer and recently it was because I got a new computer. Other times, I have no idea why I got that message - the computer had been used numerous times in the past. Regardless, they always want to send a code to my phone, (which may or may not work depending on where I am). But without being able to enter that code, I'm not getting in, even though I have the correct password. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for fraud prevention, but sometimes it just seems too much. And it makes a relatively quick and easy job long and hard. Not to mention the added stress I feel when I think of the consequences of not getting that payroll info entered in time.

My last computer had a touch screen. So when I couldn't get the scroll bars to work, I could always just move the page with my finger. Not so this new one. I've finally figured out that when the scroll bars don't work, I can use the up and down arrows to get to what I want to see. But the other awful thing about this one is that the page up key is where the shift key used to be on my old computer. So as I'm typing away, every time I want to type a capital letter, I end up typing a lower case letter, but on the row above where I intended. Going to take some getting used to. But the other thing this new computer has, (I'm sure it's a feature rather than a bug) is a rogue cursor. Every now and then it just goes somewhere on the screen that you wouldn't expect it to be. And it proves difficult to track it down and get hold of it. While it's gone rogue it likes to open other windows and change the size of the print on the screen. Plus the Save and Next buttons can be activated just by hovering - no need to click. That's really not a time saver. Sometimes I like to review what's on the screen before I save it. A click is a deliberate action. Hovering is not - particularly when your cursor just takes off on it's own.

I know, first world problems.....