Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Lenovo Comes Through

The new laptop has arrived safely and the interminable process of setup has begun.
First, I should say I was impressed with the speed of delivery. I made my order by phone last Monday since the web order wasn't going through properly, and the person who handled the order impressed me as competent and thorough, but he was cautious about predicting a delivery date. I was delighted when the computer shipped within the week rather than two-three weeks hence, and when I saw that it was shipping from China, I was skeptical that it would show up all that rapidly. But it reached my building yesterday and was in my hands this morning.
I hadn't quite expected it to be so small--I knew the Lenovo X61t was lightweight, but I hadn't been paying attention to the screen dimensions other than to be sure I wasn't ordering a widescreen laptop. It is definitely smaller than I had in mind, and this will take some getting used to. On the other hand, the lighter weight is delightful and, like all the reviewers, I had the immediate sensation that it was sturdily built.
Alas, getting a new computer isn't really any fun anymore because it is so time-consuming to get them usable. My plan was to load pretty much only the software I needed for academic purposes, and deal with the rest when I had a little time. Of course, this goal proved unrealistic. First, I had to situate myself at a cafe with wifi so that everything could access the internet (I was not about to try to get my Verizon DSL to work on yet another laptop after the trouble it caused on the last one--reinstalling Windows is not my idea of fun). But, stupidly, I didn't bring anything else to do, because somehow I always forget just how many hours it takes to install a relatively small number of programs, and how much staring into space occurs while this is happening.
Let's just say that attempts to install Acrobat and Photoshop, which must be two of the slowest-installing programs in the history of the universe, caused two of the dreaded Blue Screens of Death and I still haven't persuaded the laptop to eject the second CD because it is convinced, despite several reboots, that something is using it.
Ah well. Office 2007 installed slowly but without a hitch, Lingea Lexicon caused no trouble whatsoever (and I do use it all the time since I don't care to lug around a big Czech dictionary), and, frivolously, I did get iTunes installed although it has no relationship with my work unless we count its ability to play all those Voskovec and Werich songs.
But I regret to say that since Sunday I have been suffering from what Kristen might call a "malaise," although it is more tolerable than the one that has bothered her. Tolerable or not, I really don't care to be plagued with disagreeable joint and muscle aches, or to feel as though I have been stretched beyond endurance and ought to be lying in bed reading a diverting novel. After all, I have a journal article to revise by the end of the month.

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home