As I mentioned earlier, I bought a new computer last week, and so far it has been nothing but trouble. it keeps spontaneously rebooting at what appear to be completely random intervals, and I just don't know why. In fact, it rebooted on me 10 minutes ago while I was typing this post.

Why did it reboot? Couldn't tell you. Driver conflict? Maybe. I've updated software and drivers for just about every component, but that doesn't mean I've eliminated any possible conflict. Hardware failure? Can't rule it out. I'm about to start memory testing. If that passes, I'll move on to the power supply.

If I ever solve this problem, I'll be sure to let you know. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to start counting ones and zeroes.

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My aging computer, which I use 8 or more hours a day, has been showing signs of senility lately, so last Sunday I decided to buy a replacement. Specifically, I decided to buy a Razer, as that's what was available on sale at BestBuy.com with the specs that friend (and boss) James recommended. Before going through a shopping cart, I did a little research and discovered that Razer.com had an even better price on their own product. So I decided to order directly from the manufacturer instead. That proved to be a mistake.

No sooner had I completed their checkout process than Razer promptly sent me an email to notify me that the transaction had been "unsuccessful" and urged me to get in touch with their customer service, which I did immediately via chat. The representative told me they would "forward a support ticket to the relevant team" to verify me as a legitimate buyer so that my purchase would be processed by their system "automatically." Except it didn't.

On Monday, I got another email, telling me that the whole problem was my credit card processor. They said I needed a payment authorization code to clear up the problem, so I called my bank. Turns out the bank's AI was naturally suspicious of such a large purchase of nearly $3,000 — don't judge me — and killed the transaction. Fine. It happens. In fact, I appreciate the caution. Except they could not give me an authorization code because no payment had actually ever been authorized. They said I'd need the merchant to run the transaction again.

I told Razer this, and they said they couldn't run a charge against the original order; I would have to just place a whole new order. One small catch: between Sunday night and Monday morning, Razer raised the price of the machine by more than 13%. Since I was only shopping from them because they had been cheaper than Best Buy, I asked their customer service to honor Sunday's price. They declined. I explained that in that case, there was no longer any incentive for me to buy from Razer.com... and they followed up by politely suggesting that I "explore authorized Razer resellers, where you might find attractive deals and promotions."

In hindsight, perhaps I should have expected that. The Sunday representative ended our chat by telling me that "right after you end the chat, you might receive a survey for you to provide us with feedback. The survey is all about ME as your assistance buddy as how I tried my best to assist you today, and not with Razer services" (emphasis mine). Hint, hint, Walter.

Anyway. This is all just a longwinded way of explaining why I will not be buying a Razer computer from any Razer reseller, authorized or otherwise. If they don't want me to buy their product, I'm more than happy to oblige.

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I have a new computer. My five-year-old machine had been feeling sluggish for quite some time, so I finally upgraded. I was very reluctant to spend so much money, but it was pointed out to me that since I spend most of my time programming video games, I should have a computer than can actually play them.

To that end, I picked out a new machine with four times more RAM than I used to have. It's a noticeable difference. I can now goof off much faster than before.

The new machine also has a terabyte solid state disk memory. Remember when a terabyte of memory was something that only Microsoft possessed? I do. That was 22 years ago. I shudder to think what my computer might be capable of in 22 more years. By then, it will probably be programming me.

The only real problem with the new computer is its High Definition 17-inch monitor with accompanying 144GHz refresh rate. Those aren't the problem, exactly. My eyes are. I have to sit much closer to the machine to make out the fine details. At least I know I can spend less money on my next computer (estimated 2024). That, or a lot more money on new glasses.

My favorite new feature is the backlit keyboard. It pulses (in solid red) in a pattern that the manufacturer has called "breathing." At least I think the manufacturer named it. Maybe the self-programming has already begun. I'd give the machine a name, but I think I'll wait and see if it chooses one for itself.

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I can publicly kiss my tech cred goodbye: I bought a new computer this week, and the very first thing I did with it was download a trojan.

The new machine runs Windows 8 (and I totally understand why people refuse to leave XP for this). So like an idiot, I used Microsoft's default Bing search engine to find the "Google Chrome" browser. I should have known better. If you run that search in Google, the first link returned takes you to the download site for Chrome. If you do that in Bing, the first response takes you to a website that installs a Chromium knock-off called Binkiland and about a thousands pieces of other spyware and junk.

That's a dick move, Microsoft. This is why everyone hates you.

Anyway, I recognized my mistake too late, so for the first eight hours of my new computer's life, I was deleting programs and hunting through my registry in search of hidden processes. Fun.

And worst of all, now the next time my dad calls to tell me that he has a new virus because he opened some unsolicited email attachment, I won't be able to yell at him about it. He let trouble in when it came knocking at his door, but that's nothing compared to what I did. I went looking for it.

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I now have a new laptop. It has 3x the processor speed, 4x the memory, and 12x the storage space of my nearly tween-aged desktop. I'm sure that if my previous computer weren't dead, it'd be envious.

During the week that I was without a computer, I finished a video game, worked on an oil painting, baked a cake, completed most of my Christmas shopping, caught up on a bunch of tv, and read a book. I'd nearly forgotten how much I liked books. Naturally, this made me wonder if perhaps I wasn't spending too much time on the computer. But my new machine came with Amazon's Kindle for PC app, so now I can read books on my computer! Dilemma solved.

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Remember when I told you that I had been putting off buying a new computer? Yeah, well, it's dead, Jim.

A new computer has been purchased via money I don't have, but that's okay. Since America gets by just fine by borrowing money from China to buy American cars, I decided that I would borrow money from an American bank to buy a Chinese computer. I'm just doing my part to get China it's money back.

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One month ago I decided that I needed to buy a new laptop to replace my dinosaur desktop computer. This decision was forced by the fact that my latest anti-virus upgrade has dragged my CPU to a grudging work stoppage. Now whenever I run my anti-virus scanner, it takes one look at my machine, shrugs it's shoulders, and sighs something along the lines of "everybody's got to go sometime."

To be fair, I'm not sure that I have to be worried about any computer illness unless some scientist discovers a presumed-extinct virus trapped frozen deep in the ice at the Earth's poles. Anything newer would find my machine an uninviting, primordial environment where floppy disks are still the preferred boot failure recovery method.

Anyway, I tell my brother that I want a new laptop, and when his computer conks out not 3 days later, he buys himself one. My mother, jealous at my brother's new toy, immediately buys herself a new laptop during a serendipitous One Day Sale at Office Max. Meanwhile, Ol' Ironsides (that's not a nickname -- my computer case is so old, it actually has iron sides) keeps chugging along as I continue to save money and shop around for the perfect desktop in my budget. At my current rate of savings, the only way I'll end up with a new computer is if I find a way to attach a mouse to my old Speak And Spell.

Listen up, viruses. I've managed to stay away from you for years now; it's only fair that you return the favor until I can save up a few more bucks for a new platform. I promise that it won't be that much longer: two, maybe three more years at the most. Sigh.

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My computer's hard drive is failing. It's 7 years old and holds a maximum of 75 GB of information. When I bought it, 75 GB was a lot of space. Now, not so much. I suspect that Hello Kitty toy laptops for little girls are more powerful than my aging PC.

When I put it together, it was pretty good. Not top of the line, but ahead of the curve, and that was good enough for me. However, the world is beginning to pass my computer by. Once the dashing Tron, my computer now more closely resembles the aged Dumont. It sleeps in, wakes up when it's good and ready, and ambles around, scratching it's ass and grumbling until it feels sufficiently aware enough to get down to business. (Computer and I have that bit in common.)

Now my computer is showing the signs of early onset Alzheimer's. It randomly forgets things, unexpectedly ignores me, makes funny noises at the oddest moments, and absentmindedly stops working on a whim. I need to start saving up the money for the inevitable end; I don't care what the President says, socialized health care simply won't help combat old age.

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