So much for Apple offering the “Perfect End-User Experience”. I just got off of a 40 minute call with two different CSR’s at AppleCare. The reason for my call was because my PowerBook was now listed as “Case Closed, Returning to Customer” and I was curious to see how it went. For those of you that don’t remember, I had a wobble, a non-flush sitting battery, an excessive amount of heat, and a heat-related crash. When I spoke to the first CSR – his job is to report the status of computer repairs – he told me that “They tested it, but couldnt find a problem. They put the PowerBook to sleep for an hour and let it charge, but it didnt get hot. When I exclaimed, Thats not why I sent it in! and the CSR replied, Yes it was! I then requested a manager, because this needed to be escalated.
Continue reading Mac Update: The Saga Continues
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Paris, Anyone?
Anyone else want to send this to the French government today, or is just me?
Texas Wants to Succeed? Let’m!
I really need to stop watching the news in the morning. I guess I go for days at a time, before I see something obnoxious on TV news or hear something from the radio. Yet when I do find something toxic, it always makes me wonder why I bother watching at all, erasing all of the “good” days that I do catch the news. Today’s news reports were about average: war protestors, peace advocates, updates on Bridgeport’s former mayor – on trial for accepting gifts for city funded contracts (which is racketeering I believe,) and updates on Waterbury’s former mayor – on trial for soliciting sex from two pre-teen girls via a crackhead prostitute. Quite a bit to stomach with the morning coffee, I’ll admit, but a story on Good Day NY is what cause the rug burn on my chin, because I couldn’t believe what I heard. A mother from Texas was whining about the amount of homework her son has been getting and that there was so much of it, started to do it for him – she even mentioned that it took too long to help him with it, during school nights.
Continue reading Texas Wants to Succeed? Let’m!
Actor Loses Visa Endorsement For Mouth Issues?
This is about as close to a news “article” that I’ve every come to, but I heard this on the radio this morning and I wanted to share it anyway. As I’ve posted before, there’s been an growing number of actors and actresses that have been coming out for causes lately. Susan Sarandon is by far the most vocal and supports just about anything that goes against the current government, and is supported by her whipping boy Tim Robbins, who still looks like he doesn’t have an independent thought in his head – I’ve often wondered, while watching “Bull Durham,” if he was or wasn’t acting in his rule of Nuke. Of course their latest “cause” is protesting the possible war against Iraq.
Continue reading Actor Loses Visa Endorsement For Mouth Issues?
T-Mobile 2.0: Now with Coverage!
To the unfortunate souls that have been following this site from the very beginning, hold onto your asses because this is going to shock your bottom clean off you: I’m currently happy with T-Mobile‘s service! To those of you that are new to site, let me explain why this is such a shock. I’ve been with T-Mobile for over two years now, when it was still known as VoiceStream, here in the northeast of the US – I had been using them up here when they were OmniPoint, but I didn’t own that account, so I can’t take credit for it. Anyway, I started this run with T-Mobile with a Nokia 8290. Coverage in those days was very spotty, particularly if you left the routes that the Interstate follow – most carriers seem to use the Interstates and use them as tower deployment routes, back filling coverage into the countryside as money allows. This is where the adventure begins.
Continue reading T-Mobile 2.0: Now with Coverage!
Apple a la Service?
Why isn’t this a GeekStuff entry? Because it’s a Rant, even if it is of a Geek nature. I’ve had one of the new Apple PowerBook 12’s for a little bit over a month and a half now, and I’m about to send it in for service. For a second time. The first pBook that I got was a defective model that lasted a total of three days, due to a mostly dead ComboDrive. Since it was a new purchase – made at a local CompUSA no less! – I was able to return it and pick up a new and working model. This, being the second pBook and now a month old, is going back to AppleCare for servicing, for up to four different problems: wobbling, battery door problems, case concerns, and heat.
Continue reading Apple a la Service?
Kung-Log + MT = Happy Ranting Randy
For a while now I’ve been using a product called Kung-Log to write up my Rants remotely. See, MovableType (MT) – the software that I’ve been using to manage this site for a bit now – has been great for posting Rants, while online. It offers a web page that I can post the Rants to – from PC or Mac which was a new requirement for me – but that only works while I’m connected to the ‘net. For writing while offline, I’ve been using Kung-Log. Kung-Log has been allowing me to write up “Drafts” while offline, complete with inline spell checking and tag management. Ideally, Kung-Log would allow you to sync and upload changes to the server that’s running MT, but I haven’t been able to do that… until now.
Continue reading Kung-Log + MT = Happy Ranting Randy
LinkSys 802.11g
So a little while ago, I accidentally fried one of the ports on my LinkSys 4-port router. I’ve had enough static electricity in my house that I could save a but of money on my electric bill by hooking up a pair of jumper cables to my socks and moving around the house – would give new meaning to the word “wireless,” at least in the winter. By summer, the air is usually humid enough to swim through, but in the winter, if you snap your fingers in the air you could charge a 9-volt. As you can guess, I was fully charged when I touched the end of a LAN cable and *zoot* one of the 4 ports on the router decided to leave this world.
Continue reading LinkSys 802.11g
Warning: Evil Midget Crossing
Want to know what’s been irking me lately? Of course you do – why would you be clicking here if you didn’t? As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been writing a book – for no reason what so ever – and I’ve been making headway on it, one chapter at a time. Actually, since it’s more of an anthology than a novel, each chapter is its own short story, so I’m really working on one story at a time. I usually write at home and proofread on the train some mornings – I find that I can’t do the reverse because lately I find that I fall asleep while reading anything at home. Also, on the train rides, if I decide to write anything, it’s usually blog entries, because something that morning sets me off. Today is no exception to that rule, since I was planning on proofreading Chapter 16, but I realized something new was irking me this morning.
Continue reading Warning: Evil Midget Crossing
War Protesters for LSD?
After watching this morning’s Grammy Awards recaps on the news, I’ve come down to the conclusion that the people that have been protesting military action in Iraq are the most ignorant lot of our nation. It’s not that they’re stupid – it’s more like they’ve been sold a bill of goods and they’re content to never investigate the truth beyond “what they were told” nor do they have the facts to back up what they’re protesting much less why – I’ve seem similar things from people for the war, but it doesn’t usually seem as visible as the protesters seem to be. It’s their right to protest, obviously, but I find it some what humorous that their biggest argument is that they don’t like Bush’s “blind and emotional” efforts to disarm Iraq, when they are trying to fight war with a “blind and emotional” protest. The biggest proof of this came in the “minor” comments from the musical artists last night, during the Grammy’s and is further backed up by an on the street interview that someone sent me online.
Continue reading War Protesters for LSD?
T-Shirts For Sale
I seem to get all over the Internet throughout the course of a day. Not as far reaching as some people I know, but I figure I get to some places that the average Internet user would never get to – by design or by chance, I don’t know. What I do know is that I occasionally stumble into stuff that piques my interest, either by humor content or some other reason. Some of this stuff will end up on this site, depending on whether or not I think it is helpful to other people. This is probably the first time that I’ve found that only an image can do the product justice, so I’ve included it here. If you can read Japanese, or if this hits you as amusing as it did me, feel free to click through to the web site and place an order!
Coupland: All Families are Psychotic
I discovered Douglas Coupland through one of his books, and a Geek book at that. I don’t remember if I found it on my own or if it was one of the books that someone told me about, like Sarem, or something Steve would have recommended because it was about working at Microsoft. The book, Microserfs, was a great read – so much so that I started to look at some of Coupland’s other books, most recently All Families are Psychotic.
Continue reading Coupland: All Families are Psychotic
Snow Days
Oi. I’ve had enough of snow. Not the falling of snow. Not the inconvenience of snow. Not the 15 inches of snow that accumulated itself outside my front door over the last 36 hours of blizzard conditions. No, I’m tired of the bitching I keep hearing about the snow. It’s all I’ve heard about, from radio, TV news, and people on the phone, instant messengers and chat rooms. All of these people live near me in Connecticut; how are they surprised that we got snow in February?
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And so it Continues…
And so my little portable heater is still warming up my life, a day at a time. Yes, thats, right I’m still a Mac user a full two weeks into my trial Switch. Don’t get me wrong, though – I’m still very reliant on my PC’s, so there’s no way I could Switch over everything; in fact I’m selling my Power Mac G4 tower right now on eBay. If I decide I need two Apple computers in my life, I’ll get a new one. As nice as it is to see some applications on both platforms, there are differences between the platforms; someone even has a “Get used to your new Mac” type book which shows you how a Mac works from a Windows user’s perspective. One thing that I have done is returned my Sony 505JL notebook back to work because I’m “mostly” done with PC notebooks… at least for the time being. I did keep my really old Celeron Sony N505VE, so I must have one small, minute, lingering doubt! And now, the details, and since this goes through a dark valley to climb to a bright peak, please read the whole thing before flaming my mailbox!
Continue reading And so it Continues…
No Soup for You!
So, I find it kind of interesting, the latest news from our partners in NATO, with regards to the problem in Iraq. No, honestly I do! I’m referring to the combination of France and Germany both refusing to allow military planning of an attack on Iraq, which stems from a request of Turkey, which is the only NATO member country to share a border with Iraq. I find it to be very interesting that Germany would side with France, given the first and second World War. You’d think the French would learn from history, right?
Continue reading No Soup for You!