I Really, Really Didn't Wanna

But I Really, Really Had To.

So, you look and wonder why it is that Smoke on the Water has been so sporadic of late?  Well, there are many reasons, but none so critical as to my presence here as the possession of a reliable, working computer.

Which has increasingly been the issue lo, these past few months.

Given budgetary constrictions, bad timing and other of life's priorties, I have found it more expedient to have purchased second hand or refurbished computers over the past few years.  In fact, the last new computer I bought was the very first computer I'd ever bought.

In 1985.  It was a genuine IBM PC, featuring DOS 2.1, 640k of RAM and a (then) astonishing 20mb hard drive.  And the Princeton Graphics amber monitor was the monochrome pinnacle of the day.  That, and an OkiData wide-carriage dot-matrix printer.  With the software suite that I bought for re-selling to a very narrow target market.  Which I did well for a year, before IBM insidiously undermined their Value Added Retailer agreements, way back when.  Amazing what little one got for $5,500 dollars twenty-two years ago, eh?

Anyway, fast foward to the present.

My aging, refurbished Toshiba laptop had come to me with a recurring problem, that is, that the screen would go black, even though the machine was fully functioning otherwise.  After having replaced two successive LCD screen illuminators, it was determined that those were not the true cause of casualty.  Rather, it was the laptop's internal video card which generated the electrical fault that did-in the LCDs.

Said video card just wasn't worth the cost of repair.

So, meet the New Boss, same as the Old Boss.  On the left, the new Toshiba A135 duo-core Centrino.  1gig RAM, 120mg HD, and all the other bells n' whistles, etc. ad nauseum.  (can you tell I'm not really a 'puter geek?)  The thing came loaded with Wild Bill's newest Vista Home Premium operating system.  Which I'm still trying to come to terms with, but anyway...........

And on the right, ye olde Toshiba XP beastie.  It's still a working 'puter, albiet one in need of an external monitor.  It's future will thus call for it to be configured as the CPU in a desktop-type arrangement.

I've still many files to transfer to get things fully under way, but at least for now, things are looking up.

Oh, and the cost?  Just over 10% of what I'd spend way back in '85.

Amazing.

Now, let's hope for a good week at work so I can refill yonder piggy bank.  That's one awfully skinny looking pig these days.

Comments

[the pistolero]

Very nice. I picked up a MacBook this weekend at the Apple Store in the Houston Galleria with almost the same specs. For another $200 plus tax I could have gotten one with the 120-gig hard drive (mine has 80), but for what I'm gonna be doin' with the computer, I figured that $200 would better be spent on gun stuff. I try not to open the door to accusations that my priorities are out of whack. :-)

[Chickie]

Nice! Enjoy your new 'puter. I ordered a new 'pink' Dell laptop the other day and it should be here any day now - I'm so excited!

Your old one is good for storage, you can always use an extra HD. :)

[Rivrdog]

Wait until some Austin hippie comes down to Galveston for the shrimp and salt air, and sell him a program car or two, and you'll be able to afford both guns AND computers...

[Winterpeach]

Paypal??! Donate to what?? OMG Get a grip...