Not keeping on top of my post-a-day
I have been rather delinquent in keeping up with my promised one post per day (and I know you all miss me terribly!), but I have my reasons. Reason, actually: my laptop died.
The tech people say that it's a motherboard issue, and that I will have to send it back to get it fixed. At least (this is the good news of the day) it's still under warranty, so although I my advisor might have to shell out some money for labour, the motherboard itself ($450 on eBay!) will not cost us anything.
Going the weekend without my laptop made me realize how reliant on this beast I've become. I am now completely accustomed to being able to pick up my laptop, check email, weather, TV listings, etc. - all just a few clicks away. And I'm also used to my laptop going everywhere with me. At home, Martha has been kind enough to let me use her machine, and at work I have my desktop machine. But the bookmarks are gone, pages that I might have wanted to leave open and available aren't, etc. It's very disruptive.
I'm casting about for solutions to this, right now. Even though I ought once more to have a working laptop by the end of the week, I want to make sure that I don't find myself in the lurch like this in the future. Whether that means an additional layer of redundancy (e.g., ghostzilla + USB key) or a change to my work practices, I don't know.
Suggestions, as always, are greatly appreciated.
The tech people say that it's a motherboard issue, and that I will have to send it back to get it fixed. At least (this is the good news of the day) it's still under warranty, so although I my advisor might have to shell out some money for labour, the motherboard itself ($450 on eBay!) will not cost us anything.
Going the weekend without my laptop made me realize how reliant on this beast I've become. I am now completely accustomed to being able to pick up my laptop, check email, weather, TV listings, etc. - all just a few clicks away. And I'm also used to my laptop going everywhere with me. At home, Martha has been kind enough to let me use her machine, and at work I have my desktop machine. But the bookmarks are gone, pages that I might have wanted to leave open and available aren't, etc. It's very disruptive.
I'm casting about for solutions to this, right now. Even though I ought once more to have a working laptop by the end of the week, I want to make sure that I don't find myself in the lurch like this in the future. Whether that means an additional layer of redundancy (e.g., ghostzilla + USB key) or a change to my work practices, I don't know.
Suggestions, as always, are greatly appreciated.