I’m going to ramble/rant quite a bit here, as I didn’t write for the past two days and feel like I need to make up for it somehow with something NOT related to : the dogs, Supernatural, TV, reading, bad poetry or writing in general. Which is typically what I write about in my pen and paper notebook.
So I’m going to meander about one of my constant companions: my computer.
I have had this love/hate relationship with my laptop since first getting it in September 2006.
I love that it was mine alone and that nothing on it would “surprise” me like someones’ picture galleries used to on the old shared computer.
I love that I had ample space to create images or websites as needed and that I could carry the entire outfit to any place in the house and keep working. Which is kinda funny as I’ve taken the system outside the house maybe 5 times over the next 3.5 years. Leaving it mostly on the desk that I’ve built an ever growing intricate collage of office detritus around it.
I hate the heat that it generated which ultimately negated my using it anywhere but on the home desk with an industrial laptop cooling pad under neath. For a laptop, I never could keep the thing on my lap for more than 5 minutes without burning myself.
I hate that I killed the media reader on the thing with one stupid move very early in the residency and have yet been able to use any of the memory cards I’ve compiled over the years with it.
I hate that the space under the keys are getting gross as I’ve kept the rest of the machine immaculate. No dust nor no dog hair. I hate that getting under there to clean will probably end up with something else broken on the machine.
I hate that it’s now 3 going on 4 years old. It’s soon going to be time to look to another machine to depend on and Im not entirely sure I’m ready for that change. I know it’s coming soon as issues are begining to multiply and I’m not sure how many more times I’ll be able to resurrect the hard drive before the motherboard decides to head on up to the electric hereafter. As much as I like to think I’m technologically savy, I just dont have the heart in me to gut the machine and rebuild it personally. So a new computer it will be.
So will I keep to laptops? Migrate to a netbook for weight’s sake? Or head back to my first PC love: a desktop?
These past 4 years this machine has been my link to friends out in the world, to keep up with the news around mybackdoor and a means for entertainment with a newfound love of MMOs.
What a computer means to me now is not what one meant to me 5 years ago or a decade ago. It’s when my computer is down for the count that I am quickly reminded how imporant these machines have become. It’s as central to our lives as many other appliances that we don’t really pay much attention to but depend so much upon. I grew up thinking that people who lived without a telephone were strange and neolithic. Now when I hear people mention not being online I experience shock and wonder at the information they are missing out on. Yes, I’m a born and bred TechnoSnob.
10 years ago One Laptop Per Child was a pipe dream. Now children in financially-challenged countries have access to learning materials to bring their educations into the 21rst century, giving them better tools to lead their countries when they grow up.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how the computer impacts life in the next 4 (10, 15, 25) years and the technology that will come into existence.
To be honest: I can’t wait.
I’m pretty sure I’ll still be moaning about harddrives and keyboard gunk.
