View From the Bushes

Lots of stuff going on: the CIO came by and told me to take down the "Wall of Dilbert." Apparently, someone had complained about it... Still, it lasted longer than I thought it would. The parts for my new computer arrived yesterday. Looking back over my blog I don't think I've mentioned my new computer yet. There's actually a funny story about how I ended up getting a new computer. My wife compares it to Monty Python's famous Spanish Inquisition Sketch. I'll explain...

My wife came to me and said that depending on the size of the tax refund she wanted to get new floor in the kitchen and dining room. I said sure, but I wanted a new video card (~$200). We agreed and that was the deal for a month or so, then while on the way to California our account called and told us what the refund was going to be: it was a lot more than we expected (I try not to give the government an interest-free loan, but I'm already claiming 9 deductions and the lady in payroll acted like she was going to turn me in when I suggested more...) So with that information, I suggested that the computer could use some memory as well and I quoted her a price of $350 or so.

Well, then I started pricing out and comparing video cards and I realized that the new PCI express cards are much cheaper than a comparable AGP card, but of course my old mother board doesn't have PCI express, so with a great deal of tact I explained the advantages of upgrading to the new technology to my wife and told her I wanted to add a mother board and processor ($750). Once again, she agreed. Well then, the next day, my friend, who's helping me put the computer together asked me how many IDE devices I had, and I told him four: two hard drives and two optical drives. He mentioned that the new mother board would only support 2, so I would have to get rid of two. Well, I was worried about my old hard-drives anyway, and they have the new SATA hard drives so I started looking at that, at which point I realized all I was using from the old computer was the case... So I went back to my wife and said "Okay, how about we just get a whole new computer?($1000)" That's when she came up with the "Spanish Inquisition" analogy...

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross