Sunday, November 9, 2008

A Short Post Lamenting Technology

Nothing big or philosophical here. My computer's hardware has been tetchy since a fumble in the airport on the way to Hamilton this June. The only real problem was that the jack for external speakers no longer worked, and I had to buy an external sound card that connected to my computer through a usb cable. This wasn't a serious problem, and there certainly could have been worse damage to my computer, lovingly named Michel, from that fall. The sight of one of my students' internally shattered laptop screen (my continued condolences, Heather) showed me just how lucky I was.

Yet tonight, in the amount of time it took for me to get a glass of water from my kitchen, a scratch has appeared in my own screen. The scratch is about four inches long and one inch high, a higher level of brightness on my screen starting from about the centre at the very bottom and streaking out to the right. There is also a roughly circular patch where the scratch begins at the base of the screen, half an inch in diameter, not quite as bright, and not visible from most angles other than directly in front of the computer. I have no idea what could have caused this anomaly, since I came back from my kitchen a few minutes ago, and it had appeared.

I think it's going to be an expensive Xmas this year.

UPDATE, 10.40. As of this morning, the anomaly on my screen is gone. That was strange, though.

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