That file server I worked so hard on is having a hardware failure — probably the memory, CPU, or motherboard. The easiest and best way to diagnose this kind of fault is to swap out parts until the problem goes away. Trouble is, I don’t have spares.

For years I’ve had a Mac as my main machine, once I had to buy a laptop for school. My Mac has mostly just worked, and well. (I will almost certainly buy one again when I’m in the market.)

Before that I had all desktop PCs, back when ordinary mortals couldn’t afford laptops for home. I used to build them from scratch and repair them. I had spare bits lying around, just like woodworkers have scrap material. I don’t miss the actual fiddling with hardware much, but I do miss the sense of mastery that came with it. And I miss the part stockpile for fixing the server.