RADIO WU WEI
I have been struggling with my new car radio, which is far from intuitive and has a manual written by so-called tech writers whose resumes must include the production of countless VCR manuals. The radio's buttons are tiny, the legends hard to see. But it's JVC so it must be good? I managed to get it to receive local radio stations and playback from my iPod, but, like MS Word, it has countless unnecessary and unintuitive features and options. Somehow I locked the CD player, the feature for which I bought it in the first place, to play Teaching Company CDs so I could learn something on my daily work commute. Alas, the radio would display nothing but the cryptic ODAA-I, whatever that meant.
I was all ready to just buy another radio, when I thought, "I'll give it one more try and then call customer service." Observing the time-honored tradition of RTFM, I retrieved the cryptic and convoluted user guide, printed in four languages, and noticed the big print on the manual's back page:
With my Hello Kitty pencil's point, I activated the reset button, and, woo hoo, now the CD player works. I reset my four favorite station presets (who actually needs 15 FM station presets and another 5 AM?--to say nothing of an option to allow user-entered text-based IDs for the favored stations, like FOX TALK NEWS, or HIP HOP CLASSICS or OLD FART OLDIES. Perhaps this comes naturally to folks who have been sending text messages on phones for the past decade). I think I have finally mastered the sequence of actions needed to set the radio clock, although it seems like it should do that automatically.
I admit all this digital technology is so cool, but I have never had the patience of a young friend who said, "When I get a new device, I just spend an hour or two with it figuring out all the commands." I want a wu wei radio. On-off. Volume up-down with a knob. A couple of push buttons for favorite stations. Maybe another button or two to activate the iPOD or CD.
At least I didn't embarrass myself with a call to a tech support rep who would have thought I was an idiot, muttering to himself, "RTFM."
4 comments:
Remember the car Fred Flintstone used to drive?
It didn't even have a floor.
Imagine what he must have had for a radio.
Now THOSE were the days.
We once had a well used 1963 Peugeot with unibody construction; it had completely rusted out under the pedals, we could see the pavement rushing by, Fred Flintstone style. We mended it with a bent piece of sheet metal from a broken household appliance, pop-riveted to the body. To this day, I believe there is an elegant old French car (it had red leather upholstery) somewhere in Mexico bearing the serial number of a Westinghouse washing machine.
Those were the days, indeed!
I once had a penchant for '66 Rambler Americans, owning two of the vile beasts.
Neither one had a driver-side floor.
Just as well, really, since I was living in the Northwestern Rain Forest.
The doors leaked so badly that without the missing floor, it would have been a reservoir inside.
They also both went through as much engine oil as they did rain water.
Ah Sweet Nostalgia :)
My husband (The Wizard) had a yellow Rambler station wagon he brought back from an Army stint in Germany in 1963. A mechanic in the Black Forest had fixed something, hammering a piece of WOOD into the block or head or or something. Fortunately, I never knew that car. It probably would have damaged our relationship.
Today, he's enjoying his 1995 Jaguar XJ6, the nicest car he's ever had (though the most expensive to maintain.) But no car payments. I bought it for him used with some money I got from editing a book. I had occasion to drive it today. It's really nice.
Our cars are funny things really. At any point in my life, I can connect vividly to the car I was driving at the time.
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