Category: Tech Devices

When a device dies

According to our prayer center volume stats, prayer requests about dying and deceased devices are up significantly. When it’s someone’s first iPhone or Blackberry the deaths can be difficult. Our first advice to owner is a simple one: remember to pray. The following prayer is recommended when you’re dropping off the device for recycling.

5.5.3  Prayer of Commendation

Into your hands, O merciful One In Charge, we commend you servant ______ (state name of computer or device). Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a component of your own fold, a device of your own flock, a product of your own redeeming.  Receive her (or him) into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light.

May her (or his) micro-processor chip and the chips of all the departed, through the mercy of The One In Charge, rest in peace.

Amen.

From The Book of Uncommon Prayer, p. 132.

Photo by cogdog via Flickr.

How’s your connectivity?

Sistertech had a client a few days ago who was having trouble with her wireless keyboard and mouse. It was a Logitech Cordless Desktop LX 710 Laser. Usually they’re pretty stable. Poor thing. I have observed first hand how volatile humans are when their computers and peripherals fail them. Have you ever heard such language? Such sniping and snapping? Very unseemly, really. As a precaution, I made a note of the client’s condition in my Service Call book as by the time Sistertech arrived on site, the client was extremely unquiet.

Continue reading “How’s your connectivity?”

When a peripheral dies

We know that death is not the end of life. It is, for many computers and peripherals, only the beginning of that new life which has been preordained for them. Still, delivering the news to the owners of deceased devices can be tricky. Owners go through the typical stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance.

I had to give “the news” to a client this afternoon for her wireless keyboard.

Here’s the prayer I gave. It’s for a deceased computer, but I also use it for peripherals. You might want to keep it handy.

Rescue efforts in Haiti

Sistertech’s heart goes out to all those in Haiti who are suffering from the earthquake. I especially am keeping in my prayers all those in the tech field who are in Haiti or who are on the way. The death and destruction is horrible. The situation on the ground pre-earthquake was close to untenable. The earthquake has just made matters far worse.

[Before I go on, Sistertech must distance herself from the comments of the Reverend Pat Robertson. I have more to say here.]

Through technology millions of dollars have been raised for the Red Cross and other agencies. It probably is too soon for the group Technology Without Borders to ramp up in Haiti, but something like that would surely be helpful in elevating the quality of life in Haiti as time goes by.

On my wishlist is some way to keep cell phones and social networks up and running without relying on local power. A human-powered  smart phones that double as self-replicating relay towers. I admit it sounds farfetched, but then nothing is impossible for them who believe in The One In Charge. Just think about all the Star Trek technology in use today.

The blessing of the devices

We’ve got the blessing of the animals. The blessing of the “plows”. And now the blessing of the tech devices. This makes Sistertech so proud of this British parish.

“It’s the technology that is our daily working tool, and it’s a technology we should bless,” Parrott said.

The short blessing capped Monday’s services at the Christopher Wren-designed building — the official church of the Corporation of the City of London, which runs the capital’s bustling financial district.

Parishioners took out cell phones as Parrott recited a blessing over them and their electronic devices. A few held their phones up in the air as he ran through the prayer.