The Continuing Adventures of Jud

Last evening as I innocently prepared a reply to a list post, suddenly my cursor froze and the screen pixels fizzeled and faded away- yes, my Toshiba Satillite 5105, listing at $2400, had once again failed without warning.

A friend wrote today: "Ughh. That sucks. Glad you are back up and running. Don't you hate that something that has become so important to so many people is so fickle? I used my washer/dryer for over 16 years with only 1 repair in that time. Why can't we use a computer for for even 1 year without a major issue??? Frustrating..."

Personally, I have two Sony color TV's that I have used for over twenty years and both were used in environments that would challenge most anything- complete home renovation while living in it.

My TOSHIBA SATILLITE 5105, in the four years that I have had it, has gone through 3 hard drives and two Vid card failures- manufacturing defects that didn't show up until after even the extended warranty that some people bought, expired. By the time mine went, Toshiba had realized that they were facing another potential class action suit like one they had just lost over another defective laptop, and did fix mine, but apparently simply replaced the card with another defective card. (The Geek boards give all the gory details.) During that episode, I went over 5 weeks without a puter.

So this time, I just went to Wal-Mart, bought an Acer laptop, with all the bells and whistles- including Windows Vista Home Premium- for $698.

Is there any other item that one would buy- at such prices- that one would accept such lack of dependability in, or irresponsibility from the maker? I think not.

Well, maybe the other addicts would...