26-Mar-2005

New Computer ... Sort of

So, the tech from Dell came yesterday.  Nice guy.  He was from California , and had a few stories about some of the extra work he did in several movies.  He also does animation/special effects, and was talking about how Paramount seems to have dropped off the map for a little while due to financial problems.  He also had a lot of insider info about movies in the works and sequels and such.  It was fun talking to him.  I hear Disney stole Toy Story 3 & 4 out from under Pixar and is working on them both at the same time....  But I can't really prove anything.  I don't have the interest to look up stuff like that on the web to see if any reputable leak sites can substantiate that.

I did the dishes while he took my laptop completely apart just to replace the touch pad.  I tell you, if they had brought in the support techs when they actually designed the case, the techs would have a lot to say about design changes....  He had to first remove the memory panel and memory cards on the bottom, then open up a few other compartments.  After taking off a lot of screws, he had to pull the main body apart and remove the LCD screen to get the palm rest area off (the palm rest is the area surrounding the entire keyboard and touch pad - the top side of the lower portion of the laptop case).  Turns out he replaced the palm rest, keyboard, and touch pad all together.  That was more that I was counting on, but I'm not going to complain.  If he had to replace the screen too, everything I look at when using my laptop would be brand new.  Talk about warranty’s worth.  They even replaced the missing rubber feet and would have replaced any missing screws if there were any absent.  I like this warranty thing.  One tip: if you ever get a laptop, get a Dell and get the full 4 year warranty.  (And don't even talk to me about Macs - PC architecture is sooo much better).  It is two years into my warranty, and I just had all that work done for free.  I have two more years of this, so I'm guessing I'll be getting some more new parts in the next two years.  The thing is, if you take perfect care of any system, it will last for at least three years without servicing , but accidents do happen, and that is what the warranty is for (covering for my stupidity even though I did the best I could to make sure I didn't hurt anything). 

On a related note, I'm thinking about wearing chain male for a while.  I keep shocking the crap out of myself and the 'male would prevent/dissipate a lot of that.

22-Mar-2005

New touch pad

So ESD (Electro-Static Discharge, the official name for the releasing of that charge you build up on a cool, dry day by rubbing some types of cloth in an act such as taking off a jacket) really bites.  I think it is the reason that part of my touch pad on my laptop is no longer working properly.  The thing is, I did everything right.  I took my jacket off and felt a slight charge build up, so I took out my metal pocket knife and walked over to the light switch plate on the wall here in CIT.  I touched the knife to the metal plate to "ground" myself.  Holding metal like that ensures that the transfer point is the end of the knife, not your finger tip and keeps you from feeling that nasty little zap.  Well, it still shocked the heck out of my fingers that wer holding the knife (I guess I should have seen that as a sign that I might still have a charge in me).  So knowing that I should be free of any noticeable charge, I sat back down at my desk and touched the touch pad on my Dell Inspirion 5100.  I though I felt a little zap, but didn't think anything of it until i moved my hand back to that part of the TP, when I noticed that the mouse pointer would almost stop when I was moving through that region.  Dang it.  There goes an hour on the phone with tech support trying to convince the guy on the other end that it isn't software related.  "No I didn't install any new software OR hardware."  "No, reinstalling the drivers doesn't fix it."  "What do you know, it does the same thing in safe mode."  "Nope, resetting the bios to factory defaults doesn't change the fact that I ruined minute electronic circuts with the tineist of charges on my finger tip."  "No, I'm not an ideot.  Is that really one of the questions?"  (That last one was not part of the conversation).  I know a lot of people who don't know as much call in, but can I get some sort of an express phone number or something to talk to someone who will treat me according to the experience I have?  At least I could use the speaker phone and keep working on web pages.  So, the tech is coming out sometime later this week to replace my TP.  I'm getting used to the routine of going through everything for the first 30 minutes of the call.  First you call and sit on hold for about 10 minutes, which is not that bad considering some places will require a wait of hours, (this is a good time to shave or dust your desk).  Then, the guy/gal on the other end will ask if this is involving a previous call - at which point I said no and interrupting his routine described the problem.  He transfered me to another department.  About 3 minutes waiting there.  15 minutes so far.  The next guy gets all my info and asks what's wrong.  Fifteen minutes to go over restarting, safe mode, bios reset, driver reinstall, and disable/enable (not in that order).  If this was my first call, I would have been insulted at the restart question, but it really didn't bother me, because I know that sometimes does actually fix some problems (as rare as the chance is).  I was patient.  So after all that, the guy says "It looks like you have a hardware problem with your touch pad."  At this point I'm tempted to sarcastically say "Is that what the problem was?"  but I know they get enough of that, and they have been really nice to me so far.  Plus, he didn't have as stong an accent as some people I've talked to, so that made me a little more relaxed.  I'm not racist, I'm just lazy in that I don't want to learn another language or have to work hard to understand the other guy.  I'm American in that sense of the steriotype.  So, he gives me the case number,dispatch number, and a 1-800 to call if the tech doesn't contact me in 2 days.  I'm thinking this sounds good.  He types for about 7-8 minutes and then makes sure I don't need anything else.  Nice, all said I'm only on for about 45 minutes, and the tech dispatch just called a little while ago.  I've got an appointment for Friday morning for the guy to stop by my apartment and do the replacement and a number to call if he doesn't show in the 3 hour window.  I could have had it done thursday, but if he showed up while I was in class, that would not have worked, and I'm not skipping class for something little like that.  I know I love my babies (some people have cars, I have computers), but they are not worth my grade.  Besides, I'll have a new baby in a few months to a year, so my commitment to them isn't as strong as it would be to a car or a person.  Understand that once I'm to the point where I have a young woman to call my baby, there isn't anything that will get in the way.  So, that extra my dad put into that warrenty wasn't a complete waste.  And I'm hoping I can get a new screen in 4-6 months (design/manufacturing problem is causing the keypad to rub on the LCD screen, so if something breaks, they'll replace it).

Bye-bye for now

12-Mar-2005

Of blogging and Life

So, we are supposed to have I.C.E. version 3 published on Monday.  But it still needs a lot more work than I have time (or work hours left in this week) to do.  My supervisor mentioned yesterday that we might be pushing back the release date.  I'm not sure what is going to happen because he has been sick the last few days, which isn't helping the situation.  But I do hope he gets better soon.  I also hope that we can release the new version soon.  Right now only time will tell.  I'll try to keep this updated over the next few days, but if y'all don't hear nothin', check on the I.C.E.  It will be out sometime in the next two weeks (I hope).