In which technology both frustrates and delights

[katiefoolery]

I’d be interested to know how people manage to use laptops for significant periods of time without utterly destroying them, I really would.  How on earth do you do it?

I won’t deny that my laptop’s incredibly handy from time to time, especially when staying at one’s parents’ place for a few days, but...  It really has no idea how close it came to utter and irreversible DESTRUCTION over this last weekend.  How many times did it annoy to me to the point where I had to sit and breathe very deeply for a few minutes, whilst the urge to ANNIHILATE THE DAMN THING faded away?  Lost count.  And sometimes, that fading away process took quite a while.  I think a little bit of it might still be lingering, actually...  It’s probably a good thing that there are several rooms separating me from my laptop right now.

But in other news involving less mass destruction of items of technology... my iPod lives.  My little (unfortunately pink) iPod mini has come back from the dead... and is working.

I can’t explain this at all.

Last October, it was completely dead.

And now it’s not.

The story begins a week or so ago, when my iriver player decided that it wasn’t going to accept any more music, no matter how I reasoned with it.

“But look,” I’ll tell it, “I have all this new music and I don’t know, wouldn’t it be kinda neat if I could listen to it on my long and tedious trips to and from work?”

To which, my iriver player will simply point at the music already on it and insist that it needs no more.

I beg to differ but I’m fighting a losing battle here.  Also, its shuffle still sucks.  A lot.

If my iriver player could manage an indifferent shrug, it would probably employ one at this point.

Which brought me to thoughts of my dead iPod and the fact that a new battery would bring it to life.  So I plugged it into my computer, just to check how dead it was, and instead of the absolute, underwhelming nothing I was greeted with last time I tried that, a low battery symbol came up on the screen.  It didn’t look like it was going to charge via the USB, though, so I got my wall charger back from the Bindi and... it charged.  And then I connected it to my computer and updated all of my music... and it was still alive this morning.

I have no idea how long this situation will last, but it’s making me very happy while it does so.

Comments

[bethamphetam1ne.livejournal.com]

Argh, the dreaded curse of the laptop. Marvellously convenient, deviously temperamental. The soundcard in mine somehow committed suicide some months ago, the email notification envelope has got lost in the mail and Limewire never connects any more. I really must get it fixed before taking it on our travels. The indignity is that I have it on Flexirent so I will eventually pay out three times what it is worth and still not own it in the finish. Gah.

I hope my forthcoming iPod is not as finicky!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

My soundcard still works but it's absolute rubbish. Gah. And I Rentsmarted mine, too - worst mistake I ever made. Next time, I'll just get a personal loan.

I hope your new iPod behaves well, too. :D