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

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

I like my laptop, but what was irritating you about yours?

and no! curse that ipod working again. I thought I had managed to drag you away from the evils of the ipod. Then again, it came back from the dead, so it has to be evil. Frankenpod.... not that that really makes much sense...

[morbane.livejournal.com]

Gah! I've wanted a laptop of my own for some time now. I can no longer ignore the snickers of my friends when I tell them of my 8GB hard drive and other lesser features, because the CD/DVD drive has become querulous and I don't think it's worth replacing. But you fill me with anxiety.

That said, hurrah for your iPod. I hope it benefited from its shamanistic trance journey.

[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!

[crazedturkey.livejournal.com]

I love my laptop. Love it so much that I no longer have a desktop.

AND huzzah for the iPod! About bloody time! Even it's pinkness is good in the face of that!

(Oh and be on msn tonight...I miss you!)

[murfgirl.livejournal.com]

I also agree with you about laptops. So damn hard to type on, haha!

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of a pink iPod named Frankenpod. Or Zombiepod. It could roam the night groaning, "Music! Muuuuussiiiiic!" The pinkness just adds to the image.

Wicked, wicked laptop! Behave thyself or be turned into a toaster!

[alankria.livejournal.com]

If my laptops suffer, it's not because I intend them to but because I'm a touch on the clumsy side. Like my firt laptop, over which I spilled an entire cup of juice. Remarkably it lived (after a visit to the laptop-repair place) for another two years, although the up and left arrow keys no longer worked, and there was another key that deleted everything in the open MS document and tried to save. I'm really, honestly not joking. My second laptop has fared better, though the quantity of crumbs and other food-related build-up betweenthe keys is increasing.

Here's hoping your iPod keeps working. The mysteries of those strange little devices will never be solved, I suspect.

[emerald85.livejournal.com]

I too love my lap top! I've had it for almost 2 years now and it's still going strong! (Though i have killed the battery by having it plugged in all the time...) I must admit the keyboard is a little frustrating to type on. It makes my already bad typing even worse.

Glad to hear your ipods back in working order. My friend has been through 4 of them in the past 2 years... :S

[drscruffy.livejournal.com]

I used to have a compaq, and it and I did nothing but bicker from the moment I brought it home to the moment it fell into pieces a few years later. It just delighted in being obnoxious and difficult when I wanted to do the simplest of tasks, but whirred happily as soon as I tried to get someone to fix it!!! I then had a little toshiba laptop that was so incredibly obtuse that it would only turn on if you held it upside down and jiggled it left-wise. Now I have a Mac. It's pretty, and reliable and knows exactly how to make me the perfect cup of tea! ;)

As for your ipod - maybe it just got jealous?