My apologies to both people who occasionally read my blog. Besides the usual mumble-mumble about working hard, no time and such... my computer has become the technological equivalent of a toaster. Actually, the toaster not only heats bread much better than the computer, but might actually connect to the internet better. I would have to type in Morse code on the handle, but I'm willing to learn.
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The computer has long been a little slow, as any student who watched me tap-dance for ten minutes in class as it rebooted could tell you. But it has firmly launched itself on the far side of slow. ("It's gone plaid!")
It is very depressing as a self-styled uber-geek to be faced with a device that I can't make work. No amount of virus scanning, spyware checking, defragging, registry cleaning, editing of startup processes or prayers to St. Babbage have decreased the boot time below 25 minutes or the web speed below 2 minutes a page. My final solution has been to purchase a new hard drive and I will be wiping the drive and starting over. ("Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure") If that doesn't work, I may have to hand over my nerd certificate to the authorities.
Until then, I am forced to beg for scraps on the SHW's computer. She is very nice about letting me borrow it, but schoolwork comes first.
It is frustrating how hard it is to fix things these days, even for the uber-geeky. The flash on our camera gave out after making popping noises for six months; it is impossible to replace. Time to buy a new camera. The fixture for mounting my light to my bicycle broke. It is now impossible to attach my perfectly working light to the bike. I emailed the company to see if I could get a replacement. "We are sorry, sir. We don't offer that." Rather than sell me a 5 cent part for $1.99, I may have to buy a new light. Guess what brand it won't be.
Computers are the worst, though. If I had gotten a new battery and extra RAM to go with the new hard drive, I would have been most of the way toward a new computer already. No wonder they get thrown away so quickly. I need to figure out how to disable the "Bill Gates Forced Obsolescence" chip that makes the computer run slower doing the exact same things it did quickly before.
Enough griping. I will try to keep up with this a little better.
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2 comments:
ME TOO! My computer is currently behaving in all manner of strange ways, and (I think) I am powerless to fix it. Those of us who were never issued geek credentials in the first place have to take a crash course in How To ID A Hard Drive Failure and then How To Find The Reinstall Disks In Case It's Not A Hard Drive Thing After All. And then to top it all off, you feel like you were maybe just a liiiiiittle more knowledgeable, you'd be able to fix it, but instead you are shelling out $1000 for a new machine. Gah. OK. Breathe. We will both be fine. :)
I hardly make you beg for scraps, you know.
Also, I don't think it's likely that the Geek Patrol is going to come strip you of your nerd cred any time soon. There are lots of other geeky things about you to keep you in the clear.
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