The Digital Home

Not too long ago, there was one computer in my house.  A trusty old Compaq Presario laptop.  It was fresh and new way back in grad school, but has stuck with us through thick and thin.  No longer does it travel, but lives in the center of the living room, shared by the whole family, leaned on to keep our digital lives on track.  

Then we brought home the SNB*, which now sits next to the Compaq here at the big desk.   We have grand plans to tidy up and refresh the trusty old Compaq, to extend its life as the demands for computer time in our family of five become greater.  

Bringing home the SNB, however, seems to have opened a floodgate.  Where we had one computer, suddenly I find myself looking at four.  Yes, FOUR computers sitting around me on two tables.  The Compaq, the iMac, Partner’s work laptop (which he has brought home with him on summer vacation—which started today for him), and a clunky IBM Aptiva (now christened the Grey Ghost), complete with a rolling computer cart/desk thingy.  

Partner adopted the Aptiva and its table last weekend from his folks, in an ambitious, if possibly misguided, adventure in Linux-land.  He plans to “tinker” with it a bit.  To “experiment” with some open-source stuff for a while.  So while penguin-ware loads onto the Grey Ghost, he fiddles with his work computer, trying to catch up on an email backlog (some summer vacation, huh?).

And this does not even count his “old” work laptop, still in his office, which he plans to go retrieve, so that over the summer he can wipe it and rebuild it for some other use when he returns to work in six weeks.  

Now, while I’m not so much the tech-geek myself, I can recognize the allure of tinkering with computers.  There is something very exciting about staring at a computer’s guts and wondering about the way the electrons flow.  Something thrilling about the puzzle of understanding and putting together code.  About compiling a set of software that is a little bit (or a lot) off the beaten track.  But I admit that I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the stuff piled around my workspace.  All of the cables and beeps and hums that we now have crammed into this corner.  

I wonder if anyone would notice if I took the SNB back to my room and shut the door?  

*Sexy New Beast, i.e. this yummy iMac.