GreenEye Wire

Homer: We’ll search out every place a sick twisted solitary misfit might run to.
Lisa: I’ll start with Radio Shack.
–Simpsons – Treehouse of Horror VII

Why oh why do I ever go to Radio Shak for anything other than cables? Every time I’ve gone there to get anything related to computer equipment, the stuff never works. And yet I go back because it is convenient. Feh.

My mother just learned about Skype and she is all excited about the idea of being able to see the person you are talking to. Sort of like the future-istic telephone you saw on Star Trek and the Jetsons. So, I ran by the Radio Shak to get her and Dad basic web cams. I didn’t want anything complex or fancy..just a camera with a mike. Easy right?

Neither one of the web camera software cd’s that came with either of the web cams would even register on the computer as having anything on them. Heck, the DVD drive didn’t even show up in My Computer. So, I went to the Radio Shak site to download the software. Downloaded the software, ran it, and

Nothing.

The only thing about this entire process that I am grateful for is that I was actually at Dad’s computer trying to do all this myself instead of trying to talk him through it on the phone. While my Dad is very intelligent and good at many things, double clicking on the computer mouse is still a relatively new concept for him. But like Mom says “I can’t raise Soybeans to save my soul.”

I think the thing that gets me is that I really want to believe in Radio Shak. I want to think that maybe, possibly, a little store could do better than the huge Fry’s computer type warehouses. So far, however, it hasn’t happened. Their computer stuff is always crap. Always Always.

Thing is, I’ve never had to set up a web cam because my little Macbook — the cheapest one that Apple sells no less — came with the web cam already installed. I love that Apple just does stuff like this and I don’t have to mess with drivers and hardware that may or may now work.