Journal: News & Comment

It's easy to keep a nerd happy

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I bought a new computer desk a few days ago because my old one was covered in too much junk. Although it's also from Ikea, I've had the old white melamine desk for almost twenty years, and it wasn't designed for all the devices, wires, disks, and papers I had stacked on it.

The new one is, and everything looks rather neat now, enough that I enjoy being in my office/music room again. The workstation itself took only about an hour to set up (with help from my two year old daughter). Getting all the computer stuff arranged and hooked together took a fair bit longer.

Underneath part of the old desk, I also discovered a remnant of double-sided tape, which used to hold up the external "microcoupler" for the first modem my family ever owned, a 300 baud Hayes Micromodem II purchased in 1983 for about $500. With that modem, I made my first connections to bulletin board systems (BBSs), where I met some friends I still have today. Through high school, university, work, and marriage, the old white desk sat under every subsequent computer I owned, from an Apple II to my current Power Mac, as well as many, many cups of coffee and other beverages.

Now it looks like my dad will take the old desk to prop up some of his computers, replacing a desk even older and more decrepit. I knew it would go to a good home.

The new one was an anniversary present from my wife (our anniversary was in August, but I just got around to the purchase). So, to her: thank you -- yes, for the desk, but more for everything else in our lives together.

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