Sunday, February 17, 2008

Losing An Old Friend

Sometimes it's a trusty shirt that was always there when laundry day came one day too late. Other times it's the wallet full of business cards, receipts, and lint from years of use. And then sometimes it is a laptop full of important emails, documents, and memories from several years. Most of the time the shirt becomes a rag, and the wallet becomes a plaything for a child or is simply thrown away. But fortunately, for a laptop, sometimes a full system restore can save it. The memories may be lost, but everything else remains - the screen that is sized just right to view two documents at once, the keyboard that is quiet as a mouse, the touchpad with an oil spot from steady use... ah, it's good to save old friends.

Yes, this weekend my laptop suffered a near-fatal illness. One, two, perhaps thirty spyware programs seemed to have cropped up from nowhere, as if the same bugs carried home from airplanes by the user got carried home by the computer. Alas, nothing could save my laptop from a full system restore.

Having an old laptop renewed, though, can be like I might imagine it would be to get to play with an old dog as a puppy again. It runs fast, learns quickly, and falls into step with its owner after a few days. I will miss a lot of the desktop icons, and I will have to spend a few days very soon setting up various elements again, but at least I'm not out a great laptop.

Welcome back, old friend.

-- Robert

3 comments:

le35 said...

Yes. Definately. Welcome back old friend, and hello keeping the savings account. ;)

Melissa said...

ouch. I feel your pain. But it is cheaper than a new computer.

Robert said...

Yes, but like the Mastercard ad would say, the memories lost are "priceless". It takes ages to build up little subtle things and to have large piles of email you can readily search. Most if it is clutter, I realize, but it's familiar. Fortunately, my laptop and I are on good terms so far. We still need to agree that the wireless card should start working. We haven't come to terms on that one, yet, though. I need it to happen before I travel again.