Sufferring from Withdrawal

I test computer software for a living. My whole job has to do with breaking things and doing it fast! Its fun! Well in the course of doing my job I run two computers at the same time with as many as 4 different operating systems (3 different versions of windows and Linux) running at one time! At home I pretty much the same way when I’m working but I usually have three to four computers running (all the same version of Windows) and one running one of 5 differrent flavors of Linux. Today I am suffering withdrawal. I found out two weeks ago that one of my computers was too old to be on the network any longer and is not supported by my company because it costs too much to maintain. So….they came and hauled it away today and will be bringing me another, more up to date model, but not brand new. When the technician came, he saw my other comptuer—we’ll call this one my main computer—and he said…”Oh, that needs to go too!” So they will be taking that at some point and replacing it with a brand spanking new top of the line PC when it comes in.

But I said all of that to say this! I found out just how much I rely on having the different machines and just how efficient it is because it seems to be taking me forever to get things done with just one computer. I don’t know how people do it! 😆 I’m sitting here trying to figure out if I can actually get any work done with just one computer…..like what most of the other people in the company. Those poor folks must be so ineffeicient. 🙂 I was just assgined a new task and the deadline was—you got it—yesterday. I was really cruising with my two computers humming along. Well, now I am relegated to getting the same task done with just this one little old machine. I think I’m about to have an anxiety attack! Oh, wait, no, thats just the extra spice I put in my Pad Thai. Whew!

I realize that for most of the world this is not really an issue. I know my wife may read this and (sarcastically) think: “poor baby!” And whats worse….when they do bring my computer back I will only have enough time get it set up to the point that I need it just so that I can finish this task I’m on. All of the customization (special utility programs, special configurations, special rules, personalized and special applications….and worst of all…my snoopy desktop) will all have to wait! Oh, the thought of it all could make a grown man cry!

Thermal events and such

Are you familiar with the old press any key to continue messages? (see image on the left) They used to frustrate people to no end because there was no “any key” on the keyboard. Then the Northgate computer company had to come out with the “Any Key” keyboard. The worst invention in the world!—in my humble opinion. If you press the any key it started a process or redefining your keyboard and remapping the keys. So if you press the “any key” and then type “quit” you wold change the “q” key to type the letter “u”; and the “i” key to type the letter “t”. You can imagine the chaos this would cause….and I was a desktop technician during this time and had to deal with it. How did I get onto that? Ahh yes, the whole point of this blog entry was about my fight with MY computer yesterday morning.

I got up early and thought that I would do full system maintenance on my computer. It was starting to act kind really funky and the day had not even started yet. Well, the maintenance went well, but then it was time to restart the compter. I’ve been leaving it on because half the time it would restart but never boot up. I get a blank monitor (and, by the way, the monitor works fine) and absolutley no video feed; and the other half of the time my computer experiences a “Thermal Event.”

In short, it gets too hot. Sometimes it gets too hot in the middle of what I’m doing, so, I keep things backed up often! Other times, like this morning, it decided it was too hot when I shut the computer down, but did not decide to tell me about it until I restared. I guess it was being kind.

Its kind of on its next to last leg, and I’m planning on replacing it, and surely I could make the decision to just go ahead and do so, hopefuily before its too late, but I’m waiting for the moon and stars to come into the right alignment, and all of the other factors to get in line as well. You know the drill, there is always something else…..until one day…..poof! . The real question is: when all of those things come into alignment, will the best deals still be available? I saw a nice deal (and I’m not telling where until I buy the computer and I know they won’t run out) that is one of those just too good to believe offers. But there is a good possibility that I will miss out on that one and wind up spending more to get a comparable machine.

I can hear myself talking when folks tell me about how bad off their computers were and how long they’ve known about it. Then when its just about to take its last breath, the call (you guessed it) me. “Oh well, should have replaced it when you could have.” I tell people. But do I listen to that myself? In the mean time I leave my computer running so that I don’t have to deal with what happens in trying to turn it on. The 50% of the time that the computer comes on and does not boot or have video (I kid you not) if I slap it on the side and then shut it down then it will boot. Sometimes it will take 3 to 4 slaps and reboots, but eventually it comes back on. Without the slap, though nothing happens. So I just let the thing go into sleep mode and keep it running all the time—Not my preference, because it is still using electricity, but for now it will have to work. I feel like the computer hits me back when it comes up with one of its thermal events. Then, it is nice enough to give me all of the options of the things I can do and the keys I can press. Woo Hoo! One of these days its going to go into its thermal event phase and actually melt down! Hopefully that will be long after its third stage existence. Third stage existence is being relegated to a server for backups and file storage only. That way I can get all of the usage out my computers that I possibly can.

Then comes the day when I move it to fourth stage existence. That is usually giving it away to someone else who has very light computer use, knowing that even with that drastic change, the computer will still…..shall we say……die. Until then, its the survival of the fittest (which works for me fighting computers, but has no place in creation.) So, in your prayer time please pray for my computer 🙂 If you don’t have a prayer life, well here is a perfect opportunity to start one.