Find a light switch in your house. A good stiff one, which is just a little hard to move. Now click it about twice a second for several seconds.

That is the sound which came out of my hard drive last night.

Yup. My 5-year-old personal computer is dead. It’s bleedin’ deceased. It’s shuffled off this mortal coil. Etcetera.

Fortunately I backed up everything a couple of weeks ago, just after a virus scare. So all I lost was a few photos and my email archives. Nothing earth-shaking.

I have already, with the help of co-worker Jeremy, put together a shopping cart over at New Egg which I will soon submit, and then, for the first time in about eight years, build my own computer.

But this weekend I will enjoy 48 hours without a computer. Maybe I will read a book, or something.