Computer Love

I was on my daily Twitter Clicking (where I read through dozens of posts, open dozens of articles and then read them) when an article from TheOnion.com about a man who hates his copmputer, because of his printer. It reminded me of another article about printers and their subterranian origins that I'd read on TheOatmeal.com. Yes, I think I like websites named after food that is best not eaten by itself.
Anyway, it made me think about how I solve computer trouble. And the terrible damage I've inflicted upon the contents of my hard drive, and countless hours of typing.
My laptop is four years old. It's a dinosaur by most standards. It weighs more than a gallon of milk. But it's also got a 17" screen and a 10 key pad which were the newest and best features when I bought it. Today, it runs hot like lava if I use it for gaming (Plants vs. Zombies) and I've got a 9 cell battery on it to make it last for hours because the poor charger port barely hangs on anymore. I've also worn the wrist rests down with my mouse... it's not a mousepad afterall.
Anytime my computer has trouble, I always start with a power cycle. Oh yes, the good old turn it off and turn it back on routine. Fixes nearly everything. But as it turns out, this doesn't free up memory. This is where I start digging around in my files to remove things that I don't need. I used to use this nice writing software but when I found out that it was leaving little tiny save files behind, millions of them I'm sure, I decided it had to be stopped. I changed the settings on the software to stop making mini saves and then I set to work deleting the mini saves from my hard drive. I needed those 8 megabites really bad. And wouldn't you know it, I deleted all the files, emptied the recycle bin and defragged before I realized that I couldn't access my nearly completed novel. I do more damage than I'm worth really. It's a good thing that my printer decided that the planets were aligned just right for it to print it out. Needless to say, I knew the story very well after re-typing the entire thing. I don't use that program anymore, mostly because I destroy anything that isn't based in .pdf or .doc formats.
DRM's cause me other troubles, but that's a whole other blog. Just let me say, if you screw up your computer and have to get software support from your manufacturer, support that they charge for, just reinstall the OS and call them to fix it when it needs to be partitioned. I call this the mega power cycle.

Anyway, I wanted to share these articles with you, and a funny story about the pain I've caused myself with my own laptop. I'm looking into getting a new one someday. But until then, I'll be emailing myself my work every night and praying that my hard drive fights to see another day.