Technology Backlash!

I don't know what's going on here. First, I have a hard-drive crash that takes a bunch of data with it. I actually took it to one of those data recovery places. It was $95 to look it over, but then it would be anywhere from $1300 - $2500 to fix it. Yikes! No way I could justify spending that kind of money. But I forked over the $95 because I was curious as to what went wrong. A few days later they called with the verdict: It's dead. Totally dead. No recovery possible -- which they said is rare these days to see this kind of crash. At least this way, I don't need to agonize over the decision that spending the money could recover the data...

Then the other day, my wife picks up my Prono remote and it won't turn on! I look it over and nothing looks wrong. I get a paperclip out and press a little reset button on the back and nothing. Argh... I set it back on it's charging cradle and walk away. A few seconds later it chirps. I go back and notice it's working. As I pick it up off the charger, the screen fades away and it's dead again. Seems it now only wants to work sitting on the charger!? I seem to have angered the techno-gods. I'm feeling their wrath.