Shirley’s Technologies

My map reading skills are ok (I got a map reading badge when I was a Guide), but my general sense of direction in strange places is poor.We got a satellite navigation system when we were planning a trip to the south of
France. It worked really well, before we went we programmed it (via a computer) with places we knew we wanted to visit and nearby car parks and it worked really well getting us and the hire car where we wanted. A few times there was a little aggro: like it suggested I turn round in a one way street – but the signs showed the street had only recently changed from 2-way, or the time when we misunderstood the directions at a busy intersection and it tried to suggest we would like to go down an unmade road to get back. What I really like about it is it forgiving, if I am not going where it said it doesn’t shout at me, it just re-calculates and suggests a way forward from where I am.Yesterday I went to
Milton Keynes, a fairly straightforward journey: M4, M25, M1. But the M4 was slow, the M25 was flooded in one place and we had to drive slowly round using only 1 lane, the M1 has road works, and the other carriageway looked like a car/lorry park. So I arrived later than I wanted – but fortunately before some of the others.Coming back I checked the traffic reports and the M1 was still bad, and the most obvious alternative (M40 to Handy Cross) was also bad, but the sat nav did a great job of finding an alternative route and getting me home without sitting in endless queues.

I have used Skype for over a year now. I find it very useful I use it in the following ways:

• Calling people at home and abroad for one to one voice calls;
• Joining in and setting up voice conference calls with people around the world;
• Along with conference calls we often use the Skype chat to take shared meeting notes;
• The Skype chat is also handy for passing urls while talking;
• A few months ago John D. Smith introduced us to using Skype chat to take notes while we were in a face to face meeting, it was quite a good idea and we have done it again several times;
• Sometimes I use Skype to transfer documents between incompatible networks at home.

I don’t have a great number of contacts (~60) there are a small number of family members. Quite a few people from CPSquare and a collection of staff and students from the university who at one time or another have needed to communicate with me.