My laptop wasn't wearing its seatbelt
Near-collision gets morning off to a heart-pounding start
By Paul McNamara on Wed, 07/22/09 - 8:22am.
The black pick-up truck spun backward out of a right-side driveway at a speed normally reserved for evading assassins (kid you not). I was approaching at 20 mph on the narrow, winding, heavily wooded road that leads into my lakeside neighborhood.
My first thought was that there's simply no way we don't collide. I mean no one was going to be killed or anything at this speed, but my car and Jack Bauer's truck were destined to go bang on this rain-slicked road.
Glad to be wrong. Jamming my brakes to the floor and leaning on the horn kept my skidding front end from his back end by a margin that couldn't have exceeded six inches. Thanks for the great brakes, Toyota.
He pulled forward to let me by, and, since I was in no mood to chat about what had just happened, onward to work I went.
Halfway here I noticed my laptop had moved from the passenger seat to the floor. Buckle up, kids.
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This is why I telecommute
Well, no, it isn't. But stories like this make me glad I do.
Jeff Caruso
Network World Executive Online Editor
Crashing laptops
You're fortunate. My new HP mini slid out of my briefcase, which was horizontal on the table in my office. It still runs... But only two-thirds of the display functions. The saddest thing? HP wants $50 less than the original purchase price to fix it.
It's enough to make me never purchase an HP product again, even if it was my own bad luck.
HP sells laptops
HP doesn't want to fix laptops. They want to sell new ones. What better way than to set the repair cost as high as the cost of a new machine? It really isn't much different with other vendors. Even lily white Apple wanted $760 to fix the sound card in my daughters Macbook. More than the cost of a refurb from the campus Apple store. And only $140 less than the cost of a new model.
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