This crap happened in November too. I bought new 85,000 mile tires from Sears for the Baja in 2012, thinking these would last many years. After a blowout pulling into my drive around Thanksgiving, I needed a new tire. What I found out though was I needed FOUR new tires. All were dry rotting away BECAUSE THEY HAD BEEN ON THE SHELF AT SEARS SINCE 2009! No wonder they are financially insolvent. Sold me tires already three years old??
I'll have a new Lenovo machine by the end of month, if all goes as planned. I'm doing the research now. I don't game or stream much video but would like to load music, pictures and basically, just be here more. In the country, expensive-by-the-gig satellite internet is my only option. The machine can't run much faster than the network allows. If any of my tech savvy pals have advice for processor speeds and recommended apps or software that should be preloaded through Lenovo, I'm happy to listen. My thought is I can get a better machine directly through them than I would at Costco or Best Buy.
All of this is to say - or share rather - an early post. My first post. I recently twittered:
Mr. Jon Pennysleeves hinted that I should share the story behind my collection. A few years have passed now [crickey!] and so many of you have been kind to lend me your ear and precious time continually. If you'd like to know how I made it to this point with you, please check out my first few posts. Instead of recreating the wheelie, I offer this link to Cardboard Bug Bites:
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| CLICK HERE FOR TRANSPORT TO JUNE 14, 2014 |
There are a lot of very techy bloggers (I'm not one of them), so hopefully some of them will provide some assistance. Thanks for linking up the old post, judging by the lack of comments, I'm sure I'm not the only one who had never read it (I didn't about your blog at the time) - awesome post though!
ReplyDeleteThanks for encouraging me to share the story! It was overdue [the story, not your encouragement!] ;^) I certainly didn't expect you [or anyone else] to go back to the beginning.
DeleteI ended up with a Lenovo in November when my laptop died. I liked the laptop better (an HP) but I think that was more due to the operating system than the unit itself- Windows 10 is kind of....stinky. I'd go back to Windows 98 in a heartbeat if I could.
ReplyDeleteWindows 10 is overkill, imo. Too 'app-ish.' Looking fwd to a new machine soon! Hope I get ten years out of it too!
DeleteEnjoyed your 'origin story'! Sorry to hear about your laptop woes.
ReplyDelete"Mr. Jon Pennysleeves" sounds like he stepped out of a Charles Dickens novel. :-D
Thanks for going back in time! Pennysleeves is a fantastic name, quite Dickensley!
DeleteGlad you ended up coming back in 2013. I missed collecting in America from 1994 to 2004, but would find your perspective interesting on what late 1990s collecting was like.
ReplyDeleteSMM - imo late 90s is much like today - product out the wazoozle. We also have the added bonus of restrictive licensing. Joy upon joy.
DeleteI gotta say, that's been one thing I've been lucky about is solid work laptops that I use for blogging on my free time. I haven't owned a personal laptop since a crappy Dell in college. I probably should buy my own at some point...
ReplyDeleteenjoy the free machine while you can! I've not had a good Dell experience.
DeleteI repair computers for a living, and can tell you that Lenovo is a good brand. Their tech support can be a little hit or miss sometimes. I would recommend a solid state drive over a standard hard drive, and either an i3 or i5 Intel processor. Pretty much any computer nowadays will be sufficient for pictures and music, so no real need to spend extra on the bells and whistles. I hope that's helpful.
ReplyDeletequite helpful Matt, thanks! I am going with an i5 for certain and will check out solid state vs the standard hard drive. I want a machine that runs more than one process at a time without struggling.
DeleteThat laptop is from 2009? Are you sure the service tag didn't say 1999? (I kid, I kid)
ReplyDeleteLooking at how thick the laptop was - this was my first thought too. I don't personally have a Lenovo (my personal computer is an HP desktop), but can chime in having heard good things about them.
Deletethe laptop pictured is a historical item from a time long past. It's not my Dell. I was funnin' you guys. 8^p
DeleteWas just about to comment about that. Can't remember the last time I used one of those discs. Probably 15 to 20 years ago.
DeleteThat's terrible that there are places that pass off older model computers and tires as new models. I mean... that's got to be some form of fraud. Looking forward to reading the other post.
buyer beware. Sears is now paying a price for cutting corners. as for the Dell, I purchased it from Sam's Club. I paid around $500 for it back then so it seemed like a nice machine at the time. Had it been a NEW model, the old pc likely would've been good a bit longer.
DeleteThe PCs at my old job were ancient; there was actually a room of dummy computers that they had to keep on at all times so that ours would work. As soon as I got my new job they bought me a brand new Lenovo. I love it. I'm sure you will love yours, too.
ReplyDeleteoh wow. that's an interesting network setup! Your employer understands a good laptop makes a difference in your productivity. My recent employer knows a good laptop is the ONE tool they shouldn't scrimp on. When the Lenovo lease was up, they decided HP would be the new provider. It was a nice machine for personal use but failed daily in the office. It couldn't run Outlook, a browser and the few tax softwares required for interactive use. If the machines weren't crashing, the screens were failing. I was providing two break/fix machines daily, without exaggeration!
DeleteBoy, I'm embarrassed to say that I have not seen a computer like that Dell up there. I went from a HP to a refurbished MacBook. I actually enjoyed the HP until the Windows 10 'upgrade'. It went downhill fast after that. BTW- HI! lol
ReplyDeleteI never owned one with a floppy drive but the pic is certainly humorous! Took me awhile to like Windows ten. Once I figured out how to make it look like the earlier version w/o APPS, it was ok. Hi back atcha!
DeleteLoved reading that original post...isn't it amazing how blogging has give us new life in our collecting and brought us to meet so many magnificent people.
ReplyDeleteGood job!
John, thanks! I am ever grateful for the friendships made here. I fell in with a great group of people!!
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