My trusty old Sony  PCV-1154 has been on it's deathbed for a while: getting slower and slower, jamming, sometimes starting with out the mouse or keyboard working – requiring a re-start or a re-restart – sometimes going into hibernation without warning, or, just, jamming.  In shopping for a new computer, I am struck by two things. How quickly everything changes and how unsatisfactory just upgrading something like a computer is.

When I bought the Sony, it was state of the art. It was so state of the art and so powerful that it had to have a glycol cooling system. Now it is hopelessly out of date with inadequate storage and almost no memory (2 GB after three upgrades); our cheap diningroom table, "why don't you look it up", laptop is more powerful. It is hard to find a desktop, now. Most computers are laptops or copies of Apple's all in one screen-only idea.

And, I really lust after a MacBook Air but it is not powerful enough to be my only computer and way too expensive to be a "use only on trip" toy. I lust after a MacBook Pro but the screen is too small and it is even more expensive than a MacBook Air. All I need is a desktop – and why do they call it a desktop when people put them under the desk, anyway? – and a HP PC desktop with a fast processor, 8 gigs of memory, and a terra bite of storage is only $700.

It is not a very satisfactory transaction, however. $700 lighter and two days of Windows Easy Transfer later, it feels like I am back where I started.  If I had spent the $700 on art or – say – twenty coffee table books, I could see the great improvement of my life. True, it is better than buying a new camera in which – after unwrapping everything and taking several pictures of nothing in particular – seems like money just pissed away until the next vacation. But still…..

There is some upside, I have to admit. The Windows Easy Transfer was*; Windows 7 is much better than my old Windows XP; and I am now processing pictures at 64 something which makes for clearer more vibrant pictures with no bad breath. See

*easy, that is.