It's tech support time.
Every few years, i wind up buying my inlaws a computer. For the past 20 or so years, i also bought their dial-up. There are a few reasons i did this (one of the bigger ones was so that when i visit, i'm able to connect up and escape.) Still, after all this time, i figured it's about time to upgrade them to something more modern.
Something with USB and a network adapter, for instance.
Sadly (or happily depending on whether or not i'm looking at the bill), they're going to have to buy their own broadband since i can't gift them any. (Dear cable/phone companies. Seriously? i can't give you money? Really? That's so bizarre, because, you know, normally… ) Fortunately, minimal broadband is cheap enough in their area that i'm not particularly worried about it. They're not going to be streaming 1080p via their connection, but hell, neither am i.
While i'm there i plan on getting them a new laptop system to replace the fossil they're currently using, a USB enclosure for the old drive, and a wireless router. (Why wireless? Because i'm still going to be using it dammit, and i'll be sneaking peaks at my email while my mother in law talks about Susan Luppiccio's hip replacement.) The odd thing is that i realized that i shouldn't need my Emergency Relative CD bulk load anymore. Provided i secure the network first, isolate the old drive to prevent infection during data transfer, and do the required strip and burn of everything off of the new machine, i should be good to go. Heck, i've got a 2GB SD card (several in fact) i can put in read only and pull virus and spyware installs off of. i still plan on installing stuff like Firefox 3.5, OpenOffice, and any number of other things, but all of which are available on line.
T'is a brave new world.
And it moves much faster than before.
(thank Baud)
