interesting question... oddly, nothing – which is a big change. it seems like only yesterday that i spent a good portion of my time dealing with crashing macs, treo's that wouldn't sync, tivo's that wouldn't record, and batteries that wouldn't charge. but it seems that lately tech has gotten to the point where things work as promised and it's the exception rather than the rule that i need to think about what makes them go.

My Dell lappy, that's what. Your timing on this "bug out" question could not be better. The whrrrrCLKCLKCLKCLK coming from the upper right quadrant of the laptop causes spontaneous shut down and Blue Screen of Death, and after five and 1/2 total hours on the phone with Dell Tech support we've wiped the harddrive, reinstalled windows, and it's still happening. Next up: new harddrive. Baaaaarrrf.

All this right after I start a weekly blog series, volunteer for a transcription gig, get an iPod, and take a bunch of great photos: no more tech life for me, for now.

I just got back from a trip where I had to pay $12 a day for internet service at the hotel. I used to have this service through work but not anymore.

I don't want to sign up for a monthly contract because I wouldn't use it that frequently (maybe a couple of days a month, if that).

There are pre-paid cellphones -- I guess I am looking for a pre-paid wireless card. Do they exist??

nora, that happened with my dell laptop. right when (or the one after) the first inspiron came out. i had moved to france and come back, only to lose all my pics and vids.

Technology in the US....
The US citizens pay more for cell phone service with limited technology. The US doesn't have G3 and wifi is ridiculously more expensive. Television is less creative than in Europe but it cost more here in the US for the same old crap.

Kathryn -- Many of the common providers like T-Mobile used to have pay-as-you-go services that may be less pricey than the mark-up that "better" hotels tack on. (My info isn't up-to-date because I haven't used such a service in over a year, but my frustration with the $12/day lousy internet service at a certain deluxe hotel in San Diego is still remarkably fresh.)

OK, I love my new Dell desktop, and I bought the slightly-better-than-the-bottom speakers, and I got a woofer, but I'm curious... why do you think it is that everything coming out of the speakers sounds lik it's in a cathedral, with such a serious echo that I can barely understand anything?

as of Monday evening I have not been able to see any photos on the NY site. All the other sites of AT are fine. Maxwell told me I should delete all AT cookies which I did but it didn't help. Does anyone here have a suggestion as to how to fix this problem? It's a bummer when you can't see the photos. (text and ads are still visible).

Curtis,
How many speakers did your system come with (ie, is it a surround-sound system?) If your computer supports surround-sound speaker systems, it has multiple output plugs. If this is the case, you might have plugged your speaker system into the wrong plug.
If you have a surround-sound system, then make sure everything is plugged in completely. I had a similar problem with a speaker system in the past and this was the issue.
If neither of these suggestions helps, could you post more info (how many cables, plugs, etc)about your speaker system and maybe I can help more.

Curtis,
Which one did you get? I'm giving myself one for Christmas and I'm torn. I kind of want an HP, but I want the XPS, as well. I just don't want to have to go through another dead hard-drive.

Anne -- What operating system and browser are you using? People have had trouble with photos on a lot of sites when they switched to Vista as an OS...

Everything I'm seeing suggests that both your photo problem and the "triple-click to go back" problem are the result of something quirky in the html of the site itself, so that it isn't shaking hands with all browsers properly.

on the at sf site - the post about america's next top model - this is what it said at the bottom of the page - i don't remember where to send this stuff:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Comments::error() in /home/www/at_comments/Comments.php on line 34

Well, now I have another problem. It was suggested that I uninstall and then reinstall Mozilla to see if that fixes the AT problem I'm having (it didn't). But now everything on my screen is HUGE! All the icons, print, pictures, everything. How do I get it scaled down to normal?

My email. It's a mess. Cox blocks my outgoing messages on the typical port (which I can change only on certain accounts)...which prevents me from properly syncing with my iPhone. And then certain messages I get on my iPhone won't show up on my machine...which prevents me from properly archiving them...and then my iPhone has zero filtering, and my web app for my personal account not only has zero filtering but I get these "new" spam messages that are back dated...so I have to dig through pages of emails to find that "unread" spam message that keeps tricking me into thinking I have new mail. AGHAAHAHAGAGAG!!!!

Colin, oooh, ouch, man!

Anne - One of two things...hold the control button down and scroll the wheel on your mouse, try both directions and see if that changes the size of everything. If all of your stuff is big, then go into the Display in the control pannel and play with the resolution setting for how many pixels are on a given screen. Pixels is probably the wrong word, but my brain is fried. Hopefully you know what I mean.

Update on the "Dell Lappy Go Boom" incident, with a happy ending!

Monday night on the phone with Dell (tech in Manilla), I was promised a package of installation disks would be sent later in the week and a local tech would call me to set up an appointment to *gasp* replace my hard drive. The disks arrived Tuesday, the tech called Wednesday, the drive got replaced Thursday, and tonight I'm gonna bring the Frankenputer back to life. All of this 20 days before my warranty expires and on a warranty package that was phased out shortly after I got my (now similarly phased out) Inspiron 6000.

I gotta say, props to Dell on this.

Wow, crazy, Nora--but cool!! Yea!