dude! you don't like your dell?

Yesterday hobbitt and I spent most of the day with my cousin J., who decided he'd get a new computer. We had spent a lot of time discussing it with him before he ordered it, so he got what he needed and not more than he could use. He went from Windows 98 to XP, and from AOL 6.0 to AOL 9.0. We made sure he got all his photos (and they are many) transferred from one machine to the other, and all his preferences and settings that we could transfer.

J. tried to be positive about it. He knows how to do what he does with his machine and nothing more. He knows the commands and icons but doesn't have a clue about what they really are or how it all works. Any change was going to be difficult, and we tried to make this as painless for him as possible.

He was pretty miserable. We are prepared to reinstall his old machine and buy his new one (what the hell - I think we have a room that doesn't already have a computer - though hobbitt's got 4 in his office now and frankly I think that's enough). I want to think that after we left, he was able to relax a little and start to poke around the new AOL screens. I know he signed on because I was on IM at the time. He immediately goes "away" now, as he hates hates HATES instant messaging, being a hunt-and-peck typist and probably a little ADD to boot.

Poor guy. It was hard for us to keep our enthusiasm down yesterday, because at druid labs we're all about the new gizmos and faster whatsits and bigger thingamabobs. Then again, we're easily amused.