It’s not been a good week. It started so well here in yours2share mansions, with the mention in the Sunday Times and a great new case study (not quite ready yet, but I’ll probably be posting it next week).
However on Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of a Skype call to a poor unsuspecting yours2share member, my laptop died. A well looked after, 14 month old, Sony Vaio, protected by a surge suppressor, should not instantaneously fry its motherboard, but mine has. Sony has not emerged from this episode well. I called their customer support, already irritated by the 35p/min call rates, only to be left in a queue for eight minutes until I gave up. Usually organisations that charge premium rates are ready and waiting with expert staff to help you, easing the pain of exorbitant phone calls, but not Sony. The cost of the repair is more than buying a new (non Sony) laptop with a better spec, so I won’t be repairing it.
Anyway, given that I run an on-line business, I have to be prepared for such eventualities, so I fired up the small laptop I use on the train. To no avail, it is also terminally ill: and I later find out that the keyboard has a serious fault and has to be replaced, only it won’t be because it would costs far more than the laptop is worth. Many thanks to Niels Van Minden of VMIT who helped me work out what is wrong.
Fortunately one part of my disaster recovery plan does work. I backup all my files on-line everyday to ibackup and although I check every month to see they are there, I’ve never used them in anger before. I’m pleased to report that ibackup works brilliantly. Thank goodness.
This blog is written on an old laptop which my sister borrowed a year ago but never used. So Windows, antivirus, and every other program has a year’s worth of updates… It took all morning to do the simplest admin functions. I’m looking forward to the weekend.
Now I have to find a new laptop, and one way or another, it’ll be here tomorrow.