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laptop Darwinism
Sunday, September 9 2007
I don't do much computer fix-it work these days but occasionally someone calls and if I'm feeling stir-crazy I'll actually go to their house and do a job. If I don't feel like driving anywhere but I'm feeling nice, I'll have them bring their computer here for me to look at. Today I told an older woman she could bring her laptop by. She'd been here before and brought up an unexpected concern: an intense fear of my dogs. She wanted to know what could be done about them. I suppose she wanted me to say I'd lock them in a room or throw them into cages. I paused for a moment as if thinking about what could be done and then said simply, "I know, you could have someone else do your computer." It seemed like a good way to get out of a job that I was only really doing to be nice anyway. But no, she knew that there was no way she was going to get her computer fixed before leaving for the City on Tuesday unless I fixed it, so she sucked it up and came over (but with her husband). I told the dogs to behave and not to jump on her or dive into her car (as they'd supposedly done last time) and she somehow handled the situation with composure and grace. It turned out that she'd once been bitten by a German Shepherd.
Her computer was a Toshiba laptop with a dead fan. I put my mouth to the fan and gave it a blow and it made one of those rising-pitch whoops like a specialty whistle. But the fan would not turn on its own. I suggested she keep a regular fan blowing on her laptop while using it to keep it from overheating.
I have to say, by the way, that I'm gradually coming to the realization that Toshiba makes the world's most durable laptops. I say this after looking at the Darwinian evidence: nearly all of the old laptops I see these days are Toshibas; other makes seem to end up in the trash before they have a chance to grow old. I myself have four functioning Toshiba laptops, two being of Pentium I vintage.
Mind you, I don't consider Toshibas sexy and I'm not proud to be seen carrying one in public. They tend to have an ugly bloated appearance and are coated with unattractive, often pealing finishes, but like the ubiquitous boxy-era Volvo, they simply refuse to die, even after suffering disfiguring accidents.
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