Presidente Alcazar wrote:

On 31 Mar 2004 18:51:14 -0800, (Guy alcala)
wrote:

Typically spurious rationale advanced to justify further
slef-indulgent PC equipment purchases to a sceptical wife.

I will deny, to the last breath in my body, that my rationale is
spurious, that I'm being self-indulgent, and that I have a wife,
sceptical or otherwise.

For most unmarried men, the bank manager performs a similar function
when it comes to quashing fond dreams with the icy blast of stern
disapproval, backed by desolate financial reality.

I'm a simple man, Senyor Presidente (how does one get a tilde over an n in
text-only?) I don't require the latest and most expensive, just what
works. As it happens, a friend knew of a friend of his who had a 17"
monitor he'd been meaning to get rid of, and who gave it to me. My old
monitor was a 15" and 17" is bigger than I need (my friend even offered me
his 22" monitor gratis as he's upgrading, but I have absolutely nowhere to
put such a behemoth). You can't get 15" monitors nowadays and besides, who
am I to look a gift in the mouth. Turns out the thing wouldn't turn on when
I got it home, so back to square one. And then, while I was out on a walk
this afternoon, not three blocks from my place I came upon a computer desk
with a NEC 17" monitor sitting on top of it on the curb, with a
hand-printed sign reading "Free" on a piece of cardboard. Hustling home I
got my car and brought the monitor home, plugged it in and connected it up,
and I'm back in business. It's not quite as clear as my old monitor, but
it works just fine, and the price was right. ;-) It's nice to live so
close to Silicon Valley and be surrounded by large numbers of people who
find getting rid of their "old", now worthless (for such is the pace of
change) but perfectly functional monitors to be a major hassle, and who ask
nothing more of you than that you take it off their hands. Now all I've
got to do is get rid of two broken monitors ;-)

Guy