Farmer in the Dell

      This old computer is doing just fine. It was sitting in the closet, on its side with a broken screen and dead battery. The data in it was over-crowded and congesting operating functions. Windows XP was the OS.

      When I say old, it is 6 years old. We bought it back in 2006, before our first daughter was born. It has logged months on Final Fantasy11, held 1000's of family photos and travelled with us between three coasts of Canada; the Arctic, Newfoundland, and British Columbia. We've filled out taxes and sent over a million Kilometers of emails around the world with her.

      An ad on Kajiji read “$60 screen replacement on your computer”, and I called them. The man on the other end of the phone said that he had many screens available that would fit this computer. So for $60, the screen is replaced and looking wonderful. I can tell that the screen is not new as it has a couple of very small scratches.

      Once I was able to see what was on the the screen, my next step was to work with the data inside. USB to HD and drag and drop, Ctl-C, Ctl-V for a while. All pictures and documents, no music or videos, I have them backed up elsewhere.

      A friend had a copy of windows7 which I tried to install. Unfortunately, he only had the 64bit version and I need the 32-bit version. No windows7, but what were my options? I remember going over to Eric and Beth’s house in 2000. Beth was excited because she had just installed Linux. Well, Linux is free and down-loadable. I watched IronMan2 while the install ran.

      Iron Man2 has a great soundtrack. I am always looking for good running music and I don't have any AC/DC. Itunes doesn't have any AC/DC music for sale, either. All they sell is tribute AC/DC bands. AC/DC does not want their music digitally transferred and sold. I suspect that they are worried about piracy, copy-write and revenue loss. They have enough already and aren't selling out. Maybe they have sold out and want to keep it all to themselves. The soundtrack can only be purchased in CD form.

      I called around looking for the CD. I visited the local used bookstore and found they had about 50 CD's some scratched, some missing inside empty cases. The PeterGabriel Secret World Live double CD was half missing, and I sighed to myself. I remembered that the Superstore had a video section with an assortment of music against the wall, but I was surprised when I stopped in. The Superstore had undergone a major renovation and all CD's where gone. The only CD's for sale where blanks!

      So now I have a clean and fast laptop that will be used for surfing and email only. I don't think that I will be taking this compputer out of the house again. This house has so much technology already.

     Our FibreOp wireless router is a cornerstone of the residence.

      I have a small case made of transparent plastic used for holding point and shoot cameras underwater. The case fits my Ipod perfectly, and I use it sometimes while I soak in the tub with bubbles. Umbro Bubbles are great. 

     Wirelessly attached to Netflix, sitting in the water I came to the realization that everyone in the house was doing something connected to the Internet. Our conversations, our entertainment, our socialization, shopping, banking, journaling, our telephone and cooking recipes are all dependant on this connection. Thank-you garden, lawn, jogging and cleaning for being an alternative umbilical cord.

I called the HMV store and they have a copy of the IronMan2 soundtrack. I can't wait to copy it onto my Ipod.