I love tech companies. Not.
I bought my replacement internal keyboard from Dell instead of getting it from the States, because I had been told by the tech support people that they had it on site. The woman in Sales swore up and down she'd expedite things.
Then I get an email saying that my order is delayed and I should get it on April 2.
Woo!
Last night, the stylus on my Palm LifeDrive disappeared somewhere on the tube home. One of the unusual features of these styli is that they have a spring and pop up when pressed down. Esthetically, it looks neat. (There is a downside when stuffing your hand in your pocket on the train, though.)
So I went to the Palm site this morning. Unfortunately, they no longer sell LifeDrive accessories on their site. They were able to bounce me to a couple of sites that still sold accessories. I tried the first one. They sold me the product. Later, I found out that they didn't have the product and would have to order it. It won't arrive until next Friday — April 6 or so.
On the other hand, the Sales guy was pleasant and local rather than being in a call center, so I was willing to stay with a local business and keep my order.
Still going to whine about it, though.
Update: AIGH! Dell just delayed my keyboard again. Now they don't have it in stock and I have to wait another three or four days. I called them and they said they have to order the keyboards special. And if I get a UK keyboard. That'll take three to five days. (Because obviously, they don't have one of those keyboards as well. I guess.)
March 28, 2007
March 23, 2007
Andy Barker, PI
If anyone's seen this show, please let me know what you think.
I'm a big fan of Andy Richter and heard lots of good things about "Andy Barker, PI". The mix of hard boiled accounting and slapstick detective stories is enough to make me giggle. It was even better, when I heard an interview on WHYY's Fresh Air with Andy Richter about the show. He considers the show a Quinn Martin comedy.
Sadly, that sounds right up my alley.
I'm a big fan of Andy Richter and heard lots of good things about "Andy Barker, PI". The mix of hard boiled accounting and slapstick detective stories is enough to make me giggle. It was even better, when I heard an interview on WHYY's Fresh Air with Andy Richter about the show. He considers the show a Quinn Martin comedy.
Sadly, that sounds right up my alley.
March 21, 2007
Bad Tech Week
Okay, what the hell happened this week?
I come into work on Monday and find that my mouse — brought here from the States died. It would click, but not move. No amount of cleaning the ball or loading the driver would help. It was a wonderful mouse: thumb roll bar, three buttons and a scroll wheel. My carpal-tunnel loved the damned thing.
Even better, I can't find one here. I'll look in other stories over the weekend, but I ran around to four places on Monday at lunch and couldn't find one. I have to make do with something less useful, proving again that The Man is out to get me.
My laptop's keyboard went nuts. The ';/:' key didn't work when I pressed it, but would randomly spray them throughout anything I was typing — usernames, passwords, text — clearly nothing that a few extra semi-colons would affect adversely. I tried the can o' air and prying the key up to clean out the goop. Didn't help. I tried reloading the driver. Didn't help. I checked the other keys and found that the '[/{' key was odd, too. The [ would come out, but the { wouldn't: which implied that it wasn't physical.
Dell tech support was very helpful. They sent instructions on how to replace the keyboard and told me the part number that I need. (And if I was in the States, it would be especially useful to me.)
Dell's parts number was less helpful. Before you could get a quote, you had to open a new sales account and they couldn't use your old sales account to do this. AIGH! Then they couldn't send me a US keyboard, because I was in the UK. Happily, I only needed to be indignant for a little while to get that one sorted.
End result I should have my new keyboard soon. I just hope that it takes care of the damned problem.
Update: Followed the instructions to remove the laptop's internal keyboard, blew out the dust and checked the connections, before reconnecting it — no difference.
I come into work on Monday and find that my mouse — brought here from the States died. It would click, but not move. No amount of cleaning the ball or loading the driver would help. It was a wonderful mouse: thumb roll bar, three buttons and a scroll wheel. My carpal-tunnel loved the damned thing.
Even better, I can't find one here. I'll look in other stories over the weekend, but I ran around to four places on Monday at lunch and couldn't find one. I have to make do with something less useful, proving again that The Man is out to get me.
My laptop's keyboard went nuts. The ';/:' key didn't work when I pressed it, but would randomly spray them throughout anything I was typing — usernames, passwords, text — clearly nothing that a few extra semi-colons would affect adversely. I tried the can o' air and prying the key up to clean out the goop. Didn't help. I tried reloading the driver. Didn't help. I checked the other keys and found that the '[/{' key was odd, too. The [ would come out, but the { wouldn't: which implied that it wasn't physical.
Dell tech support was very helpful. They sent instructions on how to replace the keyboard and told me the part number that I need. (And if I was in the States, it would be especially useful to me.)
Dell's parts number was less helpful. Before you could get a quote, you had to open a new sales account and they couldn't use your old sales account to do this. AIGH! Then they couldn't send me a US keyboard, because I was in the UK. Happily, I only needed to be indignant for a little while to get that one sorted.
End result I should have my new keyboard soon. I just hope that it takes care of the damned problem.
Update: Followed the instructions to remove the laptop's internal keyboard, blew out the dust and checked the connections, before reconnecting it — no difference.
March 19, 2007
TMNT - Review
Was wandering through Leicester Square on Saturday, trying to avoid the roving bands of Drunken Idiots wearing their best Guinness hats, and I spotted a theater that was showing a preview the new TMNT movie before it opens officially next week.
It was certainly cute and a movie built for kids. The computer animation was reminiscent of Pixar's "The Incredibles". I hadn't seen the trailers, but I had thought that it would be darker based more on the original Eastman and Laird work than the cartoons and previous movies. They played it fairly straight with cartoon violence and martial arts mayhem, but it was of the bloodless kid friendly sort.
That's not to say that there were characters and situations that could scare the hell out of children. Some of the secondary villains, etc... were serious SOBs.
The jokes ranged from adult to childish, but as usual in today's animated fare, nothing that reached to the peaks of the best of Chuck Jones or Jay Ward.
It was a pleasant romp, largely kid-safe and certainly worth the price of a matinee showing. (I don't think it was worth the price of the additional popcorn, but I'm a harsh judge, I guess.)
It was certainly cute and a movie built for kids. The computer animation was reminiscent of Pixar's "The Incredibles". I hadn't seen the trailers, but I had thought that it would be darker based more on the original Eastman and Laird work than the cartoons and previous movies. They played it fairly straight with cartoon violence and martial arts mayhem, but it was of the bloodless kid friendly sort.
That's not to say that there were characters and situations that could scare the hell out of children. Some of the secondary villains, etc... were serious SOBs.
The jokes ranged from adult to childish, but as usual in today's animated fare, nothing that reached to the peaks of the best of Chuck Jones or Jay Ward.
It was a pleasant romp, largely kid-safe and certainly worth the price of a matinee showing. (I don't think it was worth the price of the additional popcorn, but I'm a harsh judge, I guess.)
March 16, 2007
Odd Sights That Make You Pause
I saw this last week, but I had to put up the picture. It certainly made me do a double take on the way to work.
March 7, 2007
You Miss Everything Good, When You Sleep...
I got to work this morning and found that Kevin Smith will be in London next month.
This was posted at 7:58p EST (2:58am here). I got the message at 8am GMT (5 hours later) or so and tried to buy a ticket. They were all sold out.
Damn rabid fans.
Update: Woo! They added another show and I scored a ticket to the next one. I'm going on 5-Apr. Will post more after the event.
This was posted at 7:58p EST (2:58am here). I got the message at 8am GMT (5 hours later) or so and tried to buy a ticket. They were all sold out.
Damn rabid fans.
Update: Woo! They added another show and I scored a ticket to the next one. I'm going on 5-Apr. Will post more after the event.
March 2, 2007
Note to Self... Amish Beards Don't Look Good On Me...
I wanted to see how I looked with an Lincolnesque Amish beard.
Not a good look.
I think it's a cry for help.
March 1, 2007
Dexter
I loved Michael C. Hall on "Six Feet Under", so when I saw that he was on "Dexter", I was intrigued. I read a couple of the books: Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter. (The new one Dexter in the Dark isn't out yet, but I'm looking forward to reading the next installment.)
A couple of my friends had told me how good it was, but it wasn't until I was able to see a few of the episodes that I fell in love. The producers, writers and directors had a difficult act with this show. They had to show a psychopath as sympathetic and managed to pull it off. They took the characters and plots from two books and both stayed close to the cannon and expanded it for dramatic purposes thanks to a stellar cast.
The first thing that they did was throw out the standard view of compacting things down. They took the story of the first book and stretched it. They kept the wonderful scenes and inventions from the book and gave us more of the day to day in between scenes from the book. Secondly, they decided to fluff up the secondary characters that were given short shrift in the books where the main attention is rightfully on Dexter himself. With flashbacks to Dexter's foster-father, Harry, and his interactions with the younger Dexter (with his horrible haircuts), they have given even more depth to young Dexter, so that we can see how he came to be what he is today and how the lessons have strengthened him.
While this isn't an ensemble series, such as "Lost" or "Six Feet Under", the juicier secondary roles have gotten a handful of good actors that bring the series up to be something special.
I just wish that broadcast TV would learn that lesson. Personally, I'm getting sick and tired of all the best shows being on cable.
That said, I recommend this show highly.
A couple of my friends had told me how good it was, but it wasn't until I was able to see a few of the episodes that I fell in love. The producers, writers and directors had a difficult act with this show. They had to show a psychopath as sympathetic and managed to pull it off. They took the characters and plots from two books and both stayed close to the cannon and expanded it for dramatic purposes thanks to a stellar cast.
The first thing that they did was throw out the standard view of compacting things down. They took the story of the first book and stretched it. They kept the wonderful scenes and inventions from the book and gave us more of the day to day in between scenes from the book. Secondly, they decided to fluff up the secondary characters that were given short shrift in the books where the main attention is rightfully on Dexter himself. With flashbacks to Dexter's foster-father, Harry, and his interactions with the younger Dexter (with his horrible haircuts), they have given even more depth to young Dexter, so that we can see how he came to be what he is today and how the lessons have strengthened him.
While this isn't an ensemble series, such as "Lost" or "Six Feet Under", the juicier secondary roles have gotten a handful of good actors that bring the series up to be something special.
I just wish that broadcast TV would learn that lesson. Personally, I'm getting sick and tired of all the best shows being on cable.
That said, I recommend this show highly.
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