Further to my post yesterday, things weren’t working ship-shape, as I recounted in my postscript. But for now, I think I have the LevelOne wifi adapter working. It led me to remark on how much more quickly tech issues now get fixed.

• Fixing a TelstraClear internet connection that only goes down on a windy day (2002): 2 years
• Being able to use the TelstraClear support pages without a corrupted profile (2011): 1 year
• Getting IE9 working (2012): 11 months
• Getting Blogger to reinstate a wrongly deleted blog (2010): 6 months
• Hooking up my first D-Link router and network (2004): 1½ days
• Setting up a wireless network (2011): 26-hour period from beginning to end
• Getting a LevelOne wireless adapter to work (2012): 7 hours over two days

   Of course, they’re still a far cry from the claims that these things take minutes or days, rather than months and years. I admit fully I am taking the extreme cases: there are hundreds of situations where software installation is faultness, and dozens where hardware installation is faultless. I realize there are so many types of computers out there, all with different settings, but to me, it’s still ridiculous that there are quite a few exceptions.
   What is actually remarkable, after 16 years of buying online, is how mainstream online shopping has become. Dealing with Ascent was trouble-free, just as dealing with Amazon was. That’s something I am really grateful for—especially as it helps my work.