Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Computer Weirdness

Back in December of 2007, I had to use up the money offered by my former employer as a "retraining" benefit.  A lot of my ex-co-workers were going through some local company to buy computers and using the "retraining" money.  It sounded like a scam to me, but I asked my accountant about it and he didn't see a problem.

But there WERE problems.  The first was, I didn't want the computer this company wanted to sell me (a Dell).  So I went to Best Buy and the salesman sold (suckered?) me on buying an Acer.  Hey, I have an Acer monitor and it had treated me well, but the thing never worked well--and the computer courses the "retraining" company offered came with FLOPPY DISCS and I ended up losing hundreds of dollars paying taxes, etc., useless training materials, and a bummer of a computer, so the whole thing was a big debacle.



The Acer had a crappy keyboard (flat--not unlike the keyboard that came with my iMac, which is why I don't use IT more often), but worse than that, the stupid thing had a cursor problem.  I'll be typing along and the next thing I know the cursor is several lines above where it should be, typing along in what I've already written.  This is not a good thing when your job is writing.

Back in May, I saw my friend Leann Sweeney's Sony computer.  I liked the keyboard.  She loves the thing (after having a lemon of a Dell that never worked right from day one), and let me try it out.  Since then, I've been back to Best Buy twice and tested it.  I decided that when the October Royalty Check comes, I'm going to get a Sony of my owny.


Not a week ago, the Acer developed a new problem.  It had never before had a screen saver, but now, suddenly, it did.  And the screen saver is a commercial FOR A NEW ACER COMPUTER.

It knows its time is just about up, and it wants to be replaced by a brother Acer computer.

Uh-uh!  No way no how.  But man, is it creepy to have this commercial playing every time I walk away from the computer.

What weirdness has visited you lately?

3 comments:

  1. Sorry kiddo,
    I used to sell Acer desk top computers back in the dinosaur age and they also had problems. The latest reports from industry rags say the Acer is a waste of money. I also need a lap top and am looking at either that Sony or an HP. I hope your new machine never gives you a lick of problems.

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  2. I have a 10 year old Dell that works very well; never actually had a problem with it except that every time I've put new hardware or new software on it, it took me at least 2 days to get it working right. However, I think that's simply a case of garbage-in-garbage-out since I'm sort of a computer klutz. It comes from being born waaaaay before computers. Anyway, when I can afford a new one, it'll be a Dell.

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  3. H'mm ... interesting scenario your Acer came up with. And they say AIs don't really exist. Ha!

    I have an older computer, a kind of HP-Compaq hybrid. (As it says right on the front of it -- XP Media Center Edition 2005 -- so it's 5 years old. OK, it's not the newest or the brightest, but I've loved it for 5 years. I much prefer the XP operating system to the Windows 7 or whatever the MS biggies are trying to foist off on us. I had an Acer (once upon a time) and didn't have any problems with it & I really loved the Dell I had at work as well as my Dell laptop. Guess it just depends -- some are good, some aren't.

    All the best on your new computer -- I want you to be comfortable, it to be reliable, and hope it helps you write, write, WRITE!!! :-)

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