So, last year, in October, I came back to the states for a visit. Taking advantage of electronics prices in the states, as compared to in France, I purchased a Palm Zire 72, a wi-fi card to go with it, and a new Konica-Minolta Dimage Z3 digital camera.
Well, this was an experiment that didn't work as well as one might have hoped. The Zire 72 was virtually recalled for a problem with the paint (all the paint on mine came off after a few days) and the battery suffered serious damage in a failed experiment involving French electricity. The Z3 was a nightmare, and suffered from innumerable glitches.
In the end, I couldn't be bothered to deal with getting my products fixed in France, so now that I'm back there's been a flurry of warranty work - the palm is now a brand new unit, and the camera has been sent off. However, note that at the beginning of this post I said 'October 2004' and it is now October, 2005. The camera is going to be a close call, and they may try to charge me to fix it - I'm waiting with baited breath to see if they repair it or not. Actually, the best solution would be for the US postal system to lose it, because I insured it for its purchase price. But I don't think I can be that lucky. So we'll see what happens, and I'll keep you all posted.