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Presence Examples Posted to the presence-l listserv by Matthew Lombard (lombard@temple.edu) on September 13, 2004 Today's post is about a CASA experience I had recently. For three or four weeks I had had a particularly frustrating computer problem: At random times (usually when it was most inconvenient) my computer would repeatedly go through one of a couple different sequences of malfunctions. If I was using Internet Explorer, the pop-up blocker would indicate that a window had tried to open (turning it off didn't reveal what the window was), and then the focus on the main browser window would mysteriously be stolen away (i.e., the browser would become an inactive window), with no other obvious window or process taking the active focus. I could click anywhere on the browser window to get the focus back, but if I tried to type in an address (URL), first I'd just get the Windows 'error beep' and then after several seconds of incapacitation, whatever I typed would be in ALL CAPS, even though I hadn't touched the Caps Lock key. If I was in my e- mail program (Pegasus), a similar sequence would occur, including the added problem that I couldn't control the selecting (highlighting) of either text within a message or in a list of messages. I leave my computer on all the time, and have the monitor set to go into a power saving mode after two hours of no use (which usually means all night); I noticed that the monitor was entering the power save mode (indicated by a soft orange light instead of the normal yellow one under the display screen) less and less often, staying at normal, full power all night. It's hard to express how frustrating this was. I tried changing the IE security settings. I tried running several anti-virus, anti-spyware/malware, and system troubleshooting programs. I tried Windows' local and web based help systems. I did several google searches to see if others had had the same problems and found a solution. At one point I thought the cause was the keyboard and I replaced it (first with a too-cheap-to-be-trusted model, then with a Microsoft one). I downloaded and installed Windows Service Pack 2, said to be 'a whole new operating system,' hoping to wipe the source of the problem out. Nothing worked or even indicated what might be going on. Finally last week I started changing the 'guts' of Windows (and risking causing bigger problems) by removing programs and program components, deleting registry keys (with regedit) and halting services and processes (with msconfig). I consider myself an intermediate level computer user. I know full well that (at least today's) PC's are merely useful (sometimes anyway!) machines and nothing more. I don't believe the problem was, and have avoided describing it here as, an ailment or virus or fever, or a computer that was sick, blue, out-of-sorts, etc. But when I woke up in the middle of the night after I had 'operated' on it and saw for the first time in days the soft orange glow of the monitor's power save mode, I had an uncontrollable feeling of relief not so much that the problem seemed to be solved but that my computer was finally able to sleep peacefully through the night, as if it was a sick child. Despite my knowledge to the contrary, I was certainly perceiving this computer as a social actor. (And I'm happy to report the problem has not recurred, er, the patient continues to be healthy.) --Matthew |