Digital Disaster Day


Advertisement
Oceans and Seas » Atlantic » Atlantis
February 4th 2009
Published: June 13th 2017
Edit Blog Post

Geo: -21.105, 55.5249

Monday 02/02/09 At Sea, Hot & Sunny, Temps Air 27°C Sea 29°C

I'm naming today Digital Disaster Day on account of all the problems I'm having with a ship load of passengers who just haven't got the faintest of what they're doing and the on board staff who are used to working to the lowest common dominator and forgetting that there are some intelligent people on board.

It all started 2 weeks ago when I joined up for an advanced photographic editing workshop after 50 minutes I'd learnt nothing new and the topics I wanted to explore still hadn't been gone over with the time still dwindling away I had to leave the course which had already over run it's timeslot by 25 minutes as it was time for evening dinner, I was assured that they would contact me later on to go over the missing topics. Having already had the charges deducted from my onboard account I set about chasing them I finally managed to pin them down to another date of 10:00 2nd Feb. for the completion of the course.

The day started with the instructor being late, again, and we eventually got started at 10:30 the software they're using is Roxio Media which is suitable for beginners although the lessons easily translate to Adobe Photoshop which is what I use. Whilst the instruction given was accurate it wasn't particularly geared to anyone with more than a passing knowledge of photo editing so I had to get him to ramp up the advanced detail elements and then we had problems, he wasn't really conversant with the more advanced details of the software package and when I questioned if certain actions could be performed on selections I was informed they couldn't and that I would have to undo the work and redo it. Sure enough I tried what I suspected should be possible and it was lo and behold it was so I ended up having to telling him after which he confirmed I was right and that he wasn't aware the feature was available in the version of the software we were using, after another 10 minutes the course ended and I was glad to get out.

14:00 I had already joined the photographic club being run by the ships photographers thinking I might pick up some tips and they were offering tours of the ship not usually available to the passengers, and today was the first meeting. Clare the head photographer started by welcoming us all (25 people) and asking had we any specific topics we wanted to cover; well the first 3 people wanted instruction on how to use their cameras (I now realised the blatantly obvious, I'm trapped in another Muppets class) the next 4 wanted the same and confirmed they'd never even read their cameras instructions. All of these had spent hundreds of pounds buying top of the range compact cameras on board and didn't know how to set them up properly, let alone use the features they've paid so much for and will probably never use, oh well. After 30 minutes of the staff setting up everybody's cameras it was time for the club to finish for the day and we were given a photographic assignment to carry out over the next week, print out the results and bring it to the next session on the 6th. If it hadn't been for another likeminded sole I think I'd have bowed out gracefully, as it is he has the same interest as me so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and see what develops.

16:00 Went to the cyber café to investigate whether the printer in there was a networked wireless printer or whether it was hard wired. I arrived to find yet again 6 people in the queue waiting for the lone manager in charge, after 15 minutes ( I really don't know why I waited that long, usually I'd have left after 5 minutes if the queue didn't show signs of diminishing) I made the mistake of asking the guy in front what his query was about to, which he replied he wanted to know how to access his email, easy I said I'll help you with that, ( thinking get him sorted and that'll be one less in the queue, I just never learn do I) so asking the guy behind to reserve my place in the queue I sit the first guy down and we log into the ships network, so far so good.

What application do you use for your email I asked? I don't know came the reply at home I just turn the PC on select emails and away I go. After 5 minutes of interrogation, with him looking at me as if I've got pointed ears and speak Vulcan I managed to discover he has a Talktalk account and email address, I got the web page up and asked him to log in ( there's still been no movement in the queue) yup you've guessed it already, as he's hardly PC literate I think his family set the start up page to his account and set it so that it automatically logs him in and he's no idea of his ID or password. He was adamant that the Talktalk site wasn't his normal webpage, and despite all my prompting he couldn't identify the email application he used; exit one weary guy leaving to ring his family in order to discover his details, anyway there's now one less in the queue, hooray.

I waited a couple of minutes and the manager was still trying to sort out the first customers problem and was now having to wire her PC to the network (the queues are caused by the lone manager having to give the most basic and I mean most basic of instruction to the silver surfers just to get them started, leaving them unable to help or answer questions from the other passengers) bring as polite as possible I interrupt the manager and eventually discover the printer's not wireless and can only be used on their hardwired network. I leaving resolving to come back late at night and connect my laptop to the network as I brought my own cable just in case (see told you I used to be a boy scout) time to go to the bar forget about digital and think in terms of malt with a little ice.

Tuesday 03/02/09 Reunion - Indian Ocean Temps air 32°C Sea 29°C

Arrived to disappointingly cloudy skies and blisteringly oppressive heat. Today we're going on a tour of the island taking in the capital St Denis before driving down into a caldera to see the Bridal Veil waterfalls which cascade from the rim of the volcano down to the ground below, a beautiful sight. On the way back we passed sugar and lychee plantations before finally stopping at a vanilla plantation to be shown the process. During the evening we were notified of a tropical cyclone in our line of travel albeit some 250mls away.


Advertisement



Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0628s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb