I've started two new projects as I have been failing at updating the blog on a regular basis. For whatever reason, I can't get on board with twitter. But I found Posterous over Christmas vacation and I really like the concept. I'm going to try and focus my efforts on updating these two gems:
http://bathroometiquette.posterous.com/ – A place to capture all of our horrible experiences. Avo and Nee-Hah are contributing to this as well.
http://thedownside.posterous.com/ – A place for my day to day thoughts. The idea is less "journaling" and more capturing the highlights…or in this case lowlights of my experiences and thoughts.
We'll see how it goes.
The ordering experience between HP and DELL for the most part was the same. They both try to sell you everything and anything in addition to PC you are building. Their extended warranty costs are about the same. It was also not surprising that Alienware offered higher end performance options: SLI for 1GB nVidia cards or Crossfire for ATI cards (they also gave the option of which card you wanted), raid 0, up two 8 gig of memory. While the HP model I bought was in the "Entertainment" category, I don't think it is in the same league as Alienware.
I ordered the HP before the release of Windows 7 and I ordered the Alienware after. The Alienware is coming factory loaded with Windows 7. HP had an upgrade program, which I thought would be electronic…ie once Win 7 was released I could go to a site and download my upgrade CD. This was not the case, instead they are mailing me a disk with was coming in like 6-8 weeks.
The biggest difference, I saw in the order process is that HP charged my credit card the instant I placed the order. It seems Dell doesn't charge until the order ships. Considering both delayed my order, I prefer the latter.
Since the beginning of October, Ive been trying to get KT a new laptop. As of that date, her HP Dv9000 series laptop suffered another video card failure most likely do to the fault chips provided by NVIDIA. NVIDIA paid a heafty settlement to HP over the problem, but I guess that isn't passed on to all the customers who are affected. This laptop has the GO 7000 card in it. You can see more here: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/31/figuring-out-which-nvidia-gpus-are-defective-its-a-lot/.
It's now a month and a half later and I still don't have a new laptop for KT yet. I did have an HP HDX 18 for a few weeks, but laptop also had issues not that different than the faulty dv9000. I've decided to break down the experience into a few parts to illustrate how poorly the HP and DELL treat their "valued customers."
Because this laptop was not for me, it was necessary for me (unlike HP or DELL) to try to meet the needs of my customer (KT5K) as best I could. The primary need she had was that she wanted a stylish PC that did not look like an every day business laptop. My primary need was to get her a high performance system that would allow her to game and work. Ideally, I did not want to purchase another HP laptop. Especially seeing as the current HP laptop she has is now unusable, there are many many threads online with people with the same series of laptop that have the same problem, and that American Express and NOT HP took care of me the first time the dv9000 failed for the same issue (1 year and 1 month after purchase…which put it exactly 1 month out of warranty.)
After much deliberation, I decided to order an HP as it seemed to meet both of our goals pretty well. Here are the specs on that rig:
Order Date: 04-OCT-2009
HP HDX18t Premium Series customizable Notebook PC
Estimated build date: October 12, 2009
Estimated Time between order and ship: 8 Days (6 weekdays)
Actual Ship Date: 15-OCT-2009
Actual Delivery Date: 22-OCT-2009
Total Wait Time: 18 Days (14 weekdays)
Cost: ~$2200
After that laptop failed, which I'll explain in a later part. I decided to replace it with an Alienware from Dell. The specs for that rig are here:
Order Date: 25-OCT-2009
1 224-5965 Silver Metallic
1 317-0820 Intel Core2 Quad Q9000 2.0GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0859 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 320-0999 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M (NB10E-GT1)
1 341-0009 320GB (160GB x 2) 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) – RAID 0
1 330-3924 Name Plate Engraving
1 421-0721 Terra Green
1 421-1398 Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
1 421-0371 Avatar 2
1 421-0389 Window Style, DFT
1 410-0173 ADOBE ACROBAT READER – Eng
1 313-8977 8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive,QuickSilver
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2×2 MIMO
1 421-0405 Automatic Updates ON
1 421-0398 Power Plan, BAL
1 421-0399 Time Zone, CENTRAL
1 410-0181 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007-Eng, QS
1 994-7017 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Initial Year
1 994-3730 Warranty Support,Initial Year
1 421-1719 Soft Contracts,Consumer Complete Care,Alienware
1 421-1724 Soft Contracts,Dell In Home,Alienware
1 950-3339 3 Year Limited Warranty
1 993-8522 Next Business Day In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis , 2 Year Extended
1 993-8552 CompleteCare Accidental DamageProtection, Inspiron Desktop, 3 Year
1 994-3660 Next Business Day In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis , Initial Year
1 994-6858 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Extended Year(s)
1 993-8582 Warranty Support,2 Year Extended
1 330-5087 RESPAWN DVD
1 421-0988 World of Warcraft Factory Install
1 421-0381 RSS Feeds,AW
1 421-0393 Wallpapers, C02W
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 330-5090 Thank You for Purchasing AlienWare
Estimated Ship Date: 09-NOV-2009
Estimated Time between order and ship: 15 Days ( 11 weekdays)
Actual Ship Date: TBD (now promised delivery by 20-NOV-2009)
Actual Delivery Date: TBD (now promised delivery by 20-NOV-2009)
Cost: ~$3000
A couple of months ago, I finally subscribed to Audible. I favred a lot on the decision. I really enjoy listening to books on my drive to work, but I was concerned if I would stick with it or not. I finally took the plunge and I'm greatly enjoying it.
So far, I've listened to:
Frankenstein (one of my all time favorite books)
Old Man's War
Ringworld
I just finished Ringworld this morning, I have to say I was left unimpressed. Ringworld was a book that I always saw on my dad's bookshelf, but never managed to pick up. I've often heard it referenced as "classic science fiction." In my opinion, any science fiction is a combination of technology/technological concepts, solid characters and a great story. Ringworld, strikes me as a story that was written as backfill for a cool technological concept: The Ringworld.
The story is weak and the characters are shallow and predictable. I'm also fairly certain that, at least at time of writing the novel, Larry Niven had not talked to many females nor had he engaged in any sexual congress with them. Women are portrayed with the depth you might gain from paging through a Sear's catalog.
I think the novel would have been enjoyable as a piece that had no real characters, but rather was just a vivid description of the rise and fall of Ringworld and it's creators.
x2 17" diameter clay planters $20
x1 GE hot plate $16 (we ended up not using this)
x1 13" non-stick replace grill $2
x1 Deep Fryer Thermometer $4
x2 Disposable Pie Tins $3
x1 Bag Lump Charcoal $5
x1 Bag Large Hickory Chucks $4
x1 Bag Mesquite Chips $3
Summary:
Originally we tried to use an electric hot plate as our heating element, but we couldn't achieve an internal temperature in the smoker greater than 150° F. We quickly punted on that plan and changed to lump charcoal. Using the charcoal we were able to maintain an average temperature between 225-250° F. The clay pots kept the temperatures very consistent. We smoked a 6.4lb pork roast for 7.5 hours. It turned out fantastic, very juicy, tender and flavorful.
Lessons Learned:
-Just use charcoal as the heat source. We had good airflow through the smoker to maintain the coals and we kept consistent temperatures. We used rocks to prop up the charcoal tin over the bottom ventilation whole in the clay pot.
-Setting up a second batch of coals around the 4 hour mark and swapping them out work very well for renewing the heat source
-We may try separating the coals and the wood source next time, so that the two can be replenished independently.
I am being with great happiness to anticpate the start of the futballing season!
My picks league and fantasy leagues are all set to go. Our picks league has finally switched from a home grown site, to free site provided by one of the major networks. The interface is a HUGE improvement and will definitely speed up my time in making my picks each week.
The fantasy draft was last night. I was happy Firethorn finally conned Jah into playing. I had been telling him from the inception of the new season that Jah would be a great fit. I fully expect him to give Jeho a run for his money. The draft was a lot of fun. I think the only negative was a certain someone intentionally being a douche and each round letting the timer run all the way down before making his picks. We all have different senses of humor, but I think there is a delicate line between being funny and just appearing retarded. That line is typically defined by whether your humor style is to provide laughter for others or to simply annoy everyone for your own enjoyment. My description to KT last night was “It’s like being in a really long line with all your friends and one of them decides to shit himself. He thinks it’s hilarious and keeps saying things like ‘you guys must be so embarrassed.’ Yet, all you and the rest of your party can think is that everyone around is thinking ‘how nice of those boys to bring that handicapped man with them.’” Her response was very priceless. It was a disgusted look and “Oh.” That made me smile.
I had planned a long update on all the major ups and downs of this summer. But instead I decided to graph it.
GM was"too big fail." So the taxpayers had to bail it
out and now own a 60% stake in the "new company"
Here are my questions:
-
Is corporate bankruptcy just a total joke? Something tells me
if I went “bankrupt” tomorrow I would not “emerge a stronger
and more viable consumer.” -
Will GM still be too big to fail after the “restructuring”
and other bankruptapaloza that goes on? Are regulations being
created to prevent companies from becoming “too big to fail.” -
Are all US companies that are “too big to fail” now being
regulated to reduce their size to that of a “failable” company?
If 2 and 3 don't sound very
capitalistic, I would submit that the the government buying out a
failing company doesn't sound very capitalistic either. I'd prefer to
see us getting out the business of getting fucked by corporate greed
whores. To me that seems like starting to clearly define what “too
big to fail” is and putting a cap on it. I'm sorry if you don't like that anymore commrade, but in States of United, government buys you!
I think the kicker for me will be in
20-30 years when Social Security fails. All of those people our age
will be wondering if we are getting a governement bailout. We can all travel to
the local junk yards where all the now dead GM vehicles of “phoenix that
rose from the ashes of the Bad GM” will be rusting away.
My work day has been very busy lately. As a result of that, I’ve been focusing some of my time on Getting Things Done. I found some posts on using OneNote for implementing GTD, and I’ve been pretty successful in using it so far. I’ve also implemented a Zero Inbox scheme using some macros in Outlook. I’ve been doing this pretty strongly for about a month now and I have to say it makes a difference.
I know it has been insanely quiet here. Many factors, work being the biggest.
So anyway, here's the deal. About 3 weeks ago, I started not feeling real great. I was getting a lot of really pounding headaches and my blood pressure was on the high side. I was also feeling tired a lot. My alarm would go off and I would just not want to get up. It started leading me to the conclusion that it is probably time I go to see a doctor. In truth, I haven't been to see one since college. I suppose in some ways that is good. However, with the wife and I thinking strongly about starting a family, I figured I should get a physical.
So now some background. In truth, I don't like going to the doctor. I'm sure that is true for most people. Most of the times I've seen a doctor it's resulted in batteries of painful tests and procedures and a major surgery that left me with some great after effects. While it beats being dead, its also hard to rationalize going when you feel like nothing is really wrong with you. I also started feeling better last week and started to think, well I'm feeling better again so do I really need to go? The scared kid in me says "no" and the adult says "yes."
So I manned up last week. We have a "health coach" service at work that can help you find a doctor. So I called and got some info, I also talked to someone at work who lives in my area. Based on those things, I found a good fit. So after forgetting at the end of last week, I called today. The doctor operates out of a popular clinical in my town. My wife's doctor is also there. They are also connected with the hospital in town, so it seems like a win. So I call and confirm the Doc is still taking new patients, and get hastily transferred to his office. So I go from a person, to a machine. I pick that I want to setup a future appointment and get told to "stay on the line" for the receptionist. I wait. I wait more. Five minutes later and after the forth "your call is important to us" I hang up.
So of course the little kid is saying "see smart guy, they can't even answer the phone."
Usually I just laugh it off. I have to with my luck. This was just one of those things, I was already anxious about this and a bad first impression just made it worse. Deep sigh…
