As I'm writing, I'm looking at a brand-spanking-new 20" monitor on our old computer. It's rather amazing the difference it makes. We had one of those original, enormous monitors, and it was flickering dangerously on us. The color would come and go, and it made the whole system seem ridiculously touch-and-go.
As I was at Staples perusing laptops yet again yesterday, the monitors caught my eye. I had lots of questions. Would the monitor be compatible with our old, old computer? How old? I don't know, really old! Would it fit our space, width-wise? Maybe I'll go home and measure...nah, I'll risk it. Which one should I choose? The salesman confided that some of the generic brands seem to have much better resolution that the name brands, and he recommended the least expensive one. Speaking of money, is now the wisest time to spend this money? Never mind...
Anyhow, I picked it up and bought it, sans even speaking with Michael about it. At home, I took the unprecedented step of trying to set it up myself. Granted, Michael had the old monitor hooked up, so I carefully followed cords to see where they led, and I just imitated the existing hook-ups. I was amazed that it worked! I actually hooked it up myself! Okay, so not much more difficult than plugging in a toaster, I guess, but I was probably excited the first time I plugged in an appliance and used it, too.
Oh, but this is great. The monitor is so crystal clear, bright, and smart! It restructures the screen so that, somehow, instead of having the oh-so-tiniest-of-tiny box to type in on hotmail, I now have an absolutely huge screen that I can see. I had wondered about Hotmail and how they thought they could keep going as they shrunk our writing window smaller and smaller, but I suppose other folks had not-such-antiquated hardware!
Weren't these flat screen, liquid crystal display monitors ungodly expensive many years ago? I remember wanting one and thinking it a huge luxury, but this was only $119 plus tax, not even on sale. Energy-star and eco-friendly supposedly, too, though I actually didn't notice that until I got home!
As I was at Staples perusing laptops yet again yesterday, the monitors caught my eye. I had lots of questions. Would the monitor be compatible with our old, old computer? How old? I don't know, really old! Would it fit our space, width-wise? Maybe I'll go home and measure...nah, I'll risk it. Which one should I choose? The salesman confided that some of the generic brands seem to have much better resolution that the name brands, and he recommended the least expensive one. Speaking of money, is now the wisest time to spend this money? Never mind...
Anyhow, I picked it up and bought it, sans even speaking with Michael about it. At home, I took the unprecedented step of trying to set it up myself. Granted, Michael had the old monitor hooked up, so I carefully followed cords to see where they led, and I just imitated the existing hook-ups. I was amazed that it worked! I actually hooked it up myself! Okay, so not much more difficult than plugging in a toaster, I guess, but I was probably excited the first time I plugged in an appliance and used it, too.
Oh, but this is great. The monitor is so crystal clear, bright, and smart! It restructures the screen so that, somehow, instead of having the oh-so-tiniest-of-tiny box to type in on hotmail, I now have an absolutely huge screen that I can see. I had wondered about Hotmail and how they thought they could keep going as they shrunk our writing window smaller and smaller, but I suppose other folks had not-such-antiquated hardware!
Weren't these flat screen, liquid crystal display monitors ungodly expensive many years ago? I remember wanting one and thinking it a huge luxury, but this was only $119 plus tax, not even on sale. Energy-star and eco-friendly supposedly, too, though I actually didn't notice that until I got home!
Amazing how it feels like we have a whole, brand new system in a way. Of course, we still can't run some of the newer software on this old baby, but what we can do looks real nice!
Alex is even more excited than me, maybe. He pulled out his Age of Mythology CD-ROM game and was in heaven--and before Michael even got home from work. Generally, all this sort of thing stays in the box until Michael can take care of it. Not that he was left in the cold, uh-uh. We thoughtfully identified a printer issue for him to fix. Wouldn't want him to feel not needed :).
Alex is even more excited than me, maybe. He pulled out his Age of Mythology CD-ROM game and was in heaven--and before Michael even got home from work. Generally, all this sort of thing stays in the box until Michael can take care of it. Not that he was left in the cold, uh-uh. We thoughtfully identified a printer issue for him to fix. Wouldn't want him to feel not needed :).
No comments:
Post a Comment