Changing Technology

I’ve been admiring a computer set up I saw several weeks ago while we were visiting at Sam’s Club. It was a HP with 8 gigs of DDR 3 memory and 1 Terabyte of hard drive with a Windows 7 operating system. It had a Blu-ray player, a speedy AMD Phenom II 945 Quad-Core processor, a very good video card and a good sound card. And it had a 27 inch HD 1080p monitor and was configured for wireless internet. Since I first saw it, I searched the internet looking for the same set up for a lower price.

In the meantime, my wife’s old Dell desk top was showing its age and had slowed to a crawl. As much as we tried, we just couldn’t get it to speed up. I sort of knew what I wanted to get her. She spends a lot of time downloading embroidery designs and creating new ones. So I knew it needed a fair amount of memory and a good monitor. But she really doesn’t care about listening to music or watching videos on the computer.

Last evening I went to the local Office Depot to see if they had a specific computer I had identified as being ideal for her. They didn’t have it. I had them check the other Jackson stores and found nobody had one in stock. Then I found it was a model that isn’t being made any longer. So this morning I headed out for one of the Office Depot stores on I-55 North. They had a computer that looked interesting but just didn’t quite fill the bill.

Next I went to Best Buy. All of a sudden I saw an HP with the same configuration that I had seen at Sam’s. The only difference was this one had a 23 inch monitor in lieu of a 27 inch. But the price was a couple of hundred dollars less than at Sams. Then I looked at the computer next to that one. It had the exact configuration I was looking to get for my wife. Plus, it came with a 23 inch HD 1080p monitor. And both packages included an inexpensive HP desk jet printer, scanner, copier.

The sales clerk had been talking to a lady who was looking for a desk top for under $200. Best Buy didn’t have one that fit the bill. When she finished with that customer, she came over to me to see if I needed any assistance. Pointing, I told her I want that computer and I want one of these computers. In short time I was headed out to the car with two carts holding two computers, two printers, and two monitors.

When I got home, I realized it would be quite a task to transfer files from one computer to another. So I purchased a small external hard drive that copied off all my files in about an hour. At least it transferred all the documents and photos. Goodness I have several hundred hours of music downloaded to the computer, and I guess I’ll just have to put it all back on the new computer as I get the time. Lollie has had an external hard drive for about a year that backs up everything on her computer each day. So I put her new machine in service while backing up my old files.

When I finally got around to installing my computer, I came across the realization that my old HP Laserjet 4P printer will not connect to the new fangled computer. So I am glad to have one of those inexpensive printers for the time being.

I did hook my computer up using the wireless feature. It’s working just fine. I have watched a couple of television shows through the set up and it hasn’t skipped a beat.

She’s happy and I’m happy. Once again we can sit at our adjoining desks and send each other emails while grinning and winking at the other. And in spite of being couple of older folks, we are managing to stay current with computer technology.

Humph, I remember when I purchased an IBM Selectric Typewriter that replaced the old manual typewriter I had been using for years. Times do change and progress continues.