I had hoped to save/repair the laptop since a new one wasn't in the budget. After explaining the problem to my computer Guru's, they finally convinced me there is no recovering from "The Black Screen of Death" on an over-dated, outdated eight year old laptop. So I took another look at the budget, re-worked some figures and headed to Best Buy. After I selected my new laptop and gear I took it to the Customer Service/Geek Squad counter to have it set up and activated. Oh boy. Three stools at the counter, all occupied with butt-cracks. Seriously, three heavy men, two in jeans and one in elastic waisted something were all seated and leaning way over the counter, pants too low, shirts too high, derrieres exposed, while they interacted with the Techies. It was too much for me, I had to look away.
Finally my turn, the Geeks worked their magic and Shaboom, I had a new laptop! The Geek helping me was new and very enthusiastic. While we were waiting on a program to download, he pointed out and explained all the little blinking lights on
this particular unit, called it the Indicator Strip. "This flashing light means the power is ON. This one means you are connected to the Internet, and this one means the unit is thinking/processing information." This thought occurred to me so I said it out loud, "How many relationships could have been saved if the partners had a row of flashing lights across their foreheads?" The young Geek just looked at me, oops, I noticed he was wearing a wedding ring. Before he could come up with a response, I said, "No seriously, think about it. What if you needed to talk to your partner about something. You could see immediately if they were 'ON' and 'CONNECTED' and better yet, how many husbands could have been spared if only their 'I'M THINKING/PROCESSING' light was blinking?" He laughed at that point and indicated it would have been helpful for he and his wife the previous night. So, there you go. The marriage ceremony should have the application of Indicator Strips as well as the offering of the rings.
Technology overload, that's been where I've been for the last almost two weeks. Still having some trouble figuring out my new voice-mail function but other than that this new little phone is awesome. The laptop is not quite what I would have chosen if I didn't have a budget to consider but it's basic and I can write on it, that's about it. For what I need right now that's good enough.