Laptop Demise

For those who have been pining for a post and cursing me out for laziness, let me tell you there has been a death in the family:  our 2001 Compaq Presario 2300, the home computer, finally met its demise this weekend.  After repeated attempts to recover from its virus, she was euthanized.  She had trips to two different virus doctors since the Christmas holidays accident, including a second follow-up with the latest team, but to no avail.  Luckily, I can access the hard drive, so no tragic data loss should ensue.  Who knows, if she can still do basic word processing, she might even get a spot on the Travel Team as a fairly disposable road warrior.

Brand loyalty prevailed as we purchased another Compaq this weekend.  I have not had time to set up our new toy, especially with the all-important Norton 360 to avoid repeat calamity, so until that happens postings still might be sparse.  Through the years, people ragged on Compaq as junky, but my experience has been great.  I never called tech support once with that baby.  Every computer has to die of something, and nine years is a great run.  Comparing the spec’s on the two machines, particularly in light of their prices, is insane.  I had 20 GB with the old dame, now I have 250 GB.  The screen is larger, better resolution, faster processing speed, and on and on—all out of the box.  Our first Compaq we custom built online and had it shipped to us just in time to be christened with three years of law school.  It made it through two moves, several vacations, three years of business school, and the usual wear-and-tear of the daily grid.

Considering how my wife and I (and someday our daughter) use our computer now for general computing and home use, this ought to be sufficient, but who knows?  Nine years later, Compaq still packs their units with AMDs, which were virtually no name chips back then.  I should know:  I owned Intel stock up to and through the tech bubble—and then watched AMD eat Intel’s lunch for a few years before I dumped my stock—so I am no chip snob.  And our new Compaq cost nearly 66% less than our first.  Man, purchasing power is tremendous in a recession.  Interestingly, our first was ‘top-of-the-line’ because I paid up for the better AMD chip, higher RAM and a CD / DVD burner upgrade, and if I purchased a similar top-of-the-line model (different brand, equivalently modern bells and whistles) off the shelf, I would almost eclipse the original’s $1100 price tag.

One other note:  I did a quick netbook look-see and there is no way I could get one, not at current prices.  Other than weight, netbooks have no distinct advantage.  The components were like toys.  They are products that, if they were about $100 cheaper, I would consider purchasing as a first computer for a pre-high schooler who required one for school.  You get so much more in a full-size laptop for only $50 to $150 more that it is no contest.

So do tune in from time to time as I get the new laptop up and running, all the old data transferred or archived, and all the software and presets just so.  It will take weeks, but time to move on.  I cannot wait to blog on it.