I did not think it would be so hard to find PC133 memory for my niece’s purpley iMac but it was. And it made me realize two things, either I am a complete geek who hangs with complete geeks or we have a long way to go in bridging the digital divide.

Let me sum up my four hour adventure with this exchange. “Hi, I need some PC133 256MB memory or something backward compatible,” I ask. “Okay, do you want internal or external memory,” was the reply. “No, not storage, memory,” I sigh. “Oh, you mean like USB memory?” The exchange went on with me helping the clerk do a search on the store’s computer. There, I point to the screen, do you have that. “No, I don’t think so, but we could probably special order it for you.”

Is this a literacy thing? Or is it something more sinister? I half expected the comment, “Oh they do not make those parts anymore. It is obsolete, but we can sell you an entirely new computer system.” And what happened to all the neighborhood computer stores? I really should get out more.