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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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?”<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I told them I could use dP’s laptop until after the conference.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"