The N Word

At long and blessed last.

I love my powerbook. For a scientist, having a computer that can blog, browse, play movies/music and run unix scripts is a dream come true. But after five years it is increasingly becoming a pain in the ass. I’ve replaced the power cord and battery God knows how many times. The memory is starting to creak under the increasing load of OS X. I can’t afford to replace it as my grants are dead. (Right now, I’m testing out a macbook for my in-laws. Sweeeet. I hate being poor.)

For the last few months, my keyboard has become increasingly erratic. In fact, almost all of the n’s you’ve read in my posts — here, at Moorewatch or at Right-Thinking — have been cut-and-pasted since that key has been dead since March. I finally got a replacement part, replaced the keyboard and I’m happily typing on a working board. Bliss. The only problem is that I’ve become used to the pasting. It’s hard to write “nincompoops” without spelling it “control-v-i-control-v-c-etc.”

Ugh.

Incidentally, don’t ever look under a keyboard. I mean ever. I’ve seen bone tumors cut out. I’ve seen skin grafts made. I’ve removed a toilet drainpipe. I have a one-year old baby. I’ve seen my share of gross stuff. But good God Almighty is keyboard fluff disgusting. We type in that stuff.