A Gradual Return

First, the Bad News:

My laptop is still down, off somewhere on the West Coast, getting fixed (presumably) by the Tech Squad that services my extended warranty on this increasingly unreliable conglomeration of circuitry. And the warranty expires come December. At that point it won’t be cost-effective to subsidize some uber-geek’s sailboat or second vacation home so I’m about to slap a DNR on another machine with an average life-span of 3 to 4 years. (3 to 4 years minus the better part of an accumulated year for multiple resuscitation furloughs.)

Now, the Good News:

I’ve finally broken down and purchased a desktop machine. In the past I’ve chosen portability over stability, putting all of my eggs (not to mention files, documents, and software) into one basket.

No more.

Looking at the narrowing window of acquiring a Windows Vista / Windows 7 capable computer that was still XP compatible for all of my old/current software, I pounced. Already it’s close to impossible to find new machines that are driver capable of my peripherals and older programs.

I’ve just set it up and reconfigured it to dual boot both XP Pro and Vista Business. Now comes the lengthy process of reinstalling, configuring, downloading, updating, tweaking, and reorganizing my system—and synching it with my laptop when I finally get it back. We’re talking several more days, folks, but at least there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, now.

And 1,193 emails in my in-box (in addition to 264 folders in my Outlook Personal Folders subset)! In other words, catching up on my mail is going to take a bit longer.

Patience is not just a virtue, it’s a necessity…

WMS