Ode to a Laptop
I finally got around to recycling Patty's ancient laptop computer. It was purchased new in Boston in 1999.
This same year Google moved out of a garage and into an office to accommodate its eight employees.
The laptop cost about $3,000. It had the processing power of an Intel Pentium 2 chip and a Grand Canyon-like harddrive capacity of 4,000 Megabytes - what computer machine fanciers call four Gig. For the first five years of use, this laptop was tethered to the wall with a telephone line when communicating with the outside world. It completely skipped linking to the Information Super Highway via ethernet cable because it didn't have an ethernet port
and broke free from the shackles of all cables in January 2004 when it was fitted with a wireless card.
2004 is the year Facebook incorporated.
Sadly, it soon was redomesticated when the battery died and would only power up while directly plugged into the outlet. It's life as a laptop was over. It transitioned into a self-contained, desktop computer. It was around this time that it caught a virus from an email sent by my friend, M. M. I had to buy McAfee and it cost me $50. Damn you, M. M.! Fortunately, the Antivirus Program fixed the problem and the laptop performed basic functions flawlessly until it's clock battery died. To extend the life of a laptop required a transplant of this battery, which looks like a bunch of watch batteries linked together because that is exactly what it is. This battery is the reason your computer keeps correct time even after long periods without being powered on. The power this battery provides is also integral to the start up of the computer. So, technician, T. T. performed the surgery. During the process, the laptop was upgraded to Windows XP. But that was pretty much the end of the useful life of this laptop. Sure, it provided some real-time, fantasy football stats, but it couldn't do much more than that and certainly not two things at the same time. Software updates were soon no longer compatible and the screen would flicker in and out. By this time, there were three other newer, faster computers in the house. The last time the laptop was powered on was probably in 2008.
2008 is the year Hulu went live, thus taking one more step in the transformation of the home computer from work tool into all-in-one information and media appliance.
Soon after, the A/C power adapter failed and that was it. It was placed in a drawer to be recycled at a later date. It was soon forgotten and didn't reappear until we moved to Hong Kong this past summer. Only today did I get around to taking it to a proper recycling center. And so ends this laptop's life with us after 12 years. A life that took it from Boston, to Shanghai, to San Francisco and finally Hong Kong.
Bottom, left hand corner. You can see an action shot of the laptop (notice the CTRL key) with Bear (as a puppy) and my hand.
This same year Google moved out of a garage and into an office to accommodate its eight employees.
The laptop cost about $3,000. It had the processing power of an Intel Pentium 2 chip and a Grand Canyon-like harddrive capacity of 4,000 Megabytes - what computer machine fanciers call four Gig. For the first five years of use, this laptop was tethered to the wall with a telephone line when communicating with the outside world. It completely skipped linking to the Information Super Highway via ethernet cable because it didn't have an ethernet port
and broke free from the shackles of all cables in January 2004 when it was fitted with a wireless card.
2004 is the year Facebook incorporated.
Sadly, it soon was redomesticated when the battery died and would only power up while directly plugged into the outlet. It's life as a laptop was over. It transitioned into a self-contained, desktop computer. It was around this time that it caught a virus from an email sent by my friend, M. M. I had to buy McAfee and it cost me $50. Damn you, M. M.! Fortunately, the Antivirus Program fixed the problem and the laptop performed basic functions flawlessly until it's clock battery died. To extend the life of a laptop required a transplant of this battery, which looks like a bunch of watch batteries linked together because that is exactly what it is. This battery is the reason your computer keeps correct time even after long periods without being powered on. The power this battery provides is also integral to the start up of the computer. So, technician, T. T. performed the surgery. During the process, the laptop was upgraded to Windows XP. But that was pretty much the end of the useful life of this laptop. Sure, it provided some real-time, fantasy football stats, but it couldn't do much more than that and certainly not two things at the same time. Software updates were soon no longer compatible and the screen would flicker in and out. By this time, there were three other newer, faster computers in the house. The last time the laptop was powered on was probably in 2008.
2008 is the year Hulu went live, thus taking one more step in the transformation of the home computer from work tool into all-in-one information and media appliance.
Soon after, the A/C power adapter failed and that was it. It was placed in a drawer to be recycled at a later date. It was soon forgotten and didn't reappear until we moved to Hong Kong this past summer. Only today did I get around to taking it to a proper recycling center. And so ends this laptop's life with us after 12 years. A life that took it from Boston, to Shanghai, to San Francisco and finally Hong Kong.
posted by huja at 12:48 PM
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