I bought a Dell Laptop, an Inspiron 8600 with a 15.4 WUXGA screen. When it arrived a few days later, I booted it up and instantly noticed that the screen was funky. It was kind of sparkly, almost as if it were covered in dust or something. I used it for about 15 minutes and felt the headache coming as a result of the eyestrain. I work on computers for 8-12hrs a day, so to get a headache from a screen that quickly is not cool. I jumped on the web and did some searching on the issue, turns out a few other people have reported similar things with the screen. So I got on the line with Dell's tech support to see what they could do for me. *sigh* I then spent 20-30 minutes of trying to convince the tech that it was a hardware issue.
"Have you rebooted the computer?" "That's not going to fix it" "Please reboot your computer sir." "Fine, -pause- ok, it's back up and it's still doing it. Have I mentioned for the fifth time that it looks the same way in the POST screen?" "Please try changing your resolution" "Nope, still looks like shit" "Please hook it up to an external monitor" "Yep, looks fine on the monitor" etc,etc,etc.
Finally he said "Ok, what are your options sir? If we replace this you're going to have the same issue" to which I replied "I guess I need to return this then and go with a different laptop." Now I had heard that other people had simply gotten the LCD replaced with a different brand and the problem went away. It definitely looks like a bad application of anti-glare coating or something that was probably in a bad batch of screens. But I didn't want to deal with it, I was already turned off to the Dell. The other big factor that turned me off was the size of the keyboard. Here was this enourmous wide screen laptop, with tons of space, and they put in a keyboard the size of my tiny Toshiba Portege that's half an inch thick with a 12.1" screen.
He gave me another department's number to call to arrange the return. I called them, spent about 30 more minutes with them getting things sorted out for the return. They tried to tell me to ship it back on my dime, I said no way, they said, alright we'll schedule a pickup. So I boxed the Dell Inspiron 8600 back up and dropped it off at the rental office for a pickup and return to Dell.
After a few more days of laptop research, I went to CompUSA and picked up a nice Toshiba A75-S2762 with better features and a cheaper price that I've been loving ever since.
For all those that have read Snow Crash, these will look familiar.
Linux on the hiptop/sidekick
Now that I'm on a H2/SK2, and I still have my old color sidekick layig around doing nothing, this project has me interested. I was hesitant to try anything at first, because I wanted to have my color sk as backup in case something nasty happened with my sk2, but so far so good. Not a single show-stopping problem since September. So the CSK may get linux on it just for shits, giggles, and to say I saw the penguin. But before I do that, my new laptop needs gentoo first.
Ever seen the joke that's been forwarded around about what cars would be like if Microsoft made them?
Mobile virus infects Lexus cars
Like sushi? Like Twinkies? How about Twinkie Sushi?
This is just plain rad. What a cool way to merge artistic talent and creativity.
This one is about the real Postal Service. apparently a group of people gathered a collection of odd things and decided to see what the USPS would accept and deliver.
One of my favorites:
Helium balloon. The balloon was attached to a weight. The address was written on the balloon with magic marker; no postage was affixed. Our operative argued strongly that he should be charged a negative postage and refunded the postal fees, because the transport airplane would actually be lighter as a result of our postal item. This line of reasoning merely received a laugh from the clerk. The balloon was refused; reasons given: transportation of helium, not wrapped.
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