Bad Tech Karma

In the midst of my post-vacation blues (with more than the usual share of crazy work-related client problems), I've also had to deal with a dose of what I refer to as bad tech karma.

I've been having problems with my Verizon service (phone/fax/DSL) for some time now. There's been a problem with intermittent static on the line for quite a while, which has not been fixed by the assortment of repair people who have supposedly looked at the line. When we got back from vacation, the DSL line was pretty much out of service continually, but the service people insisted there was nothing wrong with the line. Nothing, other than it didn't work.

My Dell POG (Piece of Garbage -- a/k/a XPS 1210) is not-so-slowly dying on me. Less than 1 year ago, before the warranty ran out, I had to get a new battery and keyboard, because both stopped working. Since then, I've had to reformat the hard drive because it keep crashing. And, less than 1 year later, the battery has died again and the keyboard is acting up again.

And now, my wireless extender has died. I live in a big, old stone house in Mount Airy that requires an extender to expand the reach of my wireless, even into the kitchen and sunroom, never mind the back porch. I don't have to worry about anyone tapping into my network!

Then there are the appliance problems I mentioned earlier. On top of all this stuff, we've also been having phone problems at the office.

Definitely bad tech karma.

So I eventually broke down & switched over to Comcast, getting the phone, broadband package. Good-bye & good riddance to Verizon (although I did keep one of the lines, so I would have a fax line). While I was at it, I added the Comcast TiVo feature, so I could record the few programs that I do watch.

And I ordered a new laptop. I went with the Lenovo ThinkPad X300, the PC version of the Macbook Air. Although I didn't like the (ouch) price, I love the other features, especially the 13-inch widescreen on a 3-pound ultraportable (an inch bigger screen & 2 lbs less than what I have now). And, of course, because of my bad tech karma, the server at Lenovo was acting funky, so I couldn't place the order & had to end up doing it by phone.

I'm sure glad this week is over!