rebelpeon.com

Sad Days

Colleen has been taking the death of a friend of ours pretty badly. It disheartens me when she feels this way, especially when there’s not really anything I can do about it. I’ve offered to sit down and be a good listener for her, but for whatever reason (I can think of a few real good ones), she has declined.

I still care about her, and I really don’t want to see her like this, but there’s not really much I can do. And I can understand why I wouldn’t be the first person she’d come to. I mean, we’re still friends and all, but I don’t see myself as being the first person she’d come to.

Oh well, as I said before, there’s not much I can do, even though I wish there was. It just bums me out to see her like that.

Incredibly Frustrating Part 2

Well, I finally got around to trying out the Automatic Document Feeder for my scanner that HP shipped, and low and behold it works. Well, not 100%, but it works. The only problem now is that when it’s doing duplexing some documents get stuck half way through on the second pass. Mildly frustrating, but not nearly as much as not having a functioning document feeder at all. I wish I could praise Motion Computing the same though.

If the University didn’t pay for this POS laptop, I would’ve sent it back months ago. So, the problem is that my mouse “dances” in one of the corners. It essentially gets stuck there, bouncing around and clicking till it’s heart is content. The only way to get it out is to take out the pen and use it. Now, granted, it’s annoying but at least you can still use the bloody thing. That brings us to problem two; it mysteriously going into standby. Yes, that’s right, I’m using it, not really doing anything intensive (writing this entry for example), and the machine decides it wants to go into standby.

Now, being the inquisitive and helpful person that I am, I’ve been troubleshooting these two problems on my own since they first started happening. About 2 weeks after the dancing cursor started happening, I had concluded it was solely based on heat buildup in the laptop. It was only occurring when it was in sunlight, I was holding it, or I was doing something very intensive like running VMWare. I sent it back to them (on their buck) to see if they could fix it. I get it back, still does it. I then get a call about a month or so later from Motion asking if I was still experiencing the cursor problem. They wanted to get as much info as possible since they weren’t sure exactly what the problem was since simply replacing the digitizer didn’t work.

During this time, I thought I’d help them out and wipe my machine to start from scratch. Well, that’s when the lovely standby problem started rearing it’s lovely head. Granted, it wasn’t the first time it had happened (last time I wiped it, same problem), but I somehow got it to stop before. Needless to say, this problem makes the laptop 100% useless. I can’t even attempt to do anything without it shutting itself off. I narrowed it down to the machine actually overclocking itself. Who knows why, but at times the front side bus was running more than 33Mhz faster. Being that there’s no fans in this tablet, that couldn’t have been good. Well, I started up another RMA for that, but also mentioned that my cursor was still doing the same thing. They said to send it back. This time, they didn’t offer to pay for it.

“The motherboard may need to be checked out, it maybe defective. I suggest you send it in again.”

So, of course I send it back in on the 19th. I live without the tablet for half a week and then got it back on Monday. Played with it a bit, and it seemed to be working fine. Well, that didn’t last long. Standby over and over. It makes the workday so enjoyable. So, I start back up the email conversation, continuing on from the previous one where they said they’d check out the motherboard.

At first I just conveyed that it was still doing it again, but this time it seemed to be regardless of what I was actually doing on the machine. After a day of no response, I received an email.

An RMA has been issued to you so that you can send the unit in and have it fixed by a tech. It sounds like an issue with the motherboard and needs to be checked by a tech. I don’t think this problem can be fixed over email, please let me know if you still want to use this RMA to send the unit in.

What the hell? Why are they looking at the same problem that they apparently looked at last week. It didn’t seem right to me, so I responded.

I just sent it in 2 fridays ago, and just got it back on Monday from an rma (9949) on this exact same problem and I was told you were going to replace the motherboard.

“>>Shane Farris
>>The motherboard may need to be checked out, it maybe defective. I
>>suggest you send it in again.”

Now I know that this laptop is indeed overclocking itself. I used cpu-z (http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php) the fsb is more than 50% of the time >100Mhz (and therefore the quad-pumped bus speed is greater than 400Mhz). In fact, using cpu-z I’ve seen bus speeds ranging from 250Mhz to 750Mhz! These speeds were noted while Outlook, Trillian, and internet explorer were open with no intensive tasks running.

Also, I just received a phone call that there is a permanent solution to the dancing cursor problem, which I also have. It would be great if both of these problems could be fixed the next time I send it in. Unfortunately, I have a presentation tomorrow afternoon in which I need the tablet, so I wouldn’t be able to get it out until afterwords. It would also be nice if you guys would pick up the shipping to you this time, especially since it looks as if nothing was done last time I sent it in.

And their non-helpful response was then beamed back to me.

I’m sorry I thought you didn’t send the unit in yet. Motion has found a solution to the erratic cursor problem and can fix that for you now. I also told them to check out the motherboard issue and see why its over clocking the bus. Please send the tablet back to the same address using RMA number MTC10518. Thanks

Once again, I was going to have to pay to send back this piece of crap laptop. At least I’d be able to kill two birds with one stone. Granted, I’d still have to send it back on my buck to pay for their mistakes. Well, I figured I’d give them a call and see if I could get them to at least consider it.

Before I called, I wanted to see what they actually did on my machine last week when I sent it back. They at least have a website where you can type in the RMA number and see what they did.

Symptoms 1 (SS01)POINT DEVICE FAIL
Root Cause 1 DEFECTIVE
Part Used 1 DIGITIZER

WTF?! So, they replaced the digitizer, even though that wasn’t the main problem, plus they knew it would’ve fix it. I’m starting to fume, I figured now would be the time to call. Called, and of course I got Shane, who I’m assuming is the guy that I’ve been dealing with, since he starts all his emails with his name (don’t you usually start letters/emails with the other persons name?). I asked him why they replaced the digitizer last week, even though that wasn’t really the problem I sent it in about, and that they knew it wouldn’t be fixed. He sidestepped it well and mentioned that there was a fix for the digitizer problem. Somehow they figured it was a heat problem, and by putting a cover over the hard drive, it would solve the problem. I wanted to hang up right then. I’d been telling them this for months, and they finally listened. Well, I told him that I do want that fixed, but that is not the most urgent problem, the one where my computer randomly goes to sleep is. He said that they’d have to replace the motherboard, and I asked, “Like they were supposed to do last time?”

Well, finally I said that there’s no way I’m paying to send it in, since I paid last time and they didn’t fix anything. I also informed him that they previously paid for me to send it in, the first time, when I thought they were a decent company. He said that he could get me labels, but would have to have his manager/supervisor do it, since I would need them for tomorrow, not today.

Hopefully my machine does restart too many times while I’m trying to be professional and doing a presentation on and Exchange Migration. For some reason, I’m not holding my breath.

Turkey Day Trek

For Thanksgiving, I made the trek home. Normally this isn’t that bad. It is 5.5 hours, but it doesn’t seem like it’s that long. However, this time, the weather didn’t want to cooperate. The Midwest was set to get its first snowstorm of the year, which of course means retarded drivers. Instead of battling it in Chicago, I decided to try and outrun it by heading to Indianapolis first, and then head North. I’m definitely glad I went that way, since I was able to avoid the snow until Fort Wayne. Plus, the traffic was greatly reduced than what it would’ve been in Chicago. However, going the other way still didn’t aid in shaving off any time. Instead of being a 5.5 hour journey it ended up being close to 8. As much fun as going 35 down the freeway sounds…

What made it that much worse was just outside of Ann Arbor, the freeway becomes three lanes, and by that time the roads were just wet (no lake effect). You’d think that speeds would go back to normal, but no, people still felt the need to go below 40. My speed delta during the snow/rain was MPH. It was loads of fun.

Thanksgiving was good: fried turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie, etc. It was nice not having to be at work, which, unfortunately hasn’t gotten any better. I helped my parents get a couple of new TV’s, got some of the grease used for the turkey fry (biodiesel), played some xbox on said new TV, and put up Xmas lights.

All and all, not a bad weekend.

Remote Controlled On/Off

I love the Xbox, and everything it does. However, there’s one annoying little thing that you simply can’t do, turn it on and off remotely. Yes, I know this makes me supreme of lazy, but since it’s so tied into my Home Theater setup, it would be extremely nice if I could operate its powerstate like I do all the other components in my system.

If you visit Xbox-Scene, there is a tutorial on how to do it, but it requires you to find a specific chip and then program it. Since I don’t have a programmer, that was kind of out of my league. Of course, someone figured this would be an easy way to make a few bucks. Welcome the XIR from CheapLPC.

I purchased the Pro version, because I’m ok with spending less and having to do one solder connection. Installation was a snap; simply slide some wires into the motherboard molex connector, and solder the one point. Granted, the one solder point was a bit awkward because of it’s location, but definitely not that hard by any stretch. I had to reprogram the Pronto last night with the xbox remote configuration, since I currently don’t have an xbox remote. This, unfortunately, took the vast majority of my time because I pretty much redid my whole configuration since so much had changed (no more DVD player, Colleen’s, no more Digital Cable Box). However, the XIR preformed flawlessly, just as advertised. I slipped the IR Receiver so it just pokes out on the front display and now when there’s a commercial or nothing on TV worth watching, I can easily flip to the xbox without having to get up to turn it on. The thing can even turn on and off my modchip via the remote. I just have to install a (not included) wire from it to the dreaded d0 point. Granted, for me, there’s no real reason to have the modchip off, but who knows.

Now all I need is some Wireless Controllers, and I’m all set. Granted, they are already on my Amazon.com Wishlist, so here’s wishing.

Food Binge

Not to be outdone by Travis, I too have been doing some cooking today. Granted, I doubt if it’s nearly as complicated as his are, but I’m trying to find something to bring for Thanksgiving. I guess I’m at that age where I can actually participate and bring a side or dessert or something.

Much like Aaron, I too have been watching the Good Eats episodes. Now, when I actually had cable (that went above channel 20), I was a FoodTV addict, and Good Eats was watched whenever it was on. If you haven’t watched a Good Eats episode, please, do it, especially if are slightly of the science/engineering type. This show was designed for us. Well, I watching his show on apples, and being that it’s apple season and that I already dry them, I found a killer recipe for baked apples with a crumb topping. Now, my Mom makes a killer Cobbler (doesn’t matter the type), but it’s such a pain, and as Alton Brown points out, the topping is like glue on a pan. So, he instead makes the apple the pan. It’s pure genious, and I must confess that they definitely “Good Eats.” I halved the ingredients list (well, as best I could, more on this later), and made two. I still have enough crumb topping to do more than two more. Next time, I’ll definitely cut out more apple than I did this time, to shove even more topping in. Because, let’s be honest, the topping is the best part!

Now, halving the ingredients was quite funny, because as I mentioned, I don’t have a complete kitchen. The fact I have no measuring spoons, am missing all my thirds cups, just makes it more fun. That’s why I really like cooking, because it’s totally an experiment whenever I’m doing it. Yes, I attempted to use Alton’s recipe, but talk about loose guidlines. Another example would be the other day when I wanted tacos. Now, I didn’t have any ground beef, but I did have pinto beans and refried beans. In the pot when the drained beans (I hate the “juice” that comes with pinto beans) with garlic and enough water to cover them. Let them simmer until the vast majority of the water was gone and the beans were tender. Then, in went the refried beans along with chili powder and tabasco to taste. For those of you who’ve had a bean burrito at Taco Bell know exactly the consistency that beans ended up being.

Now, I’m not claiming to be an expert chef by any means, especially with the ease of the stuff that I’ve been making, but that’s what makes it fun. Ever since I started getting Everyday Food and watching Good Eats, I’ve been on this cooking binge. Hopefully it’ll stick around because it is most definitely fun. It’s unfortunate that the way I’ve scheduled my evenings that I can really only cook on weekends. Oh well, save all the fun for the weekends I suppose.

Now if those darn apples would hurry up in the drier…

Cell Phone Consumer

Nick Rogers got a cell phone the other day. He apparantly broke the antennae off his old phone, rendering it useless. Now, both of us got our phones at the same time, two years ago. So, naturally, since my Verizon contract is up (man, it’s been two years already?), I started thinking about getting a new phone. Nick got the Motorola V551, which is a nice phone. Looking through all the features I started contemplating getting a new one.

Some background. When I bought my Samsung a310, it was one of the more top of the line phones. I laid down some serious change for it. Three months later, color screens dropped like a rock in price, camera phones and downloadable/changable ringers became the norm. I then realized that spending that much money on a phone was rediculous. Never will I spend that much money on a phone. Now, the V551 is only $100 after MIR, which isn’t too bad.

However, when Nick and I actually went to the Cingular store, I started questioning purchasing it. I then asked about the 1000 minutes deal for $39.99, but I was told it expired on the 15th. The deal is getting less and less a better deal. The saleslady then told me that the current $39.99 deal was 450 minutes. Now, this is 150 minutes more than what I currently get with Verizon, plus I’d get Rollover minutes, but I never even come close to 300 minutes as it is. Plus, I’m not dissatisfied with Verizon. Arg

Well, I ended up passing on the deal. I mean, I don’t use half the features on my current phone, and it works. Granted, it doesn’t have all the new features, nor is it a GSM phone, but I really can’t justify spending $100 MIR for stuff that I’ll probably never use and then only getting an additional 150 minutes.

I’m so proud of myself, showing some constraint over this. Maybe sometime soon I’ll feel the need to upgrade.

Incredibly Frustrating

I absolutely hate it when my tools to do a job don’t work. Which makes it even worse, is when they work, then the putz out, and so on and so forth. My work computer is doing such a thing, and being that it’s a tablet computer, there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. Of course talking to the tech support people, isn’t very reassuring. Granted, the support people for Motion Computing, are leaps and bounds better than the outsourced help that HP has.

Motion Computing follows up on problems, HP doesn’t even call you back when they say they are going to. Even after you called them back after they forgot to the first time. It’s so annoying. I just want it to work. There is a simple fix for either of these problems I’ve been having. Send me a new one. That way, you can either properly fix the one I sent back in, or scrap it.

All I want is a tool the works, consistently. Is this so much to ask?

**Update**
Well, I called back HP today, since they were supposed to call be back early in the week (2nd time they didn’t call me back). The guy on the phone told me that they could send me a new Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) (the broken part that doesn’t actually feed any documents through) that it wouldn’t work, but they were getting close to a solution to the problem. He then has the gall to ask me if I wanted to purchase and extended warranty. I’m like, “You guys can’t even call me back TWICE, and you expect me to send you more free money? How about now.” I’m then put on hold for 20 minutes while he consults with someone or something on where to go from there. He comes back and goes through some troubleshooting steps. Steps that the first guy I talked to went through, plus I had gone through from the HP website, and have told them ALL that I went to the website and did it. Well, I was at work, so I’m sure you can tell how well the troubleshooting went. Anyways, he finally gives up and says that they’re going to send me a new ADF. Didn’t he just say that it wouldn’t do any good?! Sigh, at least it’s better than sitting on hold. I figure, if it works, great, if not, I’ll just get my money back. Of course, before we hang up, he asks about the extended warranty again. I hate crap like that. Who in their right mind is going to say yes, after they were just on the phone for 30 minutes, and at least two-thirds of it was on hold, or waiting for the person to do something?!

Nerds

So, I officially sank to a new low of nerd this week. As everyone probably knows, Halo 2 came out yesterday. Well, since I’m such an Xbox fanboy, I snagged it. Now, granted, I own very few xbox games, but I figured, Halo was so quality that I had to give props to Bungie and Microsoft and make the purchase.

Now, the reason that this has made me reach a new level of nerd, is because I didn’t just wait to get it on Tuesday or pre-order it. Oh no, I was out on Monday night at midnight picking it up. First stop was the EBGames on campus. Wow, that was mistake. I got there around 11:30 to find a line that stretched from EBGames to Follett’s (for those of you unaware, that’s about a block). However, being the resourceful person I am, I hadn’t gone on this Halo 2 journey alone. Instead, a coworker went to Meijers, while I went to EB. Turns out he was the line at Meijers. Needless to say, out to Meijers I went.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Wow, he is a nerd,” but just wait, because the story isn’t done. I then headed back to my apt and played till about 3am.

“Damn, 3am, what about work the next day?”

Already taken care of, since I took Tuesday off to play with some friends and coworkers. We had a projector for 2 of us, and a large screen tv for the other 2. We also ordered a Jimmy John’s sub platter and had a good ol’ time. It was crazy how fast the day actually passed.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the game. The graphics are top notch, and they added a bunch of cool stuff (like throwing someone out of a vehicle while it’s going, weilding two guns at the same time, etc). It has definitely lived up to the hype. Now I just need to take the time to beat it and watch all the cutscenes, since we weren’t really watching the cutscenes while playing co-op.

Yet another game that I need to beat on the Xbox. This past weekend, I really got into Fable as I waited on stuff being reconfigured on my server. Good times indeed.

Concedes

According to the Associated Press and MSNBC, Senator Kerry did the right thing and conceded to W.

This means it’s all over then, right? There’s no point in any large fiasco, and we can all get on with our lives. Kerry, you did the right thing, and I just want to say thank you.

Greatest Civilization

Between todays post over at Office Jabber and the election going on, it really got me thinking how we as a people managed to make it this far. Now, I’m sure you can figure how the Office Jabber post fits in to this topic, but you may be wondering about the election. Well, I guess it’s because this is the first year I’ve actually voted in a booth. The last election I was in school so I did an absentee ballot. However, after actually going in and punching the card, I really have to ask myself, “How did all those people in FL have such a hard time?” I mean, seriously, you go to where the arrow is and you put the puncher in the hole. If people really can’t handle this, how are they functioning in their daily life?

So, both of these events got me wondering how in the world have we gotten where we have? Is it just because we’ve been relying on the great people to further us, or has it really been a group effort? I mean, common sense and knowledge isn’t even common anymore (or was it ever?).

Bah, oh well, maybe it’s just me?