Rant 292 / Acer Is Recycling Their Rejects By Using Them As Replacements?

Guess what I've just discovered. This replacement computer isn't actually new. I accidentally deleted my Powerpoint for my role as Table Topics Master for the next Toastmasters meeting, so I used my TuneUp Undelete to recover everything that contains the filename "TT" which is short for "Table Topics".

Here is what it found:

Notice the year 2002 for the last files? I received this from Acer Support in June 2008. At first I thought it was for testing purposes or something. Maybe it was how they operate in their Quality Assurance policies.

Then I looked at the files in the middle and noticed the year 2003, then 2005. Obviously, something is quite wrong here. So I did a two more searches using "exe", then"dat". The search using "exe" gave me only files deleted between 2007 to 2009. The next search was a little more interesting.


At this point, it is quite easy to see that this hard disk has been in use regularly since at least 2002. Therefore I'm using a 7-year-old hard disk, minimum. Being a curious guy, I did yet another scan, this time for "wav".

This shocked me. The folder name says "Florensia", which is a MMORPG I had tried once. The date made me doubt my memory. Did I get this comp before 2008?? Then I scrolled up.


Phew. This means the previous owner of this comp played Florensia too. Unless this isn't a coincidence and TuneUp Undelete is giving me screwed up dates/times. The latter is quite unlikely but the former isn't any more possible either.

Acer, what is this? You gave me an antique to replace my first laptop! Are you recycling your rejects in this manner? Never mind. I've already decided to buy a new com when the next expo is open.

Then again, were there any 250GB hard disks in the market in 2002? I can't remember. If they were already in existence then, I'm right. If they weren't, I'm wrong and this whole rant can be deleted.