It's official. Computers hate me. And I hate Sony.

Well, it's official. Computers hate me.

My mom and my sister kill watches. It's not clear why. Watches just die on their wrists. In my case, it's computers. They simply mess up when I use them. I killed Michael's computer in NYC, I've killed my own computers more times than I can count. And each time I wasn't doing anything in particular - for example, typing an email (hardly an act that counts as computer malpractice). Then - bam! - something goes pop and the computer goes haywire.

Many of you who have been with the blog for a while will recall my Sony fiasco this past January. I bought a lemon of a Sony desktop that was turning itself off and relaunching all on its own as I was merrily trying to type emails, write documents, etc. After a month of hell, Sony finally took that baby back and, to show my good faith, I bought an even better Sony model that was 1/3 off - the RA820 - so I spent the same and got a GREAT computer. (Oh, and don't yell at me that I should have bought a Mac - I'm buying a Mac laptop, more on that in a moment.)

Well, you'll all be happy to know that the newer Sony has been a disaster. It's never worked quite right from day one. I can't remember the sequence of disasters anymore, but they include a stint of the computer relaunching itself on its own (again), the thing getting stuck during boot-up, a .dll error that it took Sony 2.5 months to fix - yes, 2.5 months the "new" and really expensive computer didn't work - and now that they finally got that last glitch fixed a few weeks ago, what happens now? The computer has gone back to its getting-stuck-while-booting tricks AND it's doing the turn-off-and-relaunch-at-will trick. And funniest of all, I have like 4 weeks left on my warranty. Are you laughing yet?

Well, before the Mac-lovers out there tell me "I told you so," you'll be glad to know I'll soon be buying a Mac laptop, I'm pretty set on it being a 15 inch powerbook. Why do I need a new laptop? You guessed it, my laptop just went poof as I was writing an email to Atrios. The thing is dead, it started giving me multiple reboot errors and now it won't boot at all. As the thing is 4 years old, it's time to put it to rest anyway, though you Mac lovers out there will probably tell me "it wouldn't be working old if it was a 4 year old Mac!"

Anyway, the dead laptop has now accelerated my search for a new one. Guess what John's getting for Christmas?! Actually, I may wait until after Christmas as I hear the Macs are getting new Intel chips and it's been recommended to me to wait until the new ones come out. Having said that, with my atrocious Sony lemon I'm using, I'm just waiting for my return to DC when Sony is bound to tell me - like they tried to tell me during the last fiasco last month - that they'd need to take my computer all the way to California and rip it apart for a month to see exactly what's wrong. Uh huh. The thing is under a year old, hasn't worked right from day one, had been on the fritz for almost 3 months (partially because the Sony repair guy on the phone lied to me, repeatedly, and I finally caught him weeks later), and they're telling me that my warranty is expiring - when it still doesn't work right - and I just know they're going to want to take it away and "fix" it.

God I hate companies.

Anyway, this is my vent as the damn laptop died two hours ago (using mom's computer). Rest assured that if Sony dares tell me they're going to take my computer and fix it, there will be unholy hell to pay. Companies have just gotten nastier and nastier and nastier in terms of customer service over the past several years. And now I'm saddled with a very expensive Sony lemon and you know I'm going to have to reach the president's office before I can get them to take this lemon back.

Thus, all the more reason I'm finally buying a Mac. I've had it with PCs. Though I have to admit, now that my Sony sucks, again, or still, I'm half tempted to just buy a big Mac desktop. But still, I'll need a laptop in any case, with my travel etc, so I'm getting the powerbook first, then we can move on from there.

Stay tuned for more adventures in computer disasters with your friend John.