Monday, January 5, 2009

How Did We Get So Dependent on These Machines?

The laptop crashed last week. We were devastated. Being without a computer suddenly is a bit like having your house burn down--you keep reaching for things that used to be there, and you keep realizing the loss of even more things. No banking, no addresses, no phone numbers, no weather report, no photographs, no record of upcoming appointments or birthdays, no working on the taxes, no blogging, no looking up words, no translations, no recipes--and I haven't even gotten to no email.  Of course, we had a backup, but of course, it wasn't really recent enough.

We did what first aid we could, then bundled the little machine that contained our entire world off to Tech Boys. Came home, sat around looking at each other. Couldn't look up movies to add to our Netflix queue. Couldn't check to see how many library books we had out or when they were due. Couldn't read our favorite blogs, or the news, or the obituaries from back east (a secret hobby of mine). Jumped in the car and drove 90 miles to Lubbock, Texas and spent just under ten minutes giving up a lot of cash to get a MacBook. 

Great decision, I must say. The Macs were more expensive than the PCs, but were on sale and not as much as we had anticipated (read: feared). But this little baby came loaded with features we had never seen in all our years of Microsoft products. A built-in microphone! A built-in video camera! Great graphics! Voices (it can talk to us and displays a great sense of humor)! Incredible media tools! It was easy to set up, except for the horrid moment when Beez tried installing enough Windows stuff to transfer over our old files and the computer FROZE. Luckily, the Mac expects this and came with instructions as to what to do in this exact situation. 

So we are back in business. Here's a question for you, fellow bloggers--have your computers been crashing lately? It seems that several of you have mentioned problems, including June and maybe Linda? Or Sylvia?

6 comments:

the7msn said...

Welcome to MacWorld. You will never regret it. Microsoft Office for Mac lets you open all your old windows word, excel, and ppt files, and will help you survive in a PC-dominated environment.

Sylvia K said...

Yes, and I'm still having problems although they're not as major. I'm so happy about your getting the Mac. Wish I could afford to do the same! My son in Dallas has one originally because that's what he worked on at his job with Fossil, but then he got one for himself at home. Hooray for you!

Judy said...

Mine got really slow lately but added more memory and it has speeded up again. My son will not own anything but a Mac. He thinks there is no comparison between the two. I will probably get one next time. I could not do without my computer.

Margie's Musings said...

Oh how I wish I could afford a Mac. I have an inexpensive Dell($699. ? PC) and Desktop at the same price. That's the best I could do so I struggle now and then with the horrific blue screen.

Rain Trueax said...

I hear of many things crashing lately (wondering if it's a planetary thing) and my computer won't turn on right when it is booted up; so I am concerned about it. What I don't like about installing a new one (besides cost) is transferring and I always lose stuff. I have heard many good things about Macs but have wondered about the cost. I hope mine isn't in the dying process but that may well be. We do have backups here but nothing is set up as well as my primary for my purposes.

June Saville said...

Hi Claire
Yep, I'm back on line now. I hear from technicians that they're a bit wary of Service Pack 3 of XP. But then that may be just a rumour ...
They are trying to sell a new operating system aren't they?
Cheers
June in Oz