My Bleeping Computer

Quotation Of The Day: Julie Burchill ~ Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.

As i may have mentioned -- probably ad nauseam -- i was on a fairly mediaeval work schedule for almost three weeks.  It ended on Sunday thank goodness, and i now have two days off, whoopee!  I see beer & pizza in my future....

But last Tuesday -- allegedly my day off, i only had to work for three hours, starting at stupid o'clock in the morning nonetheless -- i came home, booted up the PC and was typing away happily, when ... the machine shut itself off for no reason that i could see.  I tried two different power cords -- the extent of my technical expertise, la la -- but ... nuffink.

And so i took FRED (effing ridiculous electronic device) in to the best computery shop in town, Onsite Technology. (www.onsitetechnology.ca)  The owner, Troy (about whom i have probably written before) is the most tech-savvy man i know, and he immediately diagnosed the problem: the power supply had failed.  (He had replaced the power supply a year or so ago and had since discovered a problem with that particular model, but doubted it would still be under warranty.)

But!  He also diagnosed a possible hard drive problem:  the potential failure thereof.  Now, let this be a lesson to us all:  i have everything vital backed up to discs or thumb drives, but still, there's "stuff" (to use the technical term) on my hard drive i'd hate to lose.  Re-imaging and replacement of the hard drive could have been a real blow to the weekly budget.  As Astrid once remarked, i work more and make less than anyone she knows, and in the five or more years i've been writing this blog i've made about ten dollars from it (so keep on clicking on those ads, boys and girls!).

Cost to replace the power supply: $90
Cost to re-image and replace the hard drive: $200.

The former i could have managed.  The latter would have meant a diet of cheese sandwiches and roll-yer-own cigarettes for a week.

So, on Monday, i went to the shop to collect it, fearing the worst, heavy of heart and light of wallet.  And the total bill was ... ridiculous.  It was absurd.  It was (can you stand this suspense?) it was ... $18.25!  I spent more in cab fare getting the machine there and back!

The hard drive was fine and it turned out that the power supply was still under warranty, so all i had to pay was labour, and i had a $10 gift certificate.  $18.25.

And here, for no particular reason, is one of my favourite album covers of all time.  It's a solo album, in Swedish, by Frida of ABBA, and it's called "Frida Ensam" (which, i believe, means "Frida Alone").

Here's the playlist for the past few days:

Rory Gallagher -- Jinx
Roxy Music -- The Best Of Roxy Music
Mike Oldfield -- Incantations
Jethro Tull -- Heavy Horses
Terje Rypdal -- The Singles Collection
Propaganda -- A Secret Wish
Free -- At Last
Colin James -- Fifteen
Rod Stewart -- A Night On The Town
Colin James -- Fifteen
Van der Graaf Generator -- The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other
Mike Oldfield -- World Premiere Of "Crises," disc 2
Bill Bruford -- One Of A Kind
The Kathryn Tickell Band -- Instrumental
Sheryl Crow -- Detours
Humble Pie -- Performance: Rockin' The Fillmore
Rod Stewart -- Live (Not Authorised) Bootleg
Rod Stewart -- Blondes Have More Fun
Various Artists -- The Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll, discs 1 & 2
Keane -- Strangeland