#i will be sending my laptop for repairs and it's my cat's b-day

[darehearts]

hewwo,  good morning beloveds  ! 💛

[ms-demeanor]

You know what’s funny is whenever I make a tech post I get people going “this is blatantly untrue” and I get people going “this is really good information and everyone needs to know it” and the dividing line is how much time you spend with people who are tech literate.

Yep, I would tell my computer savvy friends where they could get keycaps and fix their keyboards; I don’t even have to bother telling my computer savvy friends how to run a fifteen year old laptop because we’re all pretty good at it.

But GODDAMN I just read a response to my “cheap computer season” post that claimed that it was totally reasonable to run a macbook from 2010 and

Look.

That’s not a reasonable thing to tell a student who needs a functional computer to do research and write papers. (have fun trying to find installation discs from when the OS was still named after cats and have fun trying to get a browser to get along with that OS)

You know why most people bring me laptops with missing keys? Because the key got ripped off by their two-year-old and damaged the soldering in the keyboard and I have no idea it’s going to be “oh, yeah, that’s a ten dollar fix” or “sorry, that’s going to be an hour and a half to disassemble and reassemble and we’ll have to order you a new keyboard specific to that model out of new old stock” and the thing is the second one is much, much, much more common in my experience than the first.

Do I think you need to replace a laptop when the bezel is cracked? No. I also don’t carry my laptop powered on in the bag with a flashdrive sticking out of the USB port. Customers do weird things that I don’t understand and when a customer tells me they want me to fix the bezel they think it’s a twenty-dollar snap-on repair because they have no idea how this works and then they get mad at me when I explain “no, you’ve gotta have this specific piece of plastic, these haven’t been made in five years, and you might be better off buying a used model online than trying to track down a new bezel.”

So here’s the thing: Can Macs get viruses?

There are three answers here.

“No, of course not, Macs are made to be virus-proof”

“Macs need antivirus protection because, while it is less common than infections for PCs, there are types of malware that can infect macs and it’s worthwhile to guard against that”

“tEcHnIcAlLy a virus has to be self-replicating and IOS’s file management system [or some other bullshit] prevents that so TECHNICALLY Macs can’t get viruses and what you need is anti-malware software if you need anything because you’re fairly likely to have security through obscurity”

I’m aware of the third position and voicing the second position to people who believe the first position.

YES TECHNICALLY YOU CAN KEEP A COMPUTER RUNNING INDEFINITELY AND YES IT’S TOTALLY POSSIBLE YOUR LAPTOP WILL LAST TEN YEARS.

“Well if you treat it right and run it well it’ll be in great shape for a long time”

YES THAT IS CORRECT DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY PEOPLE WHO DON’T WORK ON THEIR OWN CARS DRIVE AROUND WITH THE OIL CHANGE LIGHT ON FOR MONTHS?!?

Tons of people in the world today use computers. They use computers every day, they use computers at home and at school and at work.

Tons of people drive every day. They use cars for fun and for commuting and for their jobs.

That doesn’t mean that all (or even most, or even half) of the people using these things is any good at keeping them running, or even has the barest idea of how to start tracking down a problem.

Someone in the notes of that post described a green line on their screen and thought that was a symptom of hard drive problems. I don’t have the hours in the day to catch this person up to speed on why a display issue on a laptop isn’t indicative of hard drive issues.

Do you know how much people think it’s going to cost to get data off of a broken drive? Not “won’t power up” not “won’t spin” but “I dropped this and part fell off and now it won’t power up or spin and also the platter is chipped”? I’m going to have to send that shit to a clean room and the customer is *staggered* that it might cost more than a hundred dollars to get their data. “Outrageous, what kind of blackmail operation are you trying to run here, just plug it in and get my pictures.”

A year or so ago I was at Jiffy Lube (ew). I’d been shooting the shit with the mechanic when a parent and child rolled in in a panic. And they should have been panicking! They’d thrown a fucking rod because they’d been driving with no oil in the car for god knows how long because neither of them had had the oil changed in the two years they’d owned the vehicle.

*I* can keep a 30-year-old car running. I can put a belt back on an engine in a dark parking lot with a wrench and a headlamp. I can drop a gas tank and replace my fuel filter and thumb my nose at the mechanics who tried to upsell me on “replacing your old, worn-out air filter” the day after I’d popped a new one into my truck.

These folks couldn’t keep a new car running with three alarms telling them what was wrong.

*I* can power up my 2005 macbook running Leopard and use garage band to record a song or do some design work on my copy of Adobe CS3; I can kludge its FF3.5 browser into playing nice with the internet and accept that it’s going to be a slow piece of shit.

The lady who called me confused by the fact that the password to her email was different than the login information for her grocery store rewards account will not be able to function if she gets a pop-up that says she’s using an outdated browser and will think it’s a virus if her bank won’t let her log in on that browser.

And you know what, I’m kind of sick of this attitude.

I would *fucking adore it* if computers were actually easy to repair; I’d love it if you could run new OSs on old hardware (especially on macs because I think apple are kind of shitheads about planned obsolescence).

But you know what, no, most people *CAN’T* reasonably expect to use a ten-year-old computer and have pleasant experience of it. It’s going to run slow. It’s going to shut down when they don’t want it to. The battery is going to swell slightly with the heat and your touchpad is going to go nuts. Your USB ports will stop working. Standard wear and tear that most people don’t know how to protect against and don’t know how to repair is going to make it harder to use AND software requirements will outstrip the hardware capabilities of the computer.

If your old computer sucks it’s not your fault. If you can’t happily use a 10-year-old laptop to do your homework that’s okay, it wasn’t designed for you to use it that way and YOU SHOULDN’T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT.

Because that’s kind of what a lot of these “well anybody should realistically be able to run a laptop from 2010″ responses comes down to: if you need new hardware you’re just not doing it right. If you have to replace your computer you didn’t make good choices when you bought it. If your battery dies it’s because you didn’t take care of it.

No. No. No. No.

This shit is A) designed to fail and B) actually really hard to keep running (hey how many blown capacitors do you think someone has to have on their motherboard before you say it’s not their fault for wanting to replace the laptop)

ALSO SOMEONE IN THE RESPONSES OF THAT POST LITERALLY SAID THAT IF YOUR BATTERY DIED AT THREE YEARS IT WAS BECAUSE YOU WEREN’T DOING THE DRAIN CHARGE CYCLE RIGHT AND FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU. It’s discharge cycles and heat, motherfucker; they are going to fail at some point and people shouldn’t feel bad if their batteries stop working after a couple years.

UGH.

You shouldn’t have to be a mechanic. You shouldn’t have to be a computer technician. Yeah, your shit will last longer if you know how to take care of it but, fuck. Imagine you were still using internet speeds from 2010. Imagine all your devices still had USB 2.0. Imagine you couldn’t log onto your online bank because your hardware won’t run he software that your bank recognizes because the hardware manufacturer decided it won’t support the older hardware.

What I was trying to get across in that initial post was “computers fail, and they fail pretty frequently; your life will be better and you will save money if you plan on replacing them at a regular interval and have reasonable expectations in terms of cost and failure. So buy a cheap computer now because you’re probably going to need one at some point”

And now I’ve got to Do A Yell about how there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism and it’s unreasonable to expect tired, overworked, broke people to become experts in computer repair in order to do their homework or play the goose game.

FUCK THAT.

IT’S CHEAP COMPUTER SEASON MOTHERFUCKERS. LAPTOP FAILURE RATES INCREASE AT THREE TO FIVE YEARS AND DESKTOP FAILURE RATES INCREASE AT FIVE TO SEVEN YEARS. RIGHT NOW THERE ARE DISCOUNTS ON NEW COMPUTERS AND IT’S CHEAP TO GET AN EXTENDED WARRANTY.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER AND WORK ON COMPUTERS IF YOU WANNA AND PLAN TO REPLACE REGULARLY IF YOU DON’T WANT TO WORK ON COMPUTERS.

ALSO CHANGE YOUR FUCKING OIL YOU’RE PROBABLY DUE.

[promptandstuff]

Long distance relationship prompts

Caring

"I ordered you pizza. It should be there in 15 minutes."

"How was your day, baby? I hoped the neighbor cat didn't follow you again."

"My laptop is repaired. We can watch a movie and Skype over my phone."

" I love how you call me just to fall asleep." (teasingly)

" maybe you shouldn't eat so much fast food anymore, cook something healthy. Next time we see each other I want you to cook for me."

A always calling B on their way home and ranting about their day.

B calling the neighbors and asking them to go over, to make sure A is not alone.

Constantly living on a budget so they can see each other once a month.

Always trying to make as much activities as possible when they are together.

A making a photo album of their relationship so they don't feel alone.

Angsty

"You didn't told me about her. Is she nice? I bet she is, otherwise you wouldn't invite her."

"Sorry, I don't wanna talk right now, I'm pretty tired. Goodnight."

"He didn't start anything. In fact I kissed him."

"I don't know if I can take it anymore. I'm feeling lonely eventhough we're in a relationship."

"I didn't told you to stay because I wanted you to be happy with your dream job. But now I wish I were more selfish. "

A being injured in the hospital alone while trying to call B.

B developing feelings for their neighbor and don't know how to tell A.

A going out with some friends and realizing that the relationship doesn't work for them.

Bs love language is physical touch and they get cozy with a stranger on a party. A sees the photo the next day online.

Stalking each other social media when they feel lonely.

Angry

"I had a 4-hours car trip to see you and you're kissing your Coworker?!"

"Please don't ever call me again and don't send me any letters or postcards. Just forget me, you bastard."

"Where were you? I called like 20 times?!"

"I don't have any time for that. When you want to go around and fuck strangers, fine but I'm gone."

"You have changed and I don't like the new you anymore."

Fighting over the phone because of a picture online.

Overcrossing boundaries

A don't want to drive to B and lies about a family event. B finds out.

B deciding to spend more time at their location instead of moving back home like planned.

A cheat on B and want to hide it. A ISN'T successful.

[viostormcaller]

Okay so I'm gonna go on a little bit of a rant here. It literally doesnt mean anything, it's not serious by any means and is extremely superficial. It's just a few issues my mom and I have both been having and I just wanna get it off my chest because it's been really nagging at me.

So, about a year ago, mom and I both invested in new laptops from Lenovo. At first, we both really liked them, considering what we paid for them (and considering how long it took to wait for mine, almost forgot about that part). But now... kinda wanting an upgrade even though it's only a year old (not that I can afford one, of course, and I'm not about to ask). Course, it still works (not well, sadly, but it does), and so does my mom's, but I've heard her say on more than one occasion that she absolutely hates her laptop.

I think the main reason I'm so disappointed is because of the battery life. Now, it's a laptop, I shouldn't expect much, but to put it into perspective, a few years back I was using a dinosaur of a Toshiba laptop, which was already years old by the time I got my hands on it. This thing had like no battery life. Lasted 3 hours (if even that, I think after a while it lasted 1 hour) off charger. When I was looking for a new laptop after that one completely broke, I was looking for something with longer battery so I didn't have to wear down the battery life by keeping it on the charger 24/7. So when I got this new laptop (it's the Legion Y520 btw) and saw the battery life was the exact same that I had been dealing with, I was really disheartened. But I wasn't about to complain because, of course, mom was paying monthly for this thing and it was pricey (she just finished back in december), so I was very grateful to have something that runs games well (and actually runs Subnautica without many issues) and I can watch videos in the highest quality settings (which I was super impressed with. Even now I'm still impressed with that fact).

Now, though, mom and I are having deal-breaker issues. One problem on my end that absolutely does not have a fix, is the fact that when I close the lid of the laptop, it acts as if it's still open. So if I minimize chrome, shut the lid, and leave the room (or even, if I go to bed), sometimes I'll hear noise coming from it. When I open it up, it turns out that chrome had re-opened and was playing a video somehow (and you can imagine my absolute fucking confusion when I walk in the room or wake up to hear Jack or Mark screaming). This happens every few days and I don't know if I should blame the cats (who like to run on my computer often), but even so, if the lid is closed that should not happen! It should be in sleep mode. And, I've noticed that the keyboard lights dont always shut off when I shut the lid, so the computer acts as if it's still on even though the screen is black.

Another huge issue: sometimes it won't allow me to start the computer at all. Either it does one or two things. It A) stays on a black screen with the keys all lit (meaning it's on but nothing's happening), or B) it'll stay on the lock screen page frozen so I cant click anything or enter in my pin to get into the computer, meaning I have to manually shut it off and turn it back on using the power button (which scares me because I dont want this computer to blue-screen-of-death on me because I have to do that almost every day). Then, once I do that, the backlight on the keyboard flickers for a few seconds before the computer turns on. Most of the time, though, starting up the computer from sleep mode after I had just been using it takes an unnecessarily long time, and it's super frustrating if there's something immediate I'm trying to do (like catching an upload from Jack). And I'm not gonna get into the issues with the keyboard and touchpad, because almost every review I've seen says the same thing: poorly designed, not very responsive to touch, yadda yadda yadda.

With mom's computer, I've watched it, while she was in the middle of using it, completely shut off on her. The screen went black and she could not turn it back on, even when pressing the power button. It was on the charger, so it didn't die. It just shut off. Also, her computer runs chrome very poorly for whatever reason, almost as if it's incompatible, so she can't even use that browser on her computer because it gives her too many issues. On top of that, she can't watch videos because it buffers and freezes way too much (which sucks because she bought the computer in part to watch videos on), and even when she's just using it normally it glitches out and freezes and she can't do anything on it at all, meaning she has to rely on her phone for a lot of things. She's also in college, like I am, so this isnt ideal if she wants to get things done. Plus, I've noticed her touchpad is way too sensitive, to the point where I can't use it to scroll up or down at all. Idk how to fix that though, didnt see any options for it but maybe I'll take another look and see if I really can't help her.

I can't afford to send mine in; not because of the price (if there even is a fee for sending it in for repairs, idk if mom bought mine with warranty), but because it's my first week in school and I cant take the risk of sending mine in and not having it for about three weeks since I don't have any other way of doing my school work. I dont wanna fail or get dropped from my class. Plus I've read that their customer service is outsourced in India, so I don't know if that's where my computer will get shipped to, but if I have to be without it for too long then it isn't worth trying to get them to fix it. I've also heard bad things about their customer service (and actually recall having a bad experience with them when I was trying to get my computer in the first place. Don't remember them being particularly helpful).

I know I can't afford a new gaming computer right now, so I probably wont be in the market for one for at least a few years (or whenever this thing eventually breaks), but I'm so afraid that my laptop will break before then. I can't afford to lose it but it feels like, with every forced restart, I'm getting closer to having it fall apart. I desperately need a computer on hand for school, now more than ever. It is great for gaming, but right now I'm mostly using it for school, and my computer absolutely needs to be powerful enough to run the Adobe software and other game design programs when I get to those classes in school (this is exactly what my advisor told me, too, so I'm a little bit nervous about this). I'm hoping it holds up until then, but as of right now, I'm extremely worried for it. The fact that my mom is also having issues with her laptop gives me some comfort, at least. I'm not alone, so I feel alright complaining about it (if I was alone in this I wouldnt say anything. Gotta be grateful for what I have, considering I could be much worse off). At least one thing's for sure: neither of us are purchasing anything else from Lenovo when we need to get new computers (and I believe my mom's replacing hers sooner rather than later, considering it barely works properly).

TDLR; both mine and my mom's computers are having major issues, I can't risk sending mine in to get it fixed, there are no fixes for mine that I could try that worked, and I'm extremely worried it'll break sooner rather than later because of constant forced restarting.