Computer update

So I never ended up actually calling Dell. I stumbled upon a page with all the computer's specs, and that answered all my questions about the computer itself.

That only left questions about how it shipped. But I have an unrelated situation that one of my parents is going to have to help me with, so I arranged for them to come over (with the car) at a time when, if the delivery of the computer didn't work out, the computer would be at a courier depot waiting for me to pick it up. So worst case I could have my parents go about half an hour out of their way and drive me to pick up the computer.

Then in my usual decision-making strategy, which is to fret and fuss until I reach my maximum tolerance for worrying, then throw up my hands and make a decision, any decision, I ordered my computer on Wednesday evening. At the very last minute, I decided to upgrade my videocard to an Nvidia Geforce. A bit extremisch, I know, but I wasn't 100% certain the ATI Raedon would last me five years, and the Nvidia was only $200 to upgrade, but retails for close to $500. So now my new computer will have a videocard with more memory than my entire old computer, which is a bit ridiculous.

Turns out I needn't have worried about shipping. I had been frantically and fruitlessly Googling for "dell canada shipping courier" "How does Dell Canada ship?" "Dell Canada shipping Toronto" etc., so here is the answer: In midtown Toronto, Dell Canada ships by Purolator. Dell Canada might also ship by Purolator in other parts of Canada, I have no way of knowing, but in midtown Toronto they ship by Purolator. This is extremely convenient for me since there is a depot point just a block from my home, and I can easily carry this computer one block.

So I ordered the computer last Wednesday, and it shipped last Friday, which was 10 days before the estimated ship date (although they might be using the Scotty method to calculate their ship dates).

I also figured out how to convert my ICQ history to text files. In ICQ 2001b (yes, I never upgrade unless strictly necessary) you just open the history in question, click on "Save As..." and it will let you save it as a .txt file. So you do have to do every user separately, but it's rather straight-forward. So my histories have been converted and stashed in my gmail account, which makes the idea of data transfer problems a lot less terrifying.

So that's my story :) Further updates if warranted when my new comp. is delivered and up and running.