HP is a bitch
I have/had an HP dv9000 series laptop. I used it for work, and for play. The GPU blew out (overheated) while sitting idle on a desk just one week after the one year manufacturers warranty expired. I called, referred from various class actions, other blogs, and general forums about those with similar or the same issue, and they denied any responsibility of their product.
The calls: This occured at around four o'clock, and I called for support, thinking they would just suck up the loss and send me a new laptop. I was mistaken. After battleing with their voice prompt IVR, which only understands Indian (dots, not feathers) accents, I was forwarded to (suprise suprise!) someone who didn't speak english. I'm not implying his accent was bad, as that would be an understatment. The human on the other line skimmed over an ??? to english book, and said "ok, I are can be now doing technical supports now, sir.". I was greeted, and my name was taken. Then my account was verified. Verification of accounts and serial numbers is a painful process. "one, two q as in queen." "ok, dat iz ha-one, two, g as in geen (I believe he meant green)." After the static data was transferred, I explained my problem, which he didn't understand. Apparently "gpu" isn't something you need to know as technical support for personal computers, as I had to explain that it meant "graphical processing unit" many times. Ultimately he said that if I wanted technical support, that I would have to pay $49.95 per incident as my warrenty had expired. My reply was that technical support was not what I was calling for. The "support" portion of the issue had been resolved personally. I knew what the issue was, I just needed technical repair. He gave me another number, and told me to call back later. I call back, and get someone a little more accent nerutal, but just as stupid. He explained that in order for me to repair my laptop, that I'd have to ship it to their repair location, and it would cost me over $800 to repair. Seeing as this is a known issue I asked if the $800 repair would come with a warrenty. It of course, did not.
Summer of code VS. Microsoft
This is awesome: http://wordpress.org/development/2009/04/submit-your-summer-of-code-application-now/
This is not: http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeehouse/261781-Microsoft-Summer-of-Code-/
Ony is dead.
Back in the day I was a addicted to World of Warcraft. I played not for end-game, but for the members of my guild (was 100+ strong at one point) and the fun we had together. I was alliance (not my fault, my (now) wife was alliance, and drug me in kicking and screaming), and a mage. Those are two horrid strikes against any wow player, but I had fun.
I was a nogg-aholic and my interest in the game started to diminish shortly after wall-walking was patched. I still explored, but with clipped wings. I never used any glitches to gain an advantage over others, and avoided battle-grounds like the plague, as did most nogg-aholics.
All that interested me in World of Warcraft is now dead. Exploration is all but moot in the expansions, and the new content (much of B.C. was released with 1.0, but not implemented until the first expansion) of Northend further destroys the continuity of World of Warcraft.
When I started, there were memories made in the following order.
- The boy king of Stormwind
- The Defias
- Van Cleef
- The missing diplomat
- Lady Prestor
- Onyxia attunement
- Onyxia
That sums up WoW 1.0's story in a nutshell... it all intertwined into a beautiful cliffhanger with an epic ending...
oh, by the way.. 1 4 5 and 6 were removed in the latest patch.
Skype 4.0 sucks
Boobs were all that made this new window style slightly tolerable.
I use Skype for secure text communications while I work.
Granted there are alternatives, there are none as simple. Install, login, go. Anything more complicated and the cattle would become confused and scatter. Hell, some have issues with just the above steps.
Skype recently updated their software with an "improved" user interface. While this is nice for the "aol age", it is absolute ass for those that work.
- The screen real estate has been wasted with tons of white space.
- The nick-list is now a horizontal bar along the top.
- The left side of a chat box is reserved for nicks alone.
- The right side of the chat box is reserved for time stamps.
- Icons are huge.
- There is no real compact view.
- There is no color customization like there was in 3.x.
- You can no longer decide what "tabs" to display.
- Tabs are gone. Everything (except history) is in the main window.
- File transfers are now inline (does not have a separate window) , and have less information.
- There is a constant advertisement at the top of the main window (this has been the case, but not for the "business" version).
- Will not allow DX9 full screen applications to launch.
- "Not Available" mode is gone.
- "Send Contacts" is removed.
- Will not allow my laptop to wake from suspended mode.
- "SkypeMe" mode is gone.
DRM does not work.
DRM SUX and EA SUX
- EA is now laying 1k+ people off. (source)
- Technology is one of the least hit by the current recession. (source)
- SPORE was the most pirated game in 2008. (source)
- Spore had the most controversial DRM in 2008.
- EA denies piracy is linked to their DRM. (source)
Coincidence?
Max Payne
Bullet time is so 2001
Games don't translate to the big screen well. The same normally applies in the opposite direction. I believe that this is just as entertaining as watching someone else play the game. While watching "lets play" vides is something I commonly do, it is because I lack the patience (or skill) to do so. In this case, I've played the game, and there was little replay value. This movie is a replay, with little value.
I told you so.
Hard drive is filling up.
I have cacti running to monitor over nine thousand systems for some company.
Cacti is a complete network graphing solution designed to harness the power of RRDTool's data storage and graphing functionality. Cacti provides a fast poller, advanced graph templating, multiple data acquisition methods, and user management features out of the box. All of this is wrapped in an intuitive, easy to use interface that makes sense for LAN-sized installations up to complex networks with hundreds of devices.
...and it does so damn well.
[12/19/2008 12:31:06 AM] syn says: [link to server monitor graph removed, you would not be able to access it.]
That... may be a problem.
[12/19/2008 12:34:40 AM] unbeliever says: y?
[12/19/2008 12:35:06 AM] syn says: it'll be a problem in.. about a month or two.
[12/19/2008 12:35:18 AM] unbeliever says: last guy said 4 weeks
[12/19/2008 12:35:19 AM] unbeliever says: 2 weeks ago
[12/19/2008 12:37:14 AM] syn says: ok...
No one listens, and so it became a problem today... imagine that.
My wife comes running downstairs: We have a problem, some server is full and we can't do our job. She was able to portray the severity of the situation. No one she manages could work. I find it cute when she tries to talk technical.
- Jobs restored: 30 minutes.
- Full resolution: 50 minutes.
- Total cost to the company: $15.
I hate myself.
Ya, screw that. I'm billing for the total time of my script to run. I'm am monitoring it... for the past seven hours (and counting).
Also, a shoutout to The Guy for assisting in password management and providing a file destination.
Under pressure.
The first president, black.
I don't care if the new president is black, white, brown, yellow, or green. As long as he is American, and has the same "American dream", he is welcome.
If he messes up, I'm sure people will blame his heritage. If he does well, the glory will likely be taken from him.
Just tossing this out here so that I can say "I told you so" later. I could take time to write out an essay on why I believe Americans are or are not ready for a half-black president. I'll wait and see what happens before I bother.
I'm ready.
Show us what you've got. Build from the ashes of Bush's reign..
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And I Told About Equality
An It's True
Either You're Wrong
Or You're Right
I bet the oil companies are pissed.