Borrowed knowledge is better than none

Over the past couple of days I’ve built a new computer. That was the easy part. Now it’s a matter of getting everything to work as it should — not just all the speedy new hardware, but the new operating system known as Windows 8. So far I don’t like the OS much, but my wife does and I’ve heard that most people eventually warm to it. So I’m still learning and mostly restraining the urge to bitch and moan.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to keep my old computer running and online throughout the process. Without it, I’d still be staring at a scene similar to the picture above.

It’s true what they say: With Google and YouTube, there’s almost nothing you can’t learn. I sometimes wonder if all that “cloud” memory isn’t slowly replacing organic memory, and if the process won’t someday exact a dear price on the human race. We’ll forget all the important stuff and then the technology will go away. We’ll want to know how to build a fire or bring down a deer with a stone-tipped spear, and there won’t be a search engine in sight.

But for now, I’ve got two computers sitting on my desk, and the one I built is much better than the one I didn’t. I am conversant in SATA device interfaces and optimal operating temperatures for the Intel i5 3570k processor. Amazing what an idiot can accomplish with patience and all the knowledge of the world at his fingertips.