Of Dell

The lack of posts over the last few weeks is due to major malfunctions of my four-year-old laptop. Actually, it is not four years old. Four years ago, my father generously bought me a laptop to aid in my studies at grad school. This laptop has been replaced by Dell three or four times over the years. I have spent countless hours on the phone with non-American, non-English-speaking men who are able to read an algorithm (althoug in broken, impossible-to-understand English only), but may not be able to think for themselves attempting to get various laptops in working condition. Usually, after enduring a period of trials and tribulations, the computer has been fixed. Not this time.

The Dell laptop is now very much dead. It takes over an hour to turn on, and then flashes warnings like, "File ://!XYZ has been erased. This may indicate a problem with your hard drive." before showing me a beautiful blue screen which reads, "Dumping physical memory." In my very limited experience, when your computer suggests that hard drive problems may exist, it is usually correct.

Now that I am married, my husband has generously bought me a new laptop. (Because that is what good husbands do for their internet-dependent wives.) Eric may have just been sick of getting phone calls like, "Ok, look this up for me. How many cups of dry long-grain brown rice do I need to get three cups of cooked rice?..........I mean, are you busy there at work?"

My new computer is on the way. I sincerely hope it is more reliable than my Dell has been.

Don't you love calling customer service when you have a computer problem? The customer service reps must have a very tainted perspective on humankind, for who ever calls them without being frantic and angry? (Perhaps Eric, actually....)