Monday 9 January 2012

Sledghammer/Walnut

For a little while now, The Mum has been after a new PC. To be fair the one she had was getting on a bit and was mind-bendingly slow. She asked last year if I would go with her to help pick one, but things were a bit hectic up until Christmas so it wasn't until last week that we finally met up in the Mecca for vaguely bemused elderly middle-class folks that is the John Lewis IT department.

We had a discussion about what tasks the computer would be used for ("Sometimes going to the M&S website, sometimes booking theatre tickets online, a few emails and typing the odd letter"). We discussed portability (not important) and screen size (very important). Eventually after a bit of looking around we settled on a quite nice all-in-one PC. Nothing too outrageous but a good size screen, a seperate graphics card and a decent amount of RAM & disc space, all for a shade less than a laptop.

Happy that my not-buying-something-entirely-inappropriate work was done and with the office calling, I headed back to work.

The following day I got a phonecall;

"Hello, it's your Mum. What's the difference between a PC and a Mac?"

I struggled to answer the question in a context that would make sense. Eventually I settled on the the concept that it's like the difference between a Ford and a Jaguar. Both will get you reliably from A to B, but the Jag will do it a bit more stylishly (and cost you twice as much).

So now The Mum has a 21.5" iMac sitting in its box in her office, waiting for me to set it up. I will weep with envy and radiate covetousness as I unpack it. But I bet the M&S website will look ace on it.

NDC

5 comments:

  1. Blimey! Respect to your mum. *staggers away weeping bitter, envious tears*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jealous? moi? naaaaaaaahhhhhhh.....but kudos to your ma!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My children would weep at the thought of technology like that going to waste.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah sweet. Form over function works every time for me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CQ - I know, she's determined to keep up with the times. Even keeps her diary on her iPhone.

    Libby - I am currently going through the denial phase. I wouldn't want it anyway.

    AG - So do I.

    NB - It's starting to get that way for me too. Despite not being able to pin down exactly what it'll do better than my PC, I desperately want one. The 'denial phase' didn't last long, did it?

    ReplyDelete