Tuesday 29 September 2009

Techno hell and indecision

The white screen of death which I faced last week on my laptop has now been joined by my mobile phone. Obviously feeling left out, my Nokia handset has found a white screen in its armoury, and to give added umph to its strop, it has taken to randomly cutting out midway through a call, or refusing to function at all.

Our video recorder has had the same tape of the TellyTubbies stuck in it for more than three months. And since husband managed to unlock the DVD player so it does actually play things that aren't in Korean only (What a great day - the whole family jumped up into a sponstaneous dancing cheer - it had been three years after all!), we have had unrivalled access to a world of film. So I dare not touch this device these days for fear that my electronic kiss of death starts to affect this area of our life as well.

Faced with an electrical appliance not working, I will work my way through the possible causes. Plugged in? Yes. Properly assembled? Check. Have pressed 'On' button? Yes. But more often than not, the device will remain inoperable. Then another person will come along. It can be anyone, just NOT me. They will press the 'On' switch, and the device will roar into action, and that person will look at me, and usually say something like, "What's the problem?"

Sigh!

I have come to accept that I am a techno-spaz, but it can be annoying from time to time.

Today I will fly to London for a week. I will be without the kids and I must replace laptop and phone for new, working models. Should I get someone else to buy them on my behalf so that I don't pick up another 'Friday afternoon' job, like my last Macbook turned out to be? I wonder if I can trick my destiny by getting my sister to purchase them on my behalf.

But first I must agonize over my choice of machine. The question is whether to replace my broken laptop (apparently my model is prone to over-heating because Apple use an unsuitable plastic for the casing - thanks, Apple) with a more expensive Macbook Pro. Or whether to take the hump with Mac altogether (after having two hard drive failures in two years and being offered a paltry GBP54 in a discount coupon on the next purchase if I go Apple again from this generous company), and plump for a PC again.

I hate these decisions - since I know that I may well make the wrong one. I am a computer sales guy's dream - clueless, fairly uninformed, worried about choosing the wrong thing, but inclined to try to penny pinch when making large purchases, so he can usually sell me an old model if it is 5 pounds cheaper. I must remain strong and decisive and buy a proper machine at market rate!

Any suggestions what I should get? All advice gratefully received!

5 comments:

  1. well, i have a macbook pro and for more than two years it has been fine ... although recently it did have a spaz attack on me, but that is rare. HOWEVER, I had my mac because I used to do design work and as much as I love them LOTS I think when it comes to replacement time I might have to go for a PC> I just can't justify spending so much more on a mac when I'm only using it for writing now :-(

    So, that is of no use to you because as you can see I too am indecisive ... i think you should get sister to choose and buy without you there :-) that or ip dip

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  2. You should get a Sony VAIO and an iPhone. Very simple. Now go and procure.

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  3. If you still want to keep using a mac, any of the current unibody aluminum macbook pros are much more reliable (though I'd get a 15" for the extra screen room).

    If you want a PC (Windows 7 isn't bad), Dell and Lenovo make very solid systems. I've used both and they've been very solid, even after a fair amount of abuse. Either the Lenovo T series or the Studio XPS series should do you well.

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  4. Hello all. Thanks for the advice. I will go tomorrow morning and make my choice! JEff, do you use a mac? I think you probably do if you are doing ads, right? Although I was a bit huffy after Apple offered me 54 quid to compensate me for two hard drirve traumas, I may take the coupon anyway. Having used PCs for a week or so, I do think that the mac runs more smoothly, and with fewere anoying extra cliks required. Oh, the decision!

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  5. Hi Gail - I use both a mac and pc, though my mac is my primary computer. That said, using Windows 7 I don't notice that much of a difference between my mac and pc - they both do more or less the same thing with more or less the same level of annoying hassles - it's just that the hassles are different. (Please note that this isn't the case with Vista, which is bloated and annoying, and which caused me to get my mac in the first place.)

    Did you make a decision?

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