[TAG] Laptop blues

[Ben Okopnik]

Well - like I said in my last email to TAG, "I'm back - maybe". The "maybe"
certainly came home to roost; the laptop died two days after I got it back,
and had to be shipped to Acer *again*: less shipping hassle this time, but
more delay (I should be getting it back this Tuesday; Acer shipped it out
Friday.) Meanwhile, Heather has presumably shipped me her standby laptop
(I've been away from home for a couple of days, and have just stopped at
the library on my way back), so I might actually be back in business - oh,
my aching head, what a BACKLOG! - today. I hope.

It's been a *really* ugly month, folks. Hopefully, with a spare laptop on
hand, it will not happen again. I may well invest in an external HD, too,
so I can do nightly backups instead of my usual bi-monthly ones - although
this would introduce an additional level of complexity to the retrieval in
case of failure, I simply can't afford, timewise and otherwise, to write a
DVD (at 1x, too) every night.

For those who, like me, have forgotten because it's been so long - not
having a computer at hand for a significant length of time can be really,
REALLY, *REALLY* annoying. Especially when you're trying to work, or even
stay informed, in an information-based economy.


* Ben Okopnik * okopnik.freeshell.org * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette *
-*- See the Linux Gazette in its new home: <http://linuxgazette.net> -*-