I spent most of my day today trying to figure out what to do about my busted computer. I had about 2 minutes of battery power left, so I tried to copy as much stuff as I could to my external hard drive before it ran out (luckily I normally backup pretty well). It died midway through my recent photographs. Hmmm...

Luckily the data is still there. I just need to figure out a way to charge up my battery to get all the other data off of the laptop. I'm going to carry around the battery these days and see if I can find anyone with a VAIO S460. Haha. "Can I use your laptop to charge my battery for a bit?".

After studying in the morning, I went to a couple computer places to see if they could repair my DC jack. UC Electronics told me that since the laptop had been opened before, they wouldn't take it since it's against their policy.

The Used Computer store said they could repair it, but also that it would take over a month and three hundred bucks or so.

Gah.

From there I strolled over to Ace Hardware and bought a little screwdriver set, a soldering iron, and some electrical solder.

I spent the next hour taking my laptop apart. I thought my DC jack was directly connected to my motherboard, but it turns out it was connected with a wire. After examining both ends closely and even taking out the DC jack, I still couldn't figure out what was wrong, and could find any loose connections or places that needed soldering.

At this point, I gave up and decided that I needed to buy a new laptop, since laptops are pretty critical for my computer science courses, and all the other stuff I do on the web.

After getting the okay from my mom (I'm still being supported pretty much 100% by my parents while I'm in school. Thanks mom and dad!), I walked to the student store after returning the soldering stuff to Ace.

By the time I had gotten there, I had pretty much decided that I would get a Mac. Here are the reasons why:

1. I didn't want Vista.

2. I wanted Windows 7, but that wasn't out yet.

3. Everyone that uses a Mac seems to like it, so even if I didn't use the computer for long, it was still probably a safe bet.

4. Since everyone raves about their Macs, I thought it would be good to use one at least sometime during my life. Haha.

5. Macs are relatively cheap compared to my Vaio (it was about $2K four years ago when I got it as a going off to college present).

So basically, I decided to get a Mac to finally try it out, after years of being adamantly against joining the Cult of Apple and Mac.

I think I might still go back to Windows for my next computer, though it hopefully won't be sooner than four or five years from now...

My photoblog entries will be of poor photographic quality over the next few days (and as seen in the previous few days). There will be pretty much no post-processing done on any of the photos posted. The reason? Photoshop is installed on my Vaio, the CD is back at home, and I need to get the key somehow deactivated from my Vaio so I can install it on my Mac.

By the way - I absolutely loved my Sony VAIO VGN-S460. I would recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat, and didn't even want a new computer. If there was any way I could have fixed it, I would have done it rather than get a new laptop.

Have to finish reading a 60-70 paper paper for class tomorrow.