I am typing this from Tuscaloosa’s Starbucks, on my laptop, courtesy a new hard drive, Ubuntu, and a very technologically savvy, patient, and persistent husband. It’s been a frustrating experience but has taught me a few things.
1) Smart phones are great, but relying on one as the sole source of internet sucks.
2) When relying on a smart phone for internet, you burn through your “complimentary data” really damn fast. I love you, T-Mobile, but you suck.
3) Typing on a screen for more than the occasional text message or email sucks. I always suspected this, which is why I maintain that a laptop will always be superior to a tablet when any amount of typing is required (sure, you can get a keyboard for a tablet, but that strikes me as unnecessarily fiddly).
4) As a continuation of 2), it is possible to get a repetitive stress injury in the index finger of your right hand. This sucks.
5) Using Linux as an OS is free monetarily, but boy do you pay for it in time. My husband Pete spent a truly silly amount of time installing Ubuntu, then trying to get it to play nice with my WiFi, then installing a series of updates to get the internet working at an acceptable speed. It works great now, but that whole process sucks.
6) Programs like AIM and Amazon Cloud Music Player are made for Windows or Mac, and now I have neither. There are work arounds out there, really ingenious ones, but finding them, installing them, getting them to play ball with what you need? Yep, you guessed it: it sucks.
So yes, basically the whole process has been a pile of suck, BUT! My computer is up and running and I can get back to work, which is wonderful, and what ultimately counts. Now I need to think of something really, really nice to do for my husband in gratitude for him wading through that pile of suck.
Various and Sundry 