I (Heart) Technology!

I probably shouldn't write this because it's somewhat premature. Lotsa things could, and may, go wrong before all is said and done. But I've always been one to tempt fate.

My laptop is dying. I know this. I had the motherboard replaced a year ago. The touchpad quit working last week. The box won't boot if there's a CD or DVD in the CD drive. Bad signs, all. So, I took the plunge and ordered a new box. My laptop was new back in June of 2002; the industry standard is to replace a computer every three years. I'm overdue.

I did my homework...research on C-Net and PC Mag's web sites, plus various other places. Thought about it for a bit (more like a week), then made my decision. I decided to buy my fifth Gateway box.

I ordered the new box from Gateway this past Monday evening, by phone. I got off the phone after placing my order with an incredibly competent CSR at 8:30 p.m. I received my order confirmation via e-mail at 9:45 p.m. On Tuesday at 8:09 p.m. I received a shipping notice (e-mail) for the monitor from Gateway. Today I received another shipping notice confirming the box and peripherals had been shipped. Both shipping notifications contained clickable links which are the UPS tracking numbers. Click just one more link when you get to the UPS site and you get a detailed history of exactly where your package is at the moment and where it's been, and, wonder of wonders, a scheduled delivery date! Delivery is scheduled for Friday. My excitement builds...

OK. Stuff happens. Trucks are late, the PC may be DOA, yadda, yadda, yadda. But the fact remains: order Monday, delivery Friday. And this isn't an off-the-shelf buy: I added this, that, and the other. I am so impressed! Ain't technology grand?

Much better than my repair experience with Gateway last year. I went without my laptop for over a month, more like six weeks. One week of that wait was because G-way shipped the box to my old address in California, despite my three attempts to update my address. I feel lucky I actually got the laptop back. Lesson-learned: buy the on-site service. And I did.

Now. Let's see if I jinxed the deal by writing about it.

Update, 12/02/2005 11:38 p.m.: FedEx wins the shipping derby. Monitor cable shipped via FedEx, arrived yesterday. Monitor shipped via UPS, arrived today. Both items shipped the same day. The box itself arrived today, too. It's up and running fine but I HATE the keyboard...such TINY little keys, and all in the wrong places! (Just kidding.) I'm going to have to get used to a full-sized keyboard again after 3.5 years on a laptop. Paradoxically, the laptop had much bigger keys. This keyboard seems like it belongs in an elementary school. But the box is fast. New computers are so much fun!