June 3rd, 2009
Epic technological fail: communications meltdown
Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up with an already sour feeling in your stomach, and just know that the rest of the day is going to be the epitome of crap? Today was that day. Get ready for this one because I’ll admit now, it’s nothing more than a gratuitous rant.
Facebook fail
I woke up quite early this morning as I had an exam at 2pm. I rolled around in bed for an hour or so, checked my overnight email on my BlackBerry whilst snuggling up to my prostitute lover pillow. I finally got out of bed an hour later at around 10am.
The first port of call was Facebook as I needed to speak to a friend of mine who was at work. Half way through an important instant message (using Facebook Chat), a small red window appears telling me to log in. I try to log in but I’m greeted with this perky message.
Furious at the sight of this, cutting me off mid-stream, I pick up my BlackBerry and scroll down to their phone number and try and get through.
Phone fail
Within seconds of getting their number on my screen, I hit the all-exclusive green button to make the call. Almost as soon as the number was dialled, I’m presented with a dial tone and the message, in true confusing BlackBerry style, “number unobtainable”.
The simple reason for this is that the systems that the university use VoIP, or voice-over-Internet-protocol, which uses the web to communicate over instead of ordinary phone lines. But because the system at the university was down due to maintenance making things a little difficult.
Twitter fail
Twitter broke this morning for a few minutes. Nothing significant, just slightly irritating.
Broadband fail
When I got back from failing my exam, my next door neighbour was playing his music so loud that it had dislodged my router, which was leaning precariously against the solid brick wall, toppled over and cut out my Internet for an hour or so.
Not realising this, I spent the best part of 20 minutes looking into my Windows settings and fiddling around with IPv6 settings; something nobody would want to do after struggling to manage writing six pages on teenage pregnancy in the space of an hour.
Have you ever had one of those days? Share the love.
Zack Whittaker, the youngest in the ZDNet network, is a British student at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he studies BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy. His insight into the next-generation is unique and first-hand, sharing his knowledge of the here and now but more so what's next and how to get there.
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