Like all things in this world, my computer too is showing signs of age. At times, the CD drive stops working, which I tend to by taking off the case cover and reattaching the connecting wires after blowing on them in an attempt to remove dust. This is an easy task, since I keep my computer in a state of "easy undress"; all screws removed, with the inner wires arranged for easy access. However, while you might think that this redressal would allow me to get on with my work, my computer decides otherwise during the next boot: Error: Floppy Drive(s) Fail. After the floppy is fixed, it's the keyboard's turn, where one encounters the funniest IBM joke yet: Keyboard fail. Press F1 to continue.

One by one, every component in my ancient, but efficient Cyrix M2 based machine is acting up, clamouring for attention. Maybe it is time to move on to a better system? Yes, perhaps. But contrary to what people might think, a 233Mhz with 96mb RAM is adequate for most of my work. C++, PHP, and Word processing can be handled quite nicely with what I have. It also helps me write faster software, since it is easier to notice slow code on a slow machine. As far as image processing and designing are concerned, I do have to make some compromizes, but on the brighter side, my interface designs end up looking cleaner and less cluttered - a by-product of the efficiency I have to maintain while creating them.

My PC may be quirky, it may unpredictably eat up floppies or scratch CDs; it may not have a working power switch; it may look like it's the immediate successor to the ENIAC; but it's still the best damn PC in my eyes. Let's just hope it holds for some more time.