My 'new' computer

Commenting on my post "My whole life", Avus asked me some questions about my new computer, to which I began composing an answer in Comments, but it became so long that I promised him a new post. Somehow that post has been stuck in 'draft' until now, but here it is.

It is not actually a "new new" computer, but one my son bought second-hand on Ebay - a reconditioned one from a dealer who buys company discards when they are updating. So the expense was small (£108 for computer, mouse and keyboard, no screen), it was ready to go, and my son was able to start straight in on transferring my stuff from the old to the new one. As he is a trained programmer he got this done on Friday evening/night and Saturday morning, reinstating all the customisations and so on that I had before, and the inconvenience to me was negligible - apart, that is, from trying to remember what I had on the old one, when asked! But there is effectively no 'running in' to be done.

However, it is worth mentioning that Richard always keeps my old hard drive when he has made a change for me, so that if I discover later that something has not been transferred, he can check it out and make it right. Last time, when I changed from Windows 98 to XP, my new computer did not have many of the fonts that I had liked on the old one, and he was able to send them to me by email to reinstall myself.

While he was here we found the bill for my first computer, built to his specifications 9 years ago, and he tells me I now have a processor which is 10 times faster, a memory which is 16 times bigger, and 10 times more disk space. Also I now have 8 USB sockets, as against 2 on my last one. Two of these are on the front of the computer, where there are also sockets for earphones and microphone. He reckons that with these I am now probably only about three years behind the state of the art, and we both agree that is good enough!

Avus, if you would like any more details let me know, and I can ask my son, or possibly put you in direct touch with him.