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Aug. 4th, 2004
There But For the Grace of God Go I...
Aug. 4th, 2004 10:33 pmI own a Macintosh.
This means that I have an innate sense of superiority to the peons of the world. PC users like my buddies![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
garething and Brucie. Both have had an unending parade of horrifying computer problems. Mostly that's past and they both seem to be using stable machines. Of course, they begged, borrowed and stole components from such a wide variety of sources that their machines now have the pedigree of a Hogwart's breeding experiment.
Which brings me to my beautiful iLamp. Nothing wrong with it, but it is in mortal danger. My uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) no longer seems to work.
Now a UPS is basically a big battery wed to a surge suppressor. It protects the computer from power spikes. The battery keeps the power constant in case of brown outs. If there is a black out, it gives you a few minutes to shut down your computer safely.
Yesterday there was a lightning storm cutting a swath across Cowtown. My lights flickered, the UPS gave off it's shrill the-engines-canna-take-it-cap'n alarm and my computer powered off instantly. No time to react, it just happened in (literally) a flash.
Today it happened again (Calgary gets a lot of lightning in August). Clearly my UPS isn't doing sweet fuck all. I must now get a new one. For three reasons:
1) I don't want to go without a computer for a few weeks while this one gets fixed.
2) I didn't get the extended warranty like I planned (but I have a few more months to decide) so this could potentially cost me real money.
3) (most importantly) if my iLamp dies I will never hear the end of it from Gareth & Bruce.
I spent a lot of years giving them the old "I guess you should have bought a Mac" whenever they had to deal with the shit their Wintel boxes gave them. The payback will be fierce so I must prevent it at all costs.
This means that I have an innate sense of superiority to the peons of the world. PC users like my buddies
garething and Brucie. Both have had an unending parade of horrifying computer problems. Mostly that's past and they both seem to be using stable machines. Of course, they begged, borrowed and stole components from such a wide variety of sources that their machines now have the pedigree of a Hogwart's breeding experiment.Which brings me to my beautiful iLamp. Nothing wrong with it, but it is in mortal danger. My uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) no longer seems to work.
Now a UPS is basically a big battery wed to a surge suppressor. It protects the computer from power spikes. The battery keeps the power constant in case of brown outs. If there is a black out, it gives you a few minutes to shut down your computer safely.
Yesterday there was a lightning storm cutting a swath across Cowtown. My lights flickered, the UPS gave off it's shrill the-engines-canna-take-it-cap'n alarm and my computer powered off instantly. No time to react, it just happened in (literally) a flash.
Today it happened again (Calgary gets a lot of lightning in August). Clearly my UPS isn't doing sweet fuck all. I must now get a new one. For three reasons:
1) I don't want to go without a computer for a few weeks while this one gets fixed.
2) I didn't get the extended warranty like I planned (but I have a few more months to decide) so this could potentially cost me real money.
3) (most importantly) if my iLamp dies I will never hear the end of it from Gareth & Bruce.
I spent a lot of years giving them the old "I guess you should have bought a Mac" whenever they had to deal with the shit their Wintel boxes gave them. The payback will be fierce so I must prevent it at all costs.
