When your laptop gains a fractal image, permanently
Go ahead; try to get by without the necessary tools for the task at hand. Forget your ingenuity; I’m not suggesting that you should drive screws with a handsaw. Once a need has been recognized, the correct solution may involved spending more than planned. Sometimes, ou have to invest in the toolkit to keep the jobsite active.
Last evening, son #1 had an unfortunate incident. The laptop computer that contains his school work obeyed the higher law of gravity and jumped from the desk to the floor. Oops! Screens aren’t designed for the landing portion of the trip, and the image now contained a fractal. Permanently. When he called a neighbour to deliver a message about our telephone being out of service (a polite way to say “off the hook for hours on end”), and subsequently, when the messenger knocked at close to the witching hour, I knew things had soured. I changed out the old phone for a new one (that has been on the shelf here for several weeks) and called down. His description was that the computer was “in agony”.
There are possibilities here, including screen replacement (not really cost effective), addition of an external display (hardly portable) or simple retirement of the machine.
Do the head count. There are x computers here, but x+1 users. My success with Dell has been exemplary, and the spouse is due for an upgrade. While we await delivery, the netbook will be on loan. I’ve recovered the data from the fractal machine (external hard drive adaptors rock). All is now under control. The cost: we’ll deal with that eventually.
A sad note is in from Cape Breton, where a young woman was killed by coyotes while hiking in the National Park. Say what you will about the coexistence of wildlife and humans. Coyotes are not, historically, part of the ecosystem in the Maritime provinces.
