My PC gets a new trojan horse virus every other day, dammit. One day I’ll get one that Norton can’t catch and trade my hard drive in for something that runs on Ubuntu and not look back.

Rather than handing it down to a relative I put the CDs on it, which filled the 40gig drive which meant that the OS wouldn’t load which made me oh so grateful for the snotty kids at the Apple store who believe themselves to be geniuses. Replaced the whole shooting match for me.

The 2003 purchase of the snow iBook was good money because mine still works after having a beer spilled in it. Display is wonky but servicable and Mavis Beacon has Taught Typing to the kid on it already.

Twisty, give Mungo’s organs to those who live on and buck up. At least it didn’t catch fire.

“buzzed down to SoCo”

I read this “SoCal”, and thought, blimey, that’s one helluva pizza craving. Wherever you are, though, it’s far closer to pizza than most of my home state is.

I will admit that my ancient Titanium Powerbook is still fine; I just need to a) find and b) charge its battery. I’m also using a 1st gen iPhone; it’s a fine little thingy in town, but I can’t recommend it as a person’s only mode of communication in Rattlesnake, TX.

Damn, girl, you have hit the nail on the head. I don’t want to drive into town, but my GOD there’s NOTHING TO EAT OUT HERE. I’ve lost 10 pounds since moving out to the country. Yesterday I sucked it up and buzzed down to SoCo because nothing but a Home Slice could lift me out of my pizza-deprived funk. That was 2 hours on the road I’ll never get back, but at least I had some decent pie. Damn.

I’m using a first-gen iPhone without any trouble, and a MacBook Pro two and a half years old and in constant use. (I maintain a full backup with Time Machine, of course). My partner’s much older powerbook is fine also, apart from a wobbly power cord insertion caused by excessive exogenous wobbling. My old 12 inch powerbook (2003?) is still in service with an in-law, and working fine. My kid runs a CRT G3 iMac (2000?) which does the jobs he wants it to do. The only broken computer in the house right now is a first-gen Snow iBook (G3/500, made 2001), which I used for a few years before it was bashed around by a toddler for a year or two. The display’s not working now, but it seems to still start up ok and would probably work with an external monitor. There’s also a four- or five-year old iPod around here still in regular use.

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.

I took my apple computer to a place in Austin called HAPPY MAC and they (well, the one guy) were toally nice and fixed my mac for cheap. I think this HAPPY MAC place is the actual place to go; everywhere else I called (or previously went) was a bill to take a gander, etc. (By bill I mean a hunnerd dollars.)

It does seem like you have already taken care of it, plus you don’t perhaps want to drive into town. However, if you drive into Austin you can eat in a restaurant!

Caller: “My computer is doing this incredibly bizarre thing!”
Me: “That’s weird. Have you tried restarting it?”
Caller: “…No.”
Me: “Well, why don’t you do that, and then call me back if that doesn’t fix it.”

And then they don’t call back.

So: annoying question if you have actually tried it, but necessary piece of information.

I recommend mentioning in your opening narrative that you restarted it to no avail, so that you really can feel justified in being annoyed if you get asked.