Computer Envy

A new PC in town .. Poster courtesy of HP

TODAY

We are having a beautiful Indian Summer.. October temperatures are 10 degrees above average but I can deal with the 90 degrees. I’m back at the Lakewood Arboretum Starbucks -- I like its bright window exposures and high ceilings. Also it gets an interesting mix of people. It has more SMU students than you might think for being this remote.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY

Last night I watched the first episode of American Horror Story – Hotel (Season 5). This season we’ve switched out Jessica Lange for Lady Gaga; Lange is doing a Broadway show. Ryan Murphy’s direction continues to give us the surreal, disturbed, black comedy that we had in the first 4 seasons. It is a pastiche of sex, murder and occult that would not be to everyone’s taste. I’m disturbed enough to look forward to 11 or so more installments.

HP ENVY

I noticed that my 6 year old HP Pavilion was starting to get creaky on me. 6 years is an eternity for a computer whose life must be measured like dog years. It is a testament to HP quality that this one has had such staying power. I decided that the time was right for an upgrade.. using bonus dollars from my employer for good attendance. I purchased an HP ENVY m6 convertible touch screen laptop. It has a slim profile (a la MacBook), metallic veneer and beautiful style. Here are the many features and improvements:

8GB memory
1 Terabyte hard drive
Hi-Res 1080p touch screen, 15.6”
I5 6200 chip (new model chip)
2 USB 3.0 ports
Keyboard with backlighting
Keyboard folds back 360 degrees to create a large tablet
Windows 10 OS
Bang and Olufsen sound system
Microsoft Office 2013 (via MS HUP program)

There are probably some other features I’m overlooking. I was expecting it to be 1000 times faster than the old unit, but the gains are not quite so extreme. Old, inefficient software will still run slowly. Slow, connected servers will make web surfing only as fast as the slowest remote site. And software not designed for Hi-Res may give you a fuzzy display. All that being said, I’m really liking the new computer. Every 6 years (42 dog years) you should avail yourself of a new PC.

The old one will be factory reset and given to my bro, who loans them out for Bible studies. (Just need to see how permanent file deletion works – don’t want a Hillary-type email situation confronting me).

CONCLUSION

If you have FXNOW on Roku, check out American Horror Story. FX also brings us Season Two of Fargo starting next week – that should be an extra enticement. If you have a geriatric PC, check out the new offerings at Walmart or Best Buy. You can get a very capable device for well under a grand, assuming you stay in Windows World.

© 2015 Snillor Productions