I had a not-so-good week last week.Lot\u2019s of stuff too private for blog sharing, but let\u2019s just say it was a cascade of dark and bad times that nobody should have to go through. One of the bits of bad luck was that the LCD on my laptop broke. Normally, this wouldn\u2019t be so bad. Most of the time (i.e. unless I\u2019m traveling), I log into my laptop via terminal server, so a broken screen has no impact. This is my \u201cwork\u201d laptop, and it\u2019s overdue for an upgrade, so normally, everything would line up well.<\/p>\n
This is not a normal week. I leave for Amsterdam to speak at Euro STAR on Sunday, and there\u2019s no way to get a replacement laptop through work on time. I looked into getting the screen replaced, but at $500, I didn\u2019t feel like it was cost effective \u2013 I thought the same of renting a computer for $120 for the week. I have a strong network at MS, and pinged some of my colleagues on the Windows team for spare hardware, but that well was dry too. I begged admins, IT, and anyone I could find to let me use a laptop for the week, but everything fell through.<\/p>\n
So, I figured it was time to buck up and buy a personal laptop. Microsoft is giving me (and every employee) a Surface RT, but we won\u2019t get those until January. I looked around a bit, and felt a little strange paying (at least) $700 for a laptop that I probably wouldn\u2019t use much after this trip (have you figured out yet that I hate spending money?).<\/p>\n