We are a laptop family. I can’t imagine going back to our old desktop. I like the portability of the laptop and I’m so used to typing on the laptop keyboard that full-size keyboards throw me out of my normal typing rhythm. We have two laptops—his and hers because we were both using them for work and fighting over the remote is enough stress for any marriage.
Anyway, we’ve had them both forever. Well, I’ve had mine about four years, which is positively ancient in computer years.
Don’t you think we should have an equation for technology items similar to the equation for dog years? You know, one dog year equals seven human years. One technology year equals how many human years? I’m thinking, at least ten.
When I consider it that way, it’s no surprise that it began having problems. First it was the battery, then the power cord. Next up was the big one, the motherboard. No problem, I thought. I’ll send it off, have it repaired, and it’ll be back in ten (or less) business days. However, I had to pick myself up off the floor when I learned the price of the repair. I could practically buy a new laptop for what it was going to cost.
So that’s what I did, but not without extreme anguish and remorse. See, I’m one of those people who get attached to their techie things and don’t want to upgrade. There’s probably a special Luddite category for me, but since my laptop seemed to only operate when the moon was full, I decided I had to upgrade.
My new laptop arrived and I spent several hours loading software, one of the main reasons I didn’t want to switch to a new computer. However, the worst is over and I can get my mail, print, and even look at my photos. The file swaps are almost complete and soon I’m sure I’ll be just as fond of this laptop.
Since I do get so attached to my laptops, I think this one needs a name. I haven’t found just the right one, yet, so feel free to post suggestions.
Strange thing though—as soon as the new one arrived, the old laptop began functioning perfectly.
Well, as long as you didn’t bump the power cord.
Or open or close it.
It’s been demoted to the kid computer and they can use it for Internet research and games. As long as they DON’T MOVE THE POWER CORD!
So, how about you? Are you an early embracer? Do you jump on new technology with delight?
Or, do you cling to what your “classic” technology? What’s the oldest piece of technology you still use?
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I’m the one with the old computer. I just got a hand me down flat screen. The one we bought years ago, one for me, one for him and mine died right out of warrenty.
DH is the one with the laptop and new computer. He also has a bluetooth for his phone. We both have ipods or something like that but I’m not really sure where mine is. We bought a new tv for the bedroom but just because the last one died. I do have to say the picture is amazing.
The most techie thing I have? Wireless keyboard and mouse. I don’t know if I would like the small keyboard of a laptop.
by Lynn
on October 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 am
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I grew up with computer technology moving at light speed. I think we’ve slowed down drastically in the last 5 or so years. It hurts me to talk like this, but way back in the good old days, there was no such thing as a hard drive. Yes, I’m that old.
Actually my first computer for business was an IBM 8088 PC. It had no hard drive and two 5 1/4″ Floppy drives. Remember them, they really were floppy. One had DOS on it, the other the program you were running, say WordStar. You’d have to switch things out to find any files, or save them on your 4 megabytes of RAM. Yeah, 4 meg was HUGE back then, now my refrigerator has more.
In the ten years following that, the hardware would make leaps, then the software would catch up and then obsolete the hardware, until the hareware would upgrade obsoleting the software, etc. into this vicscious circle.
The early 90’s were the time where a computer really was obsolete after 6 months, or the software was. And I mean O-B-S-O-L-E-T-E!
After being in the thick of things back then, I’m used to change, but content that things have slowed and you can actually have a computer for years rather than months. My laptop is about 4 years old and was fine until I loaded Office 2007. That slowed me down considerably to the point where it’s becoming frustrating.
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Hi Lynn,
Yes, the picture on the new TVs is incredible! Don’t have one of those yet, but there’s plenty of browsing going on!
by Sara
on October 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 am
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I’m a desktop kind of girl. The laptop keyboard is too small, or my hands are too big. I like the fit of the separate keyboard better. That said, I did manage to write a book on the laptop last year. Until the damn thing ate 45 pages of text that I’d spent five or six days agonizing over. I went out and got a new computer the next day. The laptop is awesome for dragging around, but when I write, it has to be at my desk, on the big boy. For what it’s worth…:)
by JennieB
on October 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 am
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We got caught in the hardware/software loop, too, Will. And I remember when the floppy disks actually flopped, too.
The funny thing is that my contract requires I turn in two complete copies of the manuscript and one copy on a floppy (!?!) I upgraded them to a CD and they didn’t seem to mind.
by Sara
on October 22nd, 2008 at 8:04 am
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45 pages, Jenny? I think I\’d have to do something more violent than buy a new computer.
by Sara
on October 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 am
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I have a desktop, but I also have a wireless keyboard and mouse for my laptop. It gives me that “big boy” feel.
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Will, I had one of those ancient ‘puter babies, that you had to enter all the C>: prompts to turn on. Wasn’t that fun? Mine, along with the enormous daisy wheel printer that typed an amazing page a minute, cost me $5,000 in 1983. Can you imagine what you could buy for that amount of money today?
Our oldest piece of technology got replaced two years ago, when two of our most ancient appliances died. We had a 30-year old TV, and a 45-year old toaster that my husband had rewired to keep going. But I must say that having a remote control that works has added (at the very least) two pounds to each of us.
by Karen in Ohio
on October 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
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You don’t need to do anything extra to get that “big boy” feel, Will. (Sorry, I really couldn’t resist. I tried, I swear.)
Sara, I thought going out and spending $1000 on a new computer, just on the spur of the moment, was enough. Although I did yell at quite a few tech-support people over the course of that day.
My current tech-problem is how to get all the files off my old (1998) computer and onto the new one. The new has a CD burner but not a floppy disk drive; the old one has the floppy disk drive, but not a CD burner. The new one will accept a flash drive, the old one won’t. And the old one doesn’t have wireless capabilities, which is what I have in my house right now. So I can’t even go on the internet and email all the files to myself. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
by JennieB
on October 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am
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Well, I have an old server still doing journeyman duty in my basement - it has 4 Pentium Pro 2’s in it, and keeps the shop warm in the winter. There are several laptops around, but all are new enough to run XP (No vista in sight yet for us!) and several desktops that do various things. There’s a media center that I built a few years back that, when hooked to our new 37 inch HD TV looks really wonderful!!!!! and makes looking at photos in email (and some of the sillier stuff that I get there) really great. But there’s nothing new enough to be a dual core (although a couple of the desktops are dual processor) and the standard printer is an old HP LJ-5 with extra memory and a Postscript plug-in that continues to soldier on.
JennieB, if you can find an older LapLink cable that goes serial to serial or parallel to parallel, you might be able to copy stuff that way. Otherwise, without either USB or Network on both laptops, the solutionwould be to get a PCMCIA card for wired or wireless for the onwe without USB - and you’ll spend some bucks for that! You might find a PCMCIA CD burner on eBay that wouldwork for that older machine…. Wish I could be more encouraging.
by Bob
on October 22nd, 2008 at 11:30 am
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Hi Karen. I think the toaster has to be a record! We have a refrigerator that’s nearing 15 years old. I knew I should have gone for the side-by-side.
by Sara
on October 22nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
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I feel you pain, Jennie. I’d definitely go with Bob’s suggestion. We had a similar situation a few years ago and I think I ended up emailing the files I absolutely had to have to my hotmail account on the old computer, then logging in to that account on the new computer and saving the files. Good luck…hope you get it worked out.
by Sara
on October 22nd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
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Thanks, Bob. I’m going to copy and paste your answer now, because it read like Greek, and I’m going to take it to a translator. Someone who speaks computer. Maybe they can figure out what it means, because I don’t have a clue. I appreciate it, really I do, and I hope it works, but I haven’t the foggiest what it means. 
by JennieB
on October 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
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You have to be old. LapLink date back to the pre-WinDoze era - and it was a way of using printer ports on two machines as a fast connection, allowing either machine to view the other’s drive(s) and copy stuff back and forth. It may still be around; I have had networks in my house long enough that I forgot how to use anything else.
by Bob
on October 23rd, 2008 at 9:31 am
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