Toys

Southern Man is still busy consolidating the remnants of the thirty-five computers and has obtained a few new toys to enhance his home computing experience:

• A older Belkin SOHO KVM with audio, PS/2 only, for the older single-monitor computers...
• A little USB hub to help share a few USB components with the above-mentioned computers...
• A brand new Belkin SOHO dual-head USB KVM for the newer dual-monitor computers...
• A Vantec NexStar 3 USB hard drive enclosure to help manage all those old drives, which is even now busily transferring files from an old work PC drive to a more permanant location...
• An iomega Prestige one-terrabyte external hard drive that Southern Man picked up on impulse at Radio Shack for a mere eighty bucks...

This requires some moral compromise on Southern Man's part. He's still mighty steamed at Belkin over an older dual-head KVM that cost a fortune and never did really work right. And iomega can never, ever be forgiven for the abomination that was the Zip Drive. On the other hand, the computing corner in the living room (yes, in the living room; only single men can do this) now has connections for eight - count 'em, eight - desktop systems. He's hoping to end up with four or so - two on the single monitor for fun and two on the dual monitors for work - plus an MP3 server and a file server tucked under the table somewhere. Now if he can only get a Windows 98 system up and running again and get back into those old games; there are about eight big boxes of diskettes and CDs behind the couch waiting for machines to be ready for them...

And, as mentioned in passing above, as of this morning Southern Man is single again. He plans to stay that way for the forseable future. Go out from time to time or casual dating - yes; Southern Man has no intentions of giving up the fun that goes with an active social life. But if Southern Man ever acts like he's even thinking about getting seriously involved with anyone again, his teenage children have instructions to pick up the nearest blunt instrument and beat him with it until he returns to his senses.