Posted 10:43 AM by Gene

Yesterday I did the stupidest thing: My computer, my five-year-old Lenny (i.e., my IBM) was acting up...and what's more the BUGMEISTERS tried seducing me into adding a service pack to my Office 2007, which caused the whole program to seize up -- well, the end result was I used Lenny's "Rescue and Recovery", and the end result of that was I lost virtually all My Documents! Mostly they were CD rips and easily restored -- over ten months -- but I fear having a tough time getting back My Music downloads -- God knows how many are deleted from the Web for good. But perseverance pays off, and except for a few minuscule items I expect to get them back -- and what's more, add to them. Thank God Firefox remembers downloads! (But only for as long as your history.) I am in a little of a daze about it, though; you don't expect it ever to happen to you. One consequence is that I paid for three months of Rapidshare -- not pleasant, but it works. You can't download for free from Rapidshare. Another is that I will soon get an external drive, but only when the price is right (less than $100 for 1.5TB).

Amazing: Four years ago I bought 2 gigs of memory thinking they would last. It takes five minutes for my computer to fully warm up with Firefox, and if I have more than seven or eight tabs open it goes into convulsions. Fortunately I just got an offer for a credit card with a fifteen-month 0% APR. The problem is, which computer? (I never solved the problem of replacing my TV, but I have an Amazon.com card also.) Having owned two boxes I want a device that will not soon become obsolete -- which in practical terms means an I7-9xx chip (the 920 on my budget, max), a memory expandable to 24 gigs (although Tom's Hardware ran a piece that makes one question whether more than 3 really work) and an option for two graphics cards, which may come in handy with multimedia and driving up my electric bill. In short, a gaming PC. And that has smells of its own. I'd consider Dell's top of the middle of the line the Studio XPS 9000 but it only supports one graphics card. The others look like rejects for the part of a dwarf robot in a grade-B movie. What's more from scanning the Web in a panic I've discovered many of the higher-end models that fit my bill have sold out; evidently no loss of zeal for computing in a depr -- ECONOMY. I've also learned HP's Pavilion Elite line has had mobo problems. A budget box does not make sense; it will work fine for a year and then the problems will take over. And I'm not convinced the BUGMEISTERS have cured Windows's arteriosclerosis. And I'm NOT paying a tithe to that other God -- especially when He churns out defects in different ways. And with MEDIA taking an ever bigger maw to hard drives you need the expansion room -- and that means a place for at least three hard drives. I'm buying a new one for my birthday, in February -- when with luck I'll have finished reconstructing whatever I can of My Documents. (It was a pity losing some old Life covers, but I'll get them back in bigger sizes -- so maybe it wasn't all that bad.)