The Great Crash of November ’07 is where we had two computers die within a few days of each other. First, the laptop stopped working and a couple of nights later, the power supply in my old desktop computer went out. This made me wonder what could be next. My question was answered the night before last when the big 36″ TV croaked with a loud snap and burnt smell right after. I’m not asking about anything else for fear of another self-fulfilling prophecy.
The hard drive in the old laptop started making noises like somebody doing something bad to a cat. It completely died shortly thereafter. I’m going to try and see if there is a way to recover the data from it, but if not, then it’s not going to be a big deal. Last year, I started backing up all our photos and other files to one of those monster external hard drives. We might lose some data, but at least it’s minimized.
The old Dell desktop didn’t lose any data – it just stopped working. I removed the hard disk from it and installed it into another desktop that we use upstairs. The upstairs computer is now downstairs to fill the gap caused by the failure. All of my old files are there although there are some problems activating some of the software I use. Also no biggie.
Moving the computer downstairs was the only the start of our recovery. The next step is shown in the image (click for a large view). The new Dell 1721 Notebook arrived yesterday as an early Christmas Present.
Now to figure out which flat-screen HDTV is going to replace the old smelly CRT-type TV.
GOLDEN BEACON: The sun was setting in Toronto last week when, suddenly, a golden beacon leaped up from the horizon. “It lasted a good 15 minutes,” reports Damir who took this picture:
Man, did we have a nice weekend. During Friday’s rain, we got all of our grocery and computer shopping done. 
