AYO Technology, Part 2

SUCCESS! It was touch-and-go for a while, but I have succeeded in installing the thingy to the whatsit. End result = INTERWEBS!

So, I suppose I have already spoiled the cathartic ending by telling you the result, but allow me to recount the tenseness of the situation:

For whatever reason, I decided to install the adapter last night before going to bed, instead of waiting until this "morning" (Read: noon) when I woke up to do so. I popped the instructional CD into the drive, it "whrrrrred," and finally produced a menu.

Step 1: Choose the correct product number. Let me note, all of the numbers of the similar products made by this company--Encore Electronics--are EXACTLY the same, with the exception of ONE letter hidden in the middle that is different from all the rest. Beware the unobservant, for ye shall fail. Anyways, after staring blankly at the box for a while, I figured out that mine was the one with "L" in the middle and duly selected it. Check.

Step 2: Find the instructions. Of course, when I opened up the instruction manual, apprehensively hopeful, all it said was "Step 1: Install the adapter. Step 2: When the adapter is installed, the computer should automatically detect new hardware." Argh! So no information about how to actually install the adapter inside the computer. Not to be dissuaded, I moved along to Step 3.

Step 3: Pop 'er open and see what I can make happen. I am the kind of person who likes to get things done, so I decided to forge ahead without any supervision, much like a three-year-old heading for the highway. Squatting like Cro Magnon woman in my underwear at 2 in the morning, I seized my tiny screwdriver and let my computer have it. Step 3 1/2: Remember which translucent board covered in 80,000 miniscule prongs and knobs is the motherboard. This one ALMOST threw me, except at the last minute I remembered my motherboard is green and my similar-looking video card is red. Were I colorblind, this would have been a toughie, but I prevailed.

Step 4: Plug the adapter into the motherboard slot without breaking off any of the 80,000 prongs that connect it. This took a few tries. I am extremely nervous attaching things to delicate machinery. I always expect to hear some "crunch!" or "snap!" and then have a heavenly voice shower down around me, informing me that I now have to pay $150 for whatever part I just broke.

Step 5: Close up the case and turn on the computer. In my case, I have to add "and furtively wait lest the computer emit some horrible electronic death scream." (Think R2-D2.) But it did NOT die in agony! And, like the manual promised, the computer did the rest and installed the appropriate drivers. ("Drivers" makes me think of little men driving e-cars around some unseen track in my computer to make things work.)

Lo! The internet! It connected! My wireless adapter is now installed. For a piece of electronics, it's pretty cute. It has three antennae, though, which makes me feel it was probably a freak in the adopt-an-adapter bin before I gave it a home. But it is now my little freak, and it is bringing YOU this post.