Schroedinger's Computer (Sort Of)

I had a completely different entry planned for tonight. I've edited the photos and everything, but I can't get at them right now. So instead we're going with my B material: the story of how I snagged this:


And what I've been doing since getting it home.

I first saw this deal on a SONY VAIO laptop when I was taking pictures for the Round Robin Photo Challenge last week. It was only $599.99, with no rebate to mail in. I wasn't initially going to buy it, or any computer just yet, but then the Compaq started failing ever more spectacularly, and I knew I had to replace it. So Tuesday at lunchtime, I went back and checked out the possibilities at Best Buy. The SONY was the obvious choice. Over a a gig of RAM, 120 GB of storage, and a screen about an inch wider than my old one.


So tonight after work I told John I was going to go buy it. Off I went to Best Buy on Broadway near Wilmot. It took a good 15 minutes to get a sales guy, during which time I noticed that the computer is a closeout, marked down $300 from $899.99. Then the sales guy told me that they were out of that model. Their computer said they had two in inventory, but he'd looked earlier, twice, and they were nowhere to be found. He also said that the computer showed seven of them at the other location across town. So I went to Safeway, bought sausage, came home, cooked the sausage but didn't eat it, and drove 35 minutes or so to get to First and Wetmore. There, unlike at the other store, I got help right away, from a sales guy and a supervisor - both of whom promptly told me that they don't even carry the SONY model that the other store was sending people to buy!


Well, obviously I got it. How did that happen? It all has to do with the title of this entry. See, as long as nobody actually looked for them at the northwest location, they were simultaneously present (according to the east side location's computer) and absent (according to the northwest sales staff). The Wetmore guys didn't even have a model number to look up, and I hadn't thought to write it down. They tried to call the other store, but, as they predicted, the other store's computer department didn't answer the phone.

Then the supervisor guy climbed up a ladder and started looking at the locked up inventory of SONY laptops - and potential became reality. They did indeed have them. They just didn't know about it! Now they can display one and sell the rest. Good for them, great for me, 'cause I got to take one home.

Now, seven and a half hours later, I'm typing this on the old computer as the new one loads files off the external hard drive. I have no idea how that's going to work out, except that it knows to copy settings and I did copy all the Documents and Settings files to the drive before I started. There will probably be a lot of dupe files from the Maxtor backup program, but better too much than too little. I can clean it out later.

But first I've got to get some sleep!

Karen