The Technology Curve

My new, replacement laptop arrived today and I've been trying to recreate the experience I had with the old one - all in a single day. In a few hours in fact. What took me the better part of three years to learn about, set up, trust and learn how to use, I'm trying to do in a couple of hours, before I forget what I'm trying to restore.

At the gig, with just a few days left to work.

So, I got a Dell Inspiron and so far it's superior to what I gave up. Why? First of all, it works. I'd have never gotten another laptop if the HP hadn't conked out on me. Secondly, the screen is a little bit bigger and sharper, but that's to be expected with newer models of stuff. The speakers are better than the old one so I won't have to plug in speakers to get a decent sound. I'm not sure if this one is lighter - as in not as heavy as the old one or not. I used and treated the HP as a desktop... it never left the house. I told myself I would not treat this one the same way. Of course.. I won't be in this house much longer. I bought this to be on the road with. Even got a sleeve to go with it.

Now some drawbacks. No disk drive, so the cd programs I have cannot be loaded, which means I'm stuck having to download from a cloud, which means I'll have to repurchase my Spanish lessons and my VCR to PC program. But who has a working VCR anyway? I have a tape I don't want to lose.

Okay, next, iTunes won't load on here. Probably because I won't make it my default music player. Well fuck'em! There are lots of music players out there. Right now the Windows player is working just fine. I just might not be able to update my iPod. I'll live.

Windows 10; it's not so much a drawback as it is new and unfamiliar territory and causes my brain to have to learn new methods and stuff like that. This is actually a benefit, now that I see it written out.  Also, about W-10's tracking services I just opted out of them... which may not mean anything. I might wish I had opted in for them at some point. The find my computer option might turn out to be useful on the road.

Luckily I was able to rescue a lot of the open source programs I'd been using so I should be able to reload them.

It wasn't difficult to download the images and videos from the iPhone.

This blog will be ending in two days and a new one will be starting at The Gospel of Nox (Freedom Year) which will cover my first year of retirement. I really need another word, unless I take my own advice and redefine what retirement looks like. I think Vagabonding is taken... I could go Noxing or something. Eh.. something will come up when I'm not looking for it.

Okay, back to rebuilding my computer experience. I'm on battery power now due to the space heater drawing too much power from the surge protector. Good thing.

Cheers.