Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

That's a rhetorical question, of course.  All you scientific types who read my blog understand that beings and their reproductive methods almost certainly evolved at the same time.  My case is a bit different.  I'm more interested in knowing which came first:  my hatred of computers, or their hatred of me?  (For the record, computers in general came first, but I predate the first personal home/office versions.)

I am semi-computerless this week.  How so?  Because my new computer, less than two months old, up and...  Well, it didn't exactly die, like its predecessor.  It's more like it had a stroke and couldn't do anything afterward.  I phoned the manufacturer's help line and spent two hours trying to see if a "system restore" would work (all right, 1.5 hours trying to fix the computer and a half hour trying to get me to buy an extended warranty).  Well, it got the computer functioning again, but all my installed programs were lost.  (I'm glad I didn't take my installation CD's back to NM.)  After hanging up and eating dinner, I tried seeing if my files were lost, too.  For some reason, I "[didn't] have permission" to view the file directory on my own computer.  I gave that up and tried to download my preferred web browser from the internet.  That didn't work either, after several tries.  The rest of the evening (what little was left), I enjoyed a couple of books and pondered how nice life might be without computers or TV.  (I might even give up radio, if I could have my mom's record collection.)

Today, I called the help desk again.  They took over my computer and discovered that I wasn't lying to them (i.e. they couldn't download the web browser either).  Over the next two hours (I wonder if it's mandatory for a help call to take that long) they talked me through a "reformatting" of the computer to its factory settings.  Then, they still couldn't download my browser!

Yes, at this point I was pondering if it wouldn't be easier to take my computer back to the store and get a replacement.  However (I'm guessing), there's no way the manufacturer would agree to that, or else it might look like they admit to making faulty computers (or even the occasional anomaly).  In this case, he gave the vague reason that my hard drive was "corrupted".  So, the guy said that he'd send me a free recovery disk -- for just $25 to $30 shipping and handling.  "For one disk?!" I exclaimed.  "No, for five disks," he responded.

Oh, of course.  Doesn't $5 to $6 per disk (for five disks) sound better than $25 to $30 (for one)?

His "supervisor" (someone authorized to obtain my credit card information, most likely) came on the line and said, "since this is a fairly new computer" she'd waive the $27.03 shipping charge.  Oh, how too, too nice of her!  (Bleah!)  They'll e-mail me the instructions and call after the disks arrive, to see if they worked.

I don't have a clue how to set odds or place bets, but I'll take your money just the same.