Friday, January 12, 2007

A Happy Laptop

Even smart women make foolish choices.

When I bought my current laptop a couple of years ago, I didn't max out the memory, even though my other laptop was running very slowly. I think I was trying to save some money. That was my first mistake. My second one was more recent; I added bloatware (otherwise known as the latest version of Norton Antivirus) to my system. The drag on my memory immediately became apparent. I'd have to wait to switch between programs, and there'd be a lengthy gap between songs when I played music on my computer. I double-checked the specs and found I could quadruple my current memory, so I bit the bullet and ordered more memory from Dell. It came today, sooner than I expected. I installed the modules as soon as I came home from work.

What a difference! Word opens up so much faster; even a 600-page document like Lennon's Line pops open quickly. Music plays constantly without the band members taking a break after every song. Best of all, I don't have to wait when I switch between programs before I'm able to use them, and when I'm done playing a game, I can close the window just by clicking the red "X" once instead of twice. Even typing seems to be smoother; before when I'd blog or write, the cursor would abruptly jump to another part of the screen. So far, that hasn't happened.

There are still a few quirks I'd like to fix about this laptop, but it's much more usable now. I should be able to keep using it for another couple of years before it's time to replace it. Hopefully then I'll be smarter about the memory.

OK, now let's see if the memory upgrade helps the muse....

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