a brief tangent for technological issues
Wed 2022-02-09 22:31:45 (in context)
To heck with all that aspirational talk about wanting to blog more than twice a week. If I can manage once a week, I'm doing pretty well.
Today was more challenging than Wednesdays usually are. Today I had a much-anticipated visit from an on-site computer repair tech, and the visit unfortunately did not result in all of my problems solved. Here's the quick version of the story. (Heh. "Quick.")
For the last couple months, the Alienware M15 (which I like to call "Space Invader" because I'm a child of the 80s and I grew up with an Atari 2600 in the house) has been growing increasingly unstable. The main problem has been its tendency to freeze-crash and need a hard reboot. At first I thought it was a matter of asking too much of it (a frustrating assumption, this being a *gaming laptop),* but it also crashed wen I was running only one of my resource-heavy games, or zero. Eventually a pre-boot diagnostic reported that I had a failing hard drive. Yep. That would do it.
I reported this to Dell, and Dell ordered the parts, and I backed up everything-I-mean-everything to the old Asus in preparation for a fresh Windows install. Meanwhile I kept using Space Invader as usual, but with the extra steps of 1. immediately backing up each change to every file, session, or preference, no matter how small, and 2. rebooting it a lot. And then Dell informed me the parts weren't available, so I'd be limping along like this for a while longer. Argh.
Yesterday I got the good news that the parts were in stock again, had shipped, and would be in the tech's hands, and thus inside my laptop, today. Hooray! And great timing. By yesterday afternoon, poor Space Invader had become entirely unusable, obliging me to work off the old Asus, and wow was I looking forward to not having to do that anymore. The old Asus is slow. BUT. Turns out, the hard drives Dell shipped out, while being identical in capacity and function, were only half the length of the originals. They could be slotted in but they couldn't be bolted down. This would have been fine in a stationary machine. It's less ideal for a machine I'll be schlepping around in my backpack and in the car.
The tech sent in the order for the correct replacements, and arranged with me for a new visit tomorrow. He installed the new-but-wrong-sized hard drives so that I'd at least have limited use of my good computer. And I rejoiced. For tonight, it would be less of a home than a hotel, a place where I could bring my toys (data, programs, etc) but could not keep them (because everything gets zooked tomorrow). But it would be less obnoxious than waiting five damn minutes for Firefox to boot up on the old Asus.
And then the Windows install FAILED. One! More! Dratted! Thing! To go wrong! It's fine, it's OK, I eventually remembered I could press F12 for boot options. I did so and told it to boot from the Windows-installing USB. The Windows install started over from scratch, and this time it succeeded. Hooray!
But by now all I want to do is sit back in the tub and do brainless things, like read blogs and click on Harvest Land or something. To hell with my Afternoon Shift. I was drained. Well. At least I have written this post. It's not the post you thought you'd be getting next, but it is a post. Huzzah.
That said, considering this may be the only post you get this week (though we shall see), I should mention to any of y'all who are local to me that THIS SATURDAY, February 12, 2022, Boulder County Roller Derby is hosting our very first public game in over TWO YEARS and maybe y'all should come? If doing so is compatible with your current risk management strategies, I mean? Click here for event details! (It's Facebook, but the post is accessible even if you don't have an account. I checked.) Also, do yourself and my home team a solid: use the code "BLUE" when you buy your tickets. Good for a couple dollars off your purchase! Also good for Team Blue. We're kinda competing about this. So remember: The code is "BLUE". Not any other color. Just BLUE. As in Team Blue, who'll be the ones wearing the blue bandannas among those skating in the black jerseys for TEAM LOVE-TAKERS!
Our bout is the second bout, but don't even think about missing the first one. That's the one showcasing our juniors' skills and accomplishments. Y'all, we are so proud of them. They are the FUTURE of ROLLER DERBY and they make it look like a bright future indeed. So please arrive in time to cheer them on!