Which just bloody figures because I'm having a bit of a technology breakdown here.
My computer is dying. If it were a horse, we'd have shot it by now. I'm making it carry on in a cruel and heartless fashion, ignoring its increasingly frantic error messages and over-riding a bunch of protective stuff, and the SPCCOEE (Society for the prevention of cruelty to computers and other electronic equipment) can just bite me. Yeah, as a matter of fact I do hit it. And sometimes, I actually pull its plug right out of the wall. Just for fun.
My DVD player is broken. It's 8 months old. We do watch a lot of DVD's but really, 8 months? Is that all you get these days? I'm pretty sure it had a 1 year warranty and I probably do have a receipt somewhere but since we moved, the receipt box is actually several different boxes and baskets in various locations. And it would take how long to fix it? So I'm just going to go buy another one today.
The DVD drive on the computer is fine, so technically I could use that, but the computer refuses to play DVD's and crashes after 5 minutes. Repeated spankings and even reloading the software hasn't helped. It keeps whining for a new motherboard. Sissy.
As I sit writing this, on my right, is an ancient computer (we have several of these dinosaurs kicking around) which we set up to be a back up during the heady times when we thought we could actually fix the main computer quickly and easily. Yeah, that would have been the time that my hard drive got wiped. With all the stuff on it. Do not ask me about the back up disk. OK? Just don't ask. (btw, it makes ever so nice a decorating statement to have several workstations set up in the middle of your living space. Add boxes of stray computer parts, piles of CD's, mountains of paper and manuals, and cords snaking all over for the little je ne sais quoi in the decor.) Guess what? The back up broke too. It boots up (though heavens, you could walk to China and pick up a new one before it's done) but then it refuses to do anything else. It did work for a couple weeks. And then it decided to stop. I want to throw it out. Roo has a packrat tendency regarding electronics and wants to keep it, because it's always so helpful to have a machine which boots up and doesn't actually do anything! And you know, we might want to cannibalize it for parts! Five year old CD drives are SO valuable! It's been parked here while we
Behind me, I have not one, but two portable stereos which have both stopped playing CD's. Radio is fine. Tape player is fine. But put a CD in there and you get whiny spinning noise and nothing else. I've tried cleaning, vacuuming, polishing. And hitting. No use. I keep them both there because every once in a while, one of them can be coaxed to play a CD for a bit. And of course it varies which one will do it.
Oh, forgot to mention my two VCR's. Same problem. Once in a while, one will start to sulk and not work so we try the other one. Neither one is really reliable so we keep both. One is 16 years old. One is 5.
Oh, and my camera - a 1 year old Canon digital. When you turn it on, the lens cover doesn't fully retract about 80% of the time. You need to stick your nail in there and jiggle it to get it to open. Then it won't fully shut. I don't know why it's doing it. There's nothing stuck in there; I've gently cleaned, poked, prodded, and all to no avail. It does make for nice greasy fingerprints on the lens which I think is quite interesting. I don't need to add watermarks to protect my images - they have my fingerprint embedded.
So far, the most reliable thing is the TV, an ancient Sony which my father bought for us when we announced we were moving in together into an apartment at the university. This is a transcript of the conversation:
"So, I'm moving in with your daughter."
Thoughtful pause. European, liberal papa so no fear of great explosion.
"You'll need a TV. I'll buy you one."
That was in September of 1989. For Christmas that year, he got us one of the VCR's. Apparently he can't fathom a man living with a woman and surviving without a TV.
But the TV has been fab. It needed work around 8 years ago which some people advised us against doing - but we did and it's paid off handsomely because the sucker is still working beatifully. Its only defect is that it was mauled by children and the little cover on the front doesn't stay on anymore because the hinge got broken, and so now it needs to stuck on with a piece of tape. But at least it works. Of course, I don't have cable and I can't watch my DVD's until I get off my duff and go buy another electronic thing destined to live in a landfill in the next 12 months.
I was ranting about this last night and told Roo I was heading off to buy electronics and throw out all this unreliable crap. I think he's partly scared and partly hopeful that I'll so forget myself as to buy a huge LCD TV while I'm there.
Good news on the horizon: my new laptop is in transit. It's on its way! If you see a Purolator truck today, get out of its way - it might have my computer on it and I want it to get here fast! 'Cause this one will be different, right? This one will be faithful, reliable and everlasting. This one will never let me down. It will be different this time.
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3 comments:
Overenthusiastic Mac convert here. Here's a cheap solution. It's just a harddrive so you can use your current monitors, keyboards, etc. Everything is integrated and you probably don't need any more software than what comes preloaded.
As soon as one of our desktops craps out, this is where we're heading. And they give educational discounts to homeschoolers.
I second the motion, "Buy a Mac!!"
We are having an expensive electronic month. When that limb fell and ripped the neutral wire away from the house, we lost the television - among other things. My husband was almost gleeful that our ancient set was fried. We don't even have an antenna but he went out and purchased a big LCD television. My advice is not to let your mate go to the electronics store unattended.
Argh! What frustration. I think the CD players would drive me the most crazy. We had one like that for years. We spent more time coaxing it to play than listening to CD's and when we did get them to play, they often went all fuzzy or stopped playing after the first couple of tracks. Hope your new laptop gets there soon!
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