It was a hard few hours. Three very geeky techies hovered over my laptop making strange noises, acting clucky and saying very geeky things like: “when you hear the long beep and then two short beeps it means the VGA is having problems.”
Then there was debate over what was happening. I picked up a few words like “motherboard” and “external DVD drive” and “un-fixable.” I guess that means my laptop is really, truly gone.
Then there were three very geeky techies hovering over one computer looking at prices at Dell, BestBuy, Staples and Memory Express. There were statements like: “17inch monitor” and “dual core” and “2GIG RAM” and “NO! NOT WINDOWS VISTA” and “virtual Windows under Linux” and “cool — can I date it?”
Then I was asked to sit in front of the computer to see if I liked what they chose for me (this was my first entry into the discussion). I said practical things like: “I don’t like the colour,” and “can I get an extra power cable,” and “I don’t want it; it doesn’t have a Compact Flash reader,” and “I won’t get it if the CTRL key is in a stupid place.”
There was discussion about my comments and the flashing of neat toys that could read CF cards and external keyboards. I was told about things that mean nothing to me like: “cabling speed” and “dual core” and “refresh rate.” I mentioned that a CF reader was my favourite feature of my old laptop and my reason for buying it.
I told them I could use dP’s laptop until after the conference.
They kicked me out of the office. I was told to not come back until I had a new laptop. I complained because I wanted to do something eclectic like buy a MacTop (iBook) and replace the OS with Linux. I was told that would void the warranty.
My dreams of an eclectic machine kept being shot down and as I left the office I said I was going to get a laptop that only spoke French or did funny things like wear pink and speak in an accent.