xela | Doin' the time warp!

Posting from my phone - not because I'm away from my desk, but because I just installed a new HD and RAM in my MacBook Pro, and sitting here listening to the quiet clatter of the DVD reader as it installs the OS brought to mind the very first time I did this.

Which I realized with a start was twenty years ago. Probably, in fact, twenty years ago this month, upgrading my SE/30's stock (IIRC 20 MB) drive to what seemed at the time an enormous 105 MB. And it's RAM, IIRC, to 4.

Then, of course, it was an adventure. Starting with having to mail-order a special long-bladed T-15 screwdriver and a "case cracker" tool to pry the bezel off the case once I'd pulled the screws. And culminating in a series of carefully studied precautions for working around the back end of a CRT without getting electrocuted.

(I am reminded how, back then, even normal-length torx screwdrivers were hard to come by - a change I had occasion to be grateful for today, when I only noticed after I was half way done that my T6 had gone missing - a problem solved in less than a half-hour by going to Tags.)

I still get a sort of visceral pleasure out of this sort of thing. It's delicate work, taking a careful touch - and the boy who was always made fun of for being a clumsy oaf still takes a secret pleasure in wbeing able to do this sort of thing without breaking anything.

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