Down with the shed. Enter the Chromebook

Finally, it was time to take down our garden bike shed, in preparation for the arrival of one larger shed to hold the bikes, mower and gardening tools. After a late breakfast I set to, with same power screwdriver I used to erect it three and a half years ago, I carefully dismantled it, and Clare bagged up the screws and labelled the components. It's due to go to the Steiner school playground for another life as an equipment store. Apart from one panel water damaged because rainwater accumulated at that corner of its concrete base, it's still in remarkably good condition, with a good number of years of life left in it. The little tool shed is quite ruinous, but it has been there since we bought the house twenty years ago, so it's hardly surprising.

 

It only took us an hour, then we both returned to preparing things - lesson plans for Clare and two funeral services for me. It was four by the time we left the house for a walk into town and then a bus down to the Millennium Centre to book tickets for a show at half term when Rhiannon comes to stay. We decided to catch the bus back to the centre for a cup of tea at John Lewis', open until six for refreshments and seven for purchases. I had my usual nose around in the electronics department and came away with a Samsung Chromebook at  nearly twenty percent discount. My sister June has been saying for some time that she'd like a small light computer she can use on her lap, to look things up when she's watching TV (as I and many others do these days), so I thought I'd buy one and set it up with her account details for a try-out.

I spent an hour after supper before my weekly episode of 'Young Montalbano' familiarising myself with the machine and configuring it with June's favourites. Then, when I deliver it, the only thing remaining to do will be to upload all her data to Google Drive, and show her how to use it.  I wonder how easily she'll adjust to the change of habitual usage?

I found the Samsung a pleasure to use: good keyboard, bright sharp easy to read screen, quick to start up, not to mention long battery life. Thinking of what my sister uses a computer for - browsing, emails, the occasional document and photo management - it's adequate for her needs, and easier to live with than any Windows operating system with its endless notifications, and different ways of achieving the same task. I'd find its narrow simplicity constraining if it was my only computer, but as several computer journalists have observed in the last year, it's possible to work on it for days at a time before you need to use a tool or a program that is more powerful or versatile.