People are often deeply attached to inanimate objects, very personally. They’d love such objects like a real human being, giving it all the attention they’d give to their sibling or a close relative!

My object-of-attraction is my PC!

Not very long ago, I’d written a post bidding adieu to my PC – the good ol’ venerable, P4MONSTER. Almost as if in divine intervention, exactly two weeks after the post, the PC was born again! Mind you, even the vendor had  written it off, returning it as it was, even refusing to buy money from us for ‘repair’ (I doubt if they’d bothered even to touch the cabinet once, for fear of worsening is ‘unwieldy’ symptoms!) Well, after I got it back subsequent to  my S6 exams, the PC magically started working again (only in Kubuntu, this time – Windows XP would crash with the display disintegrating to a motley assortment of colours and/or a BSOD within ten minutes of switching on). Having chosen Linux over windows permanently, long ago, lack of a Windows O/S wasn’t really a problem – until Linux started displaying what was a Linux equivalent of a BSOD, a few days back! Besides, even my Linux installation had problems, it had just 1.2 gigs of (fast-depleting) free space, worsened by the lack of  SWAP (virtual memory).

Day before yesterday, frazzled by the inadequacies, I pulled out the hard-disc, reformatted it and reinstalled Windows XP (thanks to Akhil Chettan) and Kubuntu. When the BSOD resurfaced within minutes, I chucked a 256 MB stick of RAM and tried again. Lo and behold, this time, like ol’ times – my PC returned to its good ol’ blazing speed, all set to rule over for at least an year!

As I’d written in the older post, I’ve a lot of emotional attachment to my P4MONSTER – a bond now resuscitated by its rebirth! Apart from the random virus attack (long back when Windows was my sole ‘vista’), it has never let me down! Even today, its modest hardware config is more than enough for my survival – to watch the occasional movie, do the random audio edit, write the much-needed blog post, listen to my favorite play list, and of course, read, read and READ till dad kicks me out of my room!

P4MONSTER is my second computer – the first one doesn’t even exist now, it was sold the day P4MONSTER stepped into my place. 25th March, 2004 was the day it became my buddy. Things weren’t rosy at the beginning, for,  I was stuck with a meagre 128 megs of RAM in the beginning (Dad read 512 as 128  – thanks to my LOVELY handwriting !). God, that was hell! I couldn’t even play a decent PC Game, despite the super-awesome 2.8 Ghz HT processor – I was stuck with the crappy piece of hardware (RAM)  for over a year. Yet, I tried to make do with incorrigibly slow start-up times, thanks to which, I’m accustomed to slow PCs now! The next year saw me fish out two thousand bucks from my pocket money for an extra 256 DDR1 (which was the stick that went bust recently. )

The RAM stick was the first among a huge array of accessories. To date, I’ve bought two optical mice (Dad destroyed one, in anger!), one keyboard, A DVD Writer and CD Writer (after my original LITE-ON COMBO Drive crushed a CD while burning it!), 512 MB RAM (borrowed from Abhi chettan) and my prized possession Creative SBS 2.1 speakers! Measly, compared to what today’s PCs have to offer, but more than enough for me!

I’ve a lot of pleasant memories about P4MONSTER – most of them being connected to the internet. I was among the first kids in my area to get broadband. BSNL had just rolled out the flagship DataOne and I was among its first 2000 customers for sure. I made the most out of 2-8 unlimited download (during my 12th boards and entrance exam holidays, nonetheless). DataOne has played a great role in kindling by blogging instincts! But, the dream got bust after my dismal entrance exam results (I got an extra zero, after that 200 rank parents were expecting! ), I lost DataOne and entered a dismal phase of my life (a year and a half, to be precise) without internet. DataOne returned to my life, later, in October 2007.

As of now, my buddy’s about 5 years and 4 months old. High time to get a new PC, yes. But I’m waiting, cause I don’t wanna abandon my MONSTER.  Even if I buy a new PC/Lappie in the coming weeks/months (hopefully, not years, the P4MONSTER shall remain close to my heart!

P.S.

If that was too geeky, please excuse.

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2. B.Tech in CSE = Computer Engineer?
3. Break free!