Geek
- Wade
From time to time I like to pretend that I'm not as geeky as I actually am.
Then there are days like last Thursday, when I just didn't care. And now, when I relate my story.
What happened last Thursday? Well, that was the day I received my new PC here at RBC Dain Wade. At Olaf I frequently set up new hardware and know the joy of smelling (really) a fresh new PC, right out of the box. But nothing could have compared me for this...
First, a bit of history. For the last 2+ years I've been equipped with a Micron PC, Intel P2 chip, 256K RAM... that sort of thing. Your standard work computer, circa late 2000. Not awful, especially compared to the Mac I bought in college, but not super. I had a 17-inch monitor, one of those big CRT jimsons that generated enough heat so that I could fry bacon on the screen. Not that I ever did. But I thought about it.
Anyhoo, in a meeting with the apps dev director (my boss' boss) last summer, I remarked that it was interesting that contractors got new hardware ordered for them whenever they started at Dain. Employees, however, were relegated to using the old PCs until they died. Either seeing my point (or seeing me as a rabble-rouser who might unite my similarly-underpowered colleagues), folks relented and I got to order a new computer, along with several other people on my team. Said PCs were ordered in November, with a delivery timeframe of late December. Ooh, thought me. What a great Christmas!
IT purchasing runs their ship the same way the rest of IT does, though. Hence, a six-week delay. But last Thursday I got the call... and Sant.. er, my workstation analyst delivered my new machine. Check this out:
- Dell Optiplex GX280
- Intel P4
- 2.8 gig processor
- 1 gig RAM
- 36 gig hard drive
- 19-inch flat-screen monitor
You would not believe how fast this thing is. Well, maybe you would, but if you've been working on an old computer for a long time, this sucker hums. Sometimes I just kinda catch myself staring at the friggin' 'ugeness of the monitor. Speaking of, the only possible drawback is now it's easier for others to see me surfing the web. But I'll live with that.
I wanted to make it clear that just because I don't know my Frodo from my.. um.. Yoda doesn't mean I'm not a geek.
But you probably already knew that.
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