Dial-up

Who uses it: Computer users
What it means: A type of modem that connects through telephone lines, and is much slower than cables or wireless Internet connections.
How you can use it: When describing something out-dated and slow.

My laptop, which has been a great and faithful tool for the past three years, is showing signs of age. The power cord is fraying, though not enough to be a fire hazard; the battery died a long time ago. I finally ordered new ones from Gateway last week, and now they're on 4-6 week back order. More ominously, the screen is starting to black out on me -- not regularly, but a couple of times, when I've jiggled something wrong. I'm afraid this machine's days are numbered.

The Internet Explorer program that came loaded onto this computer isn't working properly, either; when I try to launch it, I get a runtime error that says that "the application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way."

Therefore, when I'm traveling, sometimes the only way I can get online is through my old dial-up Compuserve account, which is what I'm using now. Posts tomorrow and Monday will be considerably shorter than this one, since the process is so slow.

Nevertheless, I am deeply happy to be here in Montreal, with Claire and her parents and her sister Carolyn, and for once, I have more important things to do than sit here and wrestle with the laptop.

See you tomorrow.