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It’s here! It’s here! It’s here!

February 22, 2007, 11:42 PM

Well, my new computer has arrived! So how is it, you ask? I don’t know. I haven’t opened it yet. It’s very much still in the box. I’m writing to you tonight on the Gateway. The Dell showed up a little sooner than I expected, and I wasn’t finished moving out of the old computer yet. So I’m still on the old computer. I bought a transfer link cable for $20 after work, but then I realized on the way home that I can use our wireless network to bat files around between computers. Dad’s computer is going to be the temporary home for all of my stuff. Also, when you consider that I just dropped a big chunk of change on two computers (the laptop is still in transit), the cable is going back to the store unopened and I’m getting my money back.

It still hasn’t quite dawned on me yet that it’s really the end of the road for the Gateway. It hasn’t sunk in yet. Of course, it didn’t truly sink in that the Previa was going away until I spent the time cleaning it out a couple of hours before it started the trip from which it would not return.

Once I finish moving all my stuff onto Dad’s computer, though, it will finally be time to truly retire that old Gateway. I will shut Windows down for the last time. I will reboot off a floppy, destroy my old partitions, and reformat the hard drive. I will then power down, and start disconnecting cables. Everything will be disconnected, and removed from my desk. And then when we arrive at the bottom, meaning that the desk is completely bare, I’m going to start setting new stuff up. The new computer will go into place, and then my present monitors and speakers will return, my current keyboard and mouse will return, and then we’ll fire the beast up and bring it to life!

That will be interesting, to say the least, since we’re not only diving into a new computer, but also onto a new operating system, as this one will have Windows Vista on it, which I’ve never touched. Every time before when I’ve upgraded, the new computer has had the same operating system that the old one did. When the family upgraded from our old IBM PS/2 in 1995 to our then-new Gateway P5-90, the operating system remained constant – Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Then when I upgraded from the old Gateway to my soon-to-be-retired present computer, both machines had Windows 95. This will be something new, with Vista and everything.

Meanwhile, while we’re retiring things, my new Chuck Taylors showed up today. I ordered them online, and they are a direct replacement for my old ones. Distressed canvas, in red. The old ones were starting to fall apart, and were looking really distressed. So they’re now sitting in the trash, and the new ones are ready to go for the morning. So fun stuff.

And all my files are now moving over to Dad’s computer. Wow…

Web site: A site about the IBM PS/2. We used to have a model 30-286.

Song: Theme to Home Improvement

Quote: I believe that this Gateway is the first in my own personal history of computers that I will actually dismantle after it is retired. The PS/2 saw very limited use in Sis's room following its retirement and reversion back to MS-DOS. Then when the floppy drive went bad, we replaced it, and the new drive caused the computer to catch fire. Seriously, innards were starting to smoke. End of computer, needless to say. Then the Gateway P5-90 remained the family computer after I got my own machine, and it was eventually retired later that year. It spent some time in storage in the garage, and then I think Dad just got rid of it during a clean-out. Now Sis's Gateway, which only lasted from 1999 to 2002 (it didn't do that well), was something I got to dismantle, but that was never mine during its operational life. That will be weird to dismantle this computer, though...

Categories: Computer, Shoes