My new laptop arrived this morning, the laptop that was to solve my problems, and make sure I never went into the rabbit hole of Linux again. But no. The case had scratches and half torn-off stickers on it, plus some sticky goo on the bottom. It didn’t look good, and it got worse when I turned it on and found the screen was damaged. It had a ragged patch of dead pixels. The condition was described as “very good” and “professionally refurbished”, but clearly they’d got it from an office clearance and thrown it in a box without a glance.
I took photos of it and sent them to the seller. They asked me if I’d like a replacement. I tried the laptop first, and realised I didn’t like the screen anyway. It had this privacy feature which meant that someone looking from the side couldn’t see what you were typing. The trouble is, unless you looked absolutely straight on, neither could you. Just leaning back or tilting your head made the screen darken. So that settled it: the quality control and silly screen meant no replacement.
So I asked for a refund, and they sent me a returns slip, which said “Reason for return: damaged in transit.” That was devious. They were trying to fudge the Ebay records, and make it appear the fault wasn’t theirs. I don’t like writing negative reviews, and I’ve never written one before, but this time I probably should.
So I went back on Ebay and online reviews to see what other laptop would be suitable. I can’t justify the cost of a new one, especially as I haven’t got my end of contract payment yet. Apparently the Lenovo ThinkPad T480 is good. It’s a few years old, but better than the newer ones, which have gone down in quality. I was on the verge of buying one and then – I’m sorry to confess – I tried Linux again on my newest laptop. So that was the day gone.
It’s printmaking tomorrow and I chose some photos I might use. Here are a few, mostly taken with black and white film.
