Updates

Lately, my Android tablet that I bought six years ago, back in 2019, has kept reminding me that it's no longer able to update some of the apps that I have on it. Checking up on Android versions, I found that the tablet is stuck on Android 7, while the latest ones now seem to have Android 15. So perhaps really more suprising that there are still quite a few apps on it that I am still able to use...

No real panic, as my laptop and my phone are both younger, and have been able to keep up with the necessary app updates so far. Nevertheless, I decided it was probably time to look into getting a new tablet as well. 

I did some online research; but somehow, I still have this old-fashioned wish (when possible) to see what I'm buying - and perhaps be able to ask some human "tech guy" a question or two as well. So this past Thursday, I took a bus to an electronics shop "across town". I had seen online that they had tablets of the same brand as my old one (Lenovo), which on the whole I've been getting along with very well (until its recent hints of not quite being able to keep up with everything any more). 

Ironically, it turned out that of the tablets on display in the shop, the one that I fell for (Lenovo Tab M11) was not in stock there - but they could order it for me, and have it delivered to a pick-up place close to where I live the very next day. So I went with that option.

The parcel arrived as promised; and after reading some basic instructions it seemed like it would be easy to set up, as I could simply copy all data from the old one to the new one using an USB cable. So I got that job started already on Friday afternoon. So far, so good... 

But then, somewhere along my fiddling about with adjusting various settings etc, the screen keyboard disappeared, and no matter what I did, I found no way to get it back. Super frustrating. The first thing I did was of course to google the problem. And I did find plenty of people in various forums asking the same question (about disappearing screen keyboards). But alas no applicable answers!

So finally I decided to reset the tablet to its original settings (removing all my transferred data) and start over. That did restore the screen keyboard (phew). But since I still don't know how I came to lose it in the first place, I'm now afraid of it happening again. So now I'm taking things really slow. So not repeating the copying of data from the old tablet, but instead installing one app at a time, and trying to keep better track of what I'm doing. It's time consuming, but after all (I keep reminding myself) there's no real hurry. All my important apps are still working somewhere, even if not all on the same device... 

It has taken a lot of time that might otherwise have been spent on blogging, though.

One answer found when I googled the definiton of "android": 

"The Latin root androides literally means “resembling a man,” and androids really know how to blend in. Androids mostly appear in science fiction novels and films, but who knows, maybe you're friends with an android and you don't even know it. Yet."

Digital Dissociative Identity Disorder?

Quotes from a medical website: 

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a mental health condition where you have two or more separate personalities that control your behavior at different times. When personalities switch, you’ll have gaps in your memory. ---

--- “Dissociate” means to separate or disconnect. People with dissociative identity disorder may experience several different personalities --- These personalities may control your behavior at different times. --- Memories may not transfer from one identity to another, which can cause amnesia (gaps in memory). --- DID interferes with your ability to function in your day to day. It can impact your relationships with others and performance at school or work. 

This past week, I have diagnosed myself as suffering from DDID - as in Digital Dissociative Identity Disorder...

I blame Google, and seriously doubt any form of psychotherapy will help. 

The background can be found in my December post Commenting Issues. To summarize, these issues started when Google, for unknown reason, decided to suddenly stop Firefox (my preferred browser for this blog) from working with "embedded" blog comments. For me that meant suddenly finding myself unable to reply to other peoples' comments on this blog from my computer. My first attempt to solve this was to change to using a pop-up window for comments instead of the embedded. That worked fine for me "within that window", but turned out to have some other disadvantages instead. (Those of you who noticed will know. For those of you who did not, staying ignorant will probably be better for you than to have the details explained.) 

I also had the Microsoft Edge browser on the computer, but there I am logged into my other blog (Greetings from the Past) under a different "identity". And it seems one can't be logged in to two different Blogger accounts at the same time, on the same browser.

So I installed Google Chrome as a third browser. For some reason, there  Google seems to have no problems to still allow embedded commenting. 

But in my process of experimenting with different solutions, I kept running into other problems instead. And somewhere in midst of it all, my own brain went on strike, and it came to a point where I suddenly just felt totally confused by the whole mess of different browsers and websites, and what emails and logins and passwords to use where...

Google also somewhere along the line turned totally fanatic about adding extra layers of security, and was no longer content with my usual passwords, but started to require extra codes sent back and forth between my various appliances (laptop, phone and tablet) to prove that I was really me (which I was now almost beginning to doubt myself). On top of all, they also, on one account, forced me to switch from an old (non-google) email address as login, to a brand new gmail addess as primary login instead (a different one from my other already existing gmail).

This was the final straw that made me diagnose myself as now seriously suffering from DDID. The symptoms seem to fit perfectly with the medical ones: Memory gaps + disability to function in my day to day "work" and "relationships with others"... 

It also makes me feel far from secure, and instead rather terrified of no longer knowing what login I'm supposed to use where. (Even when writing things down I'm not sure I got them right.) At the moment I do seem to be logged in "somewhere" on both blogs - but I really fear the next time I accidentally find myself logged out, and have to try and get back in again...

Commenting Issues

The other day I suddenly ran into a tech issue that has never happened before during my nearly 16 years of blogging: I was not able to comment on my own blog (like replying to other people's comments).

Super frustrating, and I couldn't even figure out what they meant by it... I've been using  Firefox (browser) with this blog for years, and this message has never come up before. I also have Microsoft Edge on the laptop, but the thing is, I have my family history blog (Greetings from the Past) on a separate Blogger account; and to avoid the trouble of logging in and out every time, I find it most practical to use different browsers for the two. Which worked fine - until now... So I've had a couple of days scratching my head over this. Just following the message's "Learn more..." instructions did not help. I then downloaded a third browser (Chrome) - but that in turn brought some other irritations. However, I found that I was still able to reply to comments as usual on the Firefox app on my tablet - so I have not been totally locked out from two-way communication.

But then today it hit me to check the Blogger settings... And found their comment settings (which I don't think I've ever changed since I first set up the blog):

As the word "embedded" was involved in the Google/Firefox error message, I changed my Blogger settings from Embedded to Popup - and that seems to have solved the problem.

I'm writing this down chiefly as a reminder for myself, but I thought I might as well publish it on the blog as well - in case anyone else has come across similar issues, or perhaps just happens to notice my shift to popup for comments here. (Hopefully the popup will work for others as well as for myself.)