It never occurred to me that the previous post would have a sequel, but real life intruded, and here we are. Given that "A Voice in the Wilderness Says "Hi!" was all about technical difficulties and the delays that go hand-in-hand with them, there was really nothing else I could do.
My previous laptop, my happy, bright shiny Toshiba Satellite bought the farm. The motherboard blew up last Saturday and I was left bereft - sans computer. It stood me in good stead for a little more than 2 years - 7 years less than the previous Toshiba Satellite I owned, which still runs.*
The other reason to make this post a sequel was it gave me a chance to make an oblique reference to Babylon 5 - one of my favorite geek shows ever.** The two-part "A Voice in the Wilderness" episode was all about Our Heroes trying to deal with a secretive, powerful entity hidden on a heavily-armed planet out in the wilderness. Given how similar that was to dealing with Best Buy's Geek Squad, it seemed apropo.
After a few days of frantically trying to figure out what happened to it, a local store - Best Computers in Chula Vista - did a full case-cracking diagnostic (for $55 - no joke!), and gave me the bad news.
A new motherboard for the Toshiba would have cost me about $75 less than the new HP Pavilion I'm using now - which I picked up at Office Depot, and not Best Buy. I thought seriously about repairing it, but when I realized for $75 I would get out from under Windows Vista, well... that was the final reason to bail on the Toshiba.
It's going to take me a little bit more time to get all my ducks in a row. I've still got to yank the hard drive from the Toshiba and transfer all my data to this one. I could get it done at Best Buy, but I'll be dipped if I'm going to pay them $99 for about 90 seconds worth of work. Without the data, this thing is still very much a tabula rasa.
So, yeah. I'm coming out of the wilderness and back to cybilization. And as soon as I can find those landing thrusters, I'll be back in action.
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*Well, not so much runs as walks...with a walker and arthritis.
**I miss Babylon 5. In particular I miss the wisdom of G'Kar*** and the words of Londo Mollari.****
***"We all believe in something... greater than ourselves, even if it's just the blind forces of chance."
****"What do you want, you moon-faced assassin of joy?" and "Now, landing thrusters. Landing thrusters, hmm... Now if I were a landing thruster, which one of these would I be?" The last is from "A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2." It's all about the circles.
My previous laptop, my happy, bright shiny Toshiba Satellite bought the farm. The motherboard blew up last Saturday and I was left bereft - sans computer. It stood me in good stead for a little more than 2 years - 7 years less than the previous Toshiba Satellite I owned, which still runs.*
The other reason to make this post a sequel was it gave me a chance to make an oblique reference to Babylon 5 - one of my favorite geek shows ever.** The two-part "A Voice in the Wilderness" episode was all about Our Heroes trying to deal with a secretive, powerful entity hidden on a heavily-armed planet out in the wilderness. Given how similar that was to dealing with Best Buy's Geek Squad, it seemed apropo.
After a few days of frantically trying to figure out what happened to it, a local store - Best Computers in Chula Vista - did a full case-cracking diagnostic (for $55 - no joke!), and gave me the bad news.
A new motherboard for the Toshiba would have cost me about $75 less than the new HP Pavilion I'm using now - which I picked up at Office Depot, and not Best Buy. I thought seriously about repairing it, but when I realized for $75 I would get out from under Windows Vista, well... that was the final reason to bail on the Toshiba.
It's going to take me a little bit more time to get all my ducks in a row. I've still got to yank the hard drive from the Toshiba and transfer all my data to this one. I could get it done at Best Buy, but I'll be dipped if I'm going to pay them $99 for about 90 seconds worth of work. Without the data, this thing is still very much a tabula rasa.
So, yeah. I'm coming out of the wilderness and back to cybilization. And as soon as I can find those landing thrusters, I'll be back in action.
------------------------------------
*Well, not so much runs as walks...with a walker and arthritis.
**I miss Babylon 5. In particular I miss the wisdom of G'Kar*** and the words of Londo Mollari.****
***"We all believe in something... greater than ourselves, even if it's just the blind forces of chance."
****"What do you want, you moon-faced assassin of joy?" and "Now, landing thrusters. Landing thrusters, hmm... Now if I were a landing thruster, which one of these would I be?" The last is from "A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2." It's all about the circles.
