What in the world is it?

I pass by this rather odd piece of equipment frequently, and I've always been puzzled by its function. It consists of a box, a ladder-type-thingy, a panel of some sort and an antenna. It certainly looks as if it's either sending or receiving signals from outer space.

My theory is that the aliens have put out this equipment openly to monitor our activities. They were very, very clever in placing their monitoring equipment -- it is right next to a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Even if someone noticed this contraption, the lovely scents wafting from the restaurant would quickly overpower any curiosity. We Earthlings are so simple!

It's automatic!

I have another blog that I've been working on since last summer. I try to keep it on topic, although I must admit to veering wildly onto other subjects on a frequent basis. Hopefully, this blog will be an outlet for my frequent fights with technology, so that my other blog will remain more or less consistent.

My first rant here will be on the challenges of registering a domain name. Last week I attended the excellent Blissdom 09 blogging conference. I learned so much and was amazed at all the dedicated, talented and tech-savvy ladies who spoke. One thing that nearly every presenter was unanimous about was the necessity, no the absolute requirement, that "serious bloggers" register their own domain names. In other words, your blog address needs to be http://www.yourdomain.com rather than http://yourdomain.blogspot.com I was surprised to learn that it now costs only $10 to register your own domain name for a year. It seems it was $70 a year last time I checked, back in the dark ages. (As an aside, I once got a letter asking me to confirm my domain registration of at0mic.net and pay the $70 fee, but I politely declined since I hadn't attempted to register that or any other domain.)

When I got back from the conference and got settled, I immediately went to Blogger to find out what would be involved in registering a domain. I was pleasantly surprised. Under the Settings tab, the Publishing option gives links to register your domain. There are plenty of soothing words there, including the reassurance that once your domain is registered, it is "automatically configured to work with Google services" and that readers will be redirected from your old blog address. Doesn't that sound simple? Even the most tech-challenged middle aged person should encounter no problems, since everything is "automatic" right? HA!

After I submitted my credit card information, I got back an email informing me that my domain would be registered with GoDaddy.com. Fine, but I did wonder why Blogger felt the need to share this with me, since everything was all automatic. What difference did it make to me what company registered it? The email also informed me that I needed to set up an administrator account for the domain at Google Apps. I was also assured that my new domain should work within 24 hours.

Three days later, I was still getting directed to a page informing me that my domain was "parked" courtesy of Google Apps. Not very automatic, is it? Here's where the fun begins. Thankfully, Blogger does have a very informative help group where you can research problems. Searching the "parking" issue eventually lead to a support page informing users that "you need to create a CNAME record to verify domain ownership or create a custom URL for any of the services at your domain." {sigh} What happened to all this automatic business? Why do I need to do that, when everything was supposed to be done for me?

Naturally, there are instructions given based on where your domain is registered. NOW it becomes obvious why they felt the need to inform me about GoDaddy.com. The instructions were 7 steps long, but step 6 starts out with this gem: "For domain verification, enter the unique Google string available in the control panel." WHAT CONTROL PANEL??? At this point, we've dealt with blogger.com, Google Aps, and GoDaddy.com. Where in the world am I supposed to find this control panel???

Since I wasn't sure, I skipped it and just did the rest of the instructions, which thankfully, weren't too hard. At the end, I was again assured that my page should show up at the custom domain "within an hour." Guess what? I was still getting the "parked" page for the rest of the day. Thankfully, we had a terrible thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, so last night we had no electricity. This prevented me from further attempting to solve the problem, and thereby exponentially increasing the amount of gray hair I'm sporting.

This morning, I girded my loins for yet another day of frustration and confusion. I tentatively typed in my domain name, and wonder of wonders, it's working!!! Happy dance! I have no idea how or why.

My only question is: Why does something that is supposed to be "automatic" require so much work?