I have accepted the fact that my laptop controls my life. Up until last month, my strategy to limit my laptop hours was to wait until the battery dies. Laptop asleep was implied consent for me to sleep too. Every night was a race against the battery – one last edit, one more email. But last month, my 2-yr old HP laptop decided to start dozing off in 10 minutes barely after rising out of hibernation. I had no one to turn to but the power cord. Reluctantly I plugged in and let electric power wreak havoc in my perfectly balanced night time rhythm. I should have seen it coming – my laptop had started to slow down for a few weeks and turn all eccentric on me.
Then, a few weeks ago I got that email that is every techie’s ultimate fantasy – to be only experienced in the real world only every few years. I was up for a laptop upgrade. I was faint with joy as I took my new Lenovo T61p out of its box. This is the highlight of Spring 2008. The keys are singing with the birds (seriously – I could have sowrn the keys sometime read my thoughts and type themselves) So what if the Ctrl and Fn keys are switched and I keep going to Help as the F1 key is where Esc used to be. It is just so good to not be resigned to the screen in medidative silence through the long pauses while the bits scampered around in painful chaos while I waited and waited… and said silent apologies to my old laptop for pushing the limits of the clipboard.. or running a pivot table report with more data than could ever be expected out of a humble 2 gigs of RAM.
There is so much to learn as I start on a new and exciting journey with this new king, my mind is filled with exciting possibilities. What if the battery lasts for a long long time – what a treat! What about the second battery? What a cute wake up sound – I wonder what other sounds I may discover. So far it hasnt heated past 40F – can I really get rid of my lap coasters?
With every new journey start new commitments, so its time to reiterate my vows. I will not fill up the hard disk, I will not stress out the battery, I will keep my files organized, I will delete anything and everything that is irrelevant or obsolete… I will stay on top of the technology and not rely on the OS to tell me whats good for my laptop, or worse to control its destiny.
It remains to be seen how satisfying and stable this regime will be – but for now I am riding high on the change of power with the colors of spring!
Posted by vani 
