Sorting out the computer issues

My laptop is unhappy; the screen light keeps turning off. (This can’t possibly have anything to do with it falling out of my backpack last week. I had been distracted by my company at the time and didn’t take proper care as I zipped up.) I can make out the vague shapes of windows, but there’s no way to work on it.

I decided to finally bite the bullet and get the Intel-based Mac mini so I could use that while the old PowerBook is in the shop, and finally get an Intel version of Jer’s Novel Writer built and tested. Only problem is, there aren’t any Mac minis with the DVD burner to be had, nor will there be for a while. It seems there are none in the Czech Republic at this time, and one guy told me that Eurpoe is fresh out.

I did get a monitor, however, knowing I would need one for the mini when I finally got it anyway. I got it home a little while ago and set it up, and discovered that it even came with the DVI cable that matched my Mac’s Digital Video connector. Oddly, that cable could not be attached to the monitor. Yes, the monitor shipped with a cable that was completely useless without a DVI adapter. I have such an adapter, so no problem, but with the adapter, the regular cable that came with monitor works just fine also. Oh, well, another cable in the “things that might come in handy for some reason someday” bin.

So, I am back! Able to post blog entries and everything. Life is not perfect, however; unless I want to lug around the monitor, I am stuck at home until the laptop is fixed, and my seating position is a little torqued, as the new screen is next to the keyboard, rather than behind it. But if I send in the laptop for service, I won’t have anything. So do I bite the bullet and go computerless for a few days and then return to my carefree nomadic ways, or do I sit chained to my table until I can get the new machine, then sit chained to the table but at least productive while the laptop is repaired? Quite a conundrum.

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10 thoughts on “Sorting out the computer issues

  1. Last night I did manage to get a bit of writing done down at the Little CafĂ©. I used — get this — pen and paper. Yes, crazy, I know, but also therapeutic.

  2. how about hiring a personal stenographer to follow you around for a few days while the laptop is being repaired?

  3. It’s always an attractive solution to have a personal flunky. The potential for job description inflation is always there as well.

    “Tatiana! Take this down, quick, before I forget! Then bring me a beer before you start my back rub.”

    The catch would be to find one that can transcribe English perfectly but have no idea what the words actually mean. I’d never be able to come up with the first-draft scribbles if I thought someone else was watching.

  4. Perhaps a dictaphone, and some voice recognition software on the computer at home. You could go all ‘Special Agent Dale Cooper’ and prefix everything with ‘Diane’ as well….

    ‘Theres a fish in the percolator!’
    (sorry, I am having a Lynch flashback)

  5. I actually have a dictaphone-like thing that Bob gave me for my road trip, to record musings while behind the wheel. It came in very handy back then.

    You know, one thing that never even occurred to me was to take my PC laptop out with me. It weighs forty-seven pounds and has the key action of an old Remington manual, Its battery life is measured in minutes and its contribution to global warming has been tracked by NASA for some time now, but it’s there, and at least it’s electronic (even if there’s no good writing software for it), and I could use the exercise lugging it around.

    It has a very nice screen, too.

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