A PC in the house

This is the second PC in the house.

The first was a very old, underpowered thing that Robbie (our techie friend) installed as server for our network. It wasn’t the best thing to do, but it was very cheap and Robbie worked for slave wages.

It was rather temperamental at first, but settled down after a while with only occasional spiteful outbursts. It resided under my printer table where nobody had to look at it … and just as well because it was indescribably ugly.

We had it for about a year before my husband (Colin) decided to replace it with a router. It took a while for that to settle down too … as some of you may know, my husband is one for whom a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Still, he sorted it out in the end, and we’ve had more or less trouble-free computing for a while now.

Things were getting a little boring, so first he bought a cheap HP all-in-one printer/fax/copier/scanner which does nothing very well. The idea was that it would take over mundane printing jobs from our Xerox colour laser printer (which is VERY expensive to run), and that it would give him a printer in his office instead of having to traipse out to my office every few minutes, disturbing my (ahem) valuable work.

For the latter purpose it has been successful, but it performs the former miserably. On any job longer than 10 pages it randomly prints the pages it feels like, and it’s best not to give it anything tricky to handle … like drop shadows for instance.

But let’s get back to the second PC.

The new PC (a Toshiba laptop bought via eBay) was delivered just over a week ago. Jeremy said, “It’s a wonder the Macs don’t go on strike”.

Colin, after much soul-searching, had decided that buying a PC was the best solution to taking part in a certain trading program. Supposedly, he’s already tried the Virtual PC path on his Powerbook, and found it just too slow. He investigated upgrading the Powerbook but found it would still be … um … ‘cheaper’ to buy a PC.

I warned him about Bailey’s experience with a PC laptop, but he proceeded regardless. Jeremy and I made it pretty clear he wouldn’t get any sympathy from us (though secretly we agreed it might be an advantage to have a Windows machine in the house so we could see how websites would appear to the ignorant masses).

Colin was obviously really excited about his new computer … it sat in its box on the dining room table unopened for 3 days.

Did I mention that he intends to use it right next to his Powerbook … ON THE SAME DESK. Some people just ASK for trouble, don’t they!

On the 4th day it came out of the box, but remained in its case on Colin’s ‘other’ desk for yet another day (I guess he thought he’d better introduce it gradually to the Powerbook). I forgot to tell you the PC didn’t come with system software installed. The supplier would have done it for $45 but Robbie said he’d do it for less than that (Robbie is his own worst enemy). Alas, when Colin called to tell him the PC had arrived, he learned that poor Robbie’s artificial knee gave way a few days earlier and he had his EIGHTH operation to fix it. He was still in hospital. He gave Colin instructions on how to do it himself, and said to ring him if he had problems.

“This will be interesting,” I thought, with just a smidgeon of anti-PC malice.

Colin spent the entire next day loading stuff onto the PC. He had 3 sets of instructions … all conflicting with each other. Robbie helped by telephone from his hospital bed (to the annoyance, apparently, of other patients). I gather that loading the operating system was just one tiny step. Then began a marathon downloading exercise … update upon update of a multitude of drivers etc. Every now and again, Colin looked wistfully across at his Powerbook and gave it an affectionate pat (I made that bit up, but if he didn’t he should have).

Well, the major part of the operation took 3 days, with subsequent fixes continuing throughout the rest of the week. There was no major family drama … partly because I persuaded Jeremy to keep out of it, and partly because Colin had prepared himself mentally for a monumental battle with the dark side and remained calm throughout (at least, on the outside) … though I did hear the occasional muttered “stupid bloody machine” from behind his closed door.

Later he confessed that many many things went wrong, and he emerged with renewed admiration for the elegant simplicity of the Mac.

He hasn’t, I’ve noticed, put it on the desk with the Powerbook. Perhaps he fears it might develop an inferiority complex and go into decline.

Oh, did I mention that it, like its predecessor, is goddam ugly. Black and thick (in more ways than one).