I mentioned this in passing last week, but I keep forgetting to go into further detail: I have spent my last pre-student paycheck on a new laptop.
This is the first time that I’ve went and got a new computer before my current one had some kind of catastrophic failure. Sure, my old one (Computron Rex) has plenty of issues, and seems to be getting worse all the time, but it is technically still a functional machine. That means, for the first time, I’ve got two computers on the go. And it is pretty effing sweet.
The new computer, an Asus model of some kind, seems really good. It is very fast compared to its predecessor and it is light enough that it probably will be able to function as a portable option in ways that that one never did. This is, of course, important now that school is happening. Most importantly it prevents me from worrying that my computer will die while I am needing it for school and I’ll be too poor to do anything about it.
I also have my weird computer naming policy that nobody cares about but me. I have to call it Computron Something, but I’m not entirely sure what. In chronological order, the computers I’ve owned were Computron, Computron V, Computron X, and Computron Rex. Where do I go from there? What’s better than Rex? My first thought was Computron Dei. Also, there’s the undead-based nickname that I have to apply as well, out of tradition. But I’m pretty sure I’ve used up all the best kinds of undead creatures. frankensteins, zombies, ghosts, and vampires I have used. So what is this guy? Sure there are options like maybe a lich or skeleton or mummy or something, but in a lot of ways those guys are just tricked-out zombies. As I pondered, my brain immediately started making the case that angels can be undead (in religious theory this is obviously not true, but we’ve all seen movies and stuff where dead folk become angels after death, so those guys would surely qualify).
Notice a pattern? My first thoughts for both of the naming conventions I use on my computers seem to be overselling this laptop to religious proportions. For the time I’m going to not officially name my new computer and we’ll see how well it lives up to my apparent subconscious impressions.
Anyway, now you are all up to date on my computer situation.
I don’t play games, so I don’t really keep up with the pace of computer development, but it seems to me that computers are monumentally better than they were a few years ag when I bought my last laptop. For a few hundred dollars you can get a lappy that kills my current one in processor speed and RAM.
That’s pretty much how the technology runs these days. I think it’s something along the lines of computational power doubling every eighteen months. It was close to eight years between my previous desktop and my current laptop, the laptop cost less than the desktop did back then, and — by those standards — is considered thirty-two times better. Neat.