Computer Woes

Over the last several weeks I have encountered several computer problems. I usually lag behind the general public a good 5-10 years when it comes to computer equipment. My computers are not quite as old as the PET computer to the right, but they are not far behind.

Challenge #1-The power cord to my laptop developed a severe short and I am now required to to hold the cord firmly in the port with my right hand in order to provide power to the computer. As a result I am often forced to type with just my left hand. This is not a recipe for fast typing. I recently went to Radio Shack for a replacement and they didn't have a compatible adapter, but they did show me a $100 universal charger/adapter that would work with anything. Maybe I'm too cheap, stubborn, or stupid, but I'm not willing to pay $100 to fix the short.

Challenge# 2-With the laptop now threatening to power down at any moment I have been relying on our regular PC but my wife just bought an ergonomic keyboard for it last week. And by ergonomic I mean you might as well rearrange all the keys on the keyboard. I've seem ergonomic before but this is extreme. It feels like someone randomly glued Legos all over the keyboard. I am still faster with one hand on the laptop. At least if I get carpal tunnel syndrome it will only be in one hand.

Challenge #3- My wife has been working on medical transcription work and also installed some shortcut software on the computer. Now when I type certain keys, unwanted medical words automatically pop up. Typing M will bring up medial, D brings up distal, etc. I actually end up using the back space key more than any other keys on that computer.

Challenge #4- My computer also recently got some kind of virus that pops up an error message every 15 seconds but you can't delete the messages so you just have to drag it down out of sight towards the bottom of the screen. I loved those. I think there are about 50 of them just sitting down there.

If you enjoy the victim mentality than you probably pity my poor computer equipment and skills. If you are a problem solver you are probably disgusted that I have not corrected such simple problems by now. Either way I just want you to know of the adversity I deal with each time I submit a post. Apparently there are some forces at work that don't want me to blog.