Aug 09 2009

Blue Shirt Madness

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 11:13 am

I hate Best Buy.

Everything there is so insincere.  The associates are always busy helping other people, leaving me feeling unimportant.  When i do have the attention of one, i feel stupid.  I work in the software industry, and am probably 80th percentile when it comes to knowledge of computers, yet these blue-shirt-wearing, minimum-wage earning douches are condescending and indifferent and it makes me extremely irritated.

We need a new laptop.  And possibly a new desktop.  Current setup – we have two laptops and one desktop.  The desktop has a dual monitor setup, and that is the best thing about it.  One laptop desperately needs to be replaced.  I thought i might be able to kill two birds with one stone and get a laptop with a docking station that could connect to the two monitors.  Perfect solution – when we need a laptop, we have one.  When you want to be stationary with extra screen real estate, you place it in the docking station and stay put for as long as you need to.

We arrived at Best Buy when they opened, and still had to wait 20 minutes for someone to assist us.  (Because it’s sales-tax-free weekend and they are, of course, understaffed.)  When someone finally deigned to help us, i hadn’t finished a complete sentence before he was telling me it wasn’t possible.

Fuck that – i have this EXACT setup in my office at work!  I know it’s possible!

He modifies the statement to say that you won’t be able to find a docking station at any retail store.  You have to go online to Dell or Lenovo and order it.

And i was dismissed.  That was it, from the How-May-I-Help-You-logo-on-his-blue-shirt associate.  He didn’t ask why i wanted this, or if there was some other solution that perhaps Best Buy could provide.  Where is the customer service?  Where is the individualized attention that tries to meet my needs?  He quite possibly could have swayed us to buy something else, since the last time i tried to order a personalized system online, it turned into a month-long debacle before we had something that worked, and the final product wasn’t even ideal.  He certainly can’t have known all that, but a good salesperson wouldn’t be dismissing me – he would be trying to make the sale.

So we left empty-handed and irritated.  Does anyone know of a nice locally-owned computer store that might actually be interested in what they can do for us?

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Nov 20 2008

Could You Give Up Email?

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 10:33 am

President-Elect Obama will probably have to give up email entirely, according to this article from the NY Times.

Apparently, the President’s communications are supposed to all be public, so there can be no private emails. There is the concern about security, too. My thoughts on this:

  • Staying in touch with friends is important. The President of the United States is still a human being, and needs friends and social contacts. I wonder how it evolved that he became this isolated and untouchable person. I can’t imagine not being able to drop an email to a friend, or send a text message about a sports victory.
  • Electronic communication is necessary to be effective. I think all fast-paced higher-ups in modern companies know this. That’s why Blackberries are mandatory at a lot companies. Imagine how much could get done if our government officials were encouraged to take advantage of technology.
  • Too much news exists electronically to be ignored. Newspapers contain day-old news. News programs can only give highlights, and stories are often sensationalized. The electronic world is where more and more people are going for their real news. And the sources of information are endless. Can a president really know enough about what is going on in the world by getting brief summaries each morning?

I have Facebook and MySpace pages, which i only visit a few times a month. I don’t have a profile on any dating sites. I don’t Twitter. I’m not a super-blogger who influences the masses. But, even with these electronic deficiencies, my electronic identity is important to me. There are lost of people at work that i only know through electronic communications. Approximately 15-20% of my relationship with my boyfriend is electronic, through emails and IM. One of my closest friends and i probably have 60% or more of our relationship in IM. I wouldn’t want to give that up if i had a choice. So i guess i won’t run for President.

It sounds like being plugged-in is somewhat important to Obama, though. It will be interesting to see how he handles these issues during his presidency. Will he be able to modernize the office?

What about you – could you give up email?

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Nov 10 2008

New: Bridge Page

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 4:25 pm

To my RSS readers who enjoy bridge or reading about bridge (that might be two people):  I have added a Bridge page to my site.  So far, there are only a few articles.  But, i’m excited about adding content.  I haven’t quite figured out how to make the formatting look exactly the way i want, but it’s good enough for now.

Random idiom info – have you ever heard anyone refer to doing something “in spades”?  According to answers.com, this comes from bridge and means,

“Considerably, in the extreme; also, without restraint. For example, They were having money problems, in spades, or Jan told him what he really thought of him, in spades. This expression alludes to spades as the highest-ranking suit in various card games, such as bridge, and transfers “highest” to other extremes.”

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Jul 15 2008

Website Launched

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 9:37 am

Welcome!

If you’re here, you probably saw the link on my Myspace blog. I probably won’t be using Myspace much anymore. I never use it much anyway – i only remember to check it whenever i have a blog i wanted to post.

Anyway, this site is much prettier, and will give me some more leeway to do other types of things besides the blog:

Recipes – My recipes section is mostly complete at this point. I took all the good recipes i have and put them out here. I believe i’ve tried all of these recipes, and all are good. I’ve always wanted an electronic location like this for my recipes. Now i can take a peek from work to see what ingredients i need to get from the store on the way home.

Bridge – This section is in development. There will be a section for bridge articles – they don’t belong in the normal blog. I will try to write more of these types of articles now i have a place to put them. I’ve always enjoyed reading bridge columns and bridge books. This will be my way to contribute in an amateur fashion. And who knows, maybe eventually i’ll make it into the Bridge Bulletin.

Photos – This section is also in development. It should be a smattering of select photos from various events. It will be the next section of the site that gets released, if i can ever find software that does what i want and integrates well with wordpress. Frankly i’m not having a lot of luck so far.

Who knows what else may eventually reside here? Right now I’m just having lots of fun learning about how to do all this stuff.

There have been a few posts in the past week that i didn’t put on Myspace. Check them out, and let me know what you think. :)

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Jul 11 2008

P2P and Dexter, Season 2

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 10:06 pm

We loved season 1 of Dexter so much that we were dying to see Season 2. But, it wasn’t yet available on DVD.

So, i turned to a technology that i have long heard about, but never tried: Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking. And it was pretty easy, once i found a client that automatically handled the port forwarding stuff for me.

P2P is just one in a long list of things that i’ve known the basics of for years, but never had to know details, because i had a husband who was extremely techy and always knew what the latest and greatest thing was. But, on my own, i’ve had to learn how to do it all myself: how to configure my router for my own wireless network, the details of video cards, apple software and upgrades, ipod library management, wiring stereo equipment, how to change air filters, GPS, creating my own website and adding wordpress and plugins and writing php code, web application servers, back-up servers… It’s all stuff i never had to know anything about. I never *wanted* to know anything about it either, which is why i’m proud of myself for eventually figuring it all out. I know there is a slew of new technological things to figure out now, but P2P was i believe the last one that i associate with “things my ex did for me”.

Season 2 of Dexter was very suspenseful. I don’t remember the first season being quite so nail-biting. This season, it always seemed that Dexter was about to get caught! It was excellent, and Michael C. Hall was awesome. The woman who plays his sister really gets on my nerves – i don’t think she’s a great actress. And the old guy that she fell for during the 2nd half of the season – his acting was even worse! But the rest of the show was definitely worth it.

I was surprised to see that there are plans for Season 3. Season 2 wrapped up rather nicely since they offed both the psycho girlfriend and the suspicious co-worker. It will be interesting to see what they have in store, and if they can really keep up the same intensity.

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Apr 16 2008

Wasting time on FaceBook

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 4:44 pm

Well, i resisted even trying facebook for a long time. I figured it was about the same as myspace. But, i learned it’s a ton more interactive. I have wasted SO much time over there trying to find friends (much easier than on myspace), and playing with the applications. It’s fun, but extremely time-consuming.

A funny thing happened – i was browsing the page of a friend from high school to see if i knew anyone. And i found MY BROTHERS. Ha! I hadn’t even thought to look for them. So, thanks Cammie for hooking me up with them electronically.

I’ll probably keep blogging over here, when i remember to blog, but i don’t know if i can really keep up with TWO social networking sites. One might be more than i can handle.

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Mar 08 2008

Programmer grammar

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 6:05 pm

An error message i ran into yesterday at work while troubleshooting a problem:

“error: not running no java”

Highlight of my day.  

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Mar 08 2008

how many is too many?

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 6:03 pm

Number of computers in my house right now: 7 (only 1 of them is not plugged in)

Number of people: 4

Number of laptops: 4 (2 normally, 1 from work, 1 belongs to mom)

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Dec 16 2007

Laptop Repair

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 6:39 pm

Last August i purchased an el cheapo laptop. I already had a mac laptop, but there are a three applications in particular that i am unable to run on it. So, el cheapo laptop to the rescue. It has worked great for me.

Until October, when the screen suddenly became really really dim. You could see a faint faint outline of windows that would tell you the computer was on, but couldn’t see enough to read anything or manipulate the mouse. Counting back, that’s 14 months since i bought it, so of course the warranty is expired.

I hooked it up to an extra monitor, basically turning it into a desktop, but i really wanted to get it fixed. I did enough research online to determine what the probable problem was – a busted inverter. Does anyone know what that is? I sure didn’t, but i knew i could get one online for $30. Hey, not bad.

Before ordering the part, though, I tried to take my laptop apart myself, just to see if i could. I removed all the screws i could find, but it was still as robust as it was before i removed the screws. Forget it – i put the screws back in and took it to the Geek Squad. I was willing to pay a premium if i could just get it fixed. (I figured they would charge me $100-125 for the work) I told them what i suspected. They told me they’d ship it off to their techs and get back to me with an estimate.

Fine. Well, it was supposed to take 3 days and it took a week for them to call me. “You need a new LCD. That will cost you $673. Do you accept?” Um… NO!?? That’s about twice what this laptop cost me in the first place. I could buy a very nice new laptop for that amount. Despite me telling them i didn’t need an entire new LCD and just a new inverter, they insisted a new LCD would fix my problem. Whatever – DECLINE.

It was of course another week and a half before the fuckers could get my laptop back to me. Back to the external monitor solution.

Telling one of my techie friends about this, she offered to help me replace the inverter if i had the part. Turns out, taking apart laptops is her idea of fun! So, i ordered the part from ebay and took everything over to her house. We set up shop in her kitchen, with a husband, two dogs and a cat in attendance.

She found the tech docs for my computer, giving step-by-step instructions for disassebly, and amazingly, my laptop came apart in her very able hands. It was fascinating. We got to the inverter, replaced it, and put everything back together. Voila! Working laptop. Totally freaking amazing.

Super kudos to Anna for being able and willing to do this for me. I get some kudos for correctly diagnosing the problem, i suppose. But i am so ecstatic about this, i just can’t explain it. (-: The best part is that i am no longer afraid of my laptop. I have seen its innards and i think i could do it again on my own if something else breaks. I almost want something else to break, so i can fix it myself!

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Sep 30 2007

Elevator buttons

Category: Uncategorized — podrey @ 9:52 am

Why can’t you unpress the buttons in elevators?  I mean, if i have a little kid on the elevator, and he presses all the buttons, now i’m stuck stopping on every floor.  Couldn’t we just press twice to undo it?

Perhaps elevator processing is just a lot more complicated than i think it is.  But, haven’t elevators been operating themselves for many years now?  If processor speed was the reason we couldn’t have this feature when self-operating elevators first came out, that can’t be the reason now.  Super-small fast computers abound, surely they could tackle this elevator problem.

Now maybe i’m just a spoiled american and an extra minute or so on an elevator because a little kid pushed all the buttons just isn’t a very pressing practical concern.  And that’s true.  So i’ll shut up now.

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