Don't drink and drive... even in SL !

I just thought I would share my story which begins badly but ends happily

So last Sunday night I was slouching around on my beach chatting friends - usual kinda stuff having a really nice evening and I reached over for my mouse to change the viewing angle and the full glass of white wine I had just placed there decided to get in the way and emptied itself all over my laptop! Splooosh!!

Now it turns out that contrary to popular belief wine and windows don't go together very well and my laptop started going BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP in a very ominous way. I would note that it has never gone BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP before so I started to get a bit worried by this. Luckily the laptop then shut down and the bleeping stopped. I mopped up all the wine and fetched my hairdrier ( admitedly I cursed a few times ) and started to blow dry the laptop. Unfortunately some of the wine must have somehow got in the hairdrier because after a few minutes that flashed and went bang. So now it was getting even worse, I had no computer and no means of drying my hair! I mean how bad can things possibly get?

I managed to get the computer started again after alot of BLEEP BLEEP BLEEPs but it just wasn't the same... Everytime I tried to type anything in chat it was going "jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjhjjjejjjljjjjljjjjojj" my friends just couldn't understand what I was saying... and it would crash every few minutes. I think my laptop got alcohol poisoning.

Ok, Monday morning I phoned my friend who I always phone when I have computer worries and he said I think it may be time for a new one. So armed with my friend and my husbands credit card we headed off down to the computer shop and picked up a brand spanking shiny new Sony. I'm not a very sophisticated computer user so my friend whisked it away to set it up for me. He said that these laptops come with all sorts of rubbish on you don't need and he wanted to "fine tune" vista so that I can actually use it. He set it all up and switched it to classic mode, which apparently solves many of vista's problems. If a computer doesn't look like windows 95 I haven't got a clue what I'm doing so that was fine by me.

Back onto SL - it looked absolutely fantastic I was delighted! The colours, the textures were amazing - I never seen SL look so good I was delighted until....

Another friend told me I should download the preview viewer beta thingy...

Second Life looked SOOOO goood I nearly wet myself! The light, the reflections the sky! It's simply stunning. It was like I'd spent the last two years looking at the world through dirty spectacles and just switched to contact lenses. Breathtaking!!

My husband likes playing Call of Duty on the ps3, and I reckon my SL looks better than that now (He likes running around shooting at people and explosions and stuff - typical man - I prefer to wander around and chat to nice ppl)

So the moral of the story?

Don't drink and drive - but if you need an excuse for a new laptop - simply pour chardonnay on your old one and hijack your partners credit card. If do pour wine on your laptop I recommend the Sony - I have all the graphics at maximum and it runs absolutely fine on Vista.

The laptop I bought was a Sony VGN-FZ31Z - here's the link [ http://www.microanvika.com/product.asp?PNO=SON14992 ]


Enjoy!

Amy

xx

Well little Amy Stork, if I was a little younger and you were my partner, and if I discovered that post of yours, I would muse on Certain Things that just might occur in the very short term to your good self.

These Certain Things may just possibly involve the removal of some of your clothing, handcuffs, and the application of a slipper to a part of your person

Of course, this would not detract from your longer-term enjoyment of SL, but sad to relate you just might possibly be standing up rather than sitting down, while using Second Life on your new computer in the shorter term

/me pours wine on laptop

@John,

I didn't do it on purpose ( said with childish voice and attempt to look innocent )

No it really was an accident, but a happy one in the end.

Good post! I love happy endings.

Thanks I love happy endings too...

...but I still have a broken hairdrier which means I can't go out socially - but hey with my new Fairylight viewer I guess I'll just stay in

Search google for "how to make defunct laptops into hairdriers" I'm sure you will find your answer there

""Luckily the laptop then shut down and the bleeping stopped.""

That "Luckily" is fun.

LMAO

We have had that situation in reverse. My fiance has spilled stuff on his laptop...but managed to salvage it temporarily.....cleaned it out and so on....but when he bought me MY computer (amped up del xps410) and saw how great the graphics were.....he went right out and got himself a new laptop. He likes to run around and shoot people and probably plays the same games your hubby does. LOL I like SL cause it's pretty....and if I feel like a shoot-em-up game I just pop in one of our Call of Duty or FEAR or Crysis disks and I'm off to beat the bad guys.
But graphics do indeed make a world of difference in SL. I know a lot of folks who complain about how SL looks with the updated viewers are probably having the same issue and don't even realize it. I'm glad you got your drinking & driving problem solved...hehe.... but it sounds like maybe this time it turned into a 'happy accident'. *wink*

Good graphics definitely is the key I refer back to this old post of about a year ago of my troubles getting ripple water to work on the same laptop that is currently being adapted into a hairdrier...

Well my computer has 3 gigs of ram, but one muses you may not be able to sit down for a year or so to get that. Unless of course Amy you can cause matters to rise up to the situation, which may solve a few problems with your ripples-

I don't drink but I have found that the sugar in coffee can really play havok when it crystalizes in a keyboard.

My computer repair guy, told me the thing he cleans out of laptops most of all is "Beer". I am thinking it is mostly guys that spill that in there.
/me me blinks and winks, I set my drink far away from my laptop. I never spill my drink on it, but I most definitly spit my drink there quite often, generally because of Trout. Trout, I need a new laptop please wire me those funds for that spanking before I have to cancel it.

The crappy looking avatars with scary shadows and every single flaw in the mesh dramatically emphasized!

/me spits tea on new laptop...

BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP

/me oh oh, grabs her morning coffee and runs

Hmmm some do look a little odd - but not all - some avs look great I think it's alot to do with the skin and shape quality. As there is more adoption of the new viewer I'm pretty sure people will make the necessary ammendments to "look good" again. The long term benefits far outweigh the short term pain. In fact alot of stuff will need to be updated and re-textured so that it looks right - this I would imagine is good new for all the builders and designers who get to sell the same thing twice. I for one will completely replace my *coughs* wardrobe, and get new stuff for my beach.

The dodgier looking skins seem to be the solid ones - personally I favour the semi-transparent ones but only because I like to ramp up the pigment to look tanned.

Meanwhile I just completely wrapped my new laptop in clingfilm to prevent any further accidents.

I wonder what the US equivelent of Sony Vaio FZ31Z T8300 2.4Ghz 4GB Notebook PC is all of the one I looked for are UK versions

Mine are quite good:



My avi still looks horrid in Windlight.



Yes, I'll turn off the atmospheric shaders unless I'm taking a landscape pic.


LL has already made some improvements to the way avatars look under Windlight, so it *should* be possible to make more, but they don't seem inclined to do so. I don't wander around staring at the skies and water...I look at builds and avatars, and I know I'm not the only one, so I see no particular justification in damaging that content to 'improve' the other.

That's worth an extra point or two in the ratings

lol, I was just entertaining Trout with it when he was sick a few weeks ago...wasn't meant to be rated.

Absolutely Hot! But I'm worried when a nurse, no matter how beautiful, is standing in front of a wall soaked and splattered with blood.

I'm trying to make up for the crack about you and Ricardo getting married. /me gently slides a mouse pie toward Ann.

It's always the doctor's fault. I'm just trying to distract you from his...mishap.

Unless his mishap was running his arm through a bandsaw and that's not the patient's blood, I'm still going to notice. There isn't much that's going to distract me if I'm bleeding out in some doctor's office. I may be a little ADD, but I focus really well when I'm about to die.