The life of a dinosaur

I often describe myself as a technological dinosaur mostly because I have not entered into the furious and pricey rush to upgrade and refresh, every six months or so, the few technological items that I do own.

This is actually a source of pride for me. Call me Wehrlesaurus T-wrecks. Muwaaahhhhh. (The "T" stands for technology; the "wrecks" speaks for itself; the "muwaaahhhh" is the T-wrecks mating call).

I do not have an iPad; I do not iPhone. Basically, I do not eCare. I have no Blackberries, Blueberries or Cranberries. More basically, perhaps, is simply that iDecline. Thank you.

But this e-Attitude finally caught up with me this past week.

My printer, after five years of apparently prolonged and faithful service beyond the call of duty, stopped printing. Small pools of ink started jetting themselves on the bottom of the printer instead of where they belonged in nice little microdots vectored and lasered onto the paper.

It was time to upgrade. Friends advised me not to repair the printer, it's cheaper to just go buy a new one.

So my wife and I ran to Walmart and promptly bought a nice HP something or other that has wireless connection, and can scan, copy and print. It was also lightweight and compact; at least, compared to what I had, which was a bigger HP something or other. I was excited.

I called a friend who is Mac-proficient and he said he would help install the printer for me. He came over, and within minutes discovered that the new printer is compatible only with my MacBook's 10.7 operating system. Unfortunately for me, my MacBook is still thriving on its nearly six-year-old 10.4 OS X. But it's outdated. It has not been upgraded over the years and apparently can't communicate with the newer generation of anything.

I'm in complete denial. 10.7? When did that happen? T-wrecks strikes again.

My friend, Chad, said he would try to find an old 10.6 disc somewhere in the hopes of upgrading my trusty laptop, which I use primarily for writing stuff anyway. Even a 10.6 upgrade should get the computer talking to the printer, but we'll see.

If that fails, it looks like we might have to get a brand new laptop. "You should think about getting a new computer anyhow," Chad said. "Five years is a long time." This bugs me because if I spend $1000 on something, and it still works fine, then I'm going to use it until the day it dies. And if upgrades come every six months or so, which is what my colleagues in IT tell me, then my factory-new $1000 computer is nearly obsolete before I can get it home. Sheesh.

For now, we'll play it by ear. After all, I've already purchased the printer.

Muwaaahhhh.