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What computerized machinery have you struggled with?

For the first time since age 12, I feel stymied by a sewing machine.

I got a new, computerized Singer Quantum Stylist 9960 sewing machine. Steep learning curve. Gave my old sewing machine to my daughter.

Now I have a soft, washable, gray suede vest and lining cut out. Today I basted together pieces and hit a wall. Can't sew it together until I:

  1. Get into a relaxed and alert learning mode. 1,2,3... memorize.

  2. Watch a 45-minute youtube introductory video.

  3. Read the thick instruction manual, not my favorite thing.

Feel like committing Hari Kari with a seam ripper.

LiterateHiker 9 Jan 5
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27 comments

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5

It takes a special talent to be able to learn to use something by reading the reference manual. And it always seems to begin when you want to do something simple. You have my sympathy - I've been there many times, even though I have that special talent.

You'll get there. Conquering steep terrain is your forté.

Oh, you asked what computerized machinery we had struggled with. I struggled a lot back in the 1970s with this one.

@BitFlipper I just need to know how to unplug it.........

4

Here is what I worked on in the military. But I can't thread a sewing machine.............

4

I just stick with my old 35+Bernina. Still works like a dream.

@Jolanta

I needed the new computerized Singer to make a buttonhole in this jacket I made.

In my old sewing machine, the buttonhole setting died.

@LiterateHiker exquisite jacket👍 like the slimfit fit.

@TimeOutForMe

Thank you! I tailored the jacket to follow the lines of my body. With a subtle shimmer, it looks like velvet.

It's no-wale corduroy. Soft, stretchy and breathable cotton with lycra. Before sewing, I pre-washed and dried the fabric so it won't shrink.

@LiterateHiker it really looks great and accentuates your waist and slim figure. Way to go 😉 if you got it, flaunt it 😉

4

My radio alarm clock.

3

Sewing machine,,,,,,hmm. I was going to make the effort to sew a leather cover for my motorcycle.
Sooo, I bought an old machine from somewhere. I tried to read the moldy instructions to thread it and had to burn it.
Then, I think I got it threaded and managed to sew my finger to the table. Just one finger though.
Ok, after the doctor bill for one tetnus shot, one broken window from the exit of said sewing machine, and one used sewing machine, I ordered one.
I've fixed almost everything from electronics to mechanics but that unholy contraption is evil.

3

My first smartphone. Probably an early android

3

And to think, that all tech stuff is suppose to make our lives much more easier. Not!

3

All of it!

3

My phone.

3

I have worked in laboratories for decades, and have dealt with instruments that run the gamut of usability. Some are relatively simple, others are downright torturous. Few things are more aggravating than when you learn all the hoops to one meter or instrument, and the manufacturer rolls out a replacement with an entirely new interface you have to figure out.

@alliwant

Instruction manuals written in English by Japanese engineers are impossible to understand. They writers assume you know basic information they consider obvious.

Reminds me of buying my first lawnmower. I read the manual twice. Put in gas and oil. Primed it. Nearly dislocated my shoulder yanking the cord. It would not start.

I need testosterone, a guy. So I called my ex-boyfriend, Willy.

"What is is now?" he asked testily when he heard my voice. I burst into tears of frustration and sobbed out the problem.

"Stop crying," he said. "I can't stand it when you cry. Go sit on the swing. I'll be there in 15 minutes."

When he arrived, Willy looked at the lawnmower for five seconds.

"Get over here," he said. "I want to show you something." I didn't budge because I knew I was going to feel stupid in about 10 seconds. "I mean it, come here." Reluctantly, I dragged over to him.

"This is a spark plug," Willy said. "It goes in here. Don't pull the cord too hard or you'll break it."

He gave the cord a flick of his wrist and it started right up.

Later I reread the manual. There was no mention of a spark plug.

@LiterateHiker Absolutely agree on manuals translated from Japanese. I worked with some marvelous Japanese chromatographs in the 1990s, and the manuals were nearly impossible to read. It was actually easier to just mess with the controls and note the effect.

2

I struggle every time I upgrade any electronic equipment at least for the first couple of weeks.

2

Point taken! There's such a thing as "over-computerized". I'm beginning to feel that way when I drive my Tesla and want to use the "autopilot"...ughhh....far too safety concious! Talk about "phantom braking"....

2

My sowing machine is made of cast iron on a wooden base. You power it yourself, by turning a handle, and it does not do button holes, in fact it does stitches in lines and that's it, if you want button holes or anything else you have to get a needle out. It used to belong to my grandmother who considered it old when she was a girl, but It still does stitches in straight lines fine.

2

Takes a geek to read digest and follow manufacturer's instructions

2

A building with 3 different manufacturers building control automation systems, separate lighting control system, and a different manufacturers auditing/after hours enabling system to track tenants usage.

No, I don't miss my old profession. 😉

1of5 Level 8 Jan 5, 2020
2

I would not mess with my car computer. Aside from that, no.

2

Trying to teach myself networking for a job....I had never done it before but the boss insisted I do it as opposed to paying his son to do it. 😒😒

2

I think the dashboard of current cars look like a rocketship consoles.

It's.... disconcerting...

I bought a Dodge Ram Longhorn. The one with everything. The one I still haven't learned how to use the damn thing. GPS? Goddamn Piece of Shit........I drove it home without heat. Three hours without heat. I finally got the radio going. I wish I could get out of this thing. I've been locked in for two years. I already ate the leather seat covers.

1

Right now, it is my laptop with a failing hard drive.

1

Pretty much all of them.

People think that, as a software developer, such things should be easy for me. But software development and system administration are two different skill sets. My late son was the sysadmin. I miss him in practical as well as personal ways. He could literally type away, slinging windows around like confetti, and fix intractable problems in minutes that would take me hours or even days. His intuitive grasp of which way to go to find a solution was amazing. It was of course partly experience and interest, and he had way more of both of those things than me. But it was native talent, too.

Combine a computer with a mechanical contrivance / blunderbuss like you're talking, and I'm lucky if I don't throw it through a window before I'm done ...

1

When Ford Motor Company first began installing robotic spot welders in their Rouge Plant, back in the 1980's, the robots would sometimes mistake passing Humans as something in need of a spot weld So they'd grab em n weld em! There were more than a few deaths that resulted!

1

Music gear programmes. Specially drumming...

1

I purchased the computerised Elna Diva 9000 way back in 1993. I think it just launched the year before. I wanted to design and make my own clothes. I also purchased four extra computer discs to slot in should I desire other patterned stitches. It would do a three metre embroidered table cloth in no time and engraving on gowns or shirts etc

...when I was a teenager I would buy clothes and get my mother to change it according to my taste.
Later on I had that fashion itch again.
...so bought this computerised sewing machine, went for lessons 6 Saturday's in a row where they'd demonstrate would how to choose the stitch and how to apply on cloth by a press of button selection. I made a few things in this time then lost interest.

Thing is I couldn't do much without someone guiding me and eventually thought to myself, I don't have time for this anymore and maybe someone more experienced would appreciate it's "smartness", so packed it away and only opened it again when I gave it to my retired neighbour in 2012 including all the extra gadgets and other enhancements. She was in her element 😂. I found i had less time on my hands as life got busier 😊

My mother had a great Brother machine which would be packed away nicely jn a cabinet and you wouldn't say it was a sewing machine inside.
If I think back it was a grand sewing machine which worked with a foot motor. That machine did everything and she was so good with it. She sewed most of my clothes and I showed off a bit too. She really had an eye for fashion. I would practice on it when she wasn't there. I broke a needle once and was upset with myself. Eventually she showed me how to thread and use it. I would still like to get another sewing machine, maybe my passion for sewing my own clothes will resurface but think I'll get Bernina then. Sigh the instruction 🤣🤣🤣

1

Today, Linda is gifting our 40 something house keeper with a Singer Rocketeer we finished re-building & tuning over the weekend. Linda has a proven "quick course" in how to use it. Of course, this is 1950s technology. I observed three ladies at a craft shop attempting to get a state-of-the-art Brother computerized, WiFi enabled, programmable sewing machine to work...... 🙄
Good Luck @literatehiker ! May the sewing Force be with you!!!!

1

i first used a computer (on the job, yet) in 1976, but my dad was a computer specialist -- who wouldn't teach me anything about computers, so it wasn't that big an advantage, at least not directly. i can usually figure stuff out.

g

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