The Corner

The Thrill of Gadgetry

This week I am up and running with my new home network. (None of which is

installed in a new home office in my attic. No! No such thing exists!!) I

have three lovely brand-new desktops and my old one refurbished with a new

hard drive (may as well keep it alive till the motherboard conks out). Also

a cool new Dell Inspiron notebook. The desktops are all cable-connected;

the notebook has a wireless doohickey.

Now, I’m not a big gadget freak. I have problems with technology. Things

don’t work for me. They see me coming and call out the gremlins. I must

say, though (and I hope I’m not tempting fate), this one has been a success.

The kids are thrilled (they got a desktop each). I am thrilled — I can

now do my e-mail in the treehouse. (I think — haven’t actually tried this

yet.) Even Mom, a total technophobe, is thrilled — she gets the

refurbished old desktop all to herself. And so far EVERYTHING WORKS!**

Credit where it’s due: Installation was by an outfit named Executive

Computer World, out of Lindenhurst, Long Island. They were terrific, had

the whole shebang set up in the time it would have taken me to get the boxes

open. Sent a guy at once when there was a startup glitch, and fixed it on

the spot. Courteous, careful with my property, knowledgable, nothing too

much trouble. Thanks, guys!

**Except hibernation. This is a Microsoft fantasy. I have never seen an

Intel machine on which hibernation worked. It’s a total fantasy. I don’t

know why they keep bothering.

John Derbyshire — Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.
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