However, I had picked up an external HD to back up my system (a logical thought after the recent computer chaos), but the unit I bought, a sleek black Western Digital "Passport" drive requires more juice from the computer's USB ports than it is providing, and the magic "accessory" cable (which plugs into two USB jacks and thus doubles the power) seems to not currently exist anywhere on the planet. I went through a few rounds with TigerDirect on this (first via their e-mail service, which never seems to get any attention), and was VERY frustrated by their on-line service rep who obviously had NO CLUE about what unit I was talking about, despite my sending her the URLs! Fortunately, after I gave up on that, I called their regular customer service folks, explained the problem, they checked to see if they (or anybody else) had the cable, realized that without the cable the unit was NOT going to work on my system, and immediately issued me a Return Authorization, given that I would exchange it for some other external HD. They had an Iomega unit with almost 3x the storage for only $10 more (actually, $20 less after the rebate comes through), so I opted for that, and should have it here in a day or so.
I must admit, TigerDirect is VERY good about this sort of stuff ... once you get to somebody who is actually interested in customer service (as opposed to the gal I had on the chat thing, who did not "get" what the unit was, obviously didn't "get" what the problem was, insisted that I go through warranty replacement via Western Digital despite the issue being an accessory that was needed and not available, and then suggested a power unit that was for internal drives ... MORON!). At least now I should have this puppy backed up by the weekend.
The other thing I got off the "to-do" list this morning was a Second Life issue. Yes, since I have my "transplant patient" machine up and running, I am now back on S.L. and in the last week I actually rented an apartment for the princely sum of about a buck a week (yeah, I know ... but that's less than one soda ... c'mon), or 250 "Linden dollars". Now, I had used up L$20 of my initial L$250 in uploading pics for my profile, so I had to borrow L$20 from "the real estate lady" to make my initial week's rent payment because, when we were doing this, the "Linden Exchange" was not working. Unfortunately, that has continued not working since, so I've not been able to "buy" any Lindens, and I was down to 2 days left on the rental. I finally contacted "the landlord" and worked out a deal where I sent him a few bucks via PayPal, he paid me the equivalent in Lindens, and I paid the "rental box" for the time. A bit convoluted, but at least I didn't end up "being evicted"!
That's a snapshot of me in my snazzy (although minimally furnished) high-rise apartment ... it almost feels like home!