On December 11, on our way to San Diego (Mary and me), my Powerbook G3 got left behind on the bus or at the light rail station. We did not recover it.

I don’t recommend starting a vacation like this but the upside was that this was such a big deal that we could only console each other.

We will skip the personal data issue for now. (This Powerbook didn’t have a lot on it. Still not good.)

This post is about getting a replacement. Home owners insurance usually covers stuff like this and ours did with a $1,000 deductible.

So what happened yesterday? Steve Jobs announces the MacBooks, Intel inside, laptops. Do I jump for the latest technology or stay with tried-and-true older stuff.

I decided on tried-and-true and smaller. I ordered a 12-inch Powerbook today. It was a refurbished model that was the same (even processor speed) as the current new model but $200 less. The insurance check just about covered it so we didn’t need much out-of-pocket.

It’s on its way. The first thing I will do is configure the firmware password in case this one disappears like the last one.