New Toys

No - not that sort. Minds out of the gutter, people!!

My laptop was doing strange things this weekend. I'm-about-to-give-up-the-ghost-and-die-on-you type things. So I decided to give in before it gave up.

I decided to buy a new one.

A real new one. Not a new-to-me refurbished one. Not a hand-me-down-from-a-relative one. Not a free-to-collect-on-freecycle one. A real new one. As in - nobody owned it before me. Fresh, unadulterated, new.

My first ever new laptop.

I've been saving as much money as I can because I want to visit friends in the USA next year (including the terrible twosome who also update this site), and I've managed to get the airfare together. I still need to save more, I need to cover expenses at home for the period I'm away and therefore not working. Plus food & stuff while away. And travel to-and-from airports, etc. But I'm two-thirds of the way to having enough.

So I decided I could afford a laptop. Not a Mac though, much as I might like them. I can get to the USA and back twice for the price of the cheapest Mac. No, I looked around and settled on a Dell. I'm not a fan of Dell in general but they offered the best deal.

Blimey, haven't laptops changed. My first (second-hand) laptop had a 20gig hard-drive and 128 Meg of RAM. The one I decided I could afford this time has a 500gig hard-drive and 4gig of RAM. Considering that my current about-to-die machine has an 80gig hard-drive (and 256 Meg RAM) and I've used approximately half of that I don't think I'm going to run short of space on a 500 gig one, do you??

The only downside is - it runs Windows 7. I like XP. I've used XP comfortably for years. Ever since I upgraded from WIN98 when my old PC died. (You really don't want to know just how small the HD and ram was on that!!) I don't like change. And I'm not sure some of my favourite programmes (which are getting rather elderly) will run on Win7. But there isn't any option. It's Win 7 or nothing.

I've heard good things about Win7 though. My nephew likes it. Says it's Mac for Windows. And I suppose if I really, really hate it I can always borrow my sister's XP disc and load that instead. Of course the first thing I'll do is download a different browser. Then uninstall McAfee and load my own choices.

It arrives Thursday. (UPS not Royal Mail - that would take at least a fortnight!!) If you hear lots of cursing Thursday night, that'll be me, struggling with Win7.

Ze

BtVS
• Chapter 8 of When Life Goes On by Leia (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  Devil Wears Prada
  
• Part 3 of Give In to Me by Gun Brooke (Her blog).
  
  
• The Younger Lover by Gun Brooke (Her blog)
  
  Glee
  
• Under Peaceful Conditions, the Warlike Attack Themselves by seriousfic (GirlSlash).
  
  Hospital Central
  
• Family Time by Ceridwyn2 (ShatterStorm Productions).
  
  Law & Order: SVU
  
• Part 11 of Second Chances by bcharmer23 & scarletbunny63 (alex-liv-lovers).
  
  Original
  
• Part 1 of Parcel of Trust by Kerry McNair (Royal Academy of Bards).
  
  
• Part 3 of One Little Bit by K-Morgan (Royal Academy of Bards).
  
  
• Part 18 of Bless You by Lois Kay (Royal Academy of Bards).
  
  
• Part 12 of Slam Dunk by Mickey Minner (Royal Academy of Bards).
  
  
• Part 12 of Slam Dunk by Mickey Minner (Her website).
  
  Rizzoli & Isles
  
• Chapter 1 of Chance Encounters by aturtleback (Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  Xena Warrior Princess
  
• Parts 12 & 13 of In Need Of A Friend by Mikaeli Hooper (Royal Academy of Bards).
  
  
• Parts 2 & 3 of Turning Tables by Mikaeli Hooper (Royal Academy of Bards).